One Week!

NFL football starts a week from today. The Vikings don't play until the 11th so I'm still in the hopeful stage for the season.

I have two Fantasy teams again. One of my quarterbacks (Peyton Manning) is questionable healthwise and one of my big running backs (Chris Johnson) is in a contract dispute. The former signed for less money than the bosses offered him, the latter can't be happy with being the highest paid running back in the NFL. Which one do you think I like better? (Hint: It's the one with a lot of fun commercials and who has a brother that's my backup quarterback.) Let the season begin!

It's Coming!

Fall is just around the corner. (Although if you listen to the September 1st forecast for us it's to be a heat index near 100!) But all the signs are here. Halloween stuff out at Menards, our oaks are dropping their acorns and leaves, the trees that are known to turn color early are starting their change, schools are back in session. Yes, it's coming...my favorite season of the year!

And One More For Good Measure

I think Natalie will join me in wishing her daddy a great day today.

Happy Birthday, Jon!!

More August Birthdays

Today it's Jill's turn to celebrate!

One of her presents is that we don't have to seal the drive this year! Another is that we get to work on the deck we still haven't finished. A good thing is that her birthday cake is a Blueberry-Peach coffeecake kind of thing we got at the Farmer's Market yesterday. Happy Birthday, Jill! Enjoy the day!

Looney Luna

Last night we had supper with my youngest nephew and his fiance'. The pre-meal entertainment is shareworthy!

Their little kitten, Luna, has a LOT of energy. Great time last night, guys. Thank you very much!

What To Do At 4:30 AM?

Both girls were up shortly after 4:30 this morning. So what do we do at that time of the day? Why, play in the dark basement with flashlights, of course!

Saturday Visitor

Cate came over on Saturday for a little visit while her folks did a little Gold Rushing of their own. There were a few quiet minutes...

 ...and thirsty times...

 ...that turned into "I've-Got-A-Bright-Idea-...

 ...Let's-Chase-Jill" games...

 ...that turned into loving moments...

...and included lots of giggles.

Good times!

Better Than A Postcard!

Mindy called today from their weekend getaway to Duluth. They were down at the Canal. Hard to tell but they're the little group of people down by the tugboat. They'd just seen the James R. Barker depart and had the distinct pleasure of hearing him toot his horn three times!

The Barker has become our favorite boat to see...and hear! In case you've forgotten, here's what he sounds like...

I guess Harvey was a little spooked but I bet Natalie's starting to get used to it.

Trash Or Treasure?

Going to Gold Rush in Oronoco every August is just a given. But it's becoming more of a tradition just to go than to actually expect to find something.  This year it was a fabulous day weather-wise but overall was a little disappointing. Advertised as being open at 7:00 there were still a LOT of vendors that weren't open even by 7:30 and when there's that much ground to cover you don't really want to have to go back over the same territory! We went with $282 from our "Save Your $5 Bills" stash and came home with $211. Of the money we spent almost half of it was on breakfast, lunch and dessert. I told Jill we may be coming home empty handed but we're certainly full bellied. We saw a lot of stuff but as Jill's conscience I said 'no' enough times that we only ended up with a couple things for ourselves. There was one sign I thought was pretty cute....something for a public restroom.

Gentlemen: We aim to please. You aim, too, please.

Ladies: Please remain seated for the entire performance. 

Tri, Tri Again

Sunday was the second year the boys participated in EcoTri. It's the kind of thing where we like to spectate and I think they kind of like having us as their fans too. Natalie and Harvey were the youngest ones and they were ready!

 The first leg was in their kayaks starting at Fisherman's Inn. I think this must be their dry run!

The morning was very foggy but it burned off in a hurry to be a great day for us...I'd guess maybe a little too warm for the boys.

Here they are with their Number One Fan!

  It looks like they were the only ones in their heat but there were quite a few more kayakers off to the left closer to the shoreline where the boys didn't want to be.

 We got down to the spot where they'd take out their kayak and Brian had to hoot at us to let us know it was him coming around the bend! 

 The kids would get pretty excited when they saw their dad.

 There was even the hint of a smile still on everybody's face.

 Next they traded in the boats for their bikes. We moved our spectating spot to right along the end of the first loop. In addition to Natalie and Harvey, Kate and Mindy were part of our clan.

 We kept looking for the right color shirts so we'd have a heads up when it was time to cheer and take pictures.

 We'd actually cheer for almost anyone that came by but most vociferously for our boys!

 I think they were glad to see some familiar faces cheering them on.

 The last part was a three mile run. By that time it was getting pretty warm even for us along the trail.

 But everybody made it in with flying colors.

