moving

I'm moving at the end of this month. Moving really, really sucks. A lot.

I'm also moving My Adventure Book over to Tumblr! That's where you'll find all my new adventures!

http://adventure-book.tumblr.com/

marten family vacation

theme parks, harry potter world, beach, sandcastles, flip flops, sea food, sunburns, mini golf, cheese cake, bad jokes, sister bonding, lots pointless pictures

30 Days of Creativity

So, I took the pledge to create something every day during the month of June. Thirty days of crafting, cooking, scheming, chalking, dancing, building, drawing and whatever else my heart desires.

Hopefully I find more success in this challenge than the MN Beer Week challenge...I'm embarrassed to admit I only received six stamps (SIX!). I'll chalk it up to the fact that all the beers I drank were dark and heavy and very filling! (And also very tasty. I highly recommend Town Hall Brewery's Black Water Oatmeal Stout and Breckenridge's Vanilla Porter--YUM!)

Anyway, I am excited to have this extra motivation to find creativity in the things do. Thirty days might be hard to fill though...ideas?

I see you, fishies

How awesomely awesome is this canoe?! Definitely on my list of things to try.

mutually satisfying weirdness

"When we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness--and call it love--true love." Robert Fulghum

My mom and dad are celebrating their 30th anniversary today. Thirty years together and still completely head-over-heels in love with each other. I'm so lucky and proud to have such wonderful parents. Despite being incredibly embarrassed throughout my teenage years by their corny jokes, mushy comments to each other and attempts to fit in with my friends, I wouldn't have had it any other way. Robert Fulghum's quote, and my mom and dad's favorite love quote, couldn't describe them any better.

beerbeerbeerbeerbeer

MN Craft Beer Week is herrrrrrre.

So, as I'm about to embark on this week of drinking deliciously crafted brewskies, I'm taking a closer look at my "passport."

There are 60 spots to get stamped at bars/restaurants for every beer you drink this week.

That's about 10 beers a day. That is a lot of beer.

Or, as my coworker so graciously put it, "That's a lot of weight you're going to gain." Thanks, Maria.

It should be interesting to see how many beers/days I make it.

Puppies, Potheads and Watermelon

Yesterday was absolutely wonderful. Sunny and 70 degrees--a perfect day for a bike ride around the lakes, complete with a coffee stop, wildlife spottings, taking nerdy pictures of ourselves, a happy parade of hippies peacefully protesting, our weekend ritual stop at UrbAnimal to play with the puppies and digging into our first watermelon of the summer. Nothing short of bliss.

<-- Why do I do this to myself?

Live in the Sunshine

(via Ice Cream is Better with a Fork)

BVH

Sometimes, everyday adventures are put on hold by bigger, life changing events.

They are the unexpected tragedies, coming out of nowhere and catching everyone off guard. They take us from bright-eyed and optimistic and throw us into a state of terror and disbelief. Wide-eyed, we stare around at our crumbled world, hoping with every molecule inside of us that this isn't really happening, unable to understand why our friend, why BVH. No, no, no.

BVH was one of those incredible, genuine people with the ability to put a smile on anyone's face. He was always up for anything, always ready for a good time, never complaining, never bringing down the mood. He was someone who truly knew how to live and love life—and had such an effect on so many people along the way. We are all so very, very lucky to have been a part of his journey—even if we didn't realize it until recently.

Sometimes we take people for granted—we take life for granted. If there is any glimmer of light that came from this tragedy, it is that we've realized how precious life, and the people in it, are. Nothing is certain, all we can do is to love what we're given and live everyday like it's the best—just like BV did.

You changed us all for the better, BV, and you'll be missed forever. Love you always.

Zanimals

Spring is here! Beautiful, sunshiny, warm-enough-to-not-wear-boots-finally spring! Nice weather makes me so so happy after such a blustery Minneapolis winter. We celebrated the first really nice Saturday of spring with a trip to the zoo.

I'd like to say I love all animals equally, but my favorites are the lions, who kept looking at me saying, "Please take me home and cuddle me!" If only.

Feta-Filled Burgers

My first logged adventure takes place where I’m assuming many will: the kitchen.

Maybe there was something in the air, maybe Minnesota’s blizzard-like weather had us missing summer grilling or maybe we just really love using my awesome George Foreman that I bargained right off the shelves of Goodwill. Whatever it was, we had burgers on our minds, and so burgers it would be.

Today we decided to go where we had never been before—the cheese-filled burger. I know, crazy talk, but we were feeling carnivorous and we had a Saturday afternoon to kill. We opted for a feta-filled center and in attempts to balance our cholesterol heavy main dish (and ease our guilt), we chose to make a spinach salad that we could also top with feta (omg, cheese!).

Our escapade into the land of the Jucy Lucy proved to be successful and delicious—and super easy! Here's a recap of our Saturday afternoon adventure, enjoy!

ASSEMBLING L'SALADA

We combined fresh spinach, nuts/fruit* and crumbled feta in a bowl and shook it up.

*Side note: We bought an organic, trail mix of nuts and dried fruit to put on the salad—a variety of ingredients without having to dish out for each individual thing! Cost savvy!

We added a vinaigrette right before serving. (Tip: best to top each individual salad with dressing rather than entire bowl…I had to throw the rest out due to SOGGY SPINACH, ish!)

BUILDING THE BURGA

Step 1
I like to prep everything before we start cooking. So, we chopped a couple cloves of garlic and some onion before hand. We mixed the ground beef with an egg and a little oatmeal to make sure the burgers stayed together and then added garlic, onion, cumin, cayenne (spicy!), salt and pepper.

Step 2

Alec flattened some meat (larger and flatter than a normal burger) and added a slice or two (or three) of the feta. Then, he folded over the edges of the meat and pressed to seal.

Step 3

We cooked the burgers on Georgie and presto! Our very own Jucy Lucy! Served on toasted bread with tomato and peppered bacon (found at The Wedge, hiiiiiighly recommended).

Adventure Is Out There!

Welcome to my adventure book.

This is where I'll keep my adventures, big and small. Travels, experiments, encounters, wanders and wonders, creations, journeys, recipes and more.

Some of them might be exciting, and others you may find boring. But to me, they're all adventures and I hope that some of them inspire you to seek out adventures of your own--no matter how small.