We signed up Sarah for a month-long pee-wee soccer program to give her something to do this summer, and she started practices today!
Sarah's team is called "The Patriots," and they will play a few informal games at the end of the month-long program. She got a yellow team shirt today!
The team lines up for a dribbling drill with Coach Mitchell.
Putting the balls away after practice. Walking home with Sarah, she told me, "Daddy, the coach gives us too much to do!"
On Sunday night we ate dinner at It's Greek to Me with old Gordon family friends Gary and Rosie. Sarah had spent most of last week hanging out with them at Grandma and Grandpa Gordon's cabin while they were visiting there, so she knew them well. Gary and Rosie bought Sarah a piece of artwork entitled "Little Miss Sunshine," and Rosie signed the back of the art for Sarah.
Rosie, Sarah and Gary with "Little Miss Sunshine," which is now hanging on Sarah's bedroom wall. Thanks, Gary and Rosie!
Gary kept Lucas and Noah on their toes with questions like, "So are you guys in a gang?" Here they are flashing their gang signs.
Rich rode in the 36th annual Jaunt with Jim Klobuchar bike ride last week with 150 other zany characters. The trip started with a visit to family friends Shirley and Elmer in Fountain, Minn.
We spent a good portion of our trip in clouds and rain, but at least it was warm! Here's a neat section of the Root River bicycle trail in SE Minnesota, where we spent a lot of our time riding.
Everything was wet the first few days, including these leaves at one of our rest stops in Lanesboro.
Rich, Steve, Warren and Tim hold up a building in Lanesboro.
The Three Amigas: Julie, Rhonda and Mary.
Rich, Mary and Ed pose for a shot at the longest bridge on the Root River Trail, just northeast of Lanesboro. Part of the trail near here was washed out in a flood a few years ago, but it was rebuilt.
This is Mary's piece of blubarb pie at the pie shop in Whalan, where lots of us ate. We could sit at the table and watch the hummingbirds at the feeders outside the windows.
Thirsty hummers.
Ed had a bad day. He had a flat tire on the trail a few miles outside of Rushford and spent at least a half-hour trying to find an intact tube that would fit his rim. We finally got him going.
Mary and Rich spent part of the second day finding geocaches hidden along the trail. At one near Houston, our camping stop on the second day, we traded for a brand-new pack of UNO cards that must have been made in China ... they were FLIMSY!
We had mostly dry (but cloudy) conditions for riding on the third day, which went from Houston to La Crescent, Minn. Here are Curt and Suzanne enjoying the bluffs on their tandem bike. These two were married at the Little Brown Church in Nashua, Iowa, then drove to the start of the ride in Chatfield, Minn. Congrats!
Gettin' a little zany and riding in the oncoming traffic lane to get a picture. Don't worry, there were no cars around at the time!
Rich poses with Jim Klobuchar, the Conductor of the ride.
Al (in Marine green) and his daughter Jenna (in blue) ride in a paceline to a rest stop on the Mississippi River near Brownsville, Minn.
"We made it to the Mississippi! OK, now where are the snacks?"
After arriving in La Crescent on the third day and showering and setting up our tents (in the rain), many of us took a bus across the river to La Crosse, Wis., where we went for a two-hour river cruise on the La Crosse Queen riverboat.
This just HAD to be one of the rowdier tables on the riverboat cruise. We ate pizza, drank pop or beer, and played a wild card game called "Golf." John cheated. ;-)
Julie and John.
A great view downriver from the stern of the La Crosse Queen. We went upriver beneath the I-90 bridge to the lock and dam near there, then turned around and went back down to La Crosse.
On our day off in La Crescent, a bunch of us decided to get in some extra miles and rode across the river into La Crosse again. We climbed Bliss Road some 590 feet to get to the top of Grandad Bluff, where we got a great view of the surrounding area. Here are Bob, Steve, Tim, Rich, Suzanne and Curt.
Trying to dry out our tents and belongings proved to be quite a challenge during the first half of the ride. Here, Mary threatens to use Rich's water bottle to drench all of his stuff again.
Our fourth day of riding had us climb north out of La Crescent to an old rail station that a man named Joe Ready had hauled to the top of the bluffs. Here's the view: In the distance are the small town of Dresbach, Minn., and the Mississippi River, nearly 1,000 feet below. It was really fun racing down the hill back to the river afterward.
Jenna and Steve in the paceline from Dresbach to Winona. A few of us saw a squashed rattlesnake on the side of the road!
This is one of the many churches in beautiful Winona, Minn., where we finally got some serious sunshine and dried out all of our tents and belongings.
Rhonda always dresses to the nines for our final dinner together as a group, and this year was no exception!
Sarah went to the dentist with her twin brothers a couple weeks back. It was her first trip to the dentist, and she did great! (She wanted the "free" stuff the dentist would give her, like new toothbrush and toothpaste.)
The chair goes back...
Sarah got to wear some sunglasses to keep the bright light out of her eyes.
She was so relaxed, she even had her legs crossed!
