Shoe adventure and a ball game!

The last few weeks my Tevas have really been killing my heels when I wear them. I've been looking for the last couple weeks about replacing them but I was torn between reordering a similar

Old Teavas

Teva to the one I had or switching to keen sandals. I tried on the Tevas at a few different stores but I wasn't sure if they were the right size or not. I tried on a pair of keens but they were the wrong size so it didn't help in my decision any.

On Saturday since we were already going shoe shopping we decided to stop at Jax while we were out and just see what they had. When we drove up we noticed that they were having a sale on keens. While Guy looked around I picked up my new cub scout book that I needed and then went to the shoes.

New Keens

I tried on several different pairs and styles of Tevas as well as Keens. In walking in both of them I decided that the Keens were more comfortable than the current models of Tevas that were there. The keens also were closed toe which makes them pass BSA requirements, and helps me since I'm a little clumsy.  I also liked how it provided more protection and seemed sturdier than the women's tevas.

Guy's Keens

Guy had also been talking about getting sandals to wear instead of his flip flops. He wasn't a big fan of how the very open style seemed to look and wasn't very flattering on him. Teva makes a closed toe version for men, but he wasn't sold on the quality. I convinced him to try the same model of Keen I was wearing and sold on (I was just trying to decide color...).  He was a little worried about how high the strap seems to come on his ankle bone but he decided to go with them. So far he reports that he like them, but his arc hurt walking so he things they just need to be broken in a little more.

Later that night we had some friends with extra tickets to an I-cubs game. The company he works for had their annual company night at the game so tickets included dinner. The couple we went have 4 kids, but there kids didn't want to go to the game so they invited anyone who was interested.

For dinner we had hotdogs or hamburgers, chips, potato salad and soda to drink. The meal was good, but I would have liked if they would have had included water or lemonade to drink ( I'm not much of a soda drinker).

Sky Socks in the outfield

The I-cubs played the Colorado Springs Sky Socks so it was fun talking with my mom about how "her team" was doing. Our seats were to the right of home plate and we didn't really have anybody else in our row.

Highlights from the game:
1. The people behind us caught a t-shirt from the t-shirt gun. (Little jealous)
2. There were 3 fowl balls that landed in the stands in the concession pit right behind us, with a few of them being pretty scary
3. The play of the game us during the bottom of the 8th inning. I-cubs were up to bat. We had someone on 1st and 2nd with one out. Our next player at bat hits a double. So everyone takes off in their respective directions. The person on 2nd rounds third and makes it half way to home before he sees that the catcher has the ball in his hand and is waiting. So he turns around and decides to head back to 3rd. But the player from our team that was originally on 1st is now standing on third, so he tries to run back to second, but the player who hit the double is now standing on second.  It resulted in a lot of deer in the headlight look and the 3rd baseman for the Sky Socks tagging both runners out and thus ending that inning.
4. Weather was gorgeous at the game and the bugs weren't bad at all.
5. I-cubs lost 4-1

Our first man on base (turned out to be the only run scored)

Striking out the Sky Socks

Things we do...

We've been grilling a lot more lately. Guy's getting really good. We keep our grill over at the Taylor's instead of trying to leave it somewhere in the back yard by our apartment. The other day Guy grilled corn on the cob, asparagus and chicken breasts that were mesquite flavored. We were both really impressed with how the mesquite ended up tasting, especially since we were cutting the recipe down.

While our food was grilling we decided to throw the frisbee around in the back yard. Guy's on an ultimate frisbee team that's playing in the Iowa games in June. I think he's just glad I'm getting better at throwing the frisbee and he doesn't have to run as far...

Guy checking on dinner

Trip to Omaha

The last weekend of May our ward had its annual Ward Temple Trip to the Winter Quarters Temple. We participated in the 10 am endowment session followed by the 12 pm sealing session. We didn't have very many people from our ward in our session, but I think that may have been since the youth baptism session wasn't until 3.

We left the temple at about 2 pm and were starving! We had some friends tell us about an ice cream shop downtown that makes all of the ice cream on site. (Store name is Ted and Wally's) They make 10 flavors or so a day. It was a little steeper than we necessarily wanted to spend on it but I thought it was worth it. Guy got mint chocolate chip, but thought they put too much artificial mint flavoring in it. I chose a dutch chocolate ice cream. I thought it was good but a little too much chocolate for my liking.

We went to a park that was on the way back towards the temple to eat the rest of the lunch we had packed. It was a cute park. It had a playground, a water park/splash pad thing, and was right next to a golf course with a walking trail around it. The day turned out to be a really nice day. I was glad we were able to go do a temple session together.

This is a picture I found online of the ice cream makers in the store. 

Memorial Day/ Anniversary

Our anniversary this year fell over Memorial Day weekend. The Friday before I had an early dismissal from work so I was able to leave at about noon. Guy ended up working a shorter day as well since some of the crew was leaving early for the long weekend. We went grocery, picked up a pizza and then spent the evening watching a movie. It was a nice quiet weekend.

Saturday we decided to celebrate our anniversary.  Guy looked up different things that were going on in Des Moines so that we had an option for things to do. One of the things he had planed was that we would go to Bass Pro Shop and play with puppies from the ARL. We found 2 different dogs that we liked. Pretty much we walked away from it slightly wishing we hadn't gone since we couldn't adopt the puppy. Afterwards we went to smokin' in the junction over in West Des Moines. Smokin' in the junction is a Kansas City sanctioned BBQ contest. What we didn't realize was that the time we went to it was the time they could start cooking, and not the time the food would actually be done. 

We opted to go to our favorite restaurant Jethro's for lunch instead. We ended up getting a rack of ribs and fries and applesauce to share. It was delicious! We came back after that and prepared our lessons for church on Sunday.

Sunday we went to church where both of our lessons went well. Afterwards we had lunch with my grandparents. 

Monday was our actual anniversary. We were on our way downtown for the Memorial parade and program when Guy got a call from Brent Mortensen (a friend from church). Turns out Brent was in the field working on part of his PhD project and his truck got stuck in the mud. It took a few more men and a different truck before we could pull the truck out. 

*Side note: in the process of getting the truck out of the mud from the field we then had to tow it again because it couldn't get up the hill.  Also the Memorial Day parade was cancelled*

With how long it took we ended up missing most of what went on downtown. We did still walk downtown where we found this odd teeter tauter. We tried it out and decided that we wouldn't ever want our kids to play on it. It was pretty intense and scary and when you were the person that was "up" you felt like you were going to fall over.

I took this looking down at Guy

The teeter-tauter we found

It was pretty humid that day so later that afternoon we decided to go see the new Avengers movie. We both really enjoyed it! Totally worth seeing it in the theater! I think we'll rent it when it comes out, I had to go to the bathroom during the movie and Guy thought I had missed a few of the really funny scenes. 

For dinner we grilled corn on the cob, and burgers. It ended up being a really nice evening. 

We're both grateful for all of those that we remember on Memorial Day and for giving their lives.