Florida 2016

Florida was wonderful! We would both go back in a heartbeat. We flew into Tampa and then drove to the Clearwater Beach area. The resort we stayed at wasn't right on the main beach, which turned out to be totally fine with me. We had our own private beach so there weren't so many, many people there.

We flew Spirit Airlines. I booked the flight with them because they were the cheapest. Turns out, however, that we had to pay for our carry-ons, our seats, and everything in between. So I'm not sure how much money we actually saved flying with them, but we did get from point A to point B safely...which is all that matters.

The picture above is the view from our balcony. The buildings in the distance are hotels right on Clearwater Beach. We were on SandKey and all the trees you see are Sand Key Park. Aaron sleeps a lot deeper/better than me on vacation, so as he was sleeping in, I spent my early mornings on the balcony enjoying the view and drinking starbucks coffee (that the hotel provided free!). 

We never did go swimming in the pool, mainly because there were always tons of kids in the pool and it was a rather small pool! (Plus, there was the big gulf coast a few feet away!) We did hang out on the chairs/loungers around the pool though, drinking fruity drinks and listening to Christmas music that was playing from the speakers. (Hearing Christmas music and seeing Christmas decorations was a bit weird without the snow...it did not feel like Christmas!)

The first full day there we rented a Cabana and basked on the beach. I think we were two of the whitest people there thanks to our Scandinavian heritage! I think this was my favorite day...it was so relaxing! There was a prop you got when you rented the cabana so you could prop the back up and a cool breeze blew through and it wasn't so hot. Felt amazing. 

Here is Aaron in front of our resort, The Sheraton Sand Key. As you can see (or maybe you can't but..) there were tons of loungers/hammocks around the area. So if you didn't want to walk down to the beach and lounge, you could lounge closer to the hotel. 

We were standing in the water when Aaron took this photo - so you can see that there was quite a bit of sand to walk through to get to our hotel. (I also really like how happy Aaron looks in this photo! Looks like my man, who's not a big fan of vacations, is enjoying himself! ha!)

Every evening except for one we watched the sunset on the beach. It was a tad chilly, and of course it's hard to beat a North Dakota sunset, but it was still beautiful. 

Our next full day there we drove to Honeymoon Island State Park in our little rental car. Beautiful blue water and silky soft white sand. I felt like I was in the Bahamas! 

We also drove to St. Petersberg and went to the Holocaust museum. Aaron and I have both been to the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C., which is much larger than this one, but it was still sobering to walk through. Our next trip to Florida (I say next because I know we'll be back), I really want to go to a Florida history museum. (The history nerd in me is coming out but, I really don't know much about the early years of Florida! It'd be interesting to learn.)

The next day we jumped on the Jolly Trolly and went to Clearwater Beach. Tons of people and lots going on, especially on Pier 60. I don't really have much else to say about it! (Except I'm glad we didn't stay right on this beach...I would have gotten peopled out.)

Our last day was spent at the Florida Aquarium. We probably won't go back here again until we have our own kids, but it was neat seeing all the different kinds of animals that we don't have in North Dakota. The little lemurs were so cute. 

Right next to the aquarium is the S.S. American Victory, a war ship that was used in WW2, Korea, and Vietnam. If you think history is interesting, like we do, we would recommend touring this ship. It's a self guided tour and you can pretty much go into every room/area on the ship. We probably spent about 2.5 hours touring it. I'm thinking I may do a separate post just on this ship. 

The trip went so fast! Well, I guess not the last few hours of the trip. Our flight was delayed, which caused us to get into Minneapolis around 2:30am. You could say I got a lot of instagramming done and we got quite a few episodes of Criminal Minds watched.  

4th snow day of 2016/2017

Well, home again another day. 

Blizzard warning with wind gusts up to 50 mph and frigidly cold temperatures.

20 to 30 below wind chill to be exact.

Is it spring yet?? Winter hasn't even officially started yet!

