Summers End

Chris and I are officially parents of a school aged child. Jerod started kindergarten last Tuesday. Not surprisingly, he did great. More surprisingly, mom and dad seem to have survived as well. We put him on the bus, came in the house, dried our tears, and went on our way. Elise has also transitioned well thus far (honestly, this was one of my biggest concerns). At about 2:00 on Tuesday she did say to me, "Let's go get Jerod and Daddy now." At that point, she had a couple more hours to go, but she has done well and seems to be enjoying her long overdue one on one time with mom. Jerod's days are long (gets on the bust about 7:45 and gets off about 4:40). He definitely comes home tired, but it's been tolerable thus far.

Before the sendoff, we got to spend the weekend in Clear Lake, Iowa with some good friends of ours. We had a great time, without our camera :( It was a well timed trip... we enjoyed getting away from it all and having some down time with the Johnsons.

Before Clear Lake, Jerod, Chris, and my dad went on a guided fishing trip on Lake Minnetonka (just west of the Cities). They had a great time. Jerod came home beaming that he had learned how to cast. He didn't actually pull any fish into the boat, but had a great time. They left the house at 5:30 a.m. Craziness!

We were very glad to be spending a weekend at home over the holiday. I think it's been a month since that had happened. While we've had lots of good times on the road, home is definitely nice! I worked Saturday morning, and Chris took the kids to the renaissance festival. They had a great time... even rode the pictured elephant.

More summer fun

Killing some time in the car... 20 hours for family reunion weekend!

More car time...




The annual s'more shots


Our favorite monkey up in a tree


Baptism River near the north shore



Elise getting back to nature (too much so, maybe)









Pictures from the north shore.

We're back from a weekend camping trip to the north shore of Lake Superior. We had a great time... it's always nice to get out of the cities. Now if I can just get the laundry done.

Jerod and Chris are going on a guided fishing trip tomorrow... the last hoorah of summer. Jerod starts kindergarten in a week. I think we're all a little stressed out and ready to get the first day out of the way.

We're off to Clear Lake, Iowa next weekend with some friends, then we're going to hunker down and stay home for awhile. It's been a great summer, but we're ready for things to slow down a bit!

Aquatic Center Superheroes

The kids have been in swimming lessons again this week and last week, along with their pals Charlie and George. George is pictured here with Jerod and Elise. They actually had their lesson in the rain today, which was lovely... not.

We were in Kansas this past weekend for Chris' family reunion. We had a very good time, other than the 20 hours we spent in the car :) Thankfully, all travelers did pretty well on the journey.

Jerod is super excited to start school. We found out yesterday he'll be able to take the bus, which is good news for the gas budget.

Other than that, we have not had too much excitement. Jerod and Elise finished baseball and t-ball last week, so we're enjoying some more free time in the evenings. I'm always sad to see summer end, but I'm looking forward to us settling into our new schedule.