visiting betty

 

and a happy father's day to kevin

an unexpected weekend away

 

 

 

we spent last weekend in Rochester, Betty had been transferred to St. Mary's and was waiting to have heart surgery.  The kids and I spent a lot of time at the hotel in the pool, while Kevin stayed with his mom at the hospital... It was the first time I had actually been to Rochester other than just passing through, what a beautiful city...just wishing circumstances had been different than what brought us there.

building castles

at 11pm?
she see's no problem with this
it's summer mom was her reply to my questions of what on earth was she doing

baseball

 

love this photo captured by mr. carlson

into the fog....

to hunt for some dinosaurs

this one wasn't too sure about this part of the trip...eventually she warmed up and started leading the group to the next dinosaur

 

and in this fog bank was waiting the t-rex
the fog and rain just added to the drama

 

the overcast, rainy day

 

added to the smoke and fog of the exhibits made for some scary moments...

 

 

even the rain didn't damper the fun of the zoo

 

 

 

 

minnesota zoo

 

 

 

a spur of the moment decision to go to the zoo one sunday
had us enjoying the sites and exhibits in between the rain showers.

love those faces

 

Graduation

Earlier this month I attended the graduation ceremony at our local high school  two of my former daycare kids graduated along with rose who has spent two weekends a month with us for the last 9 years.
What a wonderful ceremony so proud of these young ladies can't wait to see what next they do
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Visiting

Grandma Betty in Rochester at St. Mary's hospital

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First game of the season

Was in blue earth and they started their season with a win!
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outside...

silly fun as we discover the fun of warmer weather and longer days...

 

riding bike has become her newest favorite thing to do..

a glance

to my right while waiting in line at the dairy queen the other night in blue earth had my eyes falling on that statue of the Jolly Green Giant.  As we pulled into town earlier in the evening heading to Anthony's first baseball game of the season my eyes scanned the area checking out eating options knowing the crew I had in the van would be hungry after the game.  I pointed out the DQ which resulted in cheers for the promise of ice cream after the game. 
Later when the game ended, and we numbly moved back to the van, slightly frozen the last thing I wanted to do was eat ice cream, but kids who apparently are not bothered by sub zero body temps did not forget the promise of ice cream which is how I found myself in the drive thru line waiting for our order, with the heat blasting and the seat warmers on.  So when I glanced over and saw the statue my mind traveled back to my own childhood and the memory of seeing the jolly green giant on the once in awhile trips my family took to visit my aunt in the cities.  Every single time we passed the billboard with the huge green giant my mom would say "look! there's the jolly green giant!" my sister and I would crane our necks trying to get a glimpse of this exciting  view.  An fun pause in the endless trip where much time was spent tormenting the other and wondering out loud if we were there yet (I now have the pleasure of 5 small voices asking that question each time we venture somewhere further than just down the block)  as we inched forward in line towards our food I thought of 101 reasons why stopping to let the kids take a look at the huge green statue was not a great idea and yet as we pulled away with our food I turned back and parked  near the statue and found myself echoing words my mother had said "look guys, there's the jolly green giant" and with ooooo's and aaaaahhhs from them as they crawled out of the van and moved closer for a better look, I waited with my camera and watched as they ran closer, and watched reyna pause part way up the sidewalk to tilt her head back and look up, up, up and across the distance between us I heard her say "wow!"   The excited chatter as they returned to the van and their ice cream had me smiling and as I drove away I found myself glad I had listened to that one reason to stop, finding an unexpected connection to my own childhood.

Twins game...

 

 

 

 

sunday, June 2nd Anthony joined Beckie at a Twins game...
arriving early he was one of the many kids who received a jersey (he was pretty excited by that)
The twins won!  that made his day even more awesome...
Hanging out with his big sister was the best he said the next day when he got home.