The Latest and Greatest

So even after promising myself that this blog would never get behind yet I seemed to have gone on a little blogging hiatus. I didn't mean to; I thought about blogging a lot and I even thought about what to say but truthfully, Alex and I have had boring lives' the last few months. Alex has been busy at the hospital and I have just been holding down the fort. Despite our uneventful lives, I was able to find a few fun things that have happened the last 6 weeks.

The city of Rochester is great at providing a lot of fun things to do, especially in the summer. We finished off August by attending First & 3rd, it is an outdoor market that is held every Thursday and runs from May to August. There are hundreds of booths and live entertainment.

I'm still looking for a job but after getting the rejection email for the job Alex and I were both hoping I would get, I decided to just enjoy the down time. I never really want all this down time until I don't have it. I know that once I find a job and once Alex and I decide to throw a child in the mix that I will be craving quite time and a flexible schedule. So needless to say, I have been living up the life of a stay-at-home-wife.

Alex and I spent some time enjoying the Fablehaven series. We both really enjoyed it. Alex finished much faster than me because he reads lightning fast. I, on the other hand, am a really slow reader so I will be finishing the last book, probably, tomorrow.

With so much free time I decided that our dining room wall really needs some color for cheap and this would be the perfect time to do a little craft to spruce up the bare wall.

I really liked it at first but then the pages started to peel and crinkle. After a few days it just ended up looking like it was...well homemade wall art. So I came across a cute simple piece of art at Bed, Bath, & Beyond. With the last of our gift cards we decided (I decided, with Alex's permission, of course) that this would be great in our dining room. Plus it was on sale for a steal of a deal.

I don't like it as much as I liked the first hour of the homemade art but I like it much better than I liked the next day of the homemade art. I plan to add a little more around it as time goes on.

So the other day Alex came home from work, quickly changed his clothes and came out to the kitchen where I was cooking dinner. I looked up to find him standing there with the same smile you would find on a kindergartner who did really well on his art project. Then Alex announced that his official MD license finally came. I'm so proud of him and all of his hard work.

Last, but certainly not least, Alex and I purchased a pool table. Go ahead judge us. Tell yourself how irresponsible we are to make such a large purchase. Now that you have judged us, I will inform you that we got this beauty for 20 bucks... yes, really just $20. Plus we got 10 cue sticks and all the necessary accessories to play with it.

It all happened while I was looking for a really cheap dining room table and chairs online. Alex and I are tired of not having enough room at our table to entertain and we both think that financially it would be wiser to buy a used table and refinish it. While looking I came across this ad. It was being sold by a sweet older couple. They just don't play pool anymore. We love having this table to play on and to have a place where our friends can come and play.

Now we are just waiting for all of you to come play pool on our table. Since it will require some traveling, perhaps you should just come, make yourself at home, and stay a while.

The Nelson's present: The House Tour

We promised you picture of our house. We took a few pictures but we felt that a video would be more fun. The battery died on the camera right in the middle of the tour so we had to do it in two parts. Also, don't mind the pictures not hung up yet and some other details we have not attended to.

House Tour, Video 1

We love our house. It has been a great little house to rent. There is so much storage and really so much space overall. Just in case any of you like our house as much as we do (or your time is too precious to spend on watching the videos), here are a few photographs of the house but they are only of the main level.

Entryway

Living Room

Dining room/Living room

Kitchen

Alex using the kitchen

Bathroom

Master bedroom

Office (that was someone else's baby's room)

Now it is time for you to all come see it in person. We hope to see you soon.

5 Months Married and Finally a Honeymoon

We knew from the day we talked about getting married that the odds of getting a traditional honeymoon were slim to none. Our original plan was to go on a cruise the last week of June but obviously that didn't happen. Then we planned to go on a cruise for Alex's break in August. But, we realized that we both put our expired passports in a box, ruining our chance of a cruise. So we decided on none other than that fantastic NEW YORK!!!! We had such a blast!!!!

