The State Fair was a complete blast this year. With the cooperating weather at 75 w/o humidity & not a cloud in the sky - we couldn't ask for more than that. We ended up staying about 3 hours longer than expected because it was just so nice & we were all having so much fun.
Now I didn't keep a good track on the food we ate - afterall, it IS all about the food - but here's a sampling anyway (we'll skip quantities and just shoot for an item list): bacon & egg sandwich, cheese curds, pronto pup, corn on the cob, chocolate malt, lemonade, chicken avacado pita, french fries, hamburger, chocolate dipped cheesecake (on a stick), kettle corn, and Sweet Martha's chocolate chip cookies (a pail made it home with us - how'd THAT happen???).
Our annual pics from the photo booth turned out well - K3 really didn't enjoy that, but the other 2 hammed it up. Sliding down the huge gunny sack slide (a tradition left over from my childhood) was another highlight. H & K2 had to stand at the top awhile - K2 was a 'bit' hesitant. Next year we'll get K3 on there. She'll be ready for sure.
The midway for the kids was their most favorite. We made 2 stops and when we weren't there they kept asking if we could GO there. What broken records.
Best part - H & I would frequently split & meet communicating via cell phones. Well, the last time we split, I called him - his reception stinks - and I had to yell into the phone. A minute later we realize we were standing about 10 feet apart. You'd think 'screw the reception' - you were yelling and still we had hearing problems!!! Yeah, and I gotta go see an ENT for hearing aids - no news there. I blame the Sony Walkman, but I digress.
Fair was fantastic & we'll head out again next year. If the Ks had THEIR way, we'd go everyday until it closes, but that's no surprise. Now if there's anyone out there who'd like to fund that, just let me know!
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
No more LONG drives
Well I HAD to find SOME upside to the end of the cabin season! The lake is still there - it is still terribly gorgeous. And we have to be home for a rip-roarin' few days before school starts.
En route home yesterday afternoon K2 threw out 'Why yes, that is certainly LOVELY.' I almost drove the truck off the road I was giggling so hard. Then this morning K1 was looking for her pencil box and couldn't find it - whilst talking to herself 'Where is it? Who hid my pencil box? blah blah blah.' K2 replies 'The pencil box is where you LEFT it!' Rock on K2. I completely burst out laughing, to which K1 got completely ticked off.
We had some great beach time at the lake and K1 did go tubing again. We did not see the bears though. Next year for sure. The wildlife was incredible. Wednesday we had seen a doe & fawn on the shore of an island en route to the beach. 9 ducks at the beach (K3 liked chasing those in an effort to pet them). Loons were out everywhere - the birds, not the people - mostly in twos, but there were a few w/their chicks from this year. And we ended up seeing about a dozen bald eagles. On 1 side of the boat there were 4 in 1 tree and that was amazing. Off the other side of the boat were 4 more 'fishing' - flying & swooping down to catch their lunch. About 1/4 mi. further was another tree w/ 4 more in it. I'd never seen so many in 1 day and so close. Way cool.
Did watch 1 new movie "The Bucket List" w/Jack Nicholson & Morgan Freeman. This was truly hysterical. 1.5 hours went very fast. Of course there'll be no sequel. Jack's character is a self-made gozillionaire who calls people whatever name he wants to. His personal assistant's actual name is Mathew, but he calls him Tom, Thomas & Tommy-Boy because Matthew is too 'biblical'. Morgan's character is a 'cliffy' type of man who breaks the news of the TRUE source of Jack's favorite beverage - and that will leave you LYAO. This is definitely an A movie and we'll be watching it again.
Dad informed me that he did start reading this blog. He has yet to get to the boat motor part....hehehehe. We'll see the kind of flack I catch for THAT one. I really only stated the truth, so we'll see how he takes it. Love ya, Dad!
Tomorrow is MN state Fair day where the K's will take part in the annual tradition of stuffing the family into one of those tiny photo booths. Should you come to our house, you'll find past ones posted on the frig. We'll see how many mini-doughnuts & pronto pups we end up downing. Go lemonade & Sweet Martha's chocolate chip cookies...YUM.
En route home yesterday afternoon K2 threw out 'Why yes, that is certainly LOVELY.' I almost drove the truck off the road I was giggling so hard. Then this morning K1 was looking for her pencil box and couldn't find it - whilst talking to herself 'Where is it? Who hid my pencil box? blah blah blah.' K2 replies 'The pencil box is where you LEFT it!' Rock on K2. I completely burst out laughing, to which K1 got completely ticked off.
