A Summer Saturday to savor

"Colorful. Eclectic. Amazing" is how Dave described this place. "A Junkyard" is how Jeni describes it. The kids? We spent a summer morning venturing through this modern art collection in the middle of Minnesota nowhere -- The Franconia Sculpture Park.

The kids loved the Ghettoblaster tower.

Dave loved this crazy Lemony Snickets meets Alice in Wonderland playground.

Our day continued in Taylors Falls where we explored the tunnels, caves, and crazy rock formations of the glacial potholes in the State Park.

We took a short break to take in the beauty of this quiet little spot on the St Croix River.

Lastly, we headed out to Square Lake for some summer fun on the beach. This is said to be one of the clearest lakes in the state.  

Enjoying some air time!

With all this fun, perhaps the highlight of the day was "fishing."  No hooks, no bait, no poles, no problem. Ellie spent about a half an hour trying to catch a minnow. Finally, Daddy stepped in and scooped one up for her.

Of course, Ellie wanted to take her new friend home. I'm not sure what got into her Daddy, but he agreed that she could keep it! This fish became our families' first ever pet. The minnow stayed in the State Fair "Grandma's Cookies" tub for weeks! This fish stayed alive for four months, by Ellie feeding it sea weed! This fish, named Lily, will go down into our family folklore!

Finally Minnesota Fairgoers

During our house-hunting trip eight years ago, we received a strong recommendation to check-out the 'greatest state fair on the planet.' We resisted the crowds that year and have stayed away ever since, as the thought of manning a stroller through a sea of people in the heat seemed too daunting. However, this year we decided to brave it after Ellie won four free tickets through our county library. We received all sorts of advice from Minnesotans before attending, and Teyah's first grade teacher advised us to all wear the same color. So, in order to keep up with Teyah's demands, and to be able to keep track of our 'team,' we all sported yellow for the day.

To our surprise we actually made it through most of the day without spending a dime as the fair was full of fun, free, family activities. Our kids especially loved the Kemps "Little Farm Hands" exhibit, which allowed them to drive mini tractors, plant seeds, and do real-live farm activities, and then be paid with 'money' that they purchased real ice cream and snacks.

We saw a lot of unique things, but the butter sculptures were probably our girls' favorite. Each day a teenage dairy princess steps into the freezer booth to have her face sculpted in butter. Our kids were mesmerized as the sculptor transformed these blocks of butter into works of art.

For years, we heard the legend of "Sweet Martha's Cookies" and couldn't resist the $15 overflowing bucket of warm cookies. We devoured these cookies. They were definitely yummy!  But worth $15? Um, probably not, but I suppose we were paying for the experience? I don't think our kids will ever forget the overflowing bucket of cookies in our yellow shirts! I felt like attending the fair, seeing the butter queens and eating the cookies all added up to us finally being able to call ourselves true Minnesooootans! I truly was giddy by this!

Fun Summer Pics

Summers in Minnesota are surreal.  After the snow melts and the spring rains fall, this place turns into a lush green paradise with lots of fun things to do. Here are some of our favorite pics from the summer that help capture some of these special moments.

This first pic is entitled "Pure Joy" with Ellie soaring in the sky over the shores of the St Croix River.  We discovered this particular park that had swings that towered into the sky about 15-feet-high -- swings aren't made like that anymore!


This next one is, "New-found Freedom." In June, Teyah went from riding with training wheels to becoming a true bike rider in just a few weeks. Before we knew it, she was blazing trails around town! Her bike with no pedals, definitely helped this transition!

This pic, I will call, "Three Amigas."  These girls truly love each other and enjoy spending time together. This is taken just south of Stillwater on the St Croix River. Notice the thick book in Aubrie's hand -- that's a constant wherever she goes.


Let's call this one, "Sky Dancing." This was an Australian performing troupe (Swoon) that performed dance and acrobatic routines, while attached to 20-foot-high poles. Our kids were mesmerized as the performers glided through the St. Paul City sky during the International Children's Festival.

Our kids love riding their bikes to this neighborhood park, aptly nicknamed, "Spider Web Park."  Kyler and Ellie love scaling this "web" to the top of the 15-foot-climb -- much to my nervous dismay.  

Lastly, this pic is entitled "Best Buds." This captures the carefree days of summer and our kids' love of going out and doing. Living in Minnesota, we try to savor each warm day!

Aubrie's first boating

Having lived in Minnesota for eight years, you could say we have deprived our kids of boating experiences. I am not sure why because we are surrounded by some of the most beautiful lakes and most pristine rivers on the planet. Luckily, Aubrie's friend Sophie helped fill the void by inviting Aubrie and her friends for a boating birthday party.

Dave decided to take half the day off and join as a "chaperone."  They had fun tubing the St. Croix and holding on for their lives.

Aubrie and her buddies also spent some time coming up with creative dives into the river.  I think they called this the "mustache jump"...notice the mustache they have made with their hand as they fly through the air.

I'm pretty sure that boating on a beautiful Minnesota day doesn't get any better than that!

