2015 Review

As 2015 draws to a close, I am returning to my blog to review the year. I have not been as faithful to blog this year. One reason is that my computer has had problems, but the other is that I just haven't felt like putting my thoughts into words.

2015 has been a good year. Some highlights include:

Craig started the year driving over the road for Versatile Transport. I was able to go along on one trip to Alabama. Craig often took Percy along, and Percy is a great traveler.

We had 3 camping trips - Itasca State Park in May, Father Hennepin Park with Carrie, Mardo and Micah in June, and Two Harbors in August with friends from church.

We were able to go to Northfield one weekend to watch both Jake and Drew play baseball.

Carrie, Mardo and Micah visited the cabin a lot. Now that they live here in Minnesota, they've come up to visit often. Micah loves all of Bubba's vehicles (truck, tractor, moto, bicycle, etc), playing in the sandbox, and throwing stones in the 'agua'.

Brenton and the kids came up for Emily Day. It was fun to watch the kids try tubing and water skiing using a special board Craig borrowed from a friend. Izzy and I had fun doing some crafts together.

Aaron and his girlfriend came up 3 times this summer. Jeff and Whitney came a couple of times too. We always enjoy when any of the kids come up - it's so nice to spend time visiting, playing games, etc.

Craig and I also enjoyed several motorcycle rides during the summer.

This summer we finished the window seat in the bump-out in the family room. It now has drawers and a trundle bed. It's awesome! Craig also finished the trim on the family room windows.

Craig has made a lot of progress on his 1963 Hendrickson. He really wants to get it finished this year so that he can drive it to truck shows next summer.

Jeff and Whitney got married in September. Brenton officiated the ceremony, Aaron was Jeff's best man, Carrie was a bridesmaid, Mardo played the piano, Micah was the ring bearer, Izzy and Stephanie were Micah's "babysitters" while Mardo and Carrie were busy.... it was a real family affair. The weather was perfect, and the wedding and reception were perfect too. Welcome to the Balvin family, Whitney!

Northland Community Schools, where I work, passed their referendum this fall. That means that by 2018 we will have a whole new building for our schools. I signed a two year contract with the district. I am thankful to have a job.

Craig helped a builder add a portico to the cabin. We now have a beautiful entry that we just love.

We celebrated Thanksgiving down in Northfield at Brenton and Stephanie's house. I just so enjoy having all the kids and grandkids together.

Maybe the best highlight of all was the birth of our new grandson, Isaiah David, born 12/17/15 to Mardo and Carrie and big brother Micah.

As you can see, most of my highlights include being with family and friends. They are truly blessings!

I hope you've had a good year too.

Merry Christmas!

Summertime!

It's finally summer. We've been waiting and waiting for warm summer days so we can be on the lake, grilling meals on the Weber, and enjoying lots of visits from family and friends. While spring came fairly early this year, summer has been slower to arrive. I'm not complaining - I loved the cooler spring days and nights, when there weren't any mosquitoes or deer flies. But now it's July - time for summer!

I'm reminded of a song from "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" where Snoopy sings

It's suppertime. (click to hear the song on YouTube)
Yeah, it's suppertime.
Oh, it's sup-sup suppertime very best time of day.


Br-r-ing on the dog food, bring on the boneBring on the barrel and roll me home'Cause it's supperSupper, supper, supperSupperSuper, pepper upperSupperSuper duper suppertime


But in my mind I hear these lyrics:
It's summertime,
Yeah, it's summertime.
Oh, it's sum-sum-summertime very best time of year.

Bring on the boating, bring on the sun,
Bring all the grandkids, it's fun, fun, fun!
'Cause it's summer,
Summer, summer, summer,
Summer,
The best time ever!
Summer
Sum - sum Summertime!

Enjoy a few pictures of our summer so far.

Family Weekend

At the end of my Spring Break week was the best weekend ever - time spent with our kids and grandkids! We spent Friday afternoon and evening with our daughter,Carrie, and our grandson, Micah. On Saturday we picked them up and went to a robotics competition where my son-in-law (Carrie's husband, Mardo) was a coach. 

The robotics competition was so interesting! Teams of high school students had designed, built and programmed robots to perform the tasks necessary for the competition. Then the teams made alliances with other teams so that both could score more points during competition. Finally, with 3 teams on each side of the "ring" the robots (with the students directing them by remote control) raced against time to score as many points as possible. When the teams weren't competing they were in the "Pit", working on their robot or talking with spectators.  It sure was fun to see it all!

When we left the competition, Carrie took us to the Midtown Global Market for lunch. 

There was quite a bit to see at the market, and it reminded me of Antigua, Guatemala. 

I fell in love with this giraffe...

