Some cute kitties, and a trip to the Lost Forty

Sarah and her kitty-cat cousin, Peyton! Erin painted the kitty faces for them.


Lucas got a lift on Grandpa and Grandma Gordon's new pickup truck during our family trek to visit the Lost Forty, a small area in Minnesota that somehow missed being logged back in the day. Some of the trees there are HUGE, and are 300 or more years old.



Here's some of the gang doing some tree-hugging!



The peak fall colors have passed, but it's still pretty.



Roger and Gloria gettin' back to nature.

Some more of the great outdoors

Gloria, Libby, Rich and the boys stayed behind to search for two geocaches in the Lost Forty area, and had a great time! In addition to finding both caches -- including Libby's first ever -- we found some great scenery.


Noah found what looks like a beaver skull. He's going to have Grandma Gordon bleach it for him so he can take it to school and show his classmates.

Aunt Ellaina visits

Ellaina flew in from Oregon last week for her 20-year high school reunion, and we got to see her a couple of times before she had to go home. Sarah hasn't seen her auntie since Christmas, but she warmed up to her right away! Rich stole this picture from Ellaina's website ... thanks, E!

Playing catch-up

Whew! We have to get caught up on the events of the past month! Here are Caleb, Noah and Lucas on their first day of the 2007-2008 school year. Noah is in sixth grade this year, and the twins are in third grade. Noah and Caleb are going to play hockey this winter, and we signed Lucas up for a five-week basketball clinic. Also, Noah has announced he is going to learn how to play the saxophone in the school band.



We cleaned out the minivan one day last month, and Sarah crawled in and decided to pretend she was driving it. The funniest part came when she turned up the radio real loud and startled herself!



When Rich found out that none of our Russian neighbor kids had ever been flying, he just had to take them and their mom, Malvina, up for a short ride. With so many people, we had to take two flights.



Malvina's new baby daughter went for a ride, too, and she even fell asleep during the flight!





Daniel and Mark, ready for takeoff. We flew over our houses!

Tons of fun at Valleyfair

As part of Noah's 11th birthday today, Grandma and Grandpa Gordon took our entire family to Valleyfair in Shakopee for 10 hours of amusement park rides. Here, Sarah's crazy driving doesn't seem to faze Caleb in the slightest!



Rich, Sarah and Lucas enjoyed their ride on the big ferris wheel...



... and so did grandma and grandpa! Awwwww!



One of Sarah's favorite rides was the hot-air balloon ride! Grandpa took her on it several times.


Sarah and big brother Noah took a break from all the fun. Again, awwww!

Glub glub glub

Grandma and Grandpa Gordon were in town for a couple of days, and they offered to take the boys and Sarah to the Richfield pool today! Here, Noah, Lucas and Caleb take a break from splashing and dunking each other to have their picture taken.



Erin stayed home to get some extra sleep and decompress from yesterday's zoo visit, so daddy got to have Sarah all to himself ... well, at least when grandma and grandpa weren't giving her hugs and kisses!



What a cutie-pie!



Even when he's snoozing, grandpa likes to have his grandkids pull his finger!



Sarah absolutely LOVES shoes! Here she takes Grandma Gordon's shoes for a spin.

A day at the zoo

We all had the day off Sunday, so we decided to go see the Minnesota Zoo (Sarah's first time at a zoo). Here Erin and our brood pose in front of some caribou ... they're back there, trust me!



Sarah fed a baby goat!



Lucas poses in a small earth-moving machine.



"Hey! Who farted?!"



Sarah's favorite part of the zoo was splashing in the fountain out front as we were leaving.

Weekend at Bowstring

Our entire family spent last weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Gordon's cabin on Bowstring Lake. Even though the lake is still low, we managed to spend quite a bit of time on the boat! Sarah received her very first boat ride on Saturday the 28th, and she loved it!


Another first, this one for Noah. He popped up on waterskis on his very first attempt, and from that moment on, that's all he wanted to do all weekend! Sorry for burning most of the gas out of your boat, Grandpa!


Lucas and Gus are good buddies.



We spent part of Saturday in Grand Rapids, wandering around the swap meet there and looking at lots of classic cars. Sarah watched it all from her stroller, with a sucker in her mouth.

Sarah the Social Butterfly

Sarah got to stay with Grandma and Grandpa Gordon over this past weekend, and on Monday night they took her to a reunion at her great-aunt Sue and great-uncle Gary's cabin near Remer, MN. Here Sarah and her Grandma Wynne watch her cousins Peyton and Zane play in the sandbox.



Sarah with both of her grandmas. They don't spoil her AT ALL!



Sarah with both of her loving grandpas.



Aunt Libby feeds Sarah a snack. Mmmm-mmmm good!


Sarah is pushing the envelope on height! At her 15-month checkup last month, she stood 33 inches tall and is in the 98th percentile for height.

Erin's 20-year reunion

We drove to Jamestown a couple of weekends ago for the festivities surrounding Erin's 20-year class reunion, and Rich finally got to meet many of Erin's friends from her high school days. Here, Robyn, Lara, Sonja, Erin and Rich hang out at The Brass Rail.



If only we had met in high school...


Classmates brought their children to the family picnic on Sunday, and Erin rented an inflatable jumping gym for the kids to play in. Here, it looks like she's breaking up a fight between Sarah and another kid! On the right, Rich eagerly waits for his turn. :)

Summer scenes

After dropping Sarah off at the sitter's and visiting our financial planner, Erin and I ate pizza at Fat Lorenzo's Restaurant and then took in a view of downtown Minneapolis at a water tower known as "The Witch's Hat."



Sarah has been sharing her new new froggy sandbox with our neighbor kids, whose parents came from Belarus a few years ago. From left are Mark, Daniel, Erin, Karina and Janet. The neighbor kids speak Russian and English, and Karina (who will be going into third grade with Caleb and Lucas) helps translate a bit when we speak with her parents.



Another shot.
It's been slow going for Rich in painting our backyard fence, but it will be worth it when it's finished. Painting with a brush is the way to go ... the sprayer doesn't get the paint into the wood nearly as well.

Jaunt with Jim 2007

Rich just got back from the 33rd annual "Jaunt with Jim Klobuchar" bike ride. This year we rode 400 miles around the Iron Range in northern Minnesota, starting and ending in Beaver Bay on the North Shore. Here's Rich atop the Skibo Overlook with the eastern Iron Range behind him.



At a rest stop in Tower, Minn., Rich climbed on an old steam locomotive with friends Al and Mary.



This year's trip was HOT! We dealt with practically no rain. Here a bunch of us relaxed after lunching on sloppy joes in Cook, Minn.



Here's Rich with old friend Bob Lincoln at the Hull-Rust Mine Pit near Hibbing, Minn. This mine is the largest open-pit mine in the world, and is nearly two miles wide!



A beautiful sunset on the last night of our ride in Hoyt Lakes, Minn.

House gets a facelift

This past week we've had five college kids crawling around our house, giving it a new exterior paint job. We went away from the old "beach sand" yellow and chose a green and white paint scheme Erin saw on a new house in Brooklyn Park. Last Friday we took the whole family over to that house to see it, and Erin even got out and asked the owner if we could use our paint swatches to "borrow" their scheme. This picture shows the completed job, minus the shutters, which will be a dark gray-green.

A walk in the park (front yard)

Sarah has turned into a walking SUPERSTAR!!! Here she takes a spin in the front yard on a beautiful sunny day. Look at that determination ... her tongue's out!



For a daddy, there's nothing like holding your daughter's hand while she walks!



Gettin' cuter every day!