Lawn Bowling

our view at the park... not to shabby

Last week on our date night, we were watching lawn bowling and got invited for a lesson this week. This was on Adam's bucket list, so of course we were game to do it. Wednesdays are open bowl so they have a quick lesson and then a pick up game. There ended up only being 2 people that stayed past the lesson and they were just practicing so we just played a game ourselves. It was really fun.

The bowls are not perfectly round. They are biased or lopsided which causes them to curl around. This game is very similar to curling, even the terminology is the same. It's crazy. So each bowl has a unique symbol on each side, one side has a small symbol and the other side has a larger version of  the same symbol. You bowl with the smaller symbol on the inside or as our teacher, Steve, said, "You bowl towards the smaller symbol." Each set of bowls have a different symbol so you can tell them apart.

 You can see the two other people that were in our lesson. There are up to 4 bowls per person depending on if you are in a singles, doubles, triples, or quad game.

 To start off the game, the lead (first person bowling) rolls the jack (the small white ball, think bocce ball on this one). You have to get the jack past a certain line (hogline) but still within bounds. The skip (basically team captain- they call the shots and are the last to bowl) then maintains the distance of the jack but centers it within the rink. Then the idea is similar to curling; you are trying to get it closest to the jack and whichever team is closest scores and they score as many bowls as they have before the opposing teams bowls.

You have to keep at least one foot on that beige mat when you bowl (not throw) the bowl. The rest is up to you/skip. There is strategy just like in curling to block other people and to hit each others bowls out of the way. It seems like a really fun game. I'm not quite sure of all the rules because it depends on how many players are in the game but it seems really fun ;) We were really glad we tried it.

We have friends coming in for the weekend so I'm really excited. Hope y'all have a great holiday weekend!

Date Night

Last week, we decided to go on an impromptu date night... We have done plenty together this summer but have not been intentional on going on dates or doing stuff together vs doing things with groups of people. So we headed to the lake to enjoy the weather and take some pictures. I am really trying to get back into photography. I used to really love to take pictures and I just really haven't touched my camera much since I went to college... So we were experimenting with my camera and just goofed off. It was really fun. 

Look at his cute outfit! I have been trying to get him to wear stuff like this since we started dating. He looks so good ;)

We found this bench that is similar to a xylophone. It was fun ;) 

Then we got dessert at this fancy place in Milwaukee. We are not fancy people. If you were at our wedding, you ate our soups and sandwiches and hopefully enjoyed our casual wedding. But that's us. We love food but we like it simple. All that to say, we went to a fun, fancy restaurant and we were in and out in 25 minutes... oops. The dessert came out fast and we (me really) chowed down on it... We didn't really linger and it was kind of cold inside and oh so nice outside hence why we had the eat and run experience. It was fun and different than what we usually do so that was nice at least. 

Then we watch some lawn bowling and got invited for lessons last night (more on that later). It's actually more like curling or bocce ball than bowling. You roll a little white ball and then try to get your teams balls closest to it. Scoring is the same as curling and the balls you roll are lopsided so they curl ;) So many similarities. It was really fun to play last night. It's been on our bucket list of things to try in Milwaukee since we moved here so we were excited to cross it off .

Happy Tax Day and Dottie blogging again day

Oh my gosh! I cannot believe it's been 19 days since my last blog ;/ Man, that is ridiculous and so not like me... just kidding we all know it's like me but I'm trying to change that. Since it's been so long I think it would be best to do a 7 quick list to fill you all in. So here we go.

1. Palm Sunday

We actually had real palm fronds on Palm Sunday which was really cool. I've never done that before and it was really fun to see.

(I know it's hard to see but Adam is in plaid and I'm in the yellow coat)

2. Easter Part 1

I had wanted to blog about Easter because I was struck this year by the amount of time Jesus was beaten and crucified. When you read about it often and the verses just run together, you forget what takes you a minute to read was actually hours of agony for the Son of God FOR US. It's amazing and humbling that God would send his only son for us. Somehow I forget. I am truly thankful for his sacrifice so that we would be able to have a relationship with the Almighty God. It's overwhelming at times.