All Stiched up

 An accidental drawer left opened, meant stitches in the nose for Kyler. He was brave and only had three stitches, so no real harm done. Although, I was a little annoyed that the ER nurse practitioner did such a sloppy job on the stitches!

But this made ER trip number two in just four weeks! The first was a little more traumatic for everyone when Kyler fell off a picnic table at soccer practice. He didn't move a muscle for 15 minutes, and the ambulance was called. He had fallen onto the concrete with the metal bar of the picnic table at the base of his head. Gradually, he was able to move his arms, then legs, and about 5-10 minutes later could then talk again. It was one of my scariest parenting moments! It made me realize how quickly life can change! Fortunately, he was OK and all is well. By miracle, Dave showed up after work right after it happened and gave him a blessing.

Having a boy is wonderful, but these accidents are harder on mom than anyone! Hopefully, I can keep this boy's energy directed in a positive and safe way!

Papa and Grammy fun

A summer visit from Papa and Grammy has one constant -- fishing!

Grammy, Papa, Mommy and Daddy kept busy re-baiting their lines and pulling the fish off their hooks. The kids caught so many fish that all four adults kept busy.

The kids caught and released many small fish that they caught with worms, but we actually had a fun fishing story to tell. Aubrie caught a small fish and then a gigantic northern pike ate the small fish on her line! Her tiny rod couldn't handle it and we had no net, so it got off, but she was able to reel it in close enough to see it in the water. Her pole was bent in half! Notice Aubrie's bandaged knee from her terrible bike accident just days before.

We love to pack in the fun when we have visitors. We decided to check out the Minneapolis sculpture garden and mini golf course.

A mini-golf course designed by modern artists created quite the quirky course.

Kyler loves anything that he can have a reason to use a stick. He actually did remarkably well for a three-year-old! We love making memories with our Papa and Grammy!

Kyler LOVES his Papa. We chuckle how much Kyler looks and acts like him too. We love this photo of the Papa/Kyler swag. If anybody knows my Dad or Kyler, you know exactly what I mean by this! They both have a special confident strut -- sorta like they own the place.

The Happiest Places on Earth

After Utah, we hopped in our rental car and drove to California for the next fun leg of our summer trip. On the way, we picked up Lauren in Vegas.

Although Kyler had been to Disney World when he was a tiny baby, he obviously appreciated Disney much more this time -- he especially loved 'Small World.'

Lauren and I had to recreate this picture that we took at this same spot 16 years ago!

We have changed just a little in those 16 years! This picture hung on my fridge for years!

After Disneyland, and a wonderful visit with some old friends, we traveled up the coast for Dave's family gathering at Carpinteria State Beach.

Dave's family has been gathering generations of cousins and friends in this small town for the past 30-plus years. This year's gathering may have broken a record for the amount of kids ages 10 and under.

 



This year was particularly fun for Dave as he was able to convince his two best friends from high school--Bob and Eric--to join in the fun. Dave has met up with Bob, maybe only three times, since high school.

Prior to the meeting, the duo set up their daughters as pen pals. Aubrie was thrilled to meet her pen pal in person.

It was also fun to see Eric's three girls and one boy match up with our kids.

Ellie and Tori were insperable -- and despite the height difference, they are actually the same age (Ellie is even a few weeks older!).

One of the kids' favorite parts of Carpinteria is the candy shop -- Robitaille's.

Well, and another favorite is boarding with Daddy.

And jumping the waves.

We love Carpinteria! 

Enjoy the highlight reel!

Short Utah stop

Planning our summer vacation took hours more time than we had hoped. Finding the right balance between spending enough time with everyone we wanted to visit and having it not cost a fortune, was beyond exhausting. But, we finally found a plan, but this plan only allowed three days in Utah. So, we packed everything we possibly could in those short days. At the top of everyone's list was to visit with our good friends who have since moved from Minnesota. It was so great to be united with them, even just for a few short hours. Jamie was so gracious to host and feed us. We loved seeing their new beautiful home. Between Jamie, Necia and I, we now have 15 kids (in July it was 14 1/2 though)! 

Another favorite tradition is going with the kids' cousins, their Aunt Toni and Grandma to Gardner's Village. We all love window shopping through the cutesy shops. As you can see by their faces, it was a HOT day.

But the most important reason why we squeezed in a three day visit to Utah was to see my 91-year-old grandpa, because we knew his days were limited. We were so grateful we could say goodbye to him one last time.

It's the red, white and blue

Fourth of July is my personal favorite holiday. We continued with our bike/scooter parade tradition. This year the weather was much more cooperative than last year--it was stunning.

Wearing red, white, and blue is a big part of the fun.

Kyler knew they were choosing certain clothes, so somehow that translated to wearing the transformers hat on his head. Hey, at least it was blue!

We enjoyed partying with our dear friends and neighbors. We had a blast! I think the highlight was actually not the bike parade but the family Olympics. We enjoyed the fireworks from our loft window! It was a great day with great memories created!