#post inspired by my workplace posting candid photos from a big event

[je-suis-un-fardeau]

me every day for the last month: i am better than literally everyone else on planet earth. i am the smartest and the prettiest and people are lucky to be in my presence.

me for the last 24 hours: i am a disgusting slobby monster who should never be allowed in public ever again. i am canceling all my plans forever because i can’t let anyone look at me. i have no value and should be euthanized before i waste any more air.

[kadobeclothing]

Everything You Need to Know About Employer Branding

When a job seeker begins their search, their queries might look like this: “Top companies to work for in 2019” or, alternatively, “Top companies in X industry.”

It makes sense — nowadays, a company’s reputation matters more than ever. In fact, 86% of workers would not apply for, or continue to work for, a company that has a bad reputation with former employees or the general public. Ultimately, you spend plenty of time creating a compelling, incentivizing brand story surrounding your products or services. But how long do you spend cultivating a powerful employer brand to ensure you attract and retain top talent? Here, we’re going to explore what employer branding means, examples of good employer branding, and how you can implement your own employer branding strategy, today.

What Is Employer Branding? At its most basic, an employer brand is your reputation among the workforce as well as your employees’ perception of you as an employer. In other words, employer branding is how you market your company to job seekers and internal employees. The better you are at employer branding, the more likely you are to attract top talent. Additionally, a positive employer brand can also help you retain top talent. Let’s say you’ve done a phenomenal job building up a strong brand in relation to your products or services. Unfortunately, that alone won’t convince someone to work at, or stay at, your company. You need to implement the same branding strategy when it comes to communicating your company’s leadership, values, and culture. If a job seeker asks an employee at your company, “What’s it like to work there?” the employee isn’t going to say, “We’ve built some awesome merchandise.” Instead, he’s going to lay into the day-to-day of people management, company values, and workplace culture. To ensure a good employer brand, you need to tell a compelling story. However, it goes deeper than storytelling — you also need to walk the walk. Telling your employees, and the general public, that your company is a great place to work because you have ping-pong tables isn’t going to cut it. Why Is Employer Branding Important? At this point, you might be wondering, Does this really matter to me and my company?  Actually, employer branding is critical to your bottom-line. A good employer brand can reduce turnover rates by 28%, and cut your costs-per-hire by half. Additionally, 75% of active job seekers are likely to apply to a job if the employer actively manages its employer brand. You have an employer brand whether you’ve put effort behind it or not — so why not put effort in to ensure it’s a brand you can be proud of? Next, let’s explore how you can implement an employer brand strategy today.

Employer Branding Strategy An employer branding strategy allows you to control and positively change the dialogue surrounding your company to ensure higher talent acquisition and retention. At its most basic, employer branding is how you market your company to job seekers and what employees say about your company as a workplace.

