Random Summer Happenings

Wow! Where does the summer go? It's almost the end of July, so we're definitely on the downward slide. Since I carry my camera with me in my purse, I've been snapping random pictures all month. There's absolutely NO theme here, but here goes:

***Maddox Eating a Dilly Bar***

Maddox is my all-time favorite subject!

"Mmmmmm! This is good!"
"Do ya think I can catch that drip on my chin?."

"Fingers work almost as well as my tongue!"

***Como Park***We went to a movie one Sunday afternoon in Inver Grove Heights, and since it was a such a gorgeous day, we decided to head up to Como Park for a concert at the Pavilion. We had some time to kill first, so we went to the Japanese Gardens by the Conservatory.It was beautiful there, and a good thing, too. I had the time wrong for the concert, and we missed the whole thing. Oh well.....

***Book Club at the Lake***

I belong to a book club made up of teachers and friends, and we meet monthly to discuss a wide variety of books. For our July meeting we had an overnight at Linda's new home near Alexandria. After an afternoon of excitement on the pontoon boat (the motor died in the middle of the lake and we had to paddle - not an easy job with 9 women on a big boat!), we had dinner, discussed the book, enjoyed dessert, and then camped out on air mattresses scattered all over the house.

Linda served a great dinner. House remodeling is still in progress - the floor in the kitchen/living/dining room just went in the day before we arrived!

We had coffee on the deck in the morning - notice all the "bed-heads?"

***Loose Cannons***

On Saturday night, the Loose Cannons, our favorite "old fogey" band (except for Bekki), played at Mill St. They were awesome once again, and so much fun to listen to! Nothing beats the oldies!


***Minnesota Zoo***
Sunday was Thrivent Day at the Zoo, so we stopped there on our way home from the Guthrie to see the new exhibit, Russia's Grizzly Coast. It was amazing!

The animals were very active, and several bears were wandering around offering lots of photo ops. These bears are actually from Alaska, and since we're going there in August, we may just see some in the wild! I'm afraid there won't be a plastic shield up there, though.
This one seemed to have an itch on his back. The tree trunk came in very handy.
There was also an exhibit of wild boars. They were running all over the place, so it was hard to get a picture.
These are all the babies.

There are only about 30 of these leopards remaining in the wild in the world! Since it was pretty hot on Sunday, Chuck started "sveating," so we just had to leave and replenish our fluids at Ruby Tuesday's in Apple Valley.

***New Roof***

We had a lot of hail damage from one of the storms that ripped through the area this summer. They started work on our new roof at 6:45 Monday morning. They will also be replacing the skylights, adding some roof vents, fixing some window frames, and repairing some siding. The painters will probably start next week.

Yikes - don't fall! That's quite a slide...
and the landing is in the dumpster!
I left for the day on Monday. It's going to be a noisy week around here!

***Cousin Reunion***

I headed up to Ted and Pat's house on Monday to get together with Joyce, Sandy, and Pat for lunch. Matthew (Teddy and Angie's little guy) was there, too, since Pat babysits him on Mondays. We had a great lunch, with everyone bringing something. Sandy made our Grandma's recipe for Swedish rye bread, and she even brought us each an extra loaf to take home - yummy! Thanks, Sandy!

It was another really nice day, so we spent most of the time on the deck.

Matthew had fun in the pool, too. We thought about joining him, but we forgot our trunks at home (good thing)!

S0....July is almost over. We're going up to the Crosslake area this weekend to spend some time with some college friends, then it's home in time to celebrate my birthday, then it's off to Alaska!