Day #1- climbing the hay bails :)

I arrived at Southdale YMCA around 7:45 and did not see any familiar faces except Brent when i walked inside to use the restroom. I was so happy to see him since he has been a huge advocate for me in regard of YMCA work. I did not get the opportunity to tell him how much it meant for me to see him there. Other important people in my life were there also including Mom, Mark- executive director from the River Valley YMCA, Boss man Dave Grote, Courtney and many others from the YMCA. The send off was great and Marvin (MP3) got everything for us from a list of requests. We even were able to hear the great music from Elton John and Michael Jackson! Needless to say the words of encouragement and well wishes were greatly appreciated. Thank you to everyone who attended the send off and to everyone who either called or sent great texts to me.

We started driving and right away our conversations were easy and informative. We told our life stories and shared some details and it became clear that we are going to have a great time. I forgot to tell you my team members names... I will be spending the next 2 weeks with Nancy and Derek. Nancy is from Y-USA in Chicago and Derek works for the St. Paul YMCA.

Our drive for the first 4 hours was pretty uneventful but full of fun and conversation. We arrived in Watertown, SD and went shopping at the Wal-Mart to buy our snacks and some food for the trip. We went to culvers for lunch and it was the first time i think that i have been there and i was pleasantly surprised that the chicken was really good. We left Watertown after filling the car up with gas.

Our drive continued to be smooth and enjoyable but at this point we were getting a little sleepy. We started to play a game of 2 truths and 1 lie. Some of my team members had some trouble and thought that the game was 2 lies and 1 truth, but we learned a lot about each other during the game. We had a little detour and ended up being off of the highway we were suppose to be on. We were able to get back on track and made a quick bathroom stop and to fill up with gas again and now it was my turn to drive.

For a long time I have wanted to climb up on top of a hay bail and get my picture taken, well we were driving a long and came across the perfect spot. So i pulled over and Nancy and I climbed the hay bails and Derek took our picture, it was very difficult to climb they are a lot bigger than i expected. The drive continued....

WE ARRIVE!!

We crossed the river and were on the reservation, that is when it all became surreal for me. I have been looking forward to this trip for years and now that i have arrived i was definitely astonished by the site of the reservation.

We made it to Eagle Butte where the hotel is and decided that we were not going to stop so we drove straight to Dupree. ** Side note: We are arriving into an interesting situation, the executive director Bill W. just passed away on July 11th. ** So we were on our way to Dupree for the memorial service for Bill, we arrived at the Sioux YMCA and were greeted by familiar faces and told that the memorial has moved to a new location. So we got back in the car and drove to Harry's Hall. Arriving at the memorial was very eye opening to witness the impact that Bill had on this community in the short 2 years that he was here.

After the memorial we headed back to Eagle Butte to unload and have dinner.

We meet the other team to discuss our next days programming and then we were off to bed!

I am writing after a nice night of sleep... off to La Plant and Swiftbird to work with the youth!

My Adventure Begins

I will be leaving Wednesday morning at 8:00am from the Southdale YMCA to head to the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota. I will be participating in the Sioux YMCA Initiative for the next two weeks. July 21st to August 4th. Please stay posted so you can follow me along the journey.

What to blog about? I have some ideas... life, my journey with my new home, my adventures at work, and just random thoughts. Well I have a lot of thoughts so that might not be the bast idea.

Well some exciting news.. my BFF is pregnant and expecting her first child. I could not be more thrilled and I can not wait to celebrate every milestone that goes along with pregnancy.
and guess what... she isn't the only friend in my life expecting their fist child. This summer brings me the joy of celebrating 4 weddings and 3 babies. Can not wait to join in all the festivities.

That is all for now but I am going to try and blog more... that is a promise.
Night

Saturday, March 27

Boston #3
We got to sleep in little today after staying up late watching La Crosse win the National Championship. This morning I helped my aunt plan a pizza dinner for the parets, players, and coaches. We started by going to Target and getting poster board and markers for the girls who were competing today. I used my negotiating skills and got a pretty good deal on pizza and salad for the crew of 60 people.
After we had that all figured out we went to Springfield College for the individual meet. We arrived in time for us to get lunch at the concession stand. I ate a turkey sandwich`and chili. The chili was good but a little spicy for me, yet it was very tasty.
The meet started at 2:30 and it was very low key compared to yesterday. The girls got to wear any leotard they wanted and we got to watch 14 girls on every event.