We had some great beach time at the lake and K1 did go tubing again. We did not see the bears though. Next year for sure. The wildlife was incredible. Wednesday we had seen a doe & fawn on the shore of an island en route to the beach. 9 ducks at the beach (K3 liked chasing those in an effort to pet them). Loons were out everywhere - the birds, not the people - mostly in twos, but there were a few w/their chicks from this year. And we ended up seeing about a dozen bald eagles. On 1 side of the boat there were 4 in 1 tree and that was amazing. Off the other side of the boat were 4 more 'fishing' - flying & swooping down to catch their lunch. About 1/4 mi. further was another tree w/ 4 more in it. I'd never seen so many in 1 day and so close. Way cool.
Did watch 1 new movie "The Bucket List" w/Jack Nicholson & Morgan Freeman. This was truly hysterical. 1.5 hours went very fast. Of course there'll be no sequel. Jack's character is a self-made gozillionaire who calls people whatever name he wants to. His personal assistant's actual name is Mathew, but he calls him Tom, Thomas & Tommy-Boy because Matthew is too 'biblical'. Morgan's character is a 'cliffy' type of man who breaks the news of the TRUE source of Jack's favorite beverage - and that will leave you LYAO. This is definitely an A movie and we'll be watching it again.
Dad informed me that he did start reading this blog. He has yet to get to the boat motor part....hehehehe. We'll see the kind of flack I catch for THAT one. I really only stated the truth, so we'll see how he takes it. Love ya, Dad!
Tomorrow is MN state Fair day where the K's will take part in the annual tradition of stuffing the family into one of those tiny photo booths. Should you come to our house, you'll find past ones posted on the frig. We'll see how many mini-doughnuts & pronto pups we end up downing. Go lemonade & Sweet Martha's chocolate chip cookies...YUM.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
One more time...
We're heading to the lake one more time for this summer. I am so very pleased to have met my 6 week goal. It is rather bittersweet, but really, am I an a position to complain? Absolutely not. We'll see if we can't make a trip to Orr to see the bears too. There's is a bear sanctuary there. To know more visit www.americanbear.org . I like that the people are fenced in for a change!
We're just wrapping up our week for VBS. What a difference a little age makes. K2 is actually doing a wonderful job and having great fun. I now have high hopes for Sunday school this year - jeez, hope I don't get disappointed on that one.
K3 is having a blast throwing out new words. Some days she'll spit out 2 new ones. I have a feeling we have another 'yacker' in the midst. Great - we'll never have a quiet evening again...unless all kids are sleeping. But I guess if we wanted quiet, we shouldn't have had them. So we'll take the noise!
K1 is gearing up for school and is having a blast in the process. Now she figures whenever we go to a store that she has to have something. So we'll have to work our way out of THAT one because as you all know - I have no problems saying "NO!"
We're just wrapping up our week for VBS. What a difference a little age makes. K2 is actually doing a wonderful job and having great fun. I now have high hopes for Sunday school this year - jeez, hope I don't get disappointed on that one.
K3 is having a blast throwing out new words. Some days she'll spit out 2 new ones. I have a feeling we have another 'yacker' in the midst. Great - we'll never have a quiet evening again...unless all kids are sleeping. But I guess if we wanted quiet, we shouldn't have had them. So we'll take the noise!
K1 is gearing up for school and is having a blast in the process. Now she figures whenever we go to a store that she has to have something. So we'll have to work our way out of THAT one because as you all know - I have no problems saying "NO!"
Thursday, August 7, 2008
The Lake
Amazing stuff happened at the lake. K1 decided to float on a tube in the middle of the lake (tube tied to the boat w/a rope). I didn't think she'd reach this plateau until next year. A few days later she decides that she wants to try tubing behind the boat. You could have knocked me over w/a feather. She DID tube, 3 separate times. She didn't go all that fast - but this isn't something I expected out of her this year at all, so we were pretty excited for her.
K2 got beat up by K1 & K3 whilst minding his own business. Poor guy. K2 also had great leaps & bounds where boats and water is concerned. We'd arrive at the beach by boat and prior to getting off, all kids knew they were to get their sunscreen on. Before I could get to K3's sunscreen, he was off the dock, past the beach, in the lake & up to his armpits. The rest of us always needed a few minutes to get used to the water temp prior to getting in that deep - he just trudged right on in there. Go dude! K2 loved making sandcastles w/H. His most favorite part was stomping all over the masterpiece once it was completed, of course.
K3 will now: walk on grass barefoot, walk on sand barefoot, sit on sand & sit on a tube (w/assistance) in the lake. Wow! She was taught how to say 'mine' (thanks to my Dad - he's so proud that he taught all 3 Ks this word). She also learned 'Coke' (thanks to my Mom - it's her goal to have these 3 Grandkids taught how to fetch them for her).
