Plants

Just a few pictures from around our house. I've gotten a little bit into gardening this summer.

Here are the front walkway hostas, given to us by our neighbor, and evergreens which will hopefully add some color during the long winter. Lately a few of the spring flowers have budded again. Strange.

Double impatience. Which does great in the shade but super wilts in the afternoon sun.
Astatic lilies. Which were just beautiful in bloom.
The sweet william was planted from seeds (thanks, Heather). Doing really well, but have yet to bloom.

2 lilac bushes which should bloom next Spring (behind Mikey). Hopefully preventing kids from falling down into the basement well.Mikey diggin up the rocks.Our little herb garden dried up and died before we could harvest it. I'll have to try something else next summer... the herb growing wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I think it just got too much sun. And was I supposed to thin them out? I think that added to their death as well.

Olmsted County Fair

How do you know when you're out of the big city? When you go to the local county fair located 5 minutes away. It just sounds like something out of a novel or movie to me. We went last night and had a blast. Loved the small town atmosphere, little vendors, and all the animals- cows, cows, and more cows, belgian horses (these were huge show horses and just beautiful), goats, sheep, rabbits, llamas, pigs, pigeons, and chickens. It was the first time Dan or I had ever seen the livestock competitions (well, that I can remember anyhow). It was neat to watch the judge silently walk around and measure the sheep and point to those that won. Then she would explain why she chose certain ones to win. Really interesting and personal as there was only like a crowd of 30 or so sitting watching. So, we sampled some yummy food, watched a few competitions, and played some carni games. What a night. We took way too many pictures. I was just going to post up a few of the highlights, but as I got to choosing a few, I ended up with just too many. Thought I might as well do a slide show again. The above picture is Mikey dancing on top of the car trunk right before we headed home. He was so excited the whole night. What a nut.

Camping with Raccoons

Summer camping. How wonderful. One of our favorite things to do together as a family. Once Dan returned from China we were all set on going but it was just getting hotter and hotter outside. We were thinking we might not get a chance for camping during his remaining 3 weeks of break. However, on the last day of June there was a slight turn of the weather -night temperatures were forecast to be in the low 50s- so we packed up our little car and headed out for a night. Decided to head to Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park (which is about 45 miles south of Rochester). We found a nice little, secluded campsite and set up camp, then headed out to experience the Mystery Cave catching the last tour of the evening. The cave was, well, a cave. Interesting things to see, but not super impressively huge like other caves I've been to. Formation after formation and very educational. Seemed like something in a quaint, little town.. Which it was. We only saw a portion of the cave- it supposedly is one of the bigger ones out there but seen mostly through spelunking I suppose. Our little one hour tour was nice with only about 6 others in our group and a paved walkway for the stroller. Great for us and our little 2 year old. Dan took a million pictures so if you want to virtually walk through the tour (I think he got every inch covered) let me know and I'll hook you up with all the pictures. Otherwise a few of the highlights of the cave are featured in the slideshow below.

That evening we had a few raccoons visits our campsite. At least we think they were raccoons. It wasn't the baby moving that kept me up, or the uncomfortable air mattress, it was these really strange grunting and wrestling noises coming from outside. Like all night long. Weird. Nothing of ours was ruined so I guess it's fine. Michael didn't hear them or see them but we told him about how they visited our campsite that night. A few nights later Dan told him a bedtime story about the raccoons. Now every night before he goes to bed he asks for Daddy to tell him the "raccoon story." Dan recounts the events of the camp out and makes the raccoon family very adventurous. Mikey loves it. When we went to the Minnesota Zoo a few weeks ago, I think his favorite exhibit was the raccoons. Ironic. Post more about the zoo adventure later. For now, enjoy the pictures below from our little camp out.

(Click on pictures to enlarge. For a full screen slideshow, after clicking on the picture, select the "Slideshow" text to the right of the picture -in Picasa under the "Download Photo"text).