My cousin Kelsey competed in the Uneven bars and the beam. She did great she placed 2nd on the uneven bars and she placed 5th on the beam. She had great routines and was full of smiles at the end.
We went to the hotel where the girls were staying for the pizza party and we got to hear the senior do their rap, it was very entertaining. The girls all seemed tired and ready to sleep. I was exhausted by 9:00, after two days of go go go, I was ready to go to bed early.
On our way back to our hotel we stopped for some Friendly's ice cream... oh geez. My mom and aunt were very confused walking into this little ice cream shop. They couldn't make up their minds and in the middle of telling the young guy what they wanted for their ice cream they broke out in to histerical laughter. Which to those of you that don't know means they are laughing and trying to talk all and the same time but no words come out. We were in the ice cream shop for 20 minutes.
The night came to an end after I checked the basketball scores.
Off to BOSTON for real tomorrow.

My cousin and the other seniors performing their rap at the pizza party! Good Laughs... I never knew she had this talent. :)

Friday, March 26- Boston Trip #2

Boston #2
Friday, March 26
I was too tired last night to write it was a long day but let me tell you all about it.
Woke up at 9:30 and went down to the hotel lobby and had breakfast. I got to have cranberry juice, apple jacks, and some eggs. The breakfast was decent for a free breakfast. We left the hotel shortly after breakfast and started our very eventful day in Springfield, Mass.
We started our journey making sure we knew our way to the College for the meet. We then headed downtown and this is where the fun began... I am going to bullet point the events and touch on the briefly.

*driving through Springfield College: We drove in circles trying to find the College, we didn't get lost because we had a trusty GPS. My aunt and mother were a little nervous driving through the fenced in neighborhoods around the College. We found our way to where the meet was going to be taking place and then we decided to start our journey around town.

*driving to the Springfield Museums: The Quadrangle... It is a little area where 4 museums or more are in one area. We looked around and by this time my aunt was a little frazzled. We walked around and it was really cool to see the sculptures of Dr. Seuss characters.

*Dr. Suess sculpture garden: My favorite one was Eurtle the Turtle. The sculptures were made out of metal and were in this big open courtyard. Everyone else was freezing so the adventure of walking around the courtyard did not last long.


*Dillweedz Café: I read about this little sandwich place online and it sounded good so we tried it. I had a tuna melt and it was delicious. It was a nice little place, seems like a place a lot of city folk would go and all the have to say is… yeah I will have my regular. You know the places you go and everyone knows your name…Hopefully I will make it to Cheers on Sunday.

*jaywalking vs. using the crosswalk: This is the funniest story from the day. We have noticed that most people seem to think that no matter where you are pedestrians have the right away. You need to be very alert as people will just pop out of anywhere to cross the street. So my mother, aunt, and I walked from the Café to the coffee place so my mom could get her daily fix. I pushed the button for the crosswalk a couple times but it never switched colors even though the lights for the cars were switching so my mother and I decided to walk when it was green for the cars to go straight… Well when we were walking we saw a cop and then he proceeded to say “Ladies, that is how you can get hit by a car” over the loud speaker. The cop said one more thing but we were to busy laughing and trying not to wet our pants that we did not hear them. Meanwhile Debbie is stuck at the corner opposite us because she was still waiting for the crosswalk to say that it was ok to walk, so instead she crossed the street and was walking parallel to us.

*Cafe DuJour: Like I said earlier, mom needed her fix so we went into the coffee shop. She wanted a mocha with caramel and all the other fixings she gets. Well long story short, we walked out and mom had no clue the she had in her hand. There was a little language barrier, but mom got her coffee.

*Cathedral red door: So I enjoy taking pictures... we all know that. We drove by the door on our way to the museum and I wanted to get a photo of it so we went back. When we arrived at the door there was a man outside complaining because the cop had just took his bottle. He just kept saying how it was a full bottle, why did the cop have to take his bottle. Needless to say, I got to take my picture.

