Wow we slacked off. The initial date on this post was September 28th (now December 9th). Needless to say, it's catch up time!
So a lot has happened recently, so naturally we haven't posted any of it here. Jenn and I decided to take a road trip back to NW Iowa to lovely (ha!) Sheldon, Iowa. Before embarking on such a daunting task (9 hours in the car, one way) we decided the VDub had to go, so after doing some research online we decided a trip to Schaumburg, IL was in our future to the Carmax to purchase a Toyota Corolla. We picked out a 2007 Corolla, took it for a test drive and noticed a check engine light was on. Assured that they'd correct whatever was wrong we went ahead and completed the purchase of the car trading in the vdub, but had to leave the car there to be worked on first thing in the morning.
We decided on the way home that something wasn't right, with the severity of the light indicator constantly being upgraded so we high tailed it back to the 'burbs the following day to return the '07 and drove home in a 2006 Toyota Corolla S. A year older, but it has less miles than the '07 had, has better interior, and is all in all more 'sportier', which makes sense given the 'S' moniker. The car runs great and was exactly what we wanted - a reliable, affordable car that will last us as long as we want it to that we can both easily drive in the city.
So now with the car situation handled it was time to set forth on our grand adventure. Jenn and I hadn't taken a proper vacation together yet, so we decided to splurge on a weekend getaway to Madison, WI first to both break up the drive and to just get away together. We stayed at the Madison Concourse Hotel & Governor's Club in downtown Madison, WI overlooking the state capitol. It was absolutely fantastic. We stayed on the Governor's Club level (keycard access, a view overlooking the capitol, and open bar at the lounge every night) and the room was absolutely amazing. We lounged around, watched horrible television, and just generally enjoyed not having any responsibilities or time commitments to meet.
With a heavy heart we decided that staying an extra day would not put us any closer to our goal, so we packed the Corolla and headed west, leaving scenic Wisconsin and entering the flat, barren farm lands of Minnesota. The drive quickly became repetitive, but luckily we had each other to help pass the time. Hours later we finally pulled into Sheldon (no thanks to the guy that didn't look left pulling out of the Hy-Vee parking lot) and got checked into our hotel there. We should have thought that through a little better - going from a top of the line, beautiful hotel in Madison, WI to the hotel in Sheldon was a bit of a shock, but after reminding ourselves that we weren't living there and weren't planning on spending too much time there anyway we headed over to my parents house to spend some time with them.
Jason and Mandy brought Johnathan on Saturday, so we spent the early afternoon watching him roll over and generally search out anything smaller than his mouth, so he could stick that item in his mouth. The kid's getting big, and is probably the best behaved/least whiny child I've ever been around (which is admittedly very few). Once 5:00 rolled around Jenn and I ventured out to my 10 year High School reunion. It was good seeing everybody again and catching up with people I hadn't seen since graduating. We were amazed by the turn out, and almost everybody I wanted to see ended up being there, which was quite impressive.
We traded Jason and Mandy for my sister Jen (driving their souped up Mustang Shelby GT) and Evan (driving his monster of a motorcycle) on Sunday, and we hung out with them during the day. Evan took Jenn for a motorcycle ride to the booming metropolis of Primghar, and later that night we cruised the Sheldon strip with Ed piloting the Mustang.
We awoke to dense fog, but did not let that deter us and started our trek east across Iowa. We stopped in Cedar Falls to grab lunch with Mike, and then continued on to see Jenn's dad's new 2010 Camero SS. He treated us to a short jaunt around town, we caught up a bit on what's been happening in Dubuque, then set out once more to complete our journey back home to civilization.
Jenn helped the Crafster folks at the Renegade Craft show (she's a mod over on their forums, a darn good one too!) on September 12th and 13th, demonstrating how much of a pro she is at anything she sets her mind to, be it making buttons or selling t-shirts or stickers. I ended up lending a small hand lugging tables, moving boxes, and generally just helping with some manual labor, and all and all we had a fantastic time. We found some extremely cute pictures that now hang in our living room, and I found Jenn a super cute pocket note pad thing in a case. Something that Jenn really seems to like. :)
Watch this space for an Anniversary post - Jenn and I celebrated our first year together in between this last post (evidenced by the post I made on the 25th marking our first 365 days).
There's a few more things (new LCD TV, an XBox 360, a Netflix subscription (instant watch is fantastic), Wii Fit Plus (a definite step up from regular Wii Fit), Dance Dance Revolution for the Wii and two mats, etc) but I think this post is quite long enough by now. Here's hoping we keep up better in the future! We're both really looking forward to Christmas - maybe a post about our awesome tree and the great things under it will be forthcoming. :)
