Road Trip Day 2 - Lincoln, NE to Littleton, CO

We finally woke up around 7am in Lincoln, and we went for a short run around the parking lot. The map of the premises said that 4 laps around the parking lot was a mile, so I ran 9 laps, trying not to tire myself out too much, just in case we decided to do anything else adventurous while we were in Denver.

After our run, we went straight to breakfast and enjoyed some oatmeal, peaches, and assorted beverages. After breakfast, we showered and packed our things up, and checked out just before 10am. It was a long seven hour drive to Littleton, but we tried to enjoy Nebraska as much as possible, in spite of the incredibly boring scenery, consisting of lots of fields and trees, and mostly everything just looked kinda boring and dull.

We arrived in Littleton around 5pm Mountain time, and after a little visiting and a tour of their gorgeous home, we headed about a half hour away to Idaho Springs to experience the Colorado-style pizza at Beau Jo’s, which was by FAR the best pizza I’ve ever had! We enjoyed some great food and conversation there for a couple hours, and then explored the downtown area, even though most everything was closed already. Sadly, I was unable to purchase this adorable little stuffed moose, but rest assured – I will find her again someday!

After exploring Idaho Springs, we drove over to Buffalo Bill’s Grave just a few minutes before it closed to take in the lights and views of Denver from far above it all. We also went up to another lookout point before heading back down the mountain, and back to the Demeters for the night. Mark and I conked out pretty soon after, being pretty exhausted from the 7-hour drive that day, and knowing we’d need the rest before the 11 hour drive the next day!

Road Trip Day 1 - Windom, MN to Lincoln, NE

Well, we left Worthington around 2:20pm, shortly after we said our final goodbyes to Mark’s Grandpa Loren. The first leg of the trip to Lincoln was kinda junky, since we had to drive separately to the Omaha Airport. We met up in Sioux City for fuel, and then headed on to Omaha to leave my car in long-term parking at the airport. (For future reference, and in case I forget, it’s in the North Long Term Parking, F1, against the gate, and near the exit) lol After dropping off my car, we proceeded on through Omaha to Lincoln for the night.

We were pleasantly surprised to find our $50 hotel from Hotwire was, in fact, a very nice suite (albeit the double bed made it difficult on us, considering we’re used to the space of a king)! I’ll post pictures later, but yes – we were so pleasantly surprised!

Once we got settled into our suite, we took the advice of the guy at the front desk and headed to Grisanti’s for a yummy Italian supper. I had the tomato soup and Grilled Chicken Mattareori (sp – look it up later), and Mark had the house salad with the Spaghetti Bolognese. It certainly wasn’t quite the same atmosphere as somewhere like Olive Garden or Carino’s, but the food was excellent! Our only complaint would probably be that, as sweet as she was, the service was pretty slow, and it took a long time to get a refill on our drinks.

After supper, we stopped by Walgreens for some Alavert, and then went back and relaxed for a half hour or so before heading to bed at 9pm for some MUCH needed extra sleep! Unfortuately, the junky part about going on so little sleep for an entire week is that your body sorta gets used to not getting sleep, and so around 1:45am, we were woken up by the ice maker dropping some ice, and while Mark was able to get back to sleep shortly, I was wide awake for about an hour before getting back to sleep.

California Dreaming

After looking behind in my previous blog post, there's also so much to come in 2009! The next couple weeks will be super busy for me. Next week, I'll be attending Visual Studio training in Sioux Falls - driving back and forth from Sioux Falls (such a familiar 90-mile stretch) with my boss every day. On Friday, after lunch, I'll be leaving early from the training to drive to Omaha to meet Mark at the airport.

We're leaving my car there, and then driving on in the MMC to Littleton, CO for the weekend to visit the Demeters - dear old friends from when I lived in Indiana!

