Presenting...

...Mr. and Mrs. Tony Knutson!

My Little Pony...Er, I Mean..."Tony"!

Today's the day my youngest nephew...

...is getting married. It looks like the Good Lord has blessed us with a beautiful day for a wedding. By the end of the evening we'll have another Mrs. Knutson in the family!

Getting Ready For The Real Thing

Rehearsal today. Wedding tomorrow!

Another Tea Party!

Natalie spent the day here yesterday while she convalesces before the wedding this weekend. She invited the same friends to her tea party as Claire and Cate!

Jill was out on the computer so Natalie even provided tea service to her out there. 

Money Laundering

I wish it was true that I get to keep what I find in the wash.

Yesterday it would have been $60!!

Minnesota Soccer

 Jill's niece, Taylor, has moved on to the next level in her soccer career. She's playing (and playing well!) for the University of Minnesota this year. In all sports you have to keep your eye on the ball...

...but in this one, if the coach says "use your head!" she means it...literally! 

While I don't like gophers and the mess they can make I do like the Minnesota Gophers!

Here is one proud aunt!

Indoors And Outdoors

I had a Saturday with Claire and Cate that started out at their house, moved to ours and then out to Mom and Dad's for a picnic in the woods. I got to taking pictures (surprise!) but I wasn't sure who was taking whose!

 The girls had a tea party for just themselves.

But pretty soon a bunch of their friends had shown up!

We got out to the campfire that Gramps had made and Claire started cleaning right off the bat.

We had the typical fare...hot dogs, chips, fruit and drink. But what's a picnic without roasting marshmallows? 

 I forget which one of the girls pushed the button for our group photo but I do know we had to scurry to get into place. We must be fast because it turned out pretty good. (Note Cate's tutu and camisole while most everybody else is in long sleeves!)

Service After Hours

Our deck is already in need of repair. So my engineer nephew came over to see if there might be a solution to the problem. Leave it to him to come up with an answer! If it weren't so cloudy he may have been working by moonlight but as it was we needed to bring out a worklight since it was definitely dark outside. 

He came with his Builder Buddy, Natalie.

They've been taking some Build It With Dad classes but it was a little chilly out for her to help so we girls wussed out and went inside instead.

I Think He Missed The Bus

I haven't seen a robin around here in many weeks. Today this guy showed up in the back yard.

Either he was fooled by our 80 degree weather recently and thought it was time to come back or he's just holding out 'til the last minute to go wherever robins go this time of year.

(Getting To Be) Another Classic!

My oldest nephew is 34 years young today.

Happy Birthday, Brian!

A Classic

Commonweal Theatre in Lanesboro is currently putting on the play "To Kill A Mockingbird." We both were interested in seeing it on stage so in early September we picked the only date that would work for us and that was last Thursday. 

We were lucky enough to have that date work for our fellow theatre-goers also!

We were glad to have had time to re-read the book first since it'd been a loooooong while since we'd read it the first time! But the players put on a great performance and it definitely got thumbs up from us!

Ice Capades

Tuesday was Natalie's last skating lesson. Mindy assurred me that she'd made great strides since her first one. And I believe it! I think there was only one time she wasn't still up on her skates. She and her friend, Ellie, stuck pretty close together...

...especially when they were checking out the Ice Hawk that was there for a visit. It took them awhile to be brave enough to go up and poke him in the backside.

They came over to check out the spectators in the stands. I must say, it was almost against my principles to put on jeans when it's nearly 80 degrees outside but I did and was even glad I had my jacket on in the ice arena. It felt good to get that tingle in your cheeks when the air is cold enough for extra clothes.

I think Natalie had a pretty good time on her skates. Maybe I'll have to see if that pair I have hanging in the basement still fits since the skating season may soon be upon us!

She was just so good about going about her business. Although, I think she was worried someone might be sneaking up behind her!

Last Weekends Getaway

We three girls took off on what has become our annual Fall golf getaway to Jill's sister's cabin up near Brainerd.

We thought we might be hitting that part of the state at peak colors. And there were a lot of beautiful roadsides. But overall we think we missed the really pretty stuff by about a week.

 We golf about ten minutes up the road from the cabin on a gorgeous course called Pine Ridge. There are a couple of holes that have one lone pine like this practically right in the middle of the fairway!

 It was an extremely windy day, lots of swirling leaves rolling across the fairways in waves and then depositing them in places where you shouldn't lose your ball but often have trouble finding it.

 This is #18 that we say has lots of boobs guarding the green. You have to hit down in between them to get to a really long green.

 On Saturday it started out wet so we stayed in to craft and read. We heard more train whistles than we ever have! I bet there were at least three every hour. I went down on the road and waited by the tracks because one was sure to come by. And three did.

 It was nice enough that people were still out on the water...boating, fishing, jetskiing.

It was a great time away in my favorite of seasons!

Helping Hand

Today I definitely had the Good Lord on my side! I've been working on Round 1 of leaf blowing the last couple of days even though I know there are many more to come. Today it was so windy that all I had to do was blow them up in the air and off they went!

To Every Thing There Is A Season

This is a perfect example of why many Minnesotans love the change of seasons. Winter at Brian and Kates' cabin...

...the lushness (is that even a word?!) of Summer...

 ...the warmth of Fall.

 Even you Summer lovers must agree that Fall is a beautiful season!

I May Have Found Them

We golfed up north on Friday (that'll be a different blog post) and it was very windy! I think I discovered where all those leaves were headed.

Our yard, front and back, is pretty much covered. Usually I try to keep up on them a little better but a lot of them happened to drop while we were away!

Missing Cate

Cate spent a few days with her grandpa and grandma this week so Claire and I spent some time reflecting on how we missed her!

Maya's Moods And Much More

Maya spent some time checking us out on our visit to St. Peter on Monday.

 She wasn't real happy getting strapped in for the trip to lunch.

While we ate at El Agave and after she'd had her meal too, she was getting sleepy...

...and pretty laid back.

 Good thing Kate and Brian like that Mexican restaurant since they'd just eaten there the night before. It definitely was delicious!

 We had a little three generational thing going on...aunt, nephew and great-niece.

 It was a beautiful day for a Fall drive. The colors were more vivid over their way...

 ...none prettier than at Kate's workplace.

 I actually had little flashbacks to how it feels to be on a college campus at the start of a new school year. 

No Fire Down Below

I've thought it would be fun to go hike the Elba fire tower someday and Sunday turned out to be that day. 

I didn't really know what to expect other than that in articles I've read it requires quite an effort to get to the top.

 These were my companions for the day.

 There are around 600 steps just to get up to the bottom of the tower and this is how we navigated them. Natalie made it the whole way on her own power while Harvey got a ride. I have to say, I'm glad she needed a rest now and then because so did I!

 The view from the top was spectacular although the colors were a little short of peak. I'll have to admit to a few moments of queasiness being up that high and open all around. 

I tell ya, Jon must have biceps and thighs of steel because with Harvey on his shoulders on the way up and both kids in his arms coming down the tower he got quite a workout!

 We did some more hiking in the area and had a a little nature lesson along the way. The wooly bears were out and quite a curiosity.

 The kids found a stone for each of them while their daddy planted a geocache.

 After a little lunch in St. Charles we stopped at the park for some fun at the playground.

 Harvey was a little hesitant to launch himself down the twirly slide so Jon showed him how it works.

 On the final leg home we added another geocache to Jon's list of finds and each of the kids came home with a treasure of their own.

 It was pretty much a perfect Fall afternoon!