State Fair

It was another successful fun venture to the MN State Fair this year. The weather was a bit on the cool side which made for great running temps. Mike, Deborah, Jason, and Angie ran the 5K Milk Run which started at 7:45 a.m. before all the crowds of people arrived. The run felt great considering our group was recently recovering from either injury or illness. Our fabulous fans of Lamiae, Matt, Laura, Karl, Colin and Justin were quite the cheerleaders considering the early morning rise to get to the fairgrounds. We are especially indebted to Lamiae for tending to Justin and getting him to sleep after missing Mommy and Daddy while we were running.



As always, part of the fun of the fair is sampling all of delicious foods which this year included bbq pig's cheek, chocolate covered bacon, blackened Cajun steak (on a stick of course :))and the standard mini doughnuts, malts, and corn dogs.



The kids love the rides and the lines were minimal in the morning.



This was Justin's first fair experience and he loved the animals and being outside taking in all the craziness. By 1:00p.m. the crowds were in full force and two tired little boys let us know it was time to head home.



It was a great Minnesota get together.

MN Zoo

The weather was absolutely gorgeous today at the zoo. This trip was especially fun as Matt, Deborah, Laura, and Karl joined us as we leisurely walked the trails. We also took the mono rail this time for some great views of the animals from up above. The adults got some rest at the end as the kids roamed around the "Woodland Adventure" play area. Ice cream completed the day and the boys were quickly napping on the drive home.

9 Month Update

Where does the time go?! Justin is now babbling more with lots of "da-da", "eh", and "ah" sounds. He is pulling himself up but still quite shaky on those legs. His top left tooth is poking through as of this week and the drool continues. He of course had another ear infection and even when the infection clears up he still has fluid so it looks like tubes would be a smart thing. He is such a sweetie and we are just having so much fun.

Schleeven's Visit

On Saturday our friends Tara and Dan and their little Eli came over for a visit. It was a perfect Summer afternoon--sitting outside enjoying the beautiful weather chatting while watching our kids race around. We are fortunate to have Tara and Dan back in MN for a few months before they leave to Madison. It seems that more and more of our friends are residing in Madison which give us more reason to get out there for visits.

Grand Rios

For the past few years it has been tradition to go to Wild Mountain outdoor water park with Angie's family. However, because of thunderstorms we thought it best not to be outside and opted for the indoor water park at Grand Rios instead. When we drove into the parking lot we saw three school buses and yep the water park was packed with kids. After being there an hour mother nature still got to us indoors as we came under a tornado warning and were quickly evacuated out of the pool area and shuffled towards the basement. As soon as we got downstairs we were already on our way up as the thunderstorms quickly swept through the area. A huge perk of the situation is that many people including the groups riding the school buses decided to leave and when we returned we basically had the place to ourselves! We had a blast! We capped our day with supper at McDonald's. We are going to sleep well tonight!

Lake Time

There finally has been some hot summer weather this week and we took full advantage with a couple trips to Lake Johanna. Tonight we had a picnic supper in the park area and then headed to the beach. Justin is still more of a "bath guy" and doesn't care for the cooler lake water but he does enjoy hanging out in the sand with Mommy. While Justin and Mommy were beach bums, Daddy and Colin played "football catch" in the water. You go first, no you jump in first OK, I'll jump in first Nice catch...

St. Paul Saints Baseball

It was a gorgeous day to watch the St. Paul Saints play outdoor baseball. The Saints games are fun for people of all ages but are especially kid friendly. After watching 5 innings of baseball and one snow cone later we headed over to the "Kid's Zone" along the first baseline where Colin took in some batting practice, played on the jungle gym, and even got to pet some animals. Justin enjoyed being outside while Mommy and Daddy tried hard to keep him in the shade.