We plan on leaving Monday morning (after what promises to be a fun time catching up with Kari and the other 'Dead Meat Eaters') for Vegas - staying at Caesar's Palace for a few days. This will be my third visit to Vegas, and we're super excited to stay at such a nice hotel this time! The rates are really good when it's over 100 degrees outside ;)

Wednesday, we plan on heading on to San Diego whenever we get up and around, to spend a few days with Sarah. I'm looking forward to exploring the area - Balboa Park and the Zoo, perhaps Coronado Island, and I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be able to meet up with a friend of mine for an afternoon of shopping while Mark and Sarah sort out car stuff. Which brings me to the main point of the trip: Mark is finally parting with his prized Monte Carlo and selling it to his sister, Sarah. We'll be flying home on July 4th, into Omaha, where my car will await us, Lord-willing!

While it's going to be a busy next couple weeks, it'll be a very nice change from our regular schedule, and we're very excited to see old friends and family :)

2009 So Far

Well, it has been a long time since I've updated my blog, mainly because I've been updating a few other blogs - my exercise blog and my 101 in 1001 blog - more frequently. There have been quite a few changes, yet so much is still the same :)

For starters, by this Christmas, we will now have four nephews, a niece and a niecephew (they aren't finding out), a big change from last year's 2 nephews and one niece! Amanda and Michael welcomed little Caleb Michael into the world in mid-April, and Dan and Sarah are expecting a new little one come August! Josh and Tiffany are planning a December wedding (did I mention they got engaged?), and so we'll also have Tiffany's 3-year-old son, Riley joining the crew! Of course, life is always so interesting with little ones around! If we thought this past year was eventful with Jacob, Hannah and baby Ben, its going to be a whole different level of chaos with three new additions :)

Of course last year at this time, we had just celebrated Amanda and Michael's wedding day in 2008, and here, a little over a year later, we've also (officially) welcomed Elicia to the family as she and Dave were married in January! We're also looking forward to Josh and Tiffany's wedding in December :) It seems it's all weddings and babies for the Ropte's! However, not so much for Mark and I - those kiddos are a LOT of work! It's much easier to just borrow everyone elses' kids for now lol

We have been super busy juggling family, friends, work, church, projects, various showers, and a wedding so far - not to mention home and lawn maintenance...and Mark's new toy - his 2007 Yamaha Waverunner! It seems we generally have to plan about 2 months in advance just to have a free weekend! In April, we were home to Humboldt when Caleb was born and were able to see him just a few hours after he was born! We followed that trip with a couple more in May - once to see Elicia and Ben when they were in Humboldt (and to celebrate Dave's birthday early), and once for a long weekend for Memorial Day when Dan, Sarah and the kids came home from Indiana! We were able to celebrate Hannah's actual birthday with her, and it was so good to have everyone home at the same time, which rarely happens!

In May, I also spoke at a bridal shower, and attended a Bachelorette party for Kristina, while Mark and a couple buddies threw a Bachelor party for Jed a few weeks before. It was such a wonderful day as we witnessed Jed and Kristina marry on June 6! After last summer's 3 big weddings of the summer, we're looking forward to a busy summer that doesn't include any more major weddings (at least that I'm aware of?!?) - HALLELUJAH! :)

We also have spent lots of time catching up with Mark's side of the family. We celebrated Grandma Edith's birthday with her in Wisconsin at the nursing home, followed by supper out with Mark's Mom's side of the family on the way back home. We also saw them just a couple weeks ago at Brad's High School Graduation Open House in LeSueur, not to mention Easter at our house in Windom. I think we've seen Mark's Mom's side of the family more this year than in the entire rest of the time I've known Mark!

Mark and I took Grandma Vi out to celebrate her birthday with supper at the Ground Round - they even sang to her! We were able to see Grandpa the day after his 89th birthday at the nursing home as well, although he's definitely getting much worse off than when he celebrated his birthday a year ago. We were able to visit with Drew, Barb and Megan as they were home for about a week in May. We had supper with Drew, Dad and Pam Friday night, and then after I served at a wedding reception in Worthington, I joined the crew out at Dave & Chris's house for the "after party" of their meal earlier.

As a highlight to the month of June thus far, Mark and I decided to test out all our training and run a 5K race for Riverfest here in Windom! We did great! Mark finished with a time of 26:34 and I finished just a couple minutes behind him at 28:57! We had a great time over Riverfest, but were completely wiped out after the run, and then Mark's softball tournament the rest of the weekend!

Well, that's pretty much all so far in 2009!