Thanks for the memories.....

Our summer BBQ turned out to be a "fall BBQ" with temperatures in the low 60s and a chilly breeze - however, us tough Minnesotans braved the cold and had a wonderful time. Thanks to our 90+ friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors who blessed us with some great memories. We also want to thank all of you for your generosity as we collected about half a dozen boxes and bags full of items for the local food shelf. Sara and the boys will be dropping it off first thing tomorrow morning.

Looking forward to the "3rd annual BBQ" next summer - minus the police :-) If you left early and don't know what we are talking about.....well, let's just say you will need to talk to the neighbor with the long hair and innocent face.

Unfortunately I was lazy with the camera so most of the pictures are from the "bike parade."

72 Hours.....

till our annual BBQ. We are excited to celebrate some time with family, friends and co-workers. Couple last minute reminders:

1. Sounds like the weather will be cool (65 degrees) on Saturday. As a result, most likely we will avoid the water activities for the kids.
2. Please remember to bring a non-perishable food item/or bag of items for the local food shelf.
3. One of Logan's friends big-sister will be setting up a face painting both for the kids - I guess adults could get their faces painted as well if they so desire.

Drive safe.......

Logan's Fair Ribbons

We went to the Dakota county fair last weekend to see how Logan's arts and crafts projects did. He was very excited to see his ribbons:

(1) 2nd Place - Kindergarten Charcoal

(2) 3rd Place - Kindergarten Beads & Kindergarten Color Crayon

(1) Participant - Kindergarten Color Crayon

The fair filled our annual fair fix. You only need to eat $5 cheese curds and $7 french fries once a year. They had an inflatable zone where the kids could play all day for $10 - they were in heaven!

The other BIG news in our house today is that Logan made it to the top of the rock climbing wall for the first time tonight. He has been climbing for about 9 months and tonight he finally made it up - it is about a 25-30 ft wall. He was sooooooo EXCITED!!!

Yes....I think I am "hot" stuff

Carter found Logan's old sun glasses about a week ago and has not taken them off since. He wears them all night: riding his big wheel, eating dinner, in the bathtub....Sara even put him to bed one night with them on. Not sure what the cause for the infatuation is, but he sure looks cute.


We also went to an open house last week where the boys got their faces paints. Carter wanted SuperMan and Logan picked out a ghost.

This weekend we will be traveling to the Dakota County Fair. Logan submitted several projects through school so he is excited to see if he won any ribbons. Shawn flies out to SF Sunday night again so it will be a short weekend. Only 2 weeks to the BBQ...hopefully everyone can make it. One of Logan's friends teenage sister started a face painting business and she is going to come paint the kids faces as well.

How do you spell excitement? Carpet Installation!

Yes, our new carpet is finally installed in the house. After months of deciding "should we or shouldn't we," we finally ordered the carpet a couple of weeks ago and it was finally installed over two LONG days last Friday and this Monday. We had the dining room, study, 3 bedrooms upstairs and the stairs and hallway replaced.

After hauling all the furniture from one room to the next and back, we are glad to have this project behind us. Plus, I never knew carpet installation could be so messy! Perhaps it is the carpet, we replaced the old berber with a new frieze style. It looks great, but their are tiny shreds of the frieze everywhere.

So here is our dilemma. The installer was great. Very polite and talkative - father of 2 small girls the same age as Carter and Logan. He worked his tail off and probably lost about 5 lbs of sweat in our house. However, he also left dozens of scratches and marks on the paint on all four walls of our master bedroom. I understand that the red, flat paint is very prone to marks....but it was a pain having to go back and re-paint all the walls. So do we call Home Depot and complain....knowing that it may indirectly hurt this nice guy's future contracting assignments with them, or just let it go. Thoughts? My vote is let it go and move on.....

Dining Room Before (left) and After (right):


All the junk from the boys bedrooms stacked in our master bedroom:

Roger & Karen - 45th Wedding Anniversary

This weekend we celebrated Roger and Karen's 45th wedding Anniversary. Congratulations on an amazing journey through life together.

For the sentimental side of the family: "Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end." ~Author Unknown

For the humorous side of the family: "Infatuation is when you think he's as sexy as Robert Redford, as smart as Henry Kissinger, as noble as Ralph Nader, as funny as Woody Allen, and as athletic as Jimmy Conners. Love is when you realize that he's as sexy as Woody Allen, as smart as Jimmy Connors, as funny as Ralph Nader, as athletic as Henry Kissinger and nothing like Robert Redford - but you'll take him anyway." ~Judith Viorst, Redbook, 1975

Describe your perfect day…

For some people, their perfect day would be a relaxing day at the beach. For others, it would be a lazy afternoon on the golf course. For my wife - it would be defined as "coupon bonanza." Sara's ideal day happened this morning when she was able to utilize a .30 cent off per gallon coupon at the gas station. To make her life even better, she was able to utilize it on our Pilot as I coasted into the gas station on fumes after our trip home from Duluth - hence, maximizing the coupon value.

Total save: 18 gallons x .30 = $5.40

Yes, Sara is in heaven! Now I know the secret to keeping her happy for the next 11 years of our marriage. For more coupon obsessive savings, please feel free to reach out to Sara.