End of May 2019 - Summer has finally arrived.

The weather this spring has been terrible.  Never in my memory have we had this much rain.  There is literally standing water on the sloped part of our lawn!  I am not even sure how that is physically/geologically possible.  But it is what it is, and there is no use in complaining about the weather.  All that said, we have made the most of it, take a look!

What a nice way to spend Easter.  Here is the Kid with his namesake, giving the biggest of squeezes.  My Grandpa is a helluva guy, and it is always good to see him.

Before the Easter festivities started, we had a great walk around Monticello - this was one of the few good weather days, and we made the most of it!

Yeah - this was the late-Spring 4 inches of snow that we had.  Made the most of it though, giving Baber the chance to make his first snow person!

Baber has been very interested in "BrRrRr's" lately.  That is loosely translated into large machines/trucks/earth movers.  So we figured that a trip to the CAT Visitor's center would be a fun afternoon, and it was!

We think we have finally figured out the secret to sleeping in come morning time.  Hopefully we are about done with 05:00 wake-ups, BUT, it was fun to spend some time with the kiddos while it lasted.

Lovey is so proud of herself for mastering this puzzle.

First visit to the zoo for the year!

Our morning trips to Hardees are on hiatus now that we are done with school, but it was fun to get Lovey in on this tradition.

Shout out to my friend Jess.  She connected Mandi and I with one of her best friends: Jodie.  Now Mandi has a new friend, and when Jodie held a birthday party for her daughter it was fun to reconnect with Jess and her family who were also in attendance :)

Beers in the street!  Our neighbors really are the friggin' best. This was an impromptu block party which even attracted neighbors from the next cul-de-sac over 😂

Another warm weather day (they are finally becoming more common) meant a walk down to the neighborhood park.  Yay!

Time for the annual opening trip!  This one involved a little more work than usual, but we had a great time doing it!

Ethan made the critical error of messing with Samsquamtch.

Weather was just about perfect, though the water was really cold.

We managed to make it over to Grandma's to get some chores done for her.  Always good to put the boys to work lifting heavy things.

A trip to Duluth was a great way to cap off the day.

Prost!

Goon Squad!  Checking out the lighthouse.

Even had time for a boat ride in the sunshine.  No complaints from me.

Until next time, Stay Healthy!

"The LORD bless you and keep you;

The LORD make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you.

The LORD lift up His countenance on you,

And give you peace."

Numbers 6:24-26

April 2019 - Spring is here, time for an update!

It seems I am getting worse and worse with updates. Not sure if it is because I am busier, or more distracted, getting older, or what... maybe all of the above?  Anyway - the winter has come and gone.  It was a tough one weather-wise.  Thankfully my new arthritis medication is working well so I wasn't as bad off as last year. Still very very tempting come February to seek employment in FL or TX.

But lets talk about the highlights!

Here's Lovey spending some quality time with Bampa Butch.  He's smitten, which I get because everyone is smitten with Lovey.  She has that charm that some little kids possess, she is quick to hug, quick to smile, and loves to connect.

We also got to enjoy a family dinner at Filippos!  It's rare that we get a family picture with everyone so I wanted to make sure to take the opportunity.

Another one of the Titans got hitched!  This time its Steven, inventor of the Nipple Dance (see earlier entry).  Pictured here from R>L are myself sporting my new beard, Mark, Stef, Dan, Suzanna, and Nick.  Handsome crew to be sure.

This bad boy was wandering through our yard after one of the first snows.  Yikes!

Most of my adventures are with just one of the kiddos, but this day I braved two :)  They really enjoyed their gellato at Brienzo's in the Heights.

Lovey and I hit up Treftzger's a little later.  She's thrilled 😁

These moments are rarer and rarer, and I know that they will soon be done.  I treasure snuggles with Baber as much as I did with Lovey.

As Christmas Time rolled around we had the annual Christmas party with Chinch's family.  The children had a wonderful time. I'm not sure that Baber really knows how to play bags.  But he tried!

Christmas morning itself was a hoot.  All of the kids are old enough now to either "get it" or sort of "get it".  Baber was more easily distracted, and I think a bit confused, but he understood what opening presents was.  And he was thrilled with his box of bouncy-balls.  The Kid got the Berenstain Bear books he wanted, and Lovey got quite a bit of Princess stuff.  She is 100% girl!  I have no idea where she learned to be excited about princess themed stuff, but she did!

New outfits!

The Kid was less than enthused in regards to my styling attempts.  Can you blame him?  I clearly don't know much about hair care.  Baber on the other hand was thrilled!

Shortly after Christmas we had a great visit with Bampa Gegg and Grandma Polly.  A highlight for me was the time they made to come and visit after-hours in the Man-Cave. We chatted about life, philosophy, and "kids these days".  Fun to connect with Mom and Stepdad like that.  They stayed at a hotel which means Baber got to enjoy the pool.

The Brothers!  My brother Solomon graduated NIU with his degree in Mechanical Engineering in January.  He accepted a job at John Deere in Des Moines.  Well... how could I not help him move?  On the way from NIU to Des Moines we hit up the... well you can see in the picture.

Managed to get away on one snowy day to go see our neighbor Daniel's swim meet.  Lovey was thrilled to tag along.

Lovey and I took a snowy day to drive over to Monticello to see the family.  Fun!

As the weather does it warmed up eventually.  On one of the warmer, windier days we even managed to get out and fly our rainbow ship kite!  Lovey was excited to do it "all by me-self".

As spring crept in, our family headed South!  We made a pilgrimage to Englewood FL to see Grandma Polly and Grandma Grogg.  The weather was perfect.

I managed to sneak away for sunset by the pier with Ma. 

Time on the beach with JJ and her main squeeze Joe.

Grandma Polly basking in the sun with Lovey.  I think Lovey inherited the love of the beach from her Grandmother.

Finally made it back to Venice Pier - I hadn't been there in years. The kids loved it!

Ma and I took a lazy kayak trip into the flats.  Quiet and peace!

One of the challenges of the trip was this 1000 piece Florida Puzzle that became an all-consuming obsession. But we completed it!

We weren't back from FL more than three days before we packed up again and headed North to the Wisconsin Dells. This is becoming a tradition with Chinch's family.  This time we stayed at the Kalahari.  I didn't get any water-park pictures, but fun was had to be sure.

Paul Bunyan's Lumberjack Breakfast!

Lovey insisted we get a photo at the Dino-Depot just like The Kid and I did when he was three.

Whew, that is a lot. I'll try to keep the updates more frequent as we come into the best part of the year: Summer!

"The LORD bless you and keep you;

The LORD make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you.

The LORD lift up His countenance on you,

And give you peace."

Numbers 6:24-26