The Minnesota Zoo ~ A Give Away!

There's something about dolphins that I find just...

magical~

We are pretty lucky to be able to see these magical creatures right in our own backyard! 

The dolphin show at the Minnesota Zoo is one thing that never ever gets old for me. 

 I am constantly in awe of these animals ~

We love going to the Minnesota Zoo for a few hours here & there. 

It's a great place to for our family to go & burn off some energy by walking the trails & playing on their awesome play structures & splash pad...

Now THAT is a Minnesota Mosquito!


The newest exhibit to hit the Minnesota Zoo is the penguins!
Who doesn't love a cute little penguin!

And wow, is their Do the Waddle campaign ever catchy!


Volunteers are busy outside the exhibit teaching the kids (and adults!!) penguin facts,
complete with real penguin feathers to touch & hold!

If you look closely, you'll see a penguin swimming behind our girl...

(Our girl, who insists on dressing herself...

I just talked about her love of all things mismatched stripes...remember?)

From the dolphins to the sharks to the penguins...

To the barn, the bears and the birds...

This is a great place to hang out for a few hours...

And thanks to some promo items sent to my family from the fine folks at the Minnesota Zoo for the grand opening of the new Penguin Exhibit -

I am giving TWO lucky readers, TWO ZOO PASSES EACH!

These passes expires March 31st, 2012 - so there is plenty of time to use them...

(We have an annual zoo membership so I am sharing these passes with you guys!)

How do you win?

Simple.

Leave a comment telling me your favorite animal.

**Do you like Gust Gab on Facebook? **

 Leave a comment saying so & be entered a 2nd time!

Two lucky winners will be selected via Random.Org on Thursday, September 9th!

*** My family was sent a media kit with various items promoting the new penguin exhibit at the zoo, which included 4 admission passes to the zoo.  We paid for an annual membership & enjoy visiting the zoo, therefore, the passes we are choosing to give away. ***

Timber!

There is something a little bit daunting when you are standing on the ground,

 staring up at a 40 foot spruce tree...

But when you are staring up the branches of a 40 foot spruce tree that has all but died, well...

Suddenly, that tree doesn't seem so mighty ~

There is nothing left to do, but bring it down...

Branch by pokey branch...

Man, was this tree ever crispy!

 

 

While it would have gone up in seconds if we'd of just lit fire to it...and oh, believe me, it did cross my mind...

 

 

 

With the help our of great neighbor Denny, (& his chainsaw) it was brought down pretty quickly.

 

It's a Charlie Brown Christmas!!

Thank God for great neighbors (with chain saws!)

And just like that...

A tree that had been growing for almost 2 decades...

Gone.

And now, I must decide what to do with this space...(and that damn stump!) but for the time being, it makes a great place for little boys to hang out & work!

We are told it might be hard to try and plant a new tree in it's place ~ as the root system is pretty extensive...although we do have a small spruce that we may try and dig up that's been in the ground for the last 4 years...& move it near the place that this one has been...but will it live?

That has yet to be seen I guess...

Other thoughts are making this area our fire pit space...

Or, just grinding out the stump and leaving it open...

OR....

Only the Good...

Ten years ago...

Rob and I moved into this house...We had a 5 year ARM, thinking we'd be here 3, maybe 5 years tops...

Ten years people...
Ten years we are still here...
This is why...

You see this group of people here??

This is a group photo of AMAZING neighbor friends during an annual tradition...

Seriously...

The neighbors make the house...

They do...
I'm telling you.

And when you don't have family in town...the friends that you have become your family. Especially when your friends live just steps away from you...

The other day, my cell phone rang while I was at work...

Monday morning...and I see a neighbor pop up on my caller ID.

Well, this is bad news...
Yep, I immediately thought that.

The neighbors that were calling have a parent with some health issues and I was sure that that was it.

'I have some bad news'

I figured you did.
It's not what you are thinking...
um, ok...So I'm thinking to myself...
Did my house burn down? Seriously...that's what I thought...
Gary collapsed at work this morning and he didn't make it. He died this morning.

Gary.

Our 51 year old friend & neighbor.

Strong as an ox.
Stubborn as a mule.
As gentle as they come...
Fifty. One.

Here's a picture of Gary holding our baby girl at 4 days old...about 4 minutes after we brought her home from the NICU.

He loved kids...

and meant the world to ours.

Always horsing around...acting the part of the crazy uncle or grandpa, family our kids don't have around these here parts...

Gary took D on his first ever quad ride...

Derek loved to ride the quad with Gary...around the cul de sac, through the back yards...as fast as they dared to go...up and down curbs...

What every little (and big!) boy dreams of No?

 Hails was the flower girl for a Kubal family wedding two years ago...What fun they had!

Each year on Halloween - we gather in our cul de sac and light a bonfire (one of several throughout the year) we take the kids around the neighborhood trick or treating, & we pass out candy from all the houses right there in the middle of the cul de sac...

