Patio Project

"Hey honey, can we put a patio in this weekend".
"But honey, we have Odepalooza next weekend. This will be a disaster!"

Moments later...




The project took the whole weekend, Karen came over to help as well (which was a real blessing). Tara did a most of the work, but I got in and kicked some butt, too.

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.

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.