3. Easter Part 2

We went down to Wheaton to visit Adam's family for Easter weekend. I'm really homesick for my own family but I am so thankful that at least we have his family close by. I think it would be hard if we didn't have anyone. His family has really made me one of their own which is so nice. We had so much fun together!

We played catch and Adam taught us girls how to pitch. His mom was hilarious pretending to spit on the mound or trying to get the imaginary runner out at 1st who was trying to steal second. We had a catcher, umpire, pitcher, 1st baseman, and a fan (due to the lack of gloves). It was fun!

Later that night, we got to watch some basketball and play games with some of Adam's good friends from high school. They are a really great group of guys and I really look forward to hanging out with them and their girlfriends whenever we can.

Sunday, was church and a family meal with his grandparents and some cousins I had never met. It was really fun.

4. Couch time!

We finally got our couch after they tried to deliver it THREE times during the day even though we had signed up for a delivery time between 5-9pm lol That whole part was frustrating but we luhooove our couch ;) It can fit so many people on it at the same time and Adam will now sit with me ;) (he never really like the futon so I'm pumped hehe gotta love some QT)

(It's dark gray but kind of looks purple-y in this picture.)

5. Kohl's

Kohl's is not helping me with my goal of eating healthy. From free cupcakes, ice cream, and soft pretzels to donuts day every Wednesday. C'mon Kohl's, how did you know donuts are my weakness?!?

6. Baseball Season

We live super close to the Brewer's stadium. We already caught our 1st game and it was awesome. Miller Park has a retractable roof which is convenient for us northerners. It was low 30's for the game but we were comfortable and warm inside the stadium. Loved it! Hoping to catch some more games this season.

Sausage, Brat, Hot Dog, and Chorizo race!

Alli, Joe, and Brian hanging out with the Wardos

7. QT

My friend, Jenelle, is moving to Chicago in the fall! So I went down last weekend to vist her while she was in town figuring out where to live. We had so much fun and ate at 2 of my favorite Chi-town places. The day was even semi-nice, which I am sure made the hundreds of runners super pumped. We had to play frogger to cross the streets at time hehe

 so many runners!

 Riding the bus around Chi-town together.

 The Bean! with her friend Tiffany.(the girl in the striped sweater).

Skiing

Adam took me skiing last Friday for the first time ever. I lived maybe 20 minutes from a place to ski in Maryland but I'm not really sure why we never went. Maybe because my parents weren't into it or there were 7 of us who all played winter sports but either way I'm 23 and I hadn't ever been skiing before. Adam on the other hand, who came out of the womb a natural athlete, is of course great at skiing. He was more than excited to hit the slopes on Friday after a 3 year absence.

 We went to Devil's Head Natural Park just an half and hour away from us.

 I liked the hot cocoa breaks ;)

and the green circles (that's the easy hill, right?)

and him ;)

We're so cute, right? (this is a rhetorical question if the answer isn't yes ;)

So glad that all this free Olympic gear came into such great use ;)

This was Adam's view most of the day because I'm such a fast skier! Or because I'm soooo slow he let me go first every time. Personally, I think the first option is much more believable.

 Riding the ski lift.

We skied till after dark. That's when it got sketchy on one hand (icy) but also more fun because there were less people. 

Overall, I liked skiing. It was fun but I was a little nervous about going fast hehe which seems to be a good thing. I'm excited to go again sometime soon now that I live in the north. I mean I've only been here a little over 3 weeks and I've already gone curling and skiing, what other winter sport will I do next?

We stopped in Madison (more on that later) on our way back home at this Jewish deli. It was an eclectic restaurant with all different tables and interesting stuff hanging from the ceiling. The regular menu was 20 pages along with about that many pages in the dessert. It was such a fun place to go. It looked like a circus inside.

Our table was like an etch-sketch, this table was a marble maze, some had memorabilia, and others had train tracks. It was a really cool place.

Adam and I were laughing about this dessert especially since we had that bat-mitzvah party back a few years. Remember it?