Helping a buddy

Last week's 10-inch rainfall in southern Minnesota hit hard in Owatonna, where Rich's bicycling friend Steve lives with his wife, Chris. When we found out Steve's basement filled up with four feet of water, four of us drove down on Sunday to see if we could help out. When we arrived, Steve had already been hard at work dragging soaked furniture and materials out into his driveway. County bulldozers and dump trucks were going house to house to clear away the debris.


Suzanne, Julie, Steve and Rich take a break from cleaning out the basement.








The Straight River, behind Steve's house, rose 10 feet in four hours early last Thursday morning. When we were there, it had returned to its banks.


If you look close, you can see how high the water went on Steve's house. The waterline is just below the white siding.

This house is three doors down from Steve's house, and as you can see, the river punched right through the foundation of the house.






A few days ago, these four would have been under water!






Julie was stylin' in her 30-year-old moon boots!








I'm not sure just what I was thinking here.

Twins clinch A.L. Central

Rich took Noah to his first Twins game at Target Field on Tuesday night. It was a 6-4 victory for the Twins over Cleveland, and we got to see the Twins' Jim Thome hit his 589th career home run AND Twins manager Ron Gardenhire's 800th career victory. The fact that the Twins later clinched their division (and a playoff spot) only made it sweeter. Go TWINS!

Back to preschool

Sarah started her second year of preschool on Monday! She's in the Discovery 4's program this year with about 12 other children, including Sammi, a little girl who was in her class last year. Here's Sarah in the car on the way to her first day.






The traditional picture in front of the school before the first day.














It's DRESS-UP TIME!