October 4, 2008

Old Mill State Park

Autumn is one of my most favorite times of the year and I wanted to go and enjoy the fall colors today. I packed up the kiddos and we drove to Minnesota (it was hard to hold my breath the whole time) to Old Mill. Now, I am one for modern technology and all of that, but the stinking tom tom wasn't getting us where we needed to go! It took over 2 hours to get there when it should have only been an hour and ten minutes. I know! RUDE!

To pass the time away whilst driving, I did partake in some picture taking. I know! RUDE! May I not recommend this behavior?! I must repent of such things ... ;) One of the pics I took was when we were driving over the Red River - the river that separates ND from MN - so you'll have to pardon the glare.
Did you know that sunflowers don't stay all pretty and bloomed for very long? I found out the hard way and didn't get to take any coolio pics of the sunflowers here in ND. FACT: ND grows more sunflowers than any other state. FYI. Well, after driving and seeing tons of sunflower fields, we pulled over and took some pics. It was actually really interesting!
After searing and driving roads that aren't even county roads, I flagged down a fellow driver and he pointed us to the right direction. Whew! I was actually about to throw in the towel and call it quits, but we were saved by a man in a truck. :)

Believe it or not, we were the only ones at the state park! I know! RUDE! It was such a beautiful day out! We drove and parked near the Lars Larson log cabin and steam-powered flour mill. Austin thought it was "too bad" that the log cabin was locked (I agreed) but it was interesting to see the cabin and the mill. It was not fun to see the outhouse! :)
Next, we went "toe dipping" into the Middle River - it was very clear and a little on the cold-side, but Austin and I braved it! I went around the rest of the day with a double soaker, due to the fact that I didn't wear my standard footware (Crocs). What was I thinking?
Melissa opted out of the "toe dipping" because she said that she didn't feel well. :( Poor Melissa missed out of the fun but created her own by texting friends. It looks like there may be a "no cell phone" rule while we hike around! :P
A little walk on a trail brought us to a bridge to the campgrounds (which are closed for the season). It's a nice little state park but I bet it gets packed in the summer.
We saw a sign for a "beach", so we were thrilled to go and check that out! HA! It was a little man-made area that was drained for the winter. :( It looks as though they have some sledding there in the winter ... there were randomly placed stairways for no reason - until I looked at the map! :)
We had a fun time at the park (at least I did) but it was soon time for us to depart. But was it the end of my picture taking? NO! :) Of course, I saw some fun things on the side of the road - cattails! I must say, my dad also liked pulling over onto the side of the road for "weeds", but I do not consider a cattail a weed, even though I'm not entirely sure of what their purpose is (except to please me). ;)
Another fun thing I saw was ... get ready ... a drive-in theater! It has been so many years since I've seen one! They don't have them in England (that I saw) and I don't recall one in New Mexico. What a flashback! :) The screen looked like it was in good enough repair so I am hoping it is still a working drive-in. Driving through all of the little towns around that area, it wouldn't surprise me at all that it was still working. The population of the towns were in the 300's or 600's.
Yet another fun thing we saw were the sugar beet trucks and a mountain of sugar beets! Occasionally, you would find a stray beet along the way ... poor little beet! :)
Here are some last random shots that I took on the way back home. It was such a lovely day and I'm glad that we were able to get out and enjoy it (even though it was in Minnesota). HAHAHA!

September 30, 2008

Happy Fall, Y'all ...
Well, autumn is here and is all over our front lawn! Along with Austin's help, I raked the leaves up into a nice big pile and then ... there were two kiddaroos jumping in them and throwing them all over!
Melissa is enjoying her "leaf bed" ...

Austin, doing the mandatory "run and slide" into the pile ...

It was getting dark, so I needed to put the flash on, but it took away from the colors. Austin didn't like the fact that he had to look up (and that pizza on his face! - doesn't his mother know better?)/

That one pile of leaves may not look big, but Austin and I shoveled the leaves into 5 lawn garbage bags! It was actually dark out when we finally finished ... I believe Austin said that he wanted to do this every year! Oh, and he wants $35 because he feels that it was a big job ... what he doesn't know is that it's part of his chores! :)

GFC Homecoming 2008

Go Knights!

