Summer Update

I can't believe it's August already! Summer has sailed by, and I've got lots of updating to do on this crazy blog. Be prepared for a LONG post!

Book Club

Mid-July found me on the road to Alexandria for "Book Club at the Lake" at the summer home of Linda, one of our members. We had a small group this year, but great food, good wine, and an interesting book discussion

I've become the designated photographer of our group, so first we posed on the front deck. Next, we moved to the waterfall/garden area where I set up my camera on a wrought iron picnic table. I leaned over to check the angle, pressed the timer, and...

my necklace was stuck in one of the holes in the table! Needless to say, my rush to get into the picture was thwarted! And all they did was laugh at me, except for Sandy, who ran to my rescue. :-) After some serious finagling, I was able to release my necklace without any damage, and I tried again.

Ahhhhhh. that's better!

Grandkids
I've also been spending a lot of time in South St. Paul with Jenna and Charlie.
Of course, whenever I'm there, I can't resist taking a few pictures.

He has the biggest eyes!

I'm also getting pretty good at setting up the timer and snapping some of
us together. It's hard to get him to smile at a flashing light, though.

Charlie has also made a few trips to Cannon Falls, and one day, he actually took a nap in the cradle that we used when our kids were babies. So cute!

I've been doing some daycare for Maddox, too. He has a great imagination, and here he is taking my coffee order:
"One carmel latte coming right up. $20, please."
We were hanging out at the kid's play area at Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis.


Lots of fun toys! Ready, set,

go!!

Oops, I think he forgot to put on the brakes!

Two Harbors

We took a weekend family trip to Two Harbors to visit Chuck's mom and introduce her to her newest grandson.

Great Grandma and Charlie. He definitely doesn't look like a newborn anymore!

Chuck and his little guys.

The plan was for the guys to fish, but due to rainy weather, we ended up riding the Timber Twister at Spirit Mountain, and then hanging out at Canal Park, where Corey gave Maddox a lesson in skipping stones into Lake Superior.

He decided wading was a better option.

Wait 'til next year! Charlie will definitely not be laying around then!

Family picture on the front steps (re-creating a similar pose from about 27 years ago with our kids).

Four generation picture (no, they are not at a North Shore river - that's wallpaper in the background).

After the kids took off for home on Sunday, Chuck and I headed up the shore for a little hiking and sight-seeing. We didn't have time for any extended hikes, but we did find a good trail along the lake near Tettagouche State Park.

It was a beautiful day! That's the cliff at Palisade in the distance.

Overlook above the water - what a day!
We stopped for dinner at our favorite restaurant, The Scenic Cafe, on our way home.

Minnesota Zoo

Jenna bought a MN Zoo membership this summer, so we met my sister there for a quick tour one morning. Since it was hot, we spent most of our time at the indoor displays.

Charlie loved the front-pack and he could see everything!

He followed this blue fish as it swam up and down in front of him.

He really watched this crazy seahorse!

When he started to get tired, we just turned him around and he was out cold. Can't beat mom's chest for a pillow!

He started to get a bit heavy on Jenna's shoulders, though, so we took a break in the Rainforest.

We had a passer-by snap this one. I have a feeling we'll be back at the zoo again before the summer is over!

Summer Gourmet
We missed getting together with our gourmet friend's on the 4th of July since several couples were out of town, so we actually found a Friday night when we were all free and we got together at Lindor's for a summer picnic (indoors again since it was VERY hot)!

We've been enjoying dinners with this group for over 20 years!

My Birthday - July 28th

As usual, my birthday celebration went on for about a week. It started with coffee with my teaching team on Tuesday, then dinner out with Chuck at Norton's in Red Wing on Wednesday, our Zoo trip on Thursday, and the Twins game with the whole family on Sunday. Chuck loves to plan birthday surprises, so this year he gave me tickets for the game for the two of us, and when we found our seats, eveyone was there waiting for us! Not quite like Italy last year, but a great surprise once again!

The stadium is so cool!

I've been bugging Chuck all summer to go, so I was very excited to actually get to a game,

and...the Twins won!!

