a'ight blah

Mom

Grandma and Ella taken December 2007.

Mike's mom, Joyce, lost her battle to cancer this afternoon. She was such an inspiration... living each day to the fullest despite her condition.

Joyce and Leonard were on their way home to Arizona from attending a wedding in California over the fourth when she died. This was a big goal of hers and she made it! Tonight she is dancing in heaven!

There will be a funeral in Moorhead in a few weeks once Leonard makes it back to Minnesota.

Thank you for all the prayers over the past nine months.
Hug or call your mom today and tell her how much you love her!

[update]

The funereal service will be at Trinity Lutheran Church in Moorhead on Saturday, July 19th at 1:00 PM
A family service is planned for 7:00 PM Friday 18th at the church.

A memorial service for Arizona friends will be held at Our Saviors Lutheran Church in Gold Canyon sometime in November.

Gunning for Bob

We went to Morey's cabin for the fourth. Marvin and Pat made a special trip from Gwinner, which made it an even better weekend.

The kids spent most of the weekend in the water with Bob and the dog Aspen. The neighbor also let us use their floating dock, which the boy's used as their 'base' for super-soaker assaults.

Couldn't have asked for a better holiday.

As always, more on flickr.

Star Wars at the Science Museum

The Six Million Dollar Jedi

Mike, the boys (sporting their Star Wars t-shirts) and I ventured to the Minnesota Science Museum today for the all-too-anticipated Star Wars exhibit. It was great and the boys loved it!

We saw many original props and costumes that were used in the movies, learned about special effects while watching the I-Max movie, and – my personal favorite - jumped into light speed on the Millennium Falcon ride.

I believe today will go down in the family history books as a
"remember when…".

Mike thought this land-speeder display was funny. Apparently he had this 'action figure' when he was a young lad.

More Star Wars pix at flickr.

Simple. Fun. Good.

Darb had a great idea to hit DQ then head to the fountains downtown last Wednesday.

Per her suggestion, today we ventured to French regional park in Plymouth. It has a beautiful sandy beach and a kick-butt playground including cargo-net climbing areas.

I love simple stuff like this. My wife rocks.

Who Listens to that Stuff?

I just noticed my own "What I'm Listening to on Rhapsody" track list. If you haven't noticed it, its on the left side of this page.

As of this morning, the track list included John Williams (Indiana Jones score), old school Judas Priest (United) ...and Miley Cyrus?

Perhaps I should remove the Rhapsody feature so as to not shame myself even more.

Note to Self: Ice Cream is not my favorite food

Miles and Mason had their yearly checkup last week, and after some preliminary questions, they got some standard immunizations. Miles hates shots. Mason passed out once watching Ella get a shot--so my point is: to the boys, doctor trips are somewhat traumatic.

Last night was my [Mike's] checkup. Miles was very reluctant to even let me out the door. I assured him that I wasn't planning on getting any shots, and that the visit would be very simple--the doctor would ask the same kinds of questions they had answered last week: what was my favorite color, what was my favorite food.... Things like that.

Miles was relieved about my visit until he asked me what my favorite food was.
"Ice Cream" was my reply.

"Dad, you can't say that. Ice cream is bad for you. Please tell him 'carrots' instead."

Ice Creammmmmmm

I received an ice cream maker from the kids for Father's day. Today was the first taste of the good stuff.

The last time my family made home-made ice cream, I was 5. I even had my turn at churning the old-style maker. I recall being very happy that the ice cream didn't taste like the salt we were dumping into the churn.

At the Car Wash

Miles and Mason spent a good portion of Saturday afternoon washing all of their “vehicles”. Ella and the one of the neighbor girls quickly joined in on the fun. Every bike, scooter, and Little Tykes toy in the cul-de-sac is now squeaky clean.

Summer Time. Time to Sit Back and Unwind

Summer has officially begun. Good thing, because when Miles was asked "how's your summer going" before today, he would reply "it's not summer until June 20th".

"and as I think back makes me wonder how
the smell from a grill could spark up nostalgia
all the kids playing out front
little boys messin round with the girls playing double-dutch"

Monday Morning

Mom:  "Mason, what would you like for breakfast?"

Mason:  "Toast not in the toaster with no butter with peanut butter and jelly cut in triangles, please."

Mom:  "So you want a piece of bread with peanut butter and jelly?"

Mason:  <very sternly> "No, Mom! I want toast NOT in the toaster!"

Mom:  <Sigh>