The only movie watched that I hadn't already seen before was "Michael Clayton" w/George Clooney. I missed the 1st hour and caught the remainder. No expectations going in and it was decent. I'd watch it again, from the beginning this time! I'll give it a B (aka it wasn't jumping up and down awesome).
I picked up a soduku puzzle book Dad had laying around. I had tried these things, to no avail, before. I've got the beginner ones down now. Jeez are they addicting! Therefore I left the book at the lake - it can be a lake thing.
Picked up a Powerball ticket w/high hopes (ALWAYS!) Went online today and realized I'd won the highest amount our household has ever won with 1 ticket ... $7 (2 numbers + the Powerball). So YEA!!! Kicker was that I was only 1 number off getting TWO other ones. But off is off & close just isn't good enough to win the lotto. This reminds me of the last time Brent picked one up this summer. We had gone to 2 gas stations to fill the truck since we had some nice coupons that were about to expire. By chance he pulled into pump 5 at both places. The dollar amounts of both sales were $55 and some odd cents (both also in the 15 gallon range). So Brent figured it was a good day to try winning the PowerBall w/all this 5 business. He bought the ticket & handed it to me on our way home & told me why he bought it. I looked at the ticked and burst out laughing. "Did you look at this?" "No." "Did you do a quick pick?" "Yeah, why?" "The numbers...we should win for this story alone. They're: 5, 25, 35, 45, 55 w/a PowerBall of 15." This story is completely true and nothing was changed to protect any guilty party. Someday... we've got all the plans arranged, so when the stars align, we'll be ready!
K2 got beat up by K1 & K3 whilst minding his own business. Poor guy. K2 also had great leaps & bounds where boats and water is concerned. We'd arrive at the beach by boat and prior to getting off, all kids knew they were to get their sunscreen on. Before I could get to K3's sunscreen, he was off the dock, past the beach, in the lake & up to his armpits. The rest of us always needed a few minutes to get used to the water temp prior to getting in that deep - he just trudged right on in there. Go dude! K2 loved making sandcastles w/H. His most favorite part was stomping all over the masterpiece once it was completed, of course.
K3 will now: walk on grass barefoot, walk on sand barefoot, sit on sand & sit on a tube (w/assistance) in the lake. Wow! She was taught how to say 'mine' (thanks to my Dad - he's so proud that he taught all 3 Ks this word). She also learned 'Coke' (thanks to my Mom - it's her goal to have these 3 Grandkids taught how to fetch them for her).
The only movie watched that I hadn't already seen before was "Michael Clayton" w/George Clooney. I missed the 1st hour and caught the remainder. No expectations going in and it was decent. I'd watch it again, from the beginning this time! I'll give it a B (aka it wasn't jumping up and down awesome).
I picked up a soduku puzzle book Dad had laying around. I had tried these things, to no avail, before. I've got the beginner ones down now. Jeez are they addicting! Therefore I left the book at the lake - it can be a lake thing.
Picked up a Powerball ticket w/high hopes (ALWAYS!) Went online today and realized I'd won the highest amount our household has ever won with 1 ticket ... $7 (2 numbers + the Powerball). So YEA!!! Kicker was that I was only 1 number off getting TWO other ones. But off is off & close just isn't good enough to win the lotto. This reminds me of the last time Brent picked one up this summer. We had gone to 2 gas stations to fill the truck since we had some nice coupons that were about to expire. By chance he pulled into pump 5 at both places. The dollar amounts of both sales were $55 and some odd cents (both also in the 15 gallon range). So Brent figured it was a good day to try winning the PowerBall w/all this 5 business. He bought the ticket & handed it to me on our way home & told me why he bought it. I looked at the ticked and burst out laughing. "Did you look at this?" "No." "Did you do a quick pick?" "Yeah, why?" "The numbers...we should win for this story alone. They're: 5, 25, 35, 45, 55 w/a PowerBall of 15." This story is completely true and nothing was changed to protect any guilty party. Someday... we've got all the plans arranged, so when the stars align, we'll be ready!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
And we're back...darn it all anyway
Back from the cabin once more, and I am none to happy about it this time. When we left from our glorious 13 days in paradise, it was 75 & sunny & no humidity & a light breeze & big white puffy clouds in a beautiful bluer than blue sky. Who can beat THAT? We had 1 rainy day. We did have rain at night, but that's no biggie. The only thing that made coming home OK was knowing that we'd only be home for 9 days to return on day 10 for another week! That will be our 6th week this summer. For me this is a MAGIC number as it was my personal goal to spend 1/2 the summer at the cabin - and we're actually gonna make it! WAHOO!
