Other Happenings

The below posts were the "big" events of the summer of 2008. Cait spent most of the summer at home and at tennis and summer band. She also enjoyed a lot of time with her friends at the pool or the mall. She "worked" most of the last 2 weeks of summer babysitting for our good friends. They have 3 kids, but Cait only had the two older ones, ages 5 and 6. She also played softball into the summer. Her team did well and ended up in 3rd place in the division, but lost in the 1st game of the season ending tournament. Our road was (and still is) under construction for weeks and weeks. Seems like years and years. What a pain! We're getting close though...maybe a couple more weeks? And now it's fall. Cait's pretty much back into the swing of things with school and activities and friends. She's playing volleyball as her 1st quarter sport. She seems to enjoy it--their first match is on Monday afternoon so that will be exciting. Dad and Sandy were home for the past 2 weeks. We had a short visit with them last weekend and they stopped by yesterday on their way back "home" to Louisiana. They had some minor storm damage from Gustav (while they were in WI), but were spared when Ike rolled through. That pretty much sums it up! I have some miscellaneous pictures to post, but have to run now to pick Cait up from practice.

Our Family "Vacation"

The last weekend in July the three of us took a little trip to the Minneapolis area. We left Saturday morning and came home late Monday night. Saturday we checked into our hotel in Burnsville, MN and then went to Jason's sister's 40th birthday party about 30 min. away. After that we went back to our hotel (but only after stopping at White Castle so Jason could get his fix of "sliders"--PUKE!). Sunday morning we went to breakfast at IHOP and then to the MN Zoo. I really like zoos, except it was super hot and super muggy, and rainy at times. Most of the animals were feeling it too as they lazed around doing nothing. So, unfortunately, there wasn't much to see in the way of big animals. They do have a "tropical" area, so we got to see a lot of birds and other creatures. The butterfly garden was all of our favorite. We got some great pictures! After the zoo we went to dinner then back to the hotel. Oh, I think we might have gone to Best Buy that night too. And to a grocery store to get goods for Monday morning's breakfast. Monday we checked out of the hotel and had some time to waste until the MN Twins game that evening. We found a shopping mall so Cait and I did a little shopping (we had our first experience with Steve & Barry's--we liked it!) and Jason went to see The Dark Knight by himself. :o) Then we hung out at a local park before making our way to the Dome for the game. We met Jason's sister's family there at the game and afterwards headed home. It was a fun time--it's nice to get away once in a while and spend some quality time together.

Here's one of the pretty butterflies (and flower!)

And the three of us at the zoo. The sea otters are my favorite!Here's me & Cait on the monorail and the Komodo dragon--he's cool!

And some pics from the Twins game. If I remember correctly, they did win! YAY! Jason with his nephew and sister, Cait being silly, and a shot of the field from our seats...

Stay tuned...I'll return another day with more summertime updates. Back to you, Bob!