.....while Craig really liked this gas pump.

But the we both loved the food. After looking at all the food booths, we decided to eat Mexican. Carrie said that Mardo gave this place his "stamp of approval" when they had eaten here a few weeks earlier. He said that the food tasted like authentic Mexican food.

I decided to order the enchilada platter. Craig ordered the torta, a Mexican style sandwich. Everything was delicious!

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Later that afternoon we went to our meet our boys and their girlfriends for supper and a MN Wild hockey game on TV. We met them at our son's (Aaron) house and had a super evening.

Sunday was Easter. We started off the day by visiting our oldest son's church.  Brenton and Stephanie met us there. Brenton and his son, Andrew,  were volunteering in the nursery - so Micah stayed in there with them. Stephanie had gone to the earlier service, so after saying hello to us she, Jacob and Isabelle went home to start lunch. After church we all went back to their home - and Aaron, Jeff and their girlfriends met us there. We had a wonderful lunch - but the best part was having the whole family together. It was fun watching Isabelle give Micah an Easter egg hunt. It was great watching Jacob and Andrew play outside. It was so nice to see the "girls" - Stephanie, Carrie, Whitney, and Jamie- talk as they got the food ready, and to see Brenton, Aaron, Jeff and Mardo hanging out together. 

I just love being with my grown up children (and their spouses/girlfriends.) I am so thankful for the adults they've become. I appreciate their advice, enjoy their humor, love the fact that they care about each other, and most of all, I am so happy that they all are believers. They trust God, they pray and they believe in the power of prayer, and they are working at being the men and women that God wants them to be.

I  also love my grandchildren. They are beautiful kids, they are talented, they are loving, and they have great relationships with their parents.  

We ended the afternoon with a walk around Brenton and Stephanie's neighborhood. It was nice to be able to be outside together without needing boots, gloves, snow pants, etc. 

The perfect weekend after a perfect week. I am sorry it's over - but I have great memories because I have a great family! I am already looking forward to our next family gathering.... maybe on the 4th of July?

An Apple Orchard Today...

An Apple Orchard today was good medicine.  Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's our day in pictures.

Sweet Tango Trail

Don't you just love this little fox? (Our grandson, Micah)

Thanks, Carrie and Mardo, for letting me use some of your pictures in this post, and for coming with us to the orchard.

Fingerpaint Art

Whenever our grandchildren come to visit they always ask if we're going to do any art projects.  Isabelle loves making cards with my stamping stuff,,, and all the kids like using my Little Big Shot die-cutting machine. So we started out making washi tape egg garlands like the ones I saw on http://www.thetaylor-house.com/washi-tape-easter-egg-garland-tutorial/...

Our next project was to make flowers like these:

Our big project of the day, however, was to use fingerpaint to paint canvases. We got the idea from http://www.ourfamilyforhisglory.com/2012/03/one-of-my-favorite-art-projects-ever/

I bought this fingerpaint and canvases at WalMart. So we spread out newspaper on the table, and then each grandchild decided what design they wanted on their canvas. I used my Silhouete machine to cut the design out of vinyl. We positioned the design on the canvas and smoothed it down. Then it was time to paint!

We made sure that we covered the whole canvas with paint, and llet the paint dry a bit before peeling off the vinyl. 

Here are the canvases right after they were painted. The vinyl design is still on.

Here are the finished pictures!

These pictures were fun to make. Didn't they turn out cute!

Climbing Miner's Mountain

Our son, Brenton, and his kids are here to visit for the weekend. We decided this morning that we wanted an adventure, so we headed to Miner's Mountain.

Here's the view of Miner's Mountain from across the lake:

 Parts of the path were still covered with snow, but that didn't stop us. The kids kept an eye out for treasures along the way.

This hawk looked us over pretty good as we neared the top.

It took us about an hour to hike up there - and the view from the top was amazing!

I want to go back this summer and enjoy a picnic lunch on top of Miner's Mountain.

Summer is for family and fun!

We had a great time over the 4th of July with our family. All of our kids and grandkids came up and stayed for three days. It was so much fun to be together. The only person missing was our son-in-law, Mardo, who couldn't make the trip from Guatemala. I appreciate that he was willing to let Carrie and Micah come for a visit. I hope next year they'll all be here. I'd like to make this a family tradition.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

As you can see, we spent a lot of time on the water. Our "new" boat was great - it pulled skiers right up out of the water. Craig picked up a new tube that two people could go on together, and everyone loved it. Brenton, Stephanie and the kids spent some time fishing off the dock and they caught lots of little fish so everyone had fun. After the grandkids were put to bed each night, the adults gathered around the table for some great games of Wizard, Uno and Sequence. It was a great time!