Boat motors - whatdayado
Out on the lake 1 fine evening were my Mom, H's Mom with myself driving. We're 10 miles from the cabin and decide to turn around to get back before it's dark. We turn around and viola, H's Mom sees LIGHTNING. Lovely. So I speed up like any sane adult would do to try to really high-tail it back. All to no avail. Mr. boat motor was not going to cooperate. We ran for a minute and BEEP, red light & automatic idle. What the $#&*(#$ is THAT???? (This happened several times.) Running through my mind is that not only will we all be hit by lightening & killed, but my 3 kids won't have ANY of their female role models left in their life because they were all dumb and got dead out in the middle of a lake during a thunderstorm. Long story short, we made it back without being struck by lightning. However, we did happen to see TONS of fishing boats out happily fishing away during this thunderstorm - how smart are they anyway? We at least had an excuse. (Sucky motor!)
Back at the cabin I then grabbed Dad's motor manual to find the problem. I love these how-to-fix-it books...NOT. I did happen to get the the correct chapter on my 1st try - YEA ME! But since I didn't know exactly which model the motor was, I had to read practically the same things 5 & 6 times over until I narrowed down which was ours. OK, so I find 'the one'. Solution - the actual problem could be 1 of 11 things...literally.
Next - call Dad and chew him out because, of course, it is HIS fault. Hehehehe. Next day he arrives and takes said boat out for a spin - you know how these things go, machinery never makes mistakes while the fix-it person is around. I bet Mom $50 that it wouldn't happen - she should have bet me - it did it twice to him. Now on 1 hand I was absolutely tickled that that was the case. Frankly the night before I don't think he believed there really was an issue - you know - the woman driver thing. Well HA - there WAS - AND it even did it to HIM. But then on the other hand, then we had to narrow down the 11 items it COULD be to get to the 1 it actually WAS. Well, when all was said and done - and here is the kicker - it wasn't ANY of the 11 items listed in the manual. Isn't that always the case??? Gotta love those owner's manuals - who writes those things anyway? Do they READ what they write? I'm just curious if anyone knows...
It's late, I'm tired, and I'll have to catch y'all up w/the rest another day. There's lots to laugh at. And should you wish to hear the entire boat motor 'thing' - give me a call, I can't type it all...OK, I don't wanna type it all.
Boat motors - whatdayado
Out on the lake 1 fine evening were my Mom, H's Mom with myself driving. We're 10 miles from the cabin and decide to turn around to get back before it's dark. We turn around and viola, H's Mom sees LIGHTNING. Lovely. So I speed up like any sane adult would do to try to really high-tail it back. All to no avail. Mr. boat motor was not going to cooperate. We ran for a minute and BEEP, red light & automatic idle. What the $#&*(#$ is THAT???? (This happened several times.) Running through my mind is that not only will we all be hit by lightening & killed, but my 3 kids won't have ANY of their female role models left in their life because they were all dumb and got dead out in the middle of a lake during a thunderstorm. Long story short, we made it back without being struck by lightning. However, we did happen to see TONS of fishing boats out happily fishing away during this thunderstorm - how smart are they anyway? We at least had an excuse. (Sucky motor!)
Back at the cabin I then grabbed Dad's motor manual to find the problem. I love these how-to-fix-it books...NOT. I did happen to get the the correct chapter on my 1st try - YEA ME! But since I didn't know exactly which model the motor was, I had to read practically the same things 5 & 6 times over until I narrowed down which was ours. OK, so I find 'the one'. Solution - the actual problem could be 1 of 11 things...literally.
Next - call Dad and chew him out because, of course, it is HIS fault. Hehehehe. Next day he arrives and takes said boat out for a spin - you know how these things go, machinery never makes mistakes while the fix-it person is around. I bet Mom $50 that it wouldn't happen - she should have bet me - it did it twice to him. Now on 1 hand I was absolutely tickled that that was the case. Frankly the night before I don't think he believed there really was an issue - you know - the woman driver thing. Well HA - there WAS - AND it even did it to HIM. But then on the other hand, then we had to narrow down the 11 items it COULD be to get to the 1 it actually WAS. Well, when all was said and done - and here is the kicker - it wasn't ANY of the 11 items listed in the manual. Isn't that always the case??? Gotta love those owner's manuals - who writes those things anyway? Do they READ what they write? I'm just curious if anyone knows...
It's late, I'm tired, and I'll have to catch y'all up w/the rest another day. There's lots to laugh at. And should you wish to hear the entire boat motor 'thing' - give me a call, I can't type it all...OK, I don't wanna type it all.
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