Basketball Game

We won tonight 78-51.

Basketball Game

We lost our game tonight. We were down 18 at the half but cut it to 4 with about 2 minutes to play but could not finish the comeback.

Swim Meet

Ashlyn had another swim meet today.

Suns Game

We all went to the game this evening for the Ivan DeJesus Jr. bobblehead giveaway. We tailgated before the game and then saw the Zooperstars. Ryan Sandberg is the manager of the Tennessee Smokies. Tony Thomas (#3) who played at FSU plays for the Smokies and Jim Adduci (#11) is also on the Smokies roster. Adduci hit the homerun ball that I got at the Daytona Cubs game last year. During the game the benches also cleared after some hit batters and inside pitching.

Swim Meet

Ashlyn had her meet against Fletcher at Mandarin High School (her "home" school). She continues to improve and finished 3rd (freestyle) and 4th (breaststroke) in her races.

Finally bought a Mac...

After thinking about and waiting about 18 months or so I finally bought a Mac. With getting the educational discount I bought an iPod Touch (16 gb) and HP wireless printer. So now I am ready to experience the computer world from an Apple perspective.

Birthday Party Sleepover

Ashlyn went to Madison's birthday sleepover with Ashley and Emily.

Gifted Program

Ashlyn met with the school psychologist for the second round of testing for possible acceptance into the gifted program.

Basketball Game

We only had 4 and won 107-85.

Water Leak

We were hearing water running after everything was off and after cutting a couple holes in Ashlyn's wall I discovered the leak was under the slab in Ashlyn's room. So we had the plumber come out pull the carpet and break up the slab. The culprit a root had wrapped around the pipe. The tree was one cut down in May. Luckily the repair bill was very reasonable.

Swim Meet

Ashlyn's swim meet was at Lakeshore Middle School. Gina and Ashlyn went to Dub Bridge (card game) with our family group. Ethan and I went to the Suns game and got our Clayton Kershaw bobblehead. We had our own little Chick-Fil-A tailgate in the parking garage before the game. When we got in we found out they were playing a doubleheader due to a rain out the night before. They play 2 7-inning games. It was the 6th inning of game 1 when we arrived. Beautiful night at 81 degrees, 70% humidity and a slight breeze.

Back to Florida

Our flight left at 11:30 am. We grabbed something from McDonald's very quickly in Chicago to eat on the plane. In fact I sent Gina and the kids on to the plane while I waited. We only had about 35 minutes and had to change concourses. We were back home on time at 5:50 pm. We missed out on the weather issues that were delaying other flights coming into Jacksonville.

Downtown and Minnesota Twins Game

Early this morning I utilized the public bus system to go to Target in Richfield to buy a few things including a Twins hat. We all then took the light rail around 10:15 am to the downtown/Metrodome station. We went along the Heritage Trail loop (1.8 miles) along the Mississippi River. Some of the things we saw were the oldest continually used church Minneapolis, the Stone Arch Bridge, the lock and dam at St. Anthony Falls (and witnessed a barge go through the process heading down river. We had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory before heading to the Metrodome to watch the Minnesota Twins play the New York Yankees. We saw C.C. Sabathia pitch versus Scott Baker. The Yankees won 10-2. Mom, Dad, Bruce and Rebecca left after the 7th inning because they have an early flight in the morning. This is the last year of the Metrodome. If I remember, growing up I believe we also saw the 1982 Minnesota High School football championships in the Dome the first year it was open.

Ethan's Ride

Big Rigs at the Mall of America in Minneapolis.

Back to Minneapolis

We left the farm this morning to drive to Minneapolis and spend the day at the Mall of America. We stopped in Elbow Lake and took some pictures...and barely made it to the gas station...before getting on the interstate. We had dinner with Mom and Dad at a restaurant in the mall called Noodles.

Golf and the Eagle Lake

The day started with an 8:54 am tee time at Stalker Lake Golf Course in Dalton. It is a 9-hole, par 35 course. 7 of us played. I shot a 50 but was pleased with how I struck the ball especially with the pitching wedge since I have not played in about 4 years. It is a hilly course and I only lost 1 ball which was on the 1st hold. I primarily used the 3 iron off the tee.

