Tornado Warning!

We had a very bad storm come through on the 8th (Saturday) which sparked a few tornado warnings. Unfortunately, Tara's cell phone was broken and she was at Target.

I heard the siren go off shortly after I put the kids to bed (around 9 or so), and ripped the sleeping babies out of bed. They were SO good! Jake (who has been very nervous about tornadoes anyway) bolted downstairs, followed by Emma. The two of them played with Abby and didn't complain at all, which was amazing as I didn't have a bottle for Abby or any food.



Tara got a hold of a phone at Target and called to tell me that they had brought her to the back of the store. Most of our friends in the cities were on facebook talking about what they were doing with their families. All told, we were in the basement for about an hour.

The next day, I asked Jake what he was worried about and he said, "well, two things: tornadoes and cash-for-clunkers" (driven by his fear of us trading the car in - he hates change). Tara and I almost fell over.

Nice Day at the Trabin

We had a nice time at the Trabin again. The morning started off looking awful, but beach weather was in full force by the time we got there.



Grandma provided some floats for the kids and blew them up (which we were more than happy to let her do).







And the grown-ups hung out on the five square feet of beach that is Lake Sturgeon Beach.

More Lake Elmo Park Reserve

This week for Family Fun Night we went back to Lake Elmo Park Reserve - this time to the beach and to cook out. I got to use some of my homemade BBQ sauce that I've been bottling and Jake set the table while Emma, Tara, and Abby played at the beach.





The kids really love the beach. It was a real struggle to find a grill to use, but a nice family let us use theirs.





The park was crawling with people. We love the fact that there is a lifeguard there (not that we get more than a few feet away from the kids at this age).



Dinner really came out. I LOVE that BBQ sauce!! Next time we're going to need to bring more chicken.

Lake Elmo Park with the Small Group

Family Fun Night this week was at Lake Elmo Park Reserve with the Small Group.



Piper and Emma love to hang out together at Small Group events.

They’ve got great equipment and the kids really had a fun time. Nice to visit with everyone, and it was sort of (kind of) quiet enough to have a 2 minute conversation between bathroom trips and such.

I got some great pictures of Sam and Tiffany’s youngest at the water fountain (I love little kid at the water fountain pics).



In other news, we got some cute new PJs for Baby Abby who continues to amaze us with her walking and how interactive she is.

Weekend at the Trabin

I’m sitting in the trabin on Sunday watching baby Abby sleep and listening to Connie and Debbie read Grandma Brown’s journal on the porch.

There’s a fly that keeps landing on Abby and waking her up a little. I’ve been chasing it around with a fly swatter between reading a biography of Carly Fiorina (former HP CEO).

We’ve had a nice weekend. Tim was here till about 6 last night with Dorothy and then took off (timing the drive around the Twins game so he could listen to it on the way home). I got in an afternoon nap then we had a dinner of brats and hotdogs.




This is what Emma looks like when she is up TOO late!

The little bar here promised to save some bottle caps for Jake’s collection, but when we came back in the morning (per the agreement) they had been thrown out. A promise of getting some from Uncle Adam’s job at Acapulco and two choco-taco’s made everything better.

Tara and I got a run in down Pumpkins Seed road and enjoyed a nice time by the fire and S’Mores (a trabin favorite).

Sleeping arrangements are notable… Shelly slept where the table is, Karen took the couch (against my protests), Jake and Emma slept on fluffy blankets on the floor, Abby had the playpen, and Tara and I got the… BIG BED. We were woken up in the middle of the night by a white horse neighing really loudly right outside the window and Abby getting up several times.



Breakfast was sausage, pancakes and eggs cooked in the grease from the sausage.

It’s fun listening to the ladies read from Grandma Brown’s journal. Lot’s a family history mixed with world history. Notable was the comment about Clinton. Something to the effect that ‘he did have an affair with that Lewinsky woman… bad news for our country’.

Family Fun Night @ MarketFest

We had a nice Family Fun Night at MarketFest in White Bear Lake.