 As spectators, we're hoping the boys do this again next year but it's no easy feat to train for and compete in this event.

 They all saved some smiles for the papparazzi at the end. I think between the four cameras in our group we probably got quite a few shots!

 The kids were so good during the three and more hours that we moved about from spot to spot. Grandma Cher provided some of the diversion to keep them interested. 

 Next year there'll be even more fans in our bunch. Another baby and another wife!

Muffin Makers

While Mindy went to a Zumba class last week Jill and I stayed with the kids. We thought it might be fun to make muffins to have ready when Mommy got home from class. Natalie cracked the eggs without getting any shells in the mix.

 While she stirred things together Harvey carefully got the last of the blueberries out of his bowl.

Natalie demonstrated her technique of filling the muffin cups.

Both kids watched very closely how it was all done.

 And here I'm proud to present the entire muffin making team!

 While the muffins baked Harvey caught up on the breakfast he missed out on. He has a habit of stuffing as much of a breakfast bar in his mouth as he can...and then asking for more!  

 There's a reason Natalie says those are chipmunk cheeks!

To The Nines

The girls decided to dress up in their evening gowns on Wednesday even though it was early in the morning.

 Claire is extra dressy these days since she's sporting pierced ears!

(Can you see this a little better?)

Claire and Cate looked so nice I wanted in on the action too.

Actually, they just wanted to do the self-timed thing so we could watch the blinking light!

Fiddler

Friday night we went to the Stewartville Community Theatre's production of "Fiddler On The Roof." Tony is the musical director again this year but we didn't think he had any onstage appearances. There's one fellow who's in a lot of the area's plays that we really like...Anthony Menz...so I'd been keeping an eye on his character.

 Then, during the bottle dance Jill nudged me and said "do you see Tony?!"

I hadn't but there he was right in step with all the others. That little number takes a lot of concentration!

Congratulations on a production well done!

Happy Birthday, Kate!

Of all the hats you wear we hope it's your birthday hat you've got on today!

The August Birthdays Begin

Dad turns 89 today.

Happy Birthday, Gramps!

How Do?

I wasn't sure if these were bandanas or do-rags but Claire thought we should wear them.

Cate had one too, but didn't want to put it on. It looked like red to me but Claire insisted it was pink!

Concert In The Park

Jon played percussion in the Sunday night Down By The Riverside series. It was the Concert Band's turn to put on quite a show. 

 We had a pretty good crowd just in our bunch! Look for Darrick and Angela, Claire and Cate back there with Jill, in addition to all the people you see in the front row.

Seems like everyone had something to share...cookies, snack mix, fruit. And we made a dessert called Berried Delight which we have re-christened Pila Dessert. It was a layered pudding-y kind of thing that, in transport, had all slid to one side and it truly was just a pile of dessert! 

Grand Getaway

A week ago today we girls...

 ...headed off on an overnight getaway to...

That's where Mindy's roots are and we'd never been there even though her family has been this direction many times. We wanted to see the area and take in a new golf course with her nephew, John.

It was a beautiful course and would be really pretty in the Fall as would the state park that's very near there.

 We were able to hook up with the rest of John's family and Mindy's mom and dad too. The curious part is that Mindy and the kids were down there at the same time. This was a getaway of their own that happened to work well with our schedule. Mindy gave us a tour of the town and we all went for supper at Mrs. Lady's near Lake Okoboji. Arnold's Park was almost right across the street so we got a good look at where the kids would be having rides later in the week. After our Mexican meal a little ice cream hit the spot! 

 It was a beautiful (but hot!) evening for the bunch of us near the lake.

 Then the grand plan was to drive up to St. Peter to spend the night at Brian and Kate's cabin...which we did, and we also had a tee time for 9:04 at their golf course but the weather didn't cooperate. It was rainy overnight and still soggy in the AM so we spent our time picking vegetables from their garden in our pajamas instead. We had a great meal of fried zucchini Saturday night courtesy of Kate and Brian!

Brian's got this "little" project going that they'd like to have done before their baby comes in about six weeks so we had to check that out.

By the time we left the skies were so clear and the sun was so bright we maybe could have golfed. But it was also very steamy and I think the ground would have been soggy as well as us by the time we got done.

The last time we stayed at their place was back in March when this was what we saw out the window.

Now it's so lush and warm! 

Kate was able to take a break from the book she's writing and Brian got away from Menards to meet us for lunch. Everyone's got to eat, right?!

I suppose having a burger at a wing joint is like have seafood at a steakhouse. In retrospect, I wish I'd subscribed to Kate's theory that when you eat at a place called Buffalo Wild Wings you probably should have the wings!