A good employer branding strategy can help you attract better talent, cut down on hiring costs, and reduce employee turnover. 1. Know your company’s unique value proposition. To create a powerful employer brand, it’s critical you start by focusing on your company’s mission statement, values, vision, and culture. It could be helpful to identify what your business needs are and then work backwards to understand what type of talent you need to acquire to fulfill those objectives. For instance, consider Teach for America’s mission statement — “One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.” Using this statement as a guideline, Teach for America is then able to tell a compelling brand employer story on their Values page. Among other things, they promise employees the chance for continuous learning, stating, “We operate with curiosity and embrace new ideas to innovate and constantly improve. We take informed risks and learn from successes, setbacks, and each other.” In this way, they’ve aligned their values, and their employer brand, with their business goal. 2. Conduct an employer brand audit. You might not be fully aware of the reputation your company has among job seekers or even your own employees. Send out internal surveys, conduct social media searches, check out sites like Glassdoor to read reviews, or hire a firm that administers reputation monitoring. Ultimately, your research should uncover your employees’ favorite aspects of your company culture that you can focus on highlighting as well as any areas for improvement to ensure a strong employer brand. 3. Write an employer value proposition. Once you’ve done your research and cultivated a list of values and benefits your company offers, you’ll want to create an employer value proposition. An employer value proposition is a marketing message and a promise, so you shouldn’t say anything that isn’t true or that your employees wouldn’t agree with. You might use your employer value proposition on your website, recruitment materials, or LinkedIn company page. Additionally, your employer value proposition is something your recruiters and HR team can discuss with potential candidates. Your employer value proposition should have nothing to do with compensation. Instead, you want to evoke passion in potential candidates by expressing your company’s positive impact on the world or its deeper purpose. People want to feel their work is meaningful, often even at the expense of a bigger paycheck. For instance, Accenture, a global management consulting and professional services firm, created this employer value proposition, which they’ve displayed prominently on their Careers page: “Help build the future. Be yourself, make a difference. Work where you’re inspired to explore your passions, where your talents are nurtured and cultivated. Innovate with leading-edge technologies on some of the coolest projects you can imagine. And get the tools you need to keep learning and growing so you stay continually ahead of the game while making a difference in the world.” 4. Leverage current employees. When job seekers want to learn more about your employer brand, they’re going to want to hear from and see real employees at your company. Leverage your employees by conducting employee interviews or testimonials to share on your website. You also might leverage employees by asking them to post on their social media accounts when your company does a fun giveaway or company outing. For instance, perhaps you create a Women in Tech event and hold a panel discussion. Afterwards, you might simply ask your employees to post a picture on Instagram or Facebook with a hashtag you’ve created. This is a fun yet powerful way for your own employees to share your company’s culture with their own networks. 5. Cultivate a strong onboarding process. Onboarding is the first experience a new hire goes through, and a negative impression can have big consequences. In fact, people who have a negative onboarding experience are twice as likely to seek a different opportunity. Ultimately, instilling a positive company brand image starts with a good onboarding process. It’s critical you get employees engaged and excited about their roles, and their teams, from the start. By arming your new employees with the instructions and tools necessary to excel in their roles, you’re ensuring a smooth transition, lower turnover rates, and more productive teams. 6. Offer learning and development opportunities. In 2018, the number one reason people left their jobs was because they were bored, and needed a new challenge. Ultimately, this should be a relatively easy fix. If you allow employees to pursue learning opportunities and become proficient in new skills, you’re demonstrating your company’s emphasis on continuous learning and improvement. And by challenging your employees, you’re ensuring they won’t get bored in their roles — which could lead to higher retention rates. Plus, as they develop new skills, they become more valuable employees for your company. A win, win. 7. Use video, blog posts, photos, and slideshows to tell your company story. When you’re implementing a strategy to improve the market’s perception of your product or service, you don’t just communicate your message through one channel. Instead, you provide videos, photos, slideshows, blogs, and other forms of messaging to ensure you’re reaching the largest audience on whichever platform they want to be found. Similarly, it’s critical you use high-quality videos, photos, and text to tell your company story. You might consider putting employee interviews on your job page, or a slideshare created by your CEO on your About Us page. 8. Create a strong diversity and inclusion initiative. If you want to create a strong employer brand, it’s critical you show your commitment to building diverse teams. There are plenty of company benefits to investing in D&I initiatives, including more innovative ideas, a stronger workplace culture, and better customer service. However, it’s also necessary for cultivating a positive employer brand by ensuring you’re extending your brand’s reach to new groups of people.

Employer branding examples Starbucks HubSpot Wistia SoulCycle Canva Eventbrite Jet Shopify

1. Starbucks Starbucks does a good job ensuring they cultivate a strong community among their employees. For instance, they refer to current employees as partners, instilling a sense of pride in each employee. Additionally, Starbucks created Instagram and Twitter accounts specifically for @StarbucksJobs, which they use to promote their employer brand and interact with job seekers. By creating social media accounts with the sole purpose of demonstrating appreciation for current employees and evoking passion in potential candidates, Starbucks shows its commitment to being more than just a product. Rather than posting about their drinks, Starbucks uses its social media accounts to share their company mission, congratulate employees on college graduation, and share personal employee stories. The company also uses the platforms to demonstrate its commitment to diversity and inclusion.