Every year, it's cold...the kids snuggle up with...guess who...

Gary.

This picture was taken earlier this summer...

Gary & Derek sharing a plate of veggies at the neighborhood grad party...

I have so many random pictures from random events...

I'm sure glad I do!

Sometimes people make fun of me for always carrying around a camera...

(of course, now, our phones do most of this for us too...)

But just look at this little video snippet I found of Gary entertaining the kiddos...

And of course, the dog biscuit fondue...aye aye aye!

I wonder how long it will take until the loss of this man really sinks in.

The kids are really struggling with it...

Even though my mom, their grandma, passed away exactly one year ago...we only saw her a couple of times a year...We talked on the phone near daily...but

This is the loss of someone they saw all the time...someone who was a regular fixture in their everyday lives...

They've been asking crazy questions like...

"Is my Dad gone foreva?" when he's just gone to work...

or saying things like 'What if that was my last chance to cuddle Daddy?' or 'I don't want to go to Daddy's softball game cuz Gary won't be there to pop my popcorn bag'

oh how Hailey loved to have Gary pop her empty popcorn bag at the softball games! HA!
The things their little hearts and minds must have weighing on them...
ugh.

I regret that I never told Gary just how very much he meant to our family, to our kiddos...but I pray that he might have known anyway.
And I pray that his family will find the comfort and the peace they need to move forward in the days and weeks ahead...

Rest in Peace Gary.

Rest in Peace.

Cake Pops!

Cake Pops are all the rage these days...
And WOW, are there some ADORABLE cake pops out there!

EEK!

Now, I'm no stranger to cake pops -
Remember when I thought I could just whip up a batch?

BWAHAHAHAAAA!
Yeah, not so much...

One day, while perusing the interwebs...I stumbled upon Beki Cook's Cakes ~ What I was looking for, was someone local who might teach a class on how to make a topsy-turvy/mad hatter cake...

Instead, I found this via Beki's website....
Cake Pops Classes...

Inviting some friends over to learn the tricks of the trade?
Sounds like a GREAT time to me!!

Beki showed up with everything we would need...
(and was able to fit 9 of us around my table in our teeny tiny kitchen!)

She brought us each sections of cake, already made up & ready to go...

Our first instructions were to crumb the cake...

& everyone got busy following instructions...

Then we added a dollop of frosting to the crumbed up cake...

(the ratio is approximately 1 cup of frosting per cake mix)

After mixing...

You'll get some cute little balls like so....

Here are the gals, hard at work making balls of cake!

Beki brought along all of the supplies we would need, including some nice deep glass mugs that she uses to melt the candy coating ~ ah yes, skinny-ish deep glassware to melt the candy! All the better to dunk your cake ball in my dear!

(And all that much harder to retrieve the skier down when your cake ball falls off the stick mid dunk! THAT my friends, is why you should never forget to dip the stick in the frosting BEFORE placing the cake ball on the stick! oops!)

Another great tip we learned? Beki uses a heating pad (cover removed) to keep her glassware and awesome frosting bottles (so so so much easier than icing bags! HELLO!) heated up - think, portable, foldable, lightweight warming tray! GREAT IDEA!

As the cake pops were being created...

A couple of little taste testers showed up...

I think they got a sugar high just from seeing the mass production of cake pops that was going on!

What a fun way to spend a Monday night with girlfriends!!

Kelly & Sam

About half of us have attempted cake pops before ~

but every single one of us learned a thing or two...

Tips like...

~ Add 1 Tablespoon of Vegetable Oil to the candy melts...do not let the candy melts get too hot

~ Only work with 5 or so cake balls at a time...keep the rest in the fridge while you work, in fact, make your cake and cake balls a day ahead of time and put them in the fridge overnight...THEN, the next day, tackle the decorating - that sounds like SO much more fun to me than trying to tackle everything at once! AND...then your cake will be nice and solid!

~ You CAN use the freezer in a pinch - but if you do, you are at high risk for cracking candy coating! Temperature changes ya know!

~ Do not be afraid to tap off the excess candy melt. Gently tap the stick on the side of the melt dish until all the excess is off...spinning the cake pop almost guarantees the cake ball will fall into the melted candy - use the tap method!

~ Instead of a frosting bag, get yourself some of those plastic bottles from your local craft store for creating your swirls & lines, letters, etc (think the ketchup and mustard bottles at some restaurants, only white!! and, with candy melts, NOT ketchup and mustard!)

~ Go immediately from the candy melt to the sprinkle station - cake balls set up fast!

What a fun fun night for me and the girls!

Beki was a wonderful teacher ~ patient with our shenanigans...

I can't remember the last Monday night I had that was this much fun!

And...my gift for hosting the party?

A cute little cake pops gift pack! Awesome!

Can't wait to put my new skills to use again soon!

You can read Jen's recap by clicking here!

Anyone else have any great cake pop tips to share?