We started our trip out a little grumpy because there was a whiney dog right in front of us and we were hungry (not a winning combo) Once we got to NYC we met up with Jamie's brother, Brett, who was there for business. Brett took us to SoHo, which is a major shopping district. It was a great way for Jamie to get all her shopping needs met early on.

Afterwards we went to Planet Hollywood for dinner.

Then we just hung out in Time Square.

Tuesday was a blast. We bought New York Passes that give you free admission to all the typical sightseeing places and to most of the museums. We started our day going to the Harry Potter museum. It was actually done much better than either of us expected.

After we went to the Madame Tussaud's wax museum. Neither of us had ever been to a wax museum and for the sake of great pictures, it is worth it.

This one is for Braelynn, Kylee and McKayla (they at that age, right?) Oh and I guess it is for all the screaming 50 year olds at opening night :)

Alex had a great book idea to discuss with Fitzgerald.

Louis and Jamie had a grand ol' time hanging out.

Alex got a little tired so he decided to join Woody Allen on a bench. Alex is so creative, Woody really appreciated the conversation.

In the meantime, Jamie was singing a song with Frank Sinatra

Alex got jealous of all the singing Jamie was doing so he found a group to sing with as well.

Jamie was determined to make her father proud with this picture (not to mention she idolized Pele while growing up)

Alex found Bill Gates and wanted to let him know how he feels about some of his programs

Bono and Jamie became great friends

And lastly, Alex's dreams finally came true.

We also had the chance to go to the Empire State building. It was a little overcast but still awesome to look out over NYC.

Wednesday was super fun day. We did a lot of walking. We strolled up 5th Ave and window shopped (that took some serious patience on Alex's part). Then we stopped at the Museum of Modern Art, we didn't stay long at all. It was not the most entertaining museum and we still can't figure out how some of the stuff there is considered art. After we walked through Central Park to rent bikes to ride around, we got them free with the NY pass. We had a blast riding around the park.

Then that night we went and saw Wicked! It was fabulous. We had both seen it before and we agreed this was the best one yet.

Thursday we spent on the South side. We started at the Jewish Heritage museum and really liked it. After we went to the 9-11 memorial which was a great and humbling experience. We had a few hours before our plans that night so we went to the museum of Natural History. We had to ask 9 people where to go to buy tickets and every person just pointed in a vague directions and said "Down the hall and down the stairs". We finally got tickets and it was the biggest waste of time. They had a cool exhibit about the brain. Alex was really excited about it but then they told us it cost money to see. Everything that was part of the admission was lame and the cool things were super expensive.

That night we went and saw Memphis (thanks for the suggestion Andrea and Austin). It was really good and the cast was SO talented.

Friday was suppose to be our day to head to Palmyra but everything kept falling through. It actually turned out much better that we didn't go in the end. We went and saw the Statue of Liberty. We asked a nice guy to take our picture and when we did he asked us where we were from. He then said, "Yeah I could totally tell you are from Minnesota because of your accent". We had a really good laugh from that.

The rest of Friday we went to Little Italy and Alex was SO happy. He spoke Italian to EVERY person he could. Jamie found some great little shops and got a watch, scarf, and leather purse for $33. We really were both in heaven After, we left for our hotel near the airport and that wrapped up our trip to New York.

We both agree this was the perfect trip and we LOVED spending some quality time together.

The Olmstead County Fair

Alex and I ventured to the county fair, it is held in Rochester so it is easy to get to. Everyone kept commenting how small it is so we weren't expecting much. The funny thing is that it really didn't seem too much smaller than Utah State Fair (From what we've been told, the Minnesota State Fair is insanely large so in comparison it is tiny).

We started out grabbing some yummy, greasy, over-priced grub.

Then we made our rounds to all the booths to see what cool thing were for sale

and what items won ribbons

We even got the real fair experience and watched a horse competition or auction (we really weren't sure what we had just got in the middle of, we just knew we didn't fit in) but that didn't last too long.. We also made our rounds to the petting zoo.

