Sioux Falls Bike Trail

John and I take frequent walks together . It is a good way to get some exercise and spend some time outdoors with each other talking about our day. John also does some jogging and I enjoy riding bike and rollerblading once in a while. Luckily John and I live right next to the bike trail in Sioux Falls.

We live close to Tomar Park which is right next to the city's wonderful bike path. The bike trail is paved, runs along side the Big Sioux River, and has wonderful scenery along the way. The bike path makes a complete circle around the city of Sioux Falls, and is about 30 miles long.
We pretty much use this bike path daily for our exercise needs (except when winter comes...)

We both need to purchase bikes as well. John does not have one at all, and I have the very first huffy ten speed bike I have ever owned. So needless to say, we are not up to a 30 mile bike ride in our current situation. We plan to shop around and buy some quality bikes and then our goal is to make the complete loop. The bike trail goes to Falls Park, which is a popular park in town that has a waterfall (hello...we are called Sioux Falls!!!!)

So anyway, we are enjoying the luxury of being so close to the bike trail. We even live close to the city's only dog park, where city pet owners can take their dogs to this park and let them run freely. It may sound crazy, but the park is always busy!

John and I have walked many miles on this bike trail, and we plan to continue. If you live in Sioux Falls, and you haven't explored the bike trail, I suggest you do. It is wonderful exercise and a great way to spend these beautiful fall days. Thanks for reading, now go outside and do some walking!

Omaha

So, this last weekend John and I decided to take an impromptu trip to Omaha. I had never been to Omaha and John hadn't been there in quite a few years. So we drove the 2.5 hours south on Interstate 29 to the beautiful city of Omaha. We left about 12:30pm on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon.

Since I am the better city driver and John is a much better navigator, I drove and John navigated. My first impression of Omaha was "This city is huge" and my second was "This interstate is insane". The interstate was the type of road that splits off and suddenly you are on another interstate going a different direction. Needless to say John and I tried to stick to city streets and avoid the treacherous interstate.

We navigated ourselves to downtown Omaha by around 4:00 pm on Saturday. We really didn't have an agenda and decided to wander around until we found something. Omaha's downtown is called "Old Market" and has brick roads and wonderful shops and restaurants. They offer have horse carriage rides and live music on street corners.

John and I wandered around the Old Market and found a beautiful park to explore. There was a body of water with a path that went all the way around with streams and flowers along the way. We also stopped to see the Missouri River, which flows through the city. Once we were done in the park, we explored downtown some more and ate at a wonderful brewery called the Upstream Brewery with Omaha steaks. It was wonderful.

For those of you who don't know much about Omaha, it is the nation's 40th largest city with a population of about 454, 000 people (so about three times as big as Sioux Falls). I realize it's no New York City, but it's pretty large compared to what I am used to.

Omaha is well known for the Henry Doorly Zoo. The zoo is over 130 acres and features the largest cat complex in North America, "Kingdoms of Night" is the world's largest nocturnal exhibit and indoor swamp, the Lied Jungle is one of the world's largest indoor rainforests, and the "Desert Dome" is the world's largest indoor desert (Wikipedia). To say the least, the zoo was awesome. We spent 6 hours at the zoo, and could have easily spent more time there, but we wanted to get back to Sioux Falls at a decent time.

John and I had a great couple of days in Omaha. We discovered a wonderful city that is located pretty close to us. We plan to go back and explore more the next chance we get. My advice, go visit Omaha if you haven't yet, it is a beautiful city with plenty to do. Thanks for reading!

The Black Hills

This past Labor Day weekend my husband, John, and I joined my family for a trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota. The main reason for the 7 hour drive to the hills was for my cousin, Tony's Wedding on Sylvan Lake. Since my family had not been to the hills for about 11 years, we thought it was a great opportunity to make a family vacation out of the trip.

Since my parents live in Minnesota, they came to Sioux Falls on Thursday, in order to get three hours of driving out of the way and to spend some time hanging out at our new apartment. It was nice to hang out with my family and show them around the city of Sioux Falls. In the evening we grilled out at our apartment and finished up some packing for the weekend.

We took two vehicles to the hills as we had seven people to fit along. Before we had even left Sioux Falls, we had already lost the other vehicle as they took the wrong exit off the interstate. It is hard to remember that my family does not do a lot of interstate driving, so they struggled for some of the trip. I forgot how long and boring the trip to the Black Hills is. We filled up the driving time with music and conversation, and still it seemed to take forever.

We stopped at Wall Drug along the way, which is basically the biggest tourist trap in the world, but it was a good place to at least stretch the legs. We made it into Custer at around 8:00 Mountain Time, and we were exhausted. We stopped and ate and then headed to bed. John's uncle was nice enough to let us use his cabin so all of us kids stayed at the cabin and the parents stayed at a hotel.

The first day in Custer we went through Custer State Park to see all the animals and we also drove on Needles Highway which has some beautiful scenery.
Later that day was Tony and Elizabeth's Wedding. It was an absolutely beautiful day and a very nice ceremony. Congrats to the newlyweds!

On Sunday we shopped around at some tourist shops and everyone bought their Black Hills apparel that they desired. Then we went to Jewel Cave which was pretty cool (literally and figuratively). Last but not least we went to Mount Rushmore. I have seen Mount Rushmore three times, and I think everytime is just as special as the last. It is just an amazing piece of history and I love seeing it. We walked the President's trail and stayed to watch the lighting ceremony. I think we were all a little bummed that we did not have more time at Mount Rushmore.

I had a great time on this family vacation, and I look forward to another. There has already been talk about Duluth, Chicago, or even possibly Washington D.C.! As always, Thanks for reading!