2. HubSpot HubSpot’s Culture Page begins with a document called the Culture Code, which publically pronounces every vision and value HubSpot hopes to promote and instill in its employees, candidates, and customers. Moving further down the page, you’ll find sections discussing opportunities for learning and development, HubSpot’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, and interviews with real HubSpot employees. The language also consistently focuses on the job seeker: “Here’s how we can help you grow.” The page ends with a “day in the life” video made by HubSpot employee Matthew Watkins, demonstrating HubSpot’s relentless commitment to communicating its culture via its employees. Ultimately, the page is a powerful example for how you might use interactive media to promote your employer brand.   3. Wistia For consumers, Wistia brands itself as a video marketing software that helps grow your audience and build brands. It only makes sense that they would be brand-conscious and use their own software to underscore the ideas that they want to convey to job seekers as well.  Rather than brag about how great a workplace they are, the first message on the Careers page is one of encouragement for job candidates: “Join a team that celebrates each other.” They continue to underscore that idea with multiple Wista-created videos about the people that make up their company, the culture that they instill, and the things that make up that culture.

  4. SoulCycle SoulCycle isn’t just transforming the boutique fitness space. It’s also aiming to transform the traditional corporate culture by offering benefits it feels will evoke a sense of purpose and belonging in each of its employees.. For instance, Soul gives its employees two paid business days off per year to volunteer at a charity of their choice with the hope that the charity days will help employees feel happy and more fulfilled. Additionally, Soul offers free classes (about a $30-per-class value) to employees whenever it suits their schedule. This displays Soul’s deeper commitment to making fitness fun and using exercise as an outlet to de-stress and connect with the community. With high ratings in each category on Indeed, including four stars on work-life balance and four stars on management, SoulCycle has undoubtedly cultivated a strong employer brand.

5. Canva According to LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends report, 23% of Millennials and Gen-X and 32% of Baby Boomers consider company mission as a top factor when considering a new job. That means that across the workforce, more and more job candidates want to be inspired and have purpose in their jobs. This is what make’s Canva’s employer brand so great. On their Careers page, they highlight their values for job seekers and pair each value with a visual design, underscoring the idea that design can be a force for good.  Canva also doubles down on this idea on their social media channels, which are full of inspirational content and ideas furthered by design.

6. Eventbrite To demonstrate its commitment to recruiting high-quality talent, Eventbrite created a web page to introduce job seekers to its recruitment team. The bios are funny and relatable with fun facts about each recruiter. Additionally, the Eventbrite recruitment team page states, “Interviewing shouldn’t be nerve-wracking —– it should be exciting. It should spark great conversation. We believe in respect, transparency, and timely responses (we don’t leave anyone in the dreaded recruiting black hole).” Their language reflects their values, likely inspiring job seekers to apply.

7. Jet The ecommerce site Jet created this inspirational, employee-focused video to spread awareness for its fun, engaging, motivational workplace. The video is especially powerful because it uses real employee interviews, giving the job seeker a sense for Jet’s work culture and values. Additionally, the video is likely empowering and pride-evoking for current employees, who can see their company’s clear commitment to carrying out its mission statement through videos of its workers.

  8. Shopify If there’s one thing that’s clear in tech recruiting, it’s that there’s a gap between tech jobs and qualified applicants, and it’s taking longer and longer to fill positions. For many companies, their leverage is having an incredible employer brand and great perks to attract top talent. Many tech companies can take a cue from Shopify, where they recognize this and tell the job seeker that it’s their turn to “apply to you.”  This acknowledgement is one step toward earning rapport with a potential candidate, and they continue to empathize with the reader by stating, “Finding the right job is hard work.” The rest of their Careers page is dedicated to providing the information that someone would need to take a chance and apply to Shopify. Each one of the examples on this list has in some way shown their empathy, a human element, and a slice of their culture to begin attracting great employees. Human capital is your biggest investment and asset, but remember that your candidates are also investing in you.

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[theknudsencasa-blog]

big woods, small adventure.

This past weekend was an idyllic insight to what autumn means to the Knudsen casa. It’s been raining 50% of the time the last few days, with cloudy skies and low temperatures settling in Friday and not vacating until mid-afternoon today. To set the mood indoors accordingly, I’ve been burning candles with the lights down low, the fireplace glimmering a slow flicker with its gentle click-click-click patter filling my ears, indicating it’s still functioning after a summer without use. Nate and Kunu napped away the afternoon on Sunday, and I spent the day sitting at the computer desk working on some freelance work as we prepared for yet another busy week before a long Labor Day weekend.

