The Artists In Us

When Mindy and Tricia go to those Canvas and Chardonnay evenings they bring home such cool looking paintings. Cher, our friend Donnis, Jill and I went to a session last Monday to see if just ANYbody really can paint...because I haven't an artistic bone in my body when it comes to drawing or painting pictures. This was our goal...

(Life Is A Birch!)

...and after two bottles of wine, this was our result.

We were almost the last ones there well after the scheduled 9:30 end time. I was trying to hurry and put "moss" on the bottoms of my trees but every time I look at them all I see is the hooves on some really long zebra legs! We were in such a hurry to finish up I didn't take a picture of the four of us but the C and C people got one of Donnis and Cher. See how different the results can be!

It was amazing to me that we could come home with anything even slightly resembling the original. I'd do it again but then the problem becomes, where in the world do we hang our productions...especially when there are two of the same!?!

Happy Birthday, Brian!

Fall is an awesome season and a great time for a birthday!

We hope yours is a good one, Brian!

Backyard Beautification

We've had this little landscape project in the works since June. It was supposed to start the end of August but didn't 'til September 9th. It was supposed to take 2-3 weeks. It took four! It's been a terrible mess in the yard and up the drive but they finished it up yesterday and here it is!

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(After)

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Can't wait to have our first campfire...

...and for the grass to grow in the Spring!

Quick Visit

We had supper tonight with Tony, Tricia and Charlie at Pizza Ranch. The restaurant was a little confining for the little guy so we stopped over to their house afterwards. He had a particular trick he liked to show off!

There's A Reason...

...this blog post is a month and a half late! There were just so many pictures to go through from our long weekend in Duluth at the end of August. But now I better get something up before the Next Big Thing comes along. Minimal commentary. Mostly people pictures. Sit back and relax!

There was some varied action in the Canal from what we're used to seeing!

The Lake was a little wild one day. These were the waves looking back at our hotel.

We took a train ride up the shore to the Lester River on a rainy day.

Goofballs everybody!

One morning was so foggy you'd never know there was a lake outside our windows. Even sitting right down at the Canal it took a looooong time for the Bridge to become even this visible!

And the ships coming in were almost right on top of us before we could see them.

There were some really different ships coming and going this time. This was probably one of the more distinctive.

This was the gallery of people watching Brian and Jon hunt for a geocache on Uncle Harvey's Mausoleum.

With encouragement from Brian, Jon finally found what they were looking for...

...and took the fast way down!

Unfortunately, my camera battery chose that very moment to die on me so we have no record of Jon ever actually landing!

So there's our last Duluth trip in a very large nutshell. We feel very fortunate to have everyone in almost the same love affair with the North Shore as we are!

Weekend Jaunt

With yesterday's cold rain, today's wicked winds and tonight's predicted snow Jill picked a good weekend to head to California!

She's almost there where it's going to be 92 today and mid to high 80's the rest of the time. It's another weekend when she hopes to see her niece, Taylor, play some soccer at Stanford University.

This Year's Colors Of Fall

Little different than other years. Orange Bobcat. Orange snow fence. 

But there are the traditional pumpkins and mums too!

A Most Perfect Day!

We had Mom and Dad over yesterday for one last zucchini fry of the summer. It was such a perfect Fall day we ended up spending the whole time on the deck...even all the way through our Domino game!

To top it all off, the Vikings came up big in a game they weren't even supposed to win! Life is good! 

Happy Birthday, Rand!

It was supposed to be sunny all week but wouldn't you know a birthday dawns rainy?

My brother's never been one to let a little rain stop him though! :)