The Wedding Reception

The wedding reception was a blast. The first thing John and I did when we got to Jackpot was check into our honeymoon suite. Then the wedding party and ourselves entered the reception hall as we were introduced by John's dad. It was an awesome feeling to be introduced as Mr. & Mrs. John Nelson for the first time.

The reception hall was beautiful. I had Grapevine Rentals decorate for me and I bought some green and purple candles to go on the tables. We also had centerpieces made out of grapes, apples, and plums. They looked very beautiful and people could snack on them while they waited for us to get to the reception.
Once we were all seated at the head table, we got to eat. We had a strawberry salad, pork loin, mashed potatoes and gravy, and california blend vegetables. It was very good. I was so overwhelmed that I couldn't even eat very much of my food. Once the head table was done eating, John and I talked to our guests about how happy we were that everyone could make it. The fathers also got up and talked and thanked everyone. We also wished my parents a happy 28th anniversary.

Next, we decided to cut the cake while everyone else was finishing their food. Of course as soon as we cut our pieces, we smashed the pieces of cake into each others faces. We didn't even try to nicely feed them to each other, we went for the cake fight immediately. The best man and maid of honor gave excellent speeches and then we had the first dances. Following that the band played and the beer flowed. The dance was amazing. I was on the dance floor for about 90% of the night and had a blast.

The dance ended at about 12:30 am and I was exhausted by this time of the night. It was sad to see the end of my wedding day, but I had an awesome day and it was nice to not have to worry about planning a wedding and hoping that everything went well. So, there it is. My wedding day. The day I will tell my kids and grandkids about. I had so much fun that day, and now I am ready to spend the rest of my life with my husband. Thanks for reading!

My Wedding Day Part II

The ceremony part of my wedding day was pretty short and sweet. However, it was the source of my nervousness for the day. We had about a half an hour to sit in the basement of the church and wait for the ceremony to start.

I was sitting in a folding chair chatting with everyone else, when all of a sudden I got really nervous. I started thinking about the big picture and how big of a moment was coming up in my life. My sister started to shout wipe some of the stains on my train from the outdoor pictures, and I sat there with sweaty palms, trying to take big deep breaths.

At about 5 minutes before 4:00 the wedding party and I (minus John because he was already in front with Pastor) started walking up the stairs for the ceremony. I was still pretty nervous at this point, thinking about walking down the isle with everyone staring at me. My dad met me in the entry way of the church with tears in his eyes, and that almost made me lose it.

Cannon in D started playing and the wedding couples started to make their decent down the isle. My dad gave me his arm, and we waited until everyone stood and then we made our slow walk down the isle. My nervousness left me as soon as I saw my groom at the other end of the isle. It was a powerful moment, and all I saw was him.

When my dad and I got to the end of the isle, John came down to meet us and my dad broke down. Tears sprung into my eyes again as I thought about my dad giving me away to John. Once the ceremony started, I remembered how warm it was in church. Of course our non air-conditioned church made for a very warm ceremony. I don't remember listening to Pastor very much. I was focused on looking at my future-husband and absorbing the moment.
After the ceremony, we had a receiving line to talk to everyone who attended the wedding. It was nice to see everyone that was there and get their congratulations and hugs after we were married. Once the receiving line was done, John and I headed back into the church to come out as a married couple and have our friends and family cheer for us and blow bubbles at us. We got into John's decorated car and headed to Fairfax to hit up the Frontier Bar and Lounge. Let's face it, church was hot and we were all ready for a beer or two.


After the bar stop we headed to the reception at Jackpot Junction. The 20 minute car ride was a nice time to have some alone time with my new husband and get to talk to him about how we were feeling and what kind of day we were having. We both were relieved that all we had to worry about now was the food and dancing. We were very excited for the second part of the night. Next blog: The Wedding Reception. Thanks for reading about the most important day of my life!

My Wedding Day Part I

I can't really describe how I felt on my wedding day. I think I probably went through every emotion possible. I woke up at about 7:30 am to prepare for the day. I went through the list of items I would need for the day about a hundred times, paranoid about forgetting something. At about 8:00 my sister and I left for Gibbon to get our hair done along with the rest of the bridesmaids. We went to The Hair Base to get our hair styled. This was probably the most relaxing part of my day. We had a good time chatting about the day and getting our hair styled.

Once we all had our hair styled, we headed back to my house to get ready while the boys got ready in the basement of the church. My bridesmaids and I put our makeup on in front of the various mirrors in my parent's house. Then came time for the bridesmaids to get into their dresses. At this point I was still doing pretty well and was focusing on getting ready and helping the bridesmaids. Then it came time for me to get ready.

We were supposed to get to the church by noon, and at about quarter to noon one of the photographers called and wanted to come to the house to get pictures of us getting ready. I am a person that likes to stay on schedule, so waiting for the photographer was hard for me to do. Also, I was waiting to finally get into my dress, and it was killing me to wait.

Finally I got into my dress, and it was a wonderful feeling. We headed to our cars and drove to the church. I hurried to get upstairs before John could see me so we could do the traditional "first time we get to see each other" moment. However, I was busy taking pictures with my bridesmaids and all of a sudden John came up the stairs. We never got our special moment, but we survived. It's just one of those things where not everything always goes the way you want it to go. Anyway, my groom looked very handsome and it was still a special moment to me.

Next came about a million pictures. The outdoor pictures were a ton of fun, but by the time we started on the traditional indoor pictures, I was getting a little tired of smiling. But overall, I had a blast taking pictures. It's the one time where a photo shoot is centered completely on me and my day.

This is pretty much my wedding day from 7:30am to about 3:15 in the afternoon. I did not get nervous at all during this part of the day. I had a blast taking pictures with John outside. I am very excited to get the professional pictures back and see how they all turned out. It was fun to share this day with my closest friends and family. I will blog about the ceremony in my next blog. Thanks for reading!