The fact that it is already basically September and I’m writing my first blog post of the year isn’t lost on me. From relatives to coworkers to friends, I’ve received a few comments - some intrigued, some snide, all from a place of genuine interest - indicating people miss my posts. It’s heartwarming and frustrating all at the same time, and while there’s been no shortage of material to write about, the wheels just haven’t been clicking for me the past few months.

Since my last blog posting, a lot has been buzzing at the Knudsen casa and beyond. To catch you up to speed, here’s what you missed:

I celebrated the new year with wonderful people and was actually able to stay up until 3AM, much to my ancient and decrepit body’s surprise

Donald Trump took office and my Twitter feed lost its mind

I was offered a transition to full-time from part-time at my workplace

I intimately high-fived Matt Damon and subsequently got gangrene after not washing my hand for four months (half of this is a lie – and not the more fantastical half, either)

Nate and I were both sick for a combined total of two months straight

I drove an unwilling but supportive Nathan through a blizzard to see Brendon Urie live – for free

I went back to Las Vegas and experienced a real What Happens in Vegas moment by getting escorted out of a swim resort after getting way too drunk at 2 in the afternoon (sorry, workplace that thought hiring me as a full-time representative of their company was a good idea)

I lost 20 pounds (but kept my gigantic calves in the process)

Nate passed his Principles & Practices of Engineering exam after a few hard weeks of studying

I raised $300 to help animals in the greater Twin Cities area and found my true calling in life

Nate and I visited Wisconsin and actually had a good time, probably because there was cheese and beer involved as well as terrific company

We finally landscaped our yard in front and truly became part of the north-facing neighborhood by including hostas in our foliage

I accomplished my first animal foster situation by bringing home a stray kitten and caring for him before finding him a loving home with my little sis, Kara

We stained our deck and experienced three straight days of rain afterward, because we are really good at adulting and homeowning

… among other things.

There’s not much justification for me to explain about the lack of posts aside from I just didn’t want to do it. Honestly. My whole life, I’ve been the kind of person who gets so wound up and overwhelmed by something minimal, I’ll react one of two ways: either I will go all out and do way more than I need to to compensate for feeling so overwhelmed (trip/PTO planning, employment searches, meal planning) OR I will give up on all things entirely and just let it die a sudden death (thank you cards, filling photo frames with pictures of people I actually care about instead of weird candid black-and-white shots of people I don’t know, blog posts, calling to schedule my car an oil change oh goodness I’m over 2,000 miles over and I should really make that call).

HOWEVER, here for your reading pleasure is the ULTIMATE JUSTIFICATION PARAGRAPH(s), commence: I actually started a blog post about our California trip in March when the weather started getting nicer, but I left the draft to rot in my composer due to lack of interest. The post, titled “my life as a California raisin” because I literally don’t know anything about California except for the fact that animated dancing raisins from the 80s use its namesake, apparently?, was intentionally left alone as an act of defiance; I had a lot of people nicely asking when my next blog post was coming out, and I went through one of those teenage angsty “I DON’T HAVE TO BE WHO ANYBODY ELSE WANTS ME TO BE! IT’S MY BLOG AND I’LL DO WHAT I WANT!” phases and just turned off my computer and left it. I also was a little nervous, because we didn’t really take any photos of our California trip, and I didn’t have clear documentation of much of anything – especially the event everybody wanted to hear about most, when Matt Damon and I fell in love while simultaneously touching hands for a split second in a television studio.

We also didn’t do anything monstrous or overly awe-inspiring in Cali – or at least nothing physical like the struggle of hiking Angels Landing, which I’ve been told was one of my better entries – but it was a solid, long, well-deserved vacation for both of us. A mixture of relaxation, crashing on futons owned by long-distance friends, and enjoying happy hour drinks (priority), our California trip was a great way to begin our adventures in 2017. I, however, am not going to document it – just because honestly, I don’t remember half of what we did now. It was nearly seven months ago (oh my GOD!) and we have other things to get through, like the awesome nature of the last two camping trips Nate and I took as well as whatever else I want, because this is my blog and you can’t tell me what to do! So if you came here looking for that, I guess I have disappointed you once again and I am not sorry.

