Applebee's Visit Minnesota

We had a blast with the Applebees here, and Ira is definitely going through withdrawals with them gone.  Here we are at the ComoZoo with a few of the Durants. 

This was Ira's first trip to the zoo, and he was almost as excited to see the monkeys, lions, and giraffes as he was to see the balls in their cages.  His brain is like a radar screen for the things these days.  "Ira look at the seal!" His response: "Ball Ball!!!"  Us passing an icecream stand with a tiny knobby ball hidden at the top of it's snack tent.  "Ball Ball!"  Later that night as Ira gazes into Anthony's eyes and points to Ant's pupils.  "Ball! Ball!" This last one was followed by an attempt to dribble Ant's head....only with minor success. 

Ira and I got a flat tire on the way to the zoo.  He was an angel during the whole two hour process, but when I got him out of the car seat, I realized that he kept himself entertained the entire time by slowly emptying his sippy cup all over his pants and onsie.  Poor kid.  He was a little cold while he dried out.  We have all new tires now.

Chillin' at the playground.

I love my sisters!

On her last night, Kristen and I went to the cannery.  It was my first time.  If I knew we were staying here for our next rotation I would have bought loads more!  Meanwhile it feels so good to have wheat to grind again.  We supposedly find out where we're going (or staying) next on Friday.  Woohoo!  Could it be St. Paul?  Chicago?  Detroit?...or most likely somewhere in Connecticut? 

Anthony and I gave talks in church today and got some nice compliments.  The topic was Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Nursery was heaven since we only had 13 instead of 19 kids, and any overly aggressive kids that we usually have were on vacation. 

Love you guys!

-sharon

Minnesota Acculturation

We are starting to feel settled in our new place in Minnesota and have begun the acculturation process. I have to honestly say I'd never imagined living in the North Central United States before and have met very few people who have been from the area. I now know why, very few people seem to leave. The community is great here and the culture distinct.

We will post on some of the interesting insights we have while we're here, but this weekend gave us a wealth of wonderful exposure to the way of Minnesotans. My work opted for a 'Winter Extravaganza' event in place of the usually summer picnic, clue #1 that people up here enjoy doing things a little differently. The event took place on (literally) a lake out in the suburbs of Minneapolis.

 Nothing like some good old ice bowling! 

They had an ice fishing tent, complete with a wet bar for the adults. Needless to say no one caught anything all night, but we at least got to try ice fishing... 

 They had fires set up so we could roast some mallows eat s'mores. 

 Ira liked the lemonade they served at dinner.

They also had a DJ so all the kids could get their wiggles out.

We went on a 'sleigh' ride pulled by horses, but didn't get any pictures. Some other activities we didn't play because it was getting too late and cold for Ira, included hockey, ice golf, ice bocce ball, and 'couching' (They put skis on the bottom of a couch and towed it behind a jeep on the lake).

To clear the confusion of our move to Minnesota six months after moving to Connecticut, I'll provided a brief update on why we're in Minnesota. I'm in a two year program that for the sake of explanation works like a two year Mormon mission. Within GE Capital (The 'mission') I move (get 'transfered') every 6 months to a new assignment ('area'). With each new assignment, there is the possibility of moving to a new City or State. The purpose is to give the people in the program a wide breadth of experience on different types of projects filling a diverse range of roles as well as expose them to different parts of the business so they understand the 'big picture' of how the business works. My first assignment was in Connecticut (where a large majority of the assignments are for GE Capital). My second assignment is in Minnesota. In six months I will get my Third assignment, which will probably be back in Connecticut, so we will move again.