It's that time of year again! Actually, I recall homecoming a bit later in the season but I'm glad (as I'm sure Melissa is) that it wasn't snowing! ;)

Friday night was our Homecoming game - GFC (Grand Forks Central) vs. Wahpeton. It was a good game even though we lost by 4 - we all turned out in our GFC shirts and sweatshirts. I thought it was a bit too hot for the sweatshirt but when it got to be halftime, it was a little chilly.

Jacob and I joined the Booster club and we volunteered to work the consession stand. FUN FUN! Well, it was hot, hot anyway! Austin was with us (he was in charge of filling the bowls with chips for anyone who wanted nachos) and Melissa hung with her friends in the stands.

There were a few differences between football games here and what I recall of my time in high school. The most important bullet for me is #1 - the band. I love the band!

1 - BAND: When I was in high school, the band played throughout the 1st and 2nd quarters and at homecoming, the band did a little 'ditty' out on the field. It was something we looked forward to! Oh, and we had a little parade in the street. Here in GF, the band didn't play in a parade, didn't play at all during the 1st half and didn't have a little 'ditty' during halftime. RUDE is all I'm saying here.

2 - SPIRIT: School spirit was big when I was going to high school. At this game, there was hardly any cheering in the stands unless the team scored or something important like that.

3 - CHEERING: Okay, maybe it's because I was the co-captain of one of Melissa's cheer squads but the cheerleaders at GFC were totally NOT cheering ... they hardly said a cheer! I'm sure Jacob was sick and tired of my "why don't they do a cheer" comments throughout the night!

4 - DANCE: At my high school, the homecoming dance was after the game. Here at GFC, the game was on Friday and the dance was on Saturday. This is just weird to me.
Speaking of the dance, Jacob and I chaperoned the dance (Melissa is not to attend a dance unless it is chaperoned by one or both of us). The 'semi-formal' dress code was adhered by the girls, but most of the boys wore jeans/shorts and t-shirts. RUDE. You don't even want to know about the young lady in the go-go boots, fish net stockings and the very skimpy, tight dress (I'll call it a dress to be nice). Melissa went to the dance with her friend Amber. They got ready at our house and I took some pics of the girls before we left for the dance.

The dance was from 7:30-11:00p and, although Melissa had fun, the night dragged on and on for Jacob and I. Some of the music was acceptable (AC/DC, Joan Jett, you know - oldschool) but the other music was just that "rap-crap" I can't stand. When you play that kind of music, kids are going to get their grind on and frankly speaking, I don't need to see any of that. Most of the kids would shape up if they saw a chaperone coming but some of them ... YEOW!

Well, that was the homecoming weekend in a nutshell. Sounds like fun, no? :)

September 2, 2008

BOW WOW!
I thought it was about time that I posted some pics of the doggies. Pirate is growing daily and Gabby is loving the playtime! They get along so well ... they play 'mean dogs' and chase each other around the house. It's funny to watch because most of the house is not carpeted so they slide everywhere!


Yesterday, I noticed a bunch of birdie poopie (excuse the bad language) on the side of the house and looked up and viola! there were some baby birdies in a nest! I'm so ridiculous ... I had to show each individual in my home the nest of birdies. They really are cute. I can see them out the window and think that maybe I should put some bird see out, but then I think to myself, "don't feed them or they won't fly south for the winter" ... how ridiculous am I?

August 29-31, 2008

Mall of America ... here we come!
Well, Labor Day weekend = going somewhere fun, right? The original thought of going to Mt. Rushmore went out the window (we'll do that in the spring, I think) and so off to Bloomington, Minnesota for us! It's about a 5 hour drive but if you ask the kids, I think they'll say it was worth it! Austin declared that he would like to go there for his birthday! Kids ... they're so funny!

We stayed at the Fairfield right across the street from the mall - handy! We arrived around 10:30pm on Friday night and went to the room to relax, watch a little tv and just unwind.

After a nice breakfast, we decided that Saturday was going to be a shopping day - you know, get a feel of the land, so-to-speak. We eventually paired off, Austin with Jacob and Melissa with moi. The "boys" played a round of miniature golf, looked at the rides, checked out the Legos, raced a cool NASCAR in a race simulator (I hear Austin was a maniac!) and just looked around.

Melissa and I went to the clothing stores (fun fun). It is expensive to be decked out in all of the "name brands". Melissa had some birthday money that she could spend and I think most of it went to Aeropostale.

We met the boys at the Rainforest Cafe. The reason to go to the Rainforest Cafe was to enjoy the ambiance, not the excellent cuisine. What I'm trying to say is that the food was o.k.