One thing I do remember, however, was the true starting point of our summer this year: our first camping trip, accomplished in May. We enjoyed some time in Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park near Faribault, a brand new state park for us, mixing car camping with delicious downtown dinners to make a really delightful weekend away.

NERSTRAND-BIG WOODS STATE PARK MAY 12-14

Friday – Day 0.5 I left work around 4:30 on Friday to meet Nate at the North Star Park and Ride in Elk River, our meeting destination that only made sense as we needed to drop off a car before venturing south. We left his pickup and jumped in the Kia, beginning our travels to Northfield for some grub before arriving in the park. Our plan was to go to The Tavern, because they seemed to have a wide variety of 21 Day Fix-approved food, and my hopes were high to get a salad instead of a salt-coma inducing gut bomb of a burger, because I’d been doing very well on my portion-controlled diet plan as of late and had even planned out all the camp food for the weekend to be fix-approved.

However, after stopping at the Cabelas in Rogers, my hunger had quickly escalated for greasy, delicious, artery-clogging food, and I threw my healthy eating plans aside to order a Spin Dip burger and fries because I have never had much self control. I also added a tall Angry Orchard to my bill for good measure, as I’m definitely the kind of person who is all or nothing, y’know?

After inhaling most of my meal in less than 10 minutes because I am an animal, Nate looked at me very concerned across the table as I instantly puffed up to the size of Violet Beauregarde and turned roughly the same color. My body was turning on me real quick and we finished our beers, leaving as speedily as possible so I could lay flat in the car and hug my pillow whilst moaning on our way to Nerstrand-Big Woods SP.

The drive from Northfield to NBW was about 20 minutes, just enough time for me to stretch out my oversized belly and Nate to lay out our game plan. We would get to the park and utilize the remaining light of the day to set-up our sleeping situation and snuggle in for the night. Then, we’d go to bed and wake up at our leisure, making a prime breakfast before a morning of hiking and an afternoon of paddling on the Cannon River.

Just a little before bed tent selfie! You can see up the corner, we like to tie our lantern to the top of the tent, much like recessed lighting.

After I snapped that selfie, I quickly passed out, and the day was done.

Saturday – Day 1 The next morning had a bit of a chill to it when I woke up, but hints of warm summer day lingered in the breeze, waiting for the sun to peek out from behind the clouds. As I lounged in the warmth of the sleeping bags Nate was already out of the tent, sipping some steaming caramel hot cocoa and setting up his hammock. Once I put on some warmer clothes, I left the tent to help aid with breakfast.

Our set-up. I am getting breakfast ready.

As you can see from our campsite photo there, our tent is huge! If you follow along really closely with any of our adventures, you may note the tent you’ve seen us use before is small and orange. This Coleman tent was my parents’ hand-me-down and it’s our car camping tent. Because it’s so large, it doesn’t work well when it comes to backpacking, but car camping.. that’s another story.

First and foremost, I love car camping. It’s easy, it’s safe, and most importantly, you have SO MANY FOOD POSSIBILITIES. Let’s be real, over half the fun of camping is the food. Right?! But when you’re backpacking it, you have limited options due to not being able to keep food cold, as well as spacing issues. And sometimes it really sucks when you just want to down a ton of food after a grueling hike, and all you have is a Clif bar.

WELL, when we went to Big Woods, we did not have that problem.

For once I planned most of the trip’s meals, trying to stay to my 21 Day Fix portions and planning method as best as I could. I tried to make protein a priority throughout the day, as well as including hard veggies that could take a beating on the trail for snacks, and we ended up with this for breakfast. Eggs with cheese and salsa and lil smokies. What a way to start the day, right?!

After our power breakfast, which I do have to say was a bit more filling than a donut, we tidied up our campsite and set off on the trails. Nate and I were both excited to explore Big Woods for a few reasons. One, it was our first camping trip of the year, and we were eager to dust off our hiking boots and stretch our legs in the woods; and two, it was blooming season! We got to the park a week or so too late for the really intense flowering period, but still caught many beautiful insights to the season’s change. Neither of us had really been to a park that so prominently featured flowers as a “must see”, so we were intent on grabbing some prime photos on our trip. Luckily, the day delivered.