The Chicks

The Pigs

The Cows

(Next time someone calls me a "heifer" I'm going to say thank you. Cows don't seem to have a lot of fat on them)

Last but not least, we saw this mother cow and calf just moments after it was born. The cute little calf tried and tried to stand up and walk but kept falling over. It was as adorable as a Disney movie. At one point he seemed to have it until his mom licked him and he fell over.

And you can't come to Rochester and not see the Corn tank. The fair is really close to this tank. It stands as some land mark or something.

It was a great time and Alex and I are finding so many cool things to do here. The best part of the fair was the sugary donuts at the end. We didn't take a picture because we didn't want to make you jealous. Our trip to the fair was an enjoyed success.

The Newlywed Twenty

Everybody knows when you move to a new place it is essential to do the necessary research to find the best ice cream shoppe out there. Alex and I did just that. We didn't want to fail at this task so we tried them ALL out. We decided our favorite ice cream comes from Culver's (We tried their other food for lunch a few weeks ago and it was good but not nearly as good as Five Guys). Take our opinions for what they are worth.

Now most of you are probably thinking "here comes the newlywed twenty, if you eat like that". We decided to do something to avoid the weight gain.

So Work Out World looked like a lame cheap gym when we first saw it. I, personally, thought it was going to be really ghetto too. We were pleasantly surprised when we walked in and saw all brand-new equipment and the gym is huge. They have at least 30 treadmills, dozens of bikes and so many machines. That doesn't include the Ladies gym that is not too much smaller than some gyms. It's just a few blocks from our house. The best part is we only pay $10 a month without a contract. For signing up we got t-shirts and one free training session with a personal trainer. We are loving the gym and it helps me have something to do until I find a job. (The man who told me that Rochester is a very metropolitan area, was lying. But, that is a post for a different day).

Lets be honest, Alex and I are actually just looking forward to the week we have away and we won't be eating Culver's ice cream (or maybe we will) and we certainly won't be visiting W.O.W. gym. Only 6 days until NY, but who's counting.

When It Rains, It Pours... Literally

In the month that Alex and I have lived in Minnesota we have seen some crazy weather. It seems this year that everyone is having abnormal weather, so Minnesota is not alone but, it's by far the oddest weather we have experienced. We have had about 6 weather advisory warnings while living here. They usually include the line "These storms can be violent, stay away from all windows". For some reason we don't find comfort in these warnings. Flash floods are also very common. In Utah, it seemed, that if we had a heavy rain storm it was all the talk.

A few weeks ago Alex had a day off so we decided to run some errands and luckily we went in the morning because about noon is started to rain and then it started to pour. Lucky for us we live on the top of a little hill so everything runs down. We did have some water damage in the basement but nobody seems to concerned about it so we aren't either.

In just a few hours this is what the field behind our backyard looked like...

This picture doesn't do it justice but those little trees sticking out of the top are around 6 to 7 feet tall.

That evening we went to dinner and a movie and we drove past our neighborhood park (This city thrives off parks. There are more parks here then churches in the south). This is just a quick shot we took of the park.

People in our neighborhood said it's not uncommon for this whole field to be under water after a storm. Also, after a good storm here the sky is always magnificent!

Apparently, Rochester is use to this kind of weather and has a really good draining system. The next morning at about 8 o'clock, I woke up and found the field to look like this.

Last week we have offered to watch some of our friends kids so they could go out and a few minutes before we left to drive there it started raining. The 15 min drive to their house and this is what the streets looked like when we got there.

Although the weather is crazy, we love it here. Rain or shine! The city is amazing and so much fun. It has the perfect feel of small city meeting big city. We have access to anything we could ever want (including really great healthcare) and we still live in a relatively small city. I don't think that either of us knew how much we would really love living here (Those who have been here for a while have told us that we might feel differently after our first winter here).