My hat is a present from Kyle and Corey.

Melissa and Kyle

Jenna, Charlie, and Andy

It was hot and humid, so they spent a good share of the time walking the air-conditioned hallways.

Corey and Maddox, playing superheroes.

Cotton candy, anyone? Yuck!

Melissa brought some fake moustaches, in honor of our hairy baseball players, and Maddox had a great job trying on the blonde one.

Looks good, doesn't he?
After the game, we went back to Jenna and Andy's to grill - steak, corn on the cobb, pasta salad, potato salad, and cake. Delicious!

Kyle had been putting off holding Charlie for fear of "breaking" him, but we decided that now was the time...

Good thing Charlie is easy-going!

I had to get a picture of all of us in our Twins gear!

Cake time!

The candles were in the shape of 61 (thanks, Corey - you had to remind me!)

Our big boy (Charlie, not Chuck!).

I had one more birthday celebration the next week when I went out for lunch with friends. Three of us have birthdays within 10 days of each other, so we've been celebrating together for years!

This year, we went to Southdale for shopping and then had lunch at Tavern on France -delicious! Finally, it's official - my birthday is OVER!

Roadtrip to Illinois
Last weekend, Jenna and I took Charlie on another roadtrip, this time to Fulton Ill. for my nephew Tom's surprise 40th birthday party. He was REALLY surprised since his birthday isn't until February (he actually is just 39 1/2). His wife, Kim, decided more people would probably make the long drive in the summer, and he might be suspicious about plans in Feb. He had NO clue what was going on , so it was a fun surprise!

Happy Birthday, Tom!

My big brother Ted and his two sons, Teddy and Tommy :-)

My sister Joyce and her husband Paul made the trek, too, along with Ted and Pat. It was a fun weekend, but a very LONG drive for just two days. Fortunaltely, Charlie loves the car and he slept most of the way down and back. What a good baby!

Grandkids (again)

I have to finish this very long post with more Maddox and Charlie pictures. I wish I had some Phebe pictures to add, too. She continues to do well down in Florida, and she's actually starting 2nd grade next week! I'm hoping to pay her a visit soon, maybe over MEA.

This week, while I was doing some more Maddox daycare on Monday and Wednesday, I got to take him to Caldecott Camp at the Stepping Stone Theater in St. Paul. Each day, the focus was on a Caldecott award winning book, and the kids got to hear the story, act out different parts of it, do an art project, and then share with parents at the end of the session. Monday's story was "Where the Wild Things Are," one of Maddox's favorite books.

Here he is showing his terrible claws,

and rolling his terrible eyes.

Pre-schoolers are so cute!
Another project this week was transferring all of Jenna's school stuff from our basement to her new school in South St. Paul. We packed it all up from Red Wing in June and stored it at our house until she could get in to her new room. It took two trips in our Explorer to get everything moved, but I was able to combine the trips with transporting Maddox to and from his theater classes. Andy was around on Monday to help her unload, while I watched Charlie.

And here he is! What a big boy! He now totally holds his head up by himself, smiles whenever he makes eye contact, and kicks his feet like crazy!

So.....two more weeks until my vacation is officially over and I'm back to school full time, and I've got lots of things planned to fill up the last days of summer. Hopefully, my next post won't be this long!!

Road Trip!

We set off on June 30th for Pittsburgh, with a few stops on the way, for Charlie's baptism on the 4th of July. First stop was Chicago, where we stayed a couple of nights and took in the sights along Michigan Ave. We rolled in around 2:30 in the afternoon ( just before rush hour traffic - yeah!), checked into our hotel, and started a quick walking tour of the area. We found that Taste of Chicago was in full swing not too far away. We sampled a few tasty goodies and then caught a bus to Navy Pier for dinner and Wednesday night fireworks.

The weather was gorgeous - low 70's and not a cloud in the sky!

It was a little windy out at the end of the pier, though - the flags were really flying!

It was neat watching the boats come and go, and now I wish we would have taken a sunset harbor cruise. Oh well - next time! We hung around until the fireworks display at 9:30, and then caught a bus back to our hotel.