*bark on the tree: We were on our way back to the college and my aunt Debbie starts yelling.. "Oh i love it, love it, love it..." We are all looking around trying to figure out what the heck she was yelling about... Do you want to know what it was?... She just loved the texture of the bark on the trees. I still don;t understand it, but I did take a picture.

*Gymnastics Meet: I will make this brief and to the point... University of Wisconsin La Crosse won the Division 3 National Championship... by .575 points. It was a very close meet but it was great to watch.



I will write a separate blog about the meet.

Write more later... Night!

March 25, Day one of Boston Trip

Woke up at 4:15... mom just could not wait to get me up. She loves walking into the room and waking me up. I got ready for the day, ate breakfast, and we were in the car by 5:00 going to the airport. I thought mom was a little scatter brained, she thought she misplaced the boarding passes, I think she needed her coffee. She settled on getting Starbucks (watered down version of Caribou... according to her). We got through security with no problems. We meet Terry and Debbie at the gate. Everyone needed their breakfast now, but I was the smart one and ate before we left.

On the plane there is WiFi but you have to pay for it, they find any little way to get more money out of you, it is not like the plane tickets are enough. We landed early in Boston, walked throught the airport to get to the rental car, a Hyundai SUV. We entered in our next location into the GPS and we were off.

FENWAY PARK opened in 1912 and won their first World Series as the Boston Red Sox in 1913. Oh I am sorry i forgot, we ate lunch first at Cask and Flagon, I ate New England Clam Chowder and a salmon sandwich. I liked it and everyone else seemed to think it was so so. Ok so on to Fenway Park, Terry, my mom, and I all went on the tour. We started in the souvenir shop and waited to walk across the street into Gate D for the 50 min tour. This field is extremely historic and that was my favorite part, besides the Green Monster. Terry's favorite part about the baseball field was the origination of the ballparks name. Fen is the Swedish name for a swamp and the field now sits on the old landfill. Also Terry's second favorite part was preventing my mother from tripping over all of the obstacles. My mothers favorite thing about the ballpark was the red chair out in right field. The red chair symbolizes the longest homerun ever hit in Fenway Park, Ted Williams hit 510 feet. The ball hit a man wearing a straw hat, and as the newspaper headline read "knocked some sense into the Yankee Fan." s Ed the tour guide went on to share that Yankee fan became a Red Sox Fan, and after some years the family of the man wearing the straw hat 30 people to be exact came and sat in that row to remember that homerun. To say the least the history of Fenway Park was my favorite part, the wooden seats, the owners keeping original pieces as in the old owners putting their initial on the Green Monster in morris code, and last but not least the view of downtown Boston while sitting in the seats of a ballpark was amazing.

When we were done with our tour we walked around the ballpark bck to the car and I thought it would be fun to knock on the car to wake up Debbie. I did that and she woke up startled. As we were standing outside the car waiting for the doors to get unlocked the car alarm went off because someone touched the door handle. What makes the story better is that Debbie couldn’t find the keys to turn the alarm off. The three of us were outside the car laughing, if you know Debbie this isn’t the first time she has temporarily misplaced keys. GOOD LAUGH!!

We left Boston around 4:00 and were on our way to Springfield, Mass. Along the way they have the coolest rest stops, the Gulf gas stations with a wonderful variety of food choices.

We arrived in West Springfield at our Hotel and everyone had nap time.

We went to dinner at Cals, and my food was yummy and this time everyone agreed.

I hope you enjoy the photos.

Talk to you tomorrow... NIGHT!

Not all the pictures would post, when I get home I will post some of my cool shots from Fenway, but tomorrow I will be taking Gymnastics photos.

Target Field

Target Field had an Open House on March 21st. Michael and I went and spent a little over 2 hours there walking around and seeing all the cool stuff the new outdoor ballpark has to offer. It was a little chilly that day, but don't worry they have plenty of spaces you can stand to warm up. There is a Pub on the 2nd floor that is open to all ticket holders, there are warmers located around the concourse. The seats are great and I have nothing bad to say about this new beautiful stadium.

The screen is clear. They were playing game 163 while we were there and we got to relive one of the best games I have ever seen. When we were leaving they started to play a spring training game. Our TWINS look great. It is going to be a great season. Make sure to get to a game and if you are able share your tickets with me :)

Next I will be blogging about my trip to Boston. please follow along for excitment!