Camping with the Family

Last Friday Pete and I took my mom and sister camping at Johnny Appleseed Park in Fort Wayne. We had a lot of fun! While we were there I had the chance to see Jognny Appleseeds grave, it was pretty cool.

My puppy and I


The River was really high

Johnny Appleseeds grave

Pete cooking pudgy pies

Pete, Rachel (my sister), Nell (my dog)

We made a blackberry cobbler using a funfetti cake mix

Our little campsite

The family

Faeries and Butterflies

Last week we visited with Pete's parents up in Fort Wayne. It was a really nice visit. While we were there we went to the Botanical Gardens with his mom. At the Botanical Garden there is always some kind of theme that the decor and flowers are centered around. One time when we went the theme was Wizard of Oz. This time when we went the theme was faeries and butterflies. It was really cool. They had set up little "fairy villages" around the gardens and there was a butterfly display as well. They also had little signs that were written in fairy language that you could decode and if you got them right and solved the secret message than you could enter to win a free 1 year membership. I'm not sure if we'll get the free membership but we solved the message. It said, "To see the faeries in the skies open your heart and close your eyes." or something like that. It was a little bit silly, but overall it was pretty fun.

The Zoo!

Over the last few weeks since school as been out we have had the opportunity to visit the Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, and Lafayette zoos. It has been really fun and we've really enjoyed it.


Here are some pictures from the Indianapolis Zoo:





We were able to go to the Fort Wayne Zoo with Pete's family:

And then we decided to go to the zoo here in Lafayette which makes for a cheap date because it is free:

Root Beer and Pretzels

Around Valentine's Day of this year we bought a deck of cards that contained 52 cheap date ideas. Every so often we randomly select a card and carry out that date, or if the date isnt exactly something we would do, we vary it slightly such as our recent date card.


As you can tell this isnt exactly something that we would do since we dont drink alcoholic drinks. We decided that root beer was a good substitute for actual beer and headed to our local Meijer to pick up a variety of different kinds of root beer. We ended up getting six different kinds of root beer, to add to that we also had a bottle of root beer we acquired while we were at the Feast so we had a grand total of seven different kinds. We also picked up five different kinds of mustard to try on our pretzels.

After we had gathered the necessary supplies for our date we had to make the pretzels. This was a learning experience as neither one of us had ever made pretzels before. We also learned the correct way to knead dough, we think it is the correct way, I dont really know because we just found a random video online about it. Regardless of whether we did it right, the pretzels turned out to be very tasty.

First we add to mix all of the ingredients together.

The Yeast

The Sugar

The Salt

The Flour

The Dough

Pete kneading the dough

Me kneading the dough

Pete making a pretzel

Ready to bake

All of the different kinds of root beer

The baked pretzels with the mustards

It was a really fun night and we were able to try mustards and root beers that we had never had before. We decided that our favorite root beer was Barq's for Pete and Mug for me. It was kind of amusing because the root beer that we both liked the most before still ended up being our favorite. Pete's favorite mustard was the stone ground mustard and my favorite was the chipotle mustard, the stone ground one was really good also.

The Feast

So today we decided to go to the Feast of the Hunter's Moon. We got free tickets to go from the Taylors and we had had a long week and decided we needed a break from everything. It was a lot of fun. We ate so much food and got to see some really neat stuff. I found a really neat ring and pendant for a necklace while we were there. I tried to find something that Pete would find interesting, but he seemed more interested in the food.

We had sauerkraut stew

and buffalo stew

and croquignolles

and buffalo burgers

After we got back from the Feast we decided to go to the mall. While we were there I told Pete that I wanted him to get me a puppy, this is what I got. . .

That wasnt exactly what I had meant but it is cute and soft so I guess it works. I also got some green slippers that remind me of Dr. Seuss. And Pete decided that he needed an Xbox for his "school work" so we ended up getting one of those while we were out as well.

Moving!?

So in a few months, ok well I dont actually know when, Pete and I will be moving. We dont actually know where we are moving or when exactly, but we could end up in someplace amazing like Hawaii or Guam or Japan or Puerto Rico, or we could end up some place boring like Michigan or Ohio. We (ok, really i mean me, Laura) are really excited about the possibility of moving someplace really cool and I cant wait.

One Year!

So yesterday Pete and I celebrated our first one year anniversary :) It was a ton of fun, even if it was freezing in Chicago. . .

First off we noticed that gas had once again gone down.Yay!

After we got gas then we had the two hour drive to the Museum

Then we finally got there and we couldn't figure out where to park and we ended up parking like three blocks away. It was so cold! We finally got a spot and got in the museum. This is what greeted us when we first got in. The Trex's name is Sue (they dont actually know whether she is a girl or boy, but they say 'her'). She is the largest T-rex that they have ever found. Pretty sweet.

The first exhibit we went to was the Aztec one, it was pretty cool. They had a lot of really neat carvings and jewelry and what not. But we weren't allowed to take pictures.

The next exhibit was the Underground Adventure. This is where we were shrunk to 1/100 of our size and were able to explore under the soil.

After we went to this exhibit we went to the biology exhibit where we saw a bunch of taxidermied animals. It was really sad. But we took a lot of pictures of gross looking bugs for Julia, to help her with her bug phobia before she leaves on her mission. For example:

After that we went to the Egyptian part where we got to see real mummies and a woman who had been dead for approx. 5000 yrs and she was found in the desert. It was crazy.

mummy

After we went to the museum we saw Madagascar 2. It was pretty funny. After that we went home, I dont actually remember most of that because I was sleeping.