3rd snow day of 2016/2017

Looks like we'll be having a two day school week this week! 22 inches of snow we got from this storm, with snow drifts up to my waist.
The wind died down so I took Ruger for a walk this morning, and then played out back with him. He was CRAZY! It was like this was his first snow fall or something!

He has been such a good dog, though, while it was storming Sunday-Tuesday. I basically did nothing all day and he basically laid beside me all day. I guess he was saving his crazy up for this morning!

It'll be nice to get back to school tomorrow. I'm sure the kids will be a bit wild, but, that's the way it goes!

2nd snow day of 2016/2017

I wasn't real surprised when I got the call this morning that there was no school. I think today is worse than yesterday. Here are some pictures someone posted on our 'Hazen Weather' facebook page.
Welcome back winter! Good thing I'm stocked up on coffee, Downton Abbey seasons 1-6 are on amazon, there is a full tank of propane outside to warm our house, and there is facetime on my phone!

1st snow day of 2016/2017

Last night I went to bed, hoping, but kind of not hoping, for a snow day. These days between Thanksgiving and Christmas are so fun. I'd rather use a snow day in January or February when the days can get so. long.
I got a call this morning around 6am saying school was two hours late. That's not bad, at least we won't use up a snow day, I reasoned to myself as I showered up and got dressed. I decided to head in at regular time, hoping to get lots of stuff done at the school since I was up and out of bed anyways. As I opened the door to head out to my car, I was met with 6+ inches of snow and more coming down. Aaron had already headed to work about a half hour before and texted me saying it was pretty slick out. (We got rain last night before it turned to snow, unfortunately.) So, I waded through the snow (thank goodness for snow boots) and hopped in my car. As I backed out, I was hoping I wouldn't get stuck! Another "thank goodness" for having a vehicle with all wheel drive.
I drove at a snails pace to the school, maneuvering around snow piles from streets that had already been cleaned, and thought to myself  I'm surprised school isn't called off! But then again, we are North Dakotans... 
I had just turned on my computer and was sitting down at my desk when I got the text message: no school today!
I figured all the stuff I needed to get done can wait until tomorrow so I trudged back out to my car, drove at a snails pace back to our house, got into my comfy sweatpants, called Ruger inside, grabbed some coffee, and curled up on the couch.
There aren't many things in life that are more cozy than a snow day! Yes, I was hoping we would have school today but now that it's happened, and there's nothing to do about it, I'm going to fully enjoy the day off.
Happy Snow Day! I'm sure tomorrow there will be 14 super excited kids.

life lately

Saturday mornings are when I feel the itch to blog and update things around here!

It's been a fast August, September, October, and November! I'm lovin' teaching...does each year just get better and better? That's what I'm told.

October found me in the cities with my old roommate, visiting my middlest sister. The three days were spent shopping, eating out, segway-ing, eating out, going to Mall of America, eating out, hiking, eating out. I feel like we ate out a lot? ha!

 

 Let's see - the next weekend Aaron and I spent Sunday afternoon riding fourwheeler outside of Mandan beside the river. Aaron decided to bring his swimming trunks to show just how beautiful the weather has been in North Dakota in November!

While here, Aaron brought his go-pro with. That's a cool little tool! The photos below are taken with that...which takes a photo every 30 seconds. (So I think we ended up with over 2000 photos? ha!) SO, Kristin, if Blair is ever curious what the trails look like around here, just let me know! I'll send ya the photos!

 

Later on in November Aaron and I spent an evening at Lake Sakakawea with Ruger. Once again, taking advantage of this unusually nice weather!

And then, the next weekend I traveled to the cities again for a girls weekend with my mother and sisters, and Zane! 

Whew! Ended up adding a lot more pictures than I was planning to! Next weekend, Thanksgiving, Aaron and I are headed to my folks' place and then 26 days after T-giving we're headed to Florida to spend a few days at the beach. Happy end of November!