After golf we went to the lake and then headed to The Peak for the chicken and ribs lunch buffet.

Then is was the rest of the day on the lake. We all rode the Seadoo...Ethan (@62), me (@68). Ashlyn and Ethan went all over in the paddle boat. Bruce and I went tubing twice and have some nice video footage. Gina went tubing with Ethan and then Ashlyn.

Happy 4th of July

We spent the day at Jack's cabin on Eagle Lake. I played 4 on 4 water basketball...young vs old. It was Dallas, Adam, Tyler and Carrie vs me, Steve, Rachel and Andy (Carrie's). The old won.

The lake is spring fed and is very cold. We went out to the middle which is about 43 feet deep and Gina and Rebecca jumped in "cold turkey." The air temperature was about 75-80, 37% humidity; and a light breeze.

About 58-60 family and friends were there. For lunch we had fried chicken from The Peak. Jack also said they have very good bbq ribs. We decided that we may have to go check that out at lunch on Sunday.

Ashlyn and Ethan drove the pontoon boat and had fun on the paddle boat as well. There were in the lake until 7:30 pm. After dark some of us went out on the pontoon boat to watch individual fireworks displays around the lake.

Itasca State Park, Minnesota

We left the farm and picked up Aunt Mary in Fergus Falls and then headed to Detroit Lakes to meet up with Aunt Dixie. There were 15 of us that went to Itasca State Park which is home to the the headwaters of the Mississippi River. The family and I walked across the rocks where the mighty Mississippi starts...although Ashlyn did slip and fall on her solo attempt. We had someone there take a nice group picture, and Bruce took a picture of us that may end up as our 2009 Christmas card picture.

On the way to the park, we had lunch at Sunny Hill Farms. For dessert I had the turtle cheesecake. We also visited the shops at Sunny Hill Farms. For dinner we joined Dixie's clan for Friday night pizza from Pizza Hut. We were at David and Debbie's house on the lake. Next door is Dixie's house that she had recently sold. Before heading back to Fergus Falls and then the farm we stopped to see the lot where Dixie is building her new house.

A couple things to acclimate to...it doesn't get dark until 9:30-10 pm, you eat all the time, have dessert at every meal and sunrise is around 5:45 am.

Bring on the farms

Jack and Andy (cousin) farm 4500 acres of sugar beets, corn and wheat. We all got to ride on the tractors and see the farm. Ashlyn and Ethan enjoyed riding in the tractor. Aunt Dixie and Aunt Mary came for lunch and then we went to Paul Johnson's (?) farm where they raise calves, pheasants and hens. Ashlyn and Ethan fed the calves their bottles and also picked eggs from the hen's nest while the eggs were still warm. We then went to a dairy farm and watched some cows get milked. It was quite the automated process. My cousin Steve arrived with his two girls from Nebraska. All the kids had fun riding the Gator and 4-wheeler.

On the way to Minnesota...

Our summer vacation trip was with Mom and Dad and Bruce (my brother) and Rebecca to Minnesota to visit my Dad's family. This is for my Mom & Dad's 50th wedding anniversary. We flew on Southwest out of JAX and met them in Minneapolis. Well upon arriving at baggage claim, we waited and waited and when none of our luggage (nothing at all) showed up in baggage claim we went to file a claim for lost luggage. When we opened the door, there were all of our bags sitting right there. Somehow our luggage arrived on an earlier flight and was sitting in office. No real explanation but at least it was there.

After finally getting to the terminal where the rental car pick was located we met up with the other crew at a gas station just outside the airport property. It was about a 3 hour drive to the Wendall (Grant county) area where my Uncle Jack and Aunt Sharon live on the farm. On the way we stopped in Albertville to eat at Culver's ButterBurgers & Frozen Custard. My brother owns a custard shop in D'Iberville, MS and wanted to see what custard tasted like up north. His restaurant is Bop's Frozen Custard. We finally made it to Jack's although it was quite late.