We first ventured down the Hidden Falls Trail on the east side of the park. We’d talked to the park ranger in the visitor center right away, asking for tips, and had been informed that most of the trails on the south end were downtrodden with mud as a result of the intense rain they’d had the week prior. The north end of the park was more or less the same. But the central portions of the park were where the flowers were blooming anyway, and he recommended we hit that up before anything else. So we did.

Endangered dwarf trout lily on the Hidden Falls Trail, found exclusively in Minnesota (known as “endemic”).

I’m actually not very experienced when it comes to flower photography, so I’m not kidding when I tell you I was a little unnerved at the thought of getting good shots for a blog or our own personal use. I’m the same way whenever I try photographing something severely beautiful. I always convince myself I’m not quite good enough at it and when I get home my photos will be crap and it’ll be like I didn’t even go. Sort of like FOMO, but PTSD style? Luckily, I like how this batch turned out.

One of my favorite shots of the day. This flower is bloodroot, if I’m not mistaken.

However, aside from spring flowers, there’s a lot of reason to go visit Nerstrand Big Woods. How about, for instance, the big woods?

Along each of the trails we did throughout the weekend, we were both in awe of the trees. They were so easy to get lost in! We absolutely loved it. Canopies lined the paths and engulfed you, covering you just enough that you felt like a part of the nature that surrounded you, but not enough that you felt cut off from civilization/on the verge of living with wolves.

Nate, reading every sign on every path. As you can imagine, going to museums with him is really fun.

Once we finished the first loop of the Hidden Falls Trail, we decided to go for loop two. After all, we absolutely needed to, or so we’d been told. There was a waterfall to see!

While the waterfall at NBWSP isn’t big, especially compared to those on the North Shore (see ya this fall!), it was still a sight to behold. With all the fresh green on the trees, the gushing water was truly spectacular! By the time we reached the falls, the park was hopping. Many families were taking photos in front of the falls, and kids were playing in the cool water, throwing rocks. We backed away from the falls at first, entering further back into the river that flowed from them. I crossed some rocks and we both took some center of the river shots before admiring the other beauty around us.

Once we took a seat on the rocks just outside of the waterfall, Nate and I watched countless people come in and admire the falls, breaking open our pack to snack on veggies and trail mix. I remember we were both very happy and content. 

Once we stood up and had prepared to move on, we decided to take a few final photos by the falls before heading out on our way. We had more of the day to get through, anyway: we wanted to finish up the trail systems relatively quickly to make it to Cannon Falls to canoe down the river  on time.

We did not leave, however, until I skirted the waterfall and stood right in the middle of it like a super nerd. P.S., if you’re wondering? YES, this was exceptionally cold on my toes.

Then we continued on our merry way.

We made our way back to the campsite quickly, but still took the time to pause and look at flowers, too. We encountered a naturalist along the path and he took his time explaining the flowers to us, telling us what to hunt for and pointing out examples of each thing with careful consideration. In case you haven’t, please talk to your local naturalist when you go to a state park. Generally, they are awesome, and they know their stuff.

Also along our path, we discovered this: one of the weirdest tree formations I’ve ever seen.

This little fellow is called jack-in-the-pulpit! They are truly beautiful (and quite hard to spot).

Once we made it back to our camp, we gathered our belongings, tidied our tent, and left to drive to Cannon Falls. We had decided to work our arms a little by canoeing down the Cannon River, since I mean who really loves leg day, anyway?

Yeah, that’s my husband. I guess he has a tendency of looking sort of like a hippie when we’re on the water if this photo speaks any truth at all.

Our trip down the river was relatively unremarkable. If I remember correctly, we went about six miles, and it went very quickly. The trees along the river were starting to fill, but there wasn’t much wildlife, so the paddle was primarily us (me) floating and eating. We did encounter some people who were swinging into the river via two old, ratchety-looking ropes, and they tried hard to convince us to join them. We both politely declined and watched them as we continued to float down the way.

