Hunter turns 10!

We had a brief birthday 'gathering' this morning before school. The kids are with their mom tonight and tomorrow night, so we let him open the cards and gifts that had arrived so far. He loves his new 'video game' chair. It's like a low to the ground rocker, plus he can plug his MP3 player into it and listen to music through speakers. More partying to come on Saturday when he gets home. He's having a sleepover complete with pizza, cake, and I'm sure plenty of video games.

Happy 12th Holden!

Holden turned 12 today! I returned from Nashville around 4. At 5:30 we all went to Taste of Saigon for dinner and then back to the house for some DQ cake. An 'easy way out' for me, I suppose, but I'm beat and he's been asking about going to Taste of Saigon anyway. : ) Off to bed. This old body has put on a lot of miles the past few days!

E'Hawks WON!

The Emmetsburg E'Hawks won another state championship today, defeating West Lyon 3-0. Phew! Jim, Josh, Jake and I were there to see the semi final victory last week. Josh was the only one there today. Lucky him. What a game! Jim & I watched it online and it was pretty exciting. Note Josh in the crowd, cheering...when I talked to him after the game, he was losing his voice. Too much screaming!

Josh's Birthday Weekend/Halloween

This past weekend, Josh turned 18! We headed down for conferences on Thursday, trick or treating on Friday, birthday party on Saturday and watching Josh perform in "South Pacific" on Saturday night. We had a nice weekend, enjoyed seeing everyone, and spending some quiet time at the lake. The days always go too quickly.

Trip to Bayfield

Jim & I were in Bayfield, WI for the weekend. While I would recommend going to Bayfield either in the summertime or the winter....we had a very nice weekend. All we really cared about was some time to ourselves. We did a lot of relaxing. A lot of eating. And a little shopping. The "Steak Pit" was one of the highlights of the trip. Jim's prime rib was close to the size of the one on their sign outside! They had wonderful food and the decor and furnishings were straight out of the 70's. Fun.

Abby's 7th Birthday

We celebrated Abby's 7th birthday in Minneapolis on October 4 & 5. It just so happened that Grandpa Mike and Grandma Pam were in Emmetsburg for the few days prior, and could meet us there Saturday. We played at the Waterpark of America, and had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. We had a small party in the hotel room with cake and gifts and Abby was just thrilled with it all. Sunday morning we had breakfast and looked around at IKEA. That's got to be the only place you can feed 9 people eggs, bacon, cinnamon rolls, pancakes, drinks, and more....for $35. Plus, it's really cool to look around at IKEA. Grandpa and Grandma had to leave after that....it was so great we got to spend time with them. But we went back to the hotel and played in the water and the arcade for awhile. Then it was off to the Mall of America. Lots of looking there too...although I can't say we got out of there without spending our share!