As we headed to the Field Museum on Thursday morning, we came across this sculpture in Grant Park. It's called Agora, and was commisioned by a Polish artist. Here's a description, taken when I googled it for more info:

“Agora,” a permanent installation in the Grant Park, by Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz. It consists of 106 headless armless cast iron figures, each about 9 feet tall, shell like, frozen in walking movement. The figures are similar in general shape, but different in details. Models for each figure were made by hand, by the artist and her three assistants. The surfaces of figures are like a tree bark or wrinkled face expressing a different individuality of each sculpture.

Very interesting!



The dinosaur skeleton outside the museum was dressed in a Chicago Blackhawks jersey, in honor of their recent Stanley Cup win.

We saw Sue, the most intact Tyrranosaurus Rex skeleton ever found.

(See the statue in the Blackhawks jersey in the upper righthand corner? I wonder who in climbed all the way up there to dress that baby? - ha!)

One of the exhibits was called Robo Sue, and consisted of robotic dinosaurs that actually followed you with their eyes as you walked past - very strange, and a little spooky!

This is Sue, 3/4 size, getting ready to take a bite out of Chuck.

This triceratops wasn't too interested in me, but one of the smaller ones really seemed to be following me closely.

We spent most of the day at the museum, and then headed to the Art Institute, which had free admission from 5:00-8:00 on Thursday night. After a quick tour there, we went to the new Millenium Park, where we had dinner at a sidewalk cafe and then attended an outdoor concert.

The pavillion at Millenium Park is really neat.

The Bean (officially known as Cloud Gate) is a very interesting sculpture. Another googled description:

Cloud Gate on the AT&T Plaza
Cloud Gate is British artist Anish Kapoor's first public outdoor work installed in the United States. The 110-ton elliptical sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect the city's famous skyline and the clouds above. A 12-foot-high arch provides a "gate" to the concave chamber beneath the sculpture, inviting visitors to touch its mirror-like surface and see their image reflected back from a variety of perspectives. Inspired by liquid mercury, the sculpture is among the largest of its kind in the world, measuring 66-feet long by 33-feet high. Cloud Gate sits upon the At&T Plaza, which was made possible by a gift from AT&T.

Here's my (slightly distorted) reflection in the sculpture.

We heard a great group from Haiti at the evening concert, part of a Music Without Borders concert series.

I took quite a few pictures of all the interesting lines and angles created by the backdrop of the Chicago skyline. It was a beautiful night!
We left Chicago early Friday morning for the 8-hour drive to Pittsburgh. Once there, we checked into our hotel, hooked up with Joyce and Paul who had arrived a day earlier, and then met Andy's parents for dinner at a great Italian restaurant. After dessert and lots of conversation back at their house, we crashed for the night.

On Saturday morning, we again met Joyce and Paul and took off for Falling Water, a Frank Lloyd Wright home about 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. We ended up wandering the back roads through the countryside since we missed our exit on the tollway. Fortunately, we had a good map!

The home was designed in the '30s, and it was built right into the boulders on a hillside over a water fall -really amazing design and construction! The cost back then for the whole complex was about $150,000, about $2.5 million in today's costs. We were able to tour the inside as well, but no photography was allowed.

It was cool and shady all morning. Fortunately, we were there before the heat wave hit. I can't imagine wandering through the woods if it was 100 degrees!

Our next stop was Station Square in downtown Pittsburgh for a ride on the incline railway.

People living at the top of the bluff still use this mode of transportation. About 24 people fit in one car, and it gets really hot in the summer (no air-conditioning and no open windows), and really cold in the winter (no heat, either). The overlook at the top gave us some great views of downtown Pittsburgh:

Heinz Field, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers

Joyce and Paul took a duck boat tour, but since we went on one 4 years ago, Chuck was more than happy to hang out at The Hard Rock Cafe with a "cold one."

After dinner at Houlihan's, we hung out on the waterfront waiting for the post-game fireworks (the Pirates were playing the Phillies). The stadium was blocked by some buildings, though, so we only saw the tops of the fireworks. We should have taken an evening ride on the incline!