Once finished with our paddle, we were escorted back on a bus, which picked up a handful of other people at the same time. I tried to make friends with a dog on the way back and by the time we had reached the vehicle, I was so grief-stricken by the fact that we didn’t have a dog Nate took me out for ice cream from a vintage, drive-up diner and I annihilated a shake like it was absolutely nobody’s business.

We arrived back at our campsite in Nerstrand Big Woods in the early afternoon. We’d gotten out of bed quite early that morning in anticipation of a big day and now found ourselves at camp with a lot of time on our hands. Before cooking, we both settled in - Nate in his hammock and me at the picnic table - for some naps and reading time.

Before long, however, the hunger started creeping in. It was probably because we knew what our meal was going to be: steak and potato foil packets.

We seasoned our packets - steak, onion, red peppers, and red potatoes - with montreal steak seasoning and garlic powder. Then, we put them in the fire to roast!

The finished product.

After we ate, Nate was stuffed, but I was severely upset. I didn’t bring s’mores stuff - remember, I had packed only food that was 21 Day Fix approved because I foolishly thought I could make it a whole weekend at camp without S’MORES!!!! - and began whining for dessert almost instantly. Luckily, I did know my self control would be relatively bad, so we did have a delicious dessert - camp style.

First, I cut into two bananas (peel on) just enough we could use it as a boat. We stuffed peanut butter and dark chocolate chips into the crevices, then wrapped them in foil and put them on the fire.

The end result was delicious! A warm, gooey, delectable - albeit slightly healthy - version of camp dessert.

The rest of the night we huddled in next to the fire and watched the light dwindle. Once the sun went down, we reflected on our day before going to shower and wash some of the dirt off of our tired bodies. We then retreated into the tent and fell asleep to the sound of coyotes howling in the distance.

Sunday – Day 2 Early on in the morning we awoke and ate some food: eggs and leftover steak/onions/peppers. Feeling replenished, we quickly tore down the tent and vacated the campsite, ready for the next person to take our spot and enjoy the tranquility of the big woods.

After moving our vehicle, we decided to go an additional few miles on the trails to the south of the park before heading home. We didn’t have a timeline to adhere to but knew we wanted to get out of the park before afternoon as to get home at a decent time. We also had to drive back to Elk River and grab the vehicles, which was a little out of the way and added onto our journey time.

On the trails, the sun rose up high, and we both began to sweat. It seemed like summer was here!  But we still enjoyed some spring blooms as we made our way into the wetter portions of the park.

The further south we got into the park, we realized we were hiking quite a bit more than we had anticipated. Turns out, we’d incorrectly navigated the skiing trails, and had ended up walking directly past our turn-around point. At that time we both decided, me in quite a frustrated manner, that we would be putting on a few more miles than anticipated. As we continued along, however, I tried to focus in and take more photos, alleviating the stress I felt.

We both decided to look for an orange flower to keep us busy. Spoiler: Nate won.

Me, in what I hope is my secondary element. I would venture to guess my primary element is on the couch under a fluffy blanket watching Parks and Recreation or The Office whilst eating cheez-its. #balance?

As we made our way back up the far side of NBW, Nate asked very sweetly if we could take the Prairie Trail, as he wanted to see some wide open spaces after being caught in masses of trees for longer than expected. I, if you’ll recall, absolutely despise the plains, and was outwardly frustrated with this development. I reluctantly agreed and we went on our way to the Prairie Trail.

The trail ended up being probably half a mile longer than marked, and I absolutely gave up and sat on a bench once we reached what looked like the end. Nate, however, continued venturing up the sloped prairie to snap some photos. I do have to admit, he got some nice pictures. But I was pretty done with everything by that time and I just wanted some substantial food.

After we left the Prairie Trail we walked as quickly as possible back to the car. By the time we reached it and parked near the visitor center, the picnic area was packed and cars lined the driveways twofold. Springtime is always when Nerstrand peaks in its visitor count, and it’s because of the beautiful views like we saw - including but not limited to flowers and huge, towering trees.

Once we left the park, we drove through Faribault to fuel up, and then were on our merry way. We stopped in Elk River to get some good old-fashioned ice cream and then drove the remaining 50 miles home, to a happy Kunu bean and a warm, comfortable bed.

And so our first camping weekend of the year was complete.