Butterfly Beauties

Apparently Rochester is known to have several species of butterflies. I read in a local magazine about an activity last month where the community could help count how many were out and about. We missed that (because I forgot about it) but today I think Mikey and I saw some of the most beautiful butterflies ever. We were out playing in his little, well big, swimming pool and he stoped playing to look at this big black and yellow butterfly flying nearby (good thing he noticed it). I've never seen one so beautiful and big except at like Moody Gardens in Galveston where you pay to see them in the man-made rainforest. Michael was fascinated and kept pointing to them. After a while we saw about 4 or 5 different ones flying around. So beautiful. One butterfly found a nice place on the grass and sat there for a while; long enough for me to get some pictures. You can barely see the yellow underneath his wings, but the blue and yellow mix with his wing flutter was so pretty. Michael wasn't very happy that I wouldn't give him the camera after he saw me taking pictures of the butterfly. He was chasing me and crying as I tried to take a few shots of him with his new pool. We'll have to get some better shots of him playing in the pool another time -when he's happy and not ready for his afternoon nap.

Backyard Video

This is Michael exactly one month ago - June 24, 2007. About this time, Michael thought he was a pro walker. Looking back, however, I see how shaky and woobly he was. Of course I am still the proudest mother and even more so now that he's much better. We went to Dan's first opening social picinic tonight on a professor's 6 acre plot of land. It was beautifully landscaped and Michael loved chasing after the 2 dogs and big, fluffy cat all around the yard. We were out walking the other day a lady with her golden retriever walked by. He got so excited yelling- "uuhh, uuhh," while pointing to the dog. He got his first big doggie kiss from him. Michael was a bit taken back, but loved grabbing the dog's fur and poking at his face. He loves animals. Well, in the video you can see our backyard and hear Mikey talking a bit, so I thought I'd include this little video for fun. Enjoy.

Choo Choo!

Although Dan has started school, Michael and I have just begun experiencing summer in Rochester. We have been checking out all the parks, going to the library Summer children's concerts, magic shows, and plays, swimming in his new kiddie pool, and playing outside. His newest fascination is chasing ants around the sidewalk. As I am sure it is with all kids, he endlessly points to the front, back, and garage door at all hours of the day wanting to go out. A while ago he took his little Sing & Go Choo Choo Train set with him outside. After having fun pushing around his walker toys, he realized the end cart with a litte bar for the monkey to swing on makes a perfect miniature walker. He can't quite figure out how to walk with it though, because it is too short. He has compensated by crawling along behind it and pushing it on his knees. It's just too cute! Here's a little video of him chugging along behind the train.

Summer Hiking

So, it has been about 2 months since Dan decided to start this family blog and I finally found a minute tonight to play around with the layout/template and finally post something! Summer is here and we have been taking some beautiful hikes together, mainly to shed a few pounds and build a little muscle. Yesterday's hike was our third and Dan thought it would be great to summit Squaw Peak Trail- and I thought it'd be cool too. So not knowing how long it would be or anything about the trail, we took the fork in the road and started what would be our 3.5 hour ascent. After reaching a clearing and thinking we had reached the mountain ridge, the trail just kept on going; up, up, up (mind you we are carrying our little 20lb Mikey pack and practically dying by this point). So we took a little detour and pushed our way through some mountain brush and reached the edge. Had the most gorgeous view from where ever we ended up. Saw three mountain goats, cliffs, rolling hills, and the whole valley below us. So beautiful. Dan calulated the whole hike to be about 10 miles total and traced our path on Google Earth (see his blog for more details and some cool pictures). The 1.5 hour decent was a killer on our knees, feet, and quads, but overall it was a wonderful hike. Just so happens that Dan saw some good deal on hiking shoes today for like $9.90 each originally $120 or something, so at least we have some nice feet support coming our way. It's starting to get hotter during the days here, so our goal is a 7am hike tomorrow. We'll see what happens...