I experimented with some setting on my camera to get some night shots of downtown.

Another gorgeous night!
We were up bright and early the next morning, ready for the baptism at Emmanuel Lutheran church, where Andy's dad is pastor.

Charlie wore Andy's baptism outfit, and was so good during the whole service!

He actually slept through the whole thing.

It was really neat that Greg baptized his first grandchild.
What a special moment for all involved!

Still sleeping!
He also lasted through many family pictures after the service.

Grandparents: Chuck and Jane, and Greg and Angela

Great grandparents: EllaMae Held, and Rosemarie and Nick Druga

Charlie is so lucky to actually have all of his grandparents plus 4 great grandparents still around (including Chuck's mom).

Andy's siblings: sister Nicole, sister-in-law Mandi,
and brother Ben

Minnesota family: great aunt and uncle, Joyce and Paul
After all the picture-taking, we went back to the Held house for a wonderful brunch with all of the relatives

Chuck and his little namesake, Charlie

Andy's cousin, Tati, was the flower girl in their wedding. She had so much fun playing with Charlie!

I'm convinced that Charlie can sleep anywhere and through anything.

The weather really started to heat up on Sunday, so we skipped going back into Pittsburgh for the fireworks and opted to just watch them on TV in the comfort of Held's family room. Chuck also was not too impressed with the thought of traffic in downtown Pittsburgh. The roads are pretty crazy due to all the bridges and rivers!

It was a wonderful day, and a great chance to get to know Andy's extended family in a more relaxed setting than the wedding 4 years ago. If anyone from Pittsburgh is reading this, thanks for all the hospitality!!

We left Pittsburgh Monday morning, and it was HOT! Our car thermometer registered 98 degrees as we drove through Ohio. We decided to give the poor car a break, and took what we thought would be a short stop at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

4 1/2 hours later, we finally finished most of the exhibits and made it to the gift shop.
What an amazing place! Unfortunately, again, photography was not allowed so we couldn't take pictures of any of the displays, but we highly recommend a visit if you're ever near Cleveland! Some highlights: Jim Morrison's cub scout uniform, Jimi Hendrix' childhood couch, Elvis' Lincoln with his initials on the doors, Bruce Springsteen's first guitar, lots of Beatles memorabilia, and on, and on, and on. I was really impressed with all of the original hand-written pages of song lyrics. Bruce Springsteen had a whole spiral notebook full of drafts for "Born in the USA," with lots of lines scratched out and re-written, and there were many pages of lyrics from John Lennon.

They did have a few giant guitars for some photo ops and we just couldn't resist.

I would have preferred to have my picture taken by John Lennon's piano (splattered with wax from a candle that melted while he was writing a song), but I guess this will have to do.

When we returned to the car, my M&M's were all melted, and they were INSIDE the cooler. Hmmmmm - a little hot? We drove on to South Bend, where we stayed overnight, and then headed home to Minnesota on Tuesday. We saw our very first clouds of the whole trip on Tuesday near the Wisconsin Dells, and even had about 2 minutes of rain.

We arrived home late Tuesday afternoon, and we're actually ready to go again - I love road trips!

She's a Master!

Jenna completed her last class for her Masters in Curriculum and Instruction with a Gallery Walk on June 21st. Two years of hard work finished!!

She had to prepare a display board as a culminating project, and then hang around for a few hours as people and professors wandered around looking at everyone's work (kind of like a science fair for adults). She dressed Charlie in his monkey outfit so he fit right in with her theme. She also had a bowl of bananas available, but only had a few kids as takers (we both made banana bread later in the week).

Proud family.

I was on diaper duty for the night, and good old Charlie cooperated by producing at least 3 poopie diapers. Way to go!

Jenna's cohort buddies.

She signed up for her program with several teachers from Forest Lake. They're going to miss their Tuesday night sessions (but NOT the Monday night homework).!

Jenna went home to practice her new-found literacy skills on little Charlie! He's such a good listener!