Due to the chewing of an eyeball by Gabby, Austin got himself another snake from the Build-A-Bear at the Rainforest Cafe store. He named him "fangs"and he's a python. I have no idea why the photos from the cafe turned out weird - it must be from the low lighting.

After a busy day of shopping and fooling around, we went back to the hotel for a little pool action and a nap (at least I tried ...). It was pretty much R&R the rest of the night.

Sunday was the day we were to go on the rides so we braced ourselves and got up a little earlier. We ended up getting to the mall a tad bit earlier than the 10:00am opening so we decided to buy our wristbands from the kiosk and stand in line (if there was one) for the rides we wanted to go on. Actually, it was really nice at that time - hardly anyone around. Hardly anyone except the Fox News people!

The Republican National Convention is this week in Minneapolis and they (along with other news teams) were scoping out the mall. Of course, we saw Steve Doocy (the pic is a little blurred but his facial reaction is hilarious!) with - we assume - his son going on the rides. He smiled at Jacob and probably thought I was some stalker-person. It was fun to see someone that "famous", walking around the mall and going on rides!

Austin really enjoyed the day - he wasn't too short for any of the rides! Melissa got a little "roller-coster"-ed out after awhile. Comparing to a 'real' theme park, there really aren't that many rides but because of a malfunction at the kiosk where we bought the wristbands, we received a $14 per person discount! Yahoo!

All-in-all we had a great time. I'm not sure when our next outing to the Mall of America will be, but at least we can say that we've been there, done that! And ... don't forget ... friends don't let friends live in MINNESOTA! muah ha ha ha! :)

UND Football Game

Go Fighting Sioux!

It was Military Appreciation Night at our wonderful local university. It also happens to be the university I am registered with so we decided to attend last night's game against Texas A&M.

There was face painting, balloon twisting and bouncy castles galore! Hamburgers and hot dogs for supper - Jacob really like the baked beans (go figure!).

The Alerus Center - where it was happening!

The stadium was packed! Tons of people showed up. I looked online and it appears that the stadium holds 21,000 people!

Austin & I, enjoying the game!

The family, getting seated and ready for the game to start! (or to have Jacob stop teasing - and you thought it was only me that teased them!). Melissa looks so thrilled ... :)

We all had a really great time - Melissa and I have sore throats and our hands are swollen from all of the clapping! We did leave after the half-time performance ... it was 8:45 and the kids had school the next day. Next time we go, we will stay the entire time. Austin listened to the game in bed and it turns out, the Fighting Sioux won, 40-14! Go Fighting Sioux! :)

Retreat Ceremony

Grand Forks AFB

Jacob was involved with the retreat ceremony yesterday (Aug. 26) and I told him that we would love, love, LOVE to go and see him. It looks like the squad or flight is involved - I don't know the particulars. Anyhoo, I was under the impression that the retreat was at 5:00 so at 4:45, we zoomed on over, trying to look for a parking spot. Of course, at 4:45, the music starts sounding and we are totally stuck in our van, watching from a distance. Bummer! I did get a couple of shots of the group, the flag and then of Jacob.

Melissa's Big 14!

Happy Happy Birthday!

Melissa turned the big 1-4 on Monday! Woo hoo! She had a good day at school - at least it wasn't her first day of school! I was unable to go to the commissary to buy her "favorite supper" request - it was fettuccine alfredo - which was okay in the end. She wanted a cell phone for her birthday SO BADLY and Jacob and I totally teased her and told her we didn't get her phone yet. Hahahaha! It was great! Sometimes, parenting is so rewarding! :)

Here is Melissa, patiently awaiting the "opening ceremonies".

Aha! She ended up getting the cell phone! :)

One MUST pose with the new phone and guitar hero! (Notice Austin totally engrossed in the game ... ha!)

Time for cake! An ice cream cake! YEAH!

In the end, she was a VERY happy young lady ... guitar hero, a new cell phone, some perfume from her brother. Ah, to be 14 again! (no thanks)

Naughty, Naughty

August 16, 2008

I'm a bad poster. Bad poster! I haven't added any new anything for months. Of course, this is due to our move back to the US. We just received our household goods yesterday. Why am I writing on here and not unpacking? I have no answer to that. I need to move my photos from the laptop to update here - that will happen soon!

Miss me!