Summer Lovin'

Since the weather has gotten nicer and Summer is here, I have been trying to figure out what to do at night, other than watch tv.  It's hard to find something to do when you are new to a town, but almost equally as difficult when you have lived somewhere for a long time and feel like nothing new is ever going on.  Davenport, Iowa (our current home) is very well populated and near the Mississippi River which provides plenty of tourist-y sites for us to visit.  I even have a couple of magazines about Chicago that I picked up at a hotel.  I'm definitely excited to start going out and doing things, but starting this week we are trying to save money.  What can you do when you are trying not to spend money? One of the easiest places to find events that are relatively cheap and in your town is the city's website.  In order to cut down on some of the searching you might have to do, I did it for you. Click one of the cities to see what's going on near you: Davenport, Provo, Vacaville.  These websites aren't all inclusive, but definitely a good way to start your search.  Our city has its own baseball team called the Quad City River Bandits.  We didn't know that they had a game on Saturday until they were already in their 4th inning, but decided to head over to the game.  We got their by the 6th inning and spent 2 hours cheering for our new found team.  It was lots of fun and cheaper than going to the movies.  Some nights they even have fireworks, so I'm excited to take a blanket and sit on the berm (the grassy area near the outfield for those of you not familiar, I had to ask Ben what it meant).  Click here for the Quad City River Bandits schedule, click here for the Salt Lake City Bees schedule ,and here for the San Francisco Giants schedule.  In Utah, up Provo Canyon, there is tons of hiking and sites for making s'mores.  Bridal Veil Falls even has a dispenser where you can buy fish food for $0.25.  Here in Davenport, Vander Veer Botanical Park has plenty to see and vending machines to buy corn to feed the ducks.  Below are a couple pictures of the baseball game we went to on Saturday.  I forgot to bring my camera, so it's not the best quality, sorry. Hope everyone can find something fun to do this summer that gets you out of the house!

Kristen

The field is right on the Mississippi River! So fun!

Grocery Shopping

I enjoy grocery shopping, I enjoy walking around the store and looking for good deals.  Once a week I make a dinner list and then a grocery list depending on what we already have.  I tend not to stray from my list (I'm so cheap) and I especially don't stray for things like cookies, chips, soda, ice cream, etc.  While your first thought is probably something like "wow, good for her, I don't have that sort of self control", think again.  Usually by the time we finish dinner I am complaining that I didn't buy anything to make dessert.  Once the complaining has settled down, I have three options, 1. scrounge for anything that has sugar 2. have extreme self control and eat an orange 3. go to the store and buy something.  Tonight I chose option 3.  I had done a fairly large shopping trip earlier today and had told myself I didn't need ice cream, but I caved within 5 hours and Ben and I ran to the store.  Fail.  My only comfort is that I will stick to "one serving" (not according to the package but according to the size of my mug). With that being said, let's get back to grocery shopping.  I'm not sure how other people shop and I wish I could get into couponing but below is a sample of my grocery list.  I find it much easier to have a list in front of me, with all my meals planned out, in order to save money and not buy things that are unnecessary.  

Now check out what we had for dessert under the Recipes tab!

Kristen

Wenzel Family Travelling Tips

Oh Mexico, there is so much to say!  The first thing is THANK YOU to Ben’s parents for such a wonderful wedding gift! It was so much fun.  I’m going to post all about the trip under the Our Travels tab and in this post I will focus mainly on some “out of the country, all-inclusive resort, beach travel tips”.  We were able to buy anything that we needed more of or make do with what we brought, but here are a few things that we made note of for our next vacation.

Wenzel Family Travelling Tips:

-bring more sunscreen (we prefer the liquid, non-spray type and bring 2-3 bottles depending on skin type)
-bring aloe vera
-bring bug spray and itch cream
-bring dollar bills for tipping (plan for at least $1.00 for every meal and more for maids and bus drivers)
-bring more money than you think you will spend because the ATM’s are expensive ($15.00 to pull out $80.00 at our resort, ouch)
-bring extra batteries or chargers for electronics (I used quite a few batteries for my camera)
-plan one tour/trip and the rest spend at your resort or do small things around the resort i.e. snorkeling, kayak tours, etc
-don’t forget tennis shoes for trips that may include a lot of walking
-don’t forget sunglasses or some sort of hat (Who forgets sunglasses? Us! Because we never wear them!)
-bring DVDs if you want something quiet to do at night and bring magazines or books for the beach

I’m sure you are all thinking that these are obvious things, but they weren’t for us.  We obviously need to travel more so that we can be more experienced, good excuse to go again, right?  Now for the long post that probably only our parents have been waiting for….head to the Our Travels tab for more insight on our vacation!

Kristen

Birthday Bash Round 22

Tomorrow is my birthday! I will be 22 years old and Ben and I have been celebrating for quite some time now.  Last week we celebrated with my family, tonight we celebrated with Ben's dad (his mother is out of town), and tomorrow is my actual birthday. He has been such a good birthday supporter and spoiled me much more than I spoiled him.  He was even kind enough to make my favorite birthday cake, the same cake that I request every year, Pillsbury Strawberry cake and frosting.  I tell myself that I'll grow out of it, but I don't, and I'm grateful for my family in honoring that request every year.   For those of you that think birthday cakes have to be made from scratch or that they need to be store bought, I urge you to submit to box cakes.  So delicious.  We went to HuHot for my pre-birthday lunch and I was so excited.  We also went out for delicious pizza tonight and I'll post a picture of those.  For my birthday tomorrow Ben and I are both getting treated to a mini vacation before our actual vacation starts on Friday.  The Chicago Bulls play game 6 of the NBA playoffs in Chicago tomorrow, we fly out of Chicago on Friday, do you see where this is going? We are driving to Chicago tomorrow afternoon to go to the Bull's game, staying in a hotel and then flying to Mexico on Friday morning.  We are dang lucky kids.  As we have spent the last few days at Ben's parents house, we have commented on how amazing parents are in all that they provide for us.  It's so nice to have stamps and envelopes in the cupboard, snacks, washer/dryer downstairs, etc. Ben referred to his parents' house as the "Wenzel All Inclusive Resort", because it has been such a treat to stay here.  

In preparation for Mexico I may have done a little tanning in order to reduce the chance of burning as much.  I packed a brand new bottle of sunscreen but I'm not convinced that will be enough.  Ben will be lathering up with sunscreen as well seeing as we just came from a winter in snowy Utah.  The place I went tanning at had a space ship for a tanning bed.  The level is called "Instant" because it is supposed to make you tan instantly...obviously.  Well it scared me.  I laid in there worried that I was going to explode or something of that sort. I took a couple pictures of the bed..not me..because I was so frightened/amazed.  I probably wont be posting much this next week, but expect a great post all about our adventures in Mexico when we get back (May 10).  I may even give you a little peek of our new apartment once we move in. Seeing as I wont have a job, it will be a lot of unpacking, cooking, blogging, and laying by the pool until I find something.

Until next time....

Kristen

View of Ben's parents'
house from my run

Birthday lunch at HuHot

Pizza at Tony's in Cedar Falls, I'm such a mess, Ben is so hot. 

My crazy tanning bed!

Blowing out the candles with my family

Cake and presents from my family!