The kids couldn’t wait to get there and start spending their money on treats and rides. Tara sprung for some crazy yummy ice-cream sandwiches (they used hot cookies and some great ice cream)… amazing.





Emma wanted to do the bungee ride, which initially scared Jake. I was pretty impressed that Emma would try something like that at 4. Jake got over his fear pretty quickly, but had already missed a place in line.





While Emma was waiting in line (long, long time), Jake got to play some kind of ducky game, shoot water balloons, and run an obstacle course.





It was a ton of fun!

Sawyer Wedding

Jason and Erin got married this weekend at the American Legion in Somerset.

The wedding was beautiful. They asked me to take some picutures and got a bunch of practice with the camera.

The kids had a fun time playing.




The vows were Doctor Suess based. Here's a sample
Pastor: Will you love her when you're fit,
And also when you're feeling sick?

Jason: Yes, I'll love her when we're fit,
And when we're hurt, and when we're sick,
And I will love her when we're rich
And I will love her in a ditch
And I will love through good and bad,
And I will love when glad or sad,
And I will have, and I will hold
Ten years from now a thousandfold,
Yes, I will love for my whole life
This lovely woman as my wife!


The party went on into the night and the kids got to dance. I tried to talk Missy into a epic karioke version of 'Total Eclipse of the Heart', but to no avail.

Tara is 33!!

We had a really fun day Monday, despite some disconcerting news from home about mom.

We took the day off and relaxed. In the morning I took the kids to Karen’s and let Tara sleep (she’s running at 4:45 am these days, so it doesn’t count as “sleeping in” per se). Afterward, we went to Best Buy to scope out Tara’s gift: a new camera lens with a higher aperture (for portrait shots).



Then it was off to brunch at one of our favorite restaurants: Victor’s 1959 Café, which is the only place in Minnesota to get good Cuban food. We sat at the table below which has a lovely portrait of the Terrorist Che Guevara.



Then we saw The Hangover at the Rosedale AMC. Very funny movie, if not way inappropriate.



Afterward, we played with the kids at Teddy Bear Park.







Then met up with Grandma, Papa, Shelly, Adam, Emily and Kelly at Acapulco’s in Stillwater. Karen took the kids overnight, freeing us up for a little date at another of our favorite spots: Ingredients.

Emma & Abby in Trouble

The kids have a way of keeping us on our toes. We slipped up a little this week with funny results.I suppose that the pictures speak for themselves. Emma’s issue was Sunday right before church… thank heaven for washable markers! Jake colored his hands and Emma did her face. They told us that they wanted to look like Jedi. I don’t remember Obi Wan having war paint, but oh well.

Abby was this morning. The downstairs is fairly well baby proofed, so we let her run around while she has her morning bottle sometimes. This is the result of not putting the tissues up. She was so proud of herself! There’s a real passion in her for taking things out of things these days.

Sunday's Picnic

We had a nice little picnic after church this week, which worked well with Jake’s lesson at church: celebration (which was apparently taught via a heavy dose of the Kool and the Gang song – as he came out teaching it to Emma). So the theme of the picnic quickly turned to Celebrating Christ.





Tara found some little Lunchables (a favorite) that were make-your-own pizzas. Big hit.

After lunch, I took Jake and Emma on a little hike while Tara and Abby hung out. Jacob was worried about poison ivy and skunks. I had them concerned about elephants for a little while as well before I let them off the hook.




We had a stick race in a little creek that came to an abrupt end when Emma’s stick (which had just started to take the lead) was pulled out by a fisherman. Jake was elated to win, and Emma took it in stride (which is so like both of them).

As an aside, I’m on a work trip to Tampa today (mid-flight). It was a year ago that our close friend Greg Jones passed (leaving a young daughter and a pregnant wife behind). Greg and his family are on our minds and hearts today. I’m thinking a lot about how fleeting life is and how thankful I am for all that God has given us.