The Black Hills

This weekend we returned from our 2nd Annual camping vacation to the Black Hills. It was a good trip, if not a bit unconventional. Due to weather (lots of rain and cold) we didn't have a single night where we all gathered around the fire after dark. That's the best part of camping, so it was a little disappointing. We also had the joy of keeping Norah under raps. We learned two things last week: (1) she's really fast, and (2) she doesn't listen very well :-)

We did go to Sylvan Lake about every day. They have a somewhat easy 1 mile hike that takes you around the lake. We walked that trail and then would head to the beach to let Norah play in the sand and water. This was about the only thing we could do to keep her happy. We also ended up hiking to Harney Peak. It was a grueling hike for someone as out of shape as me, but it was awesome. Harney Peak is the highest point east of the Rockies and west of the Pyrenees. We got a bunch of pictures, but they are on the Nikon, so I'll download those later.

We took one day and went to Old McDonald's Farm. (See all the pics below). This was a small little place that had just about every kind of farm animal imaginable. They had chickens and turkeys just roaming free through the park and Norah immediately started chasing them.

Norah and Ellie hanging in grandpa's trailer

Norah and grandpa with the goats

Washing grandpa's truck. This went on for 3 days.

Um, that's just nasty.

Getting ready to hold some baby chicks.

Eagerly awaiting the start of the pig races

Playing at the beach

4th of July

We had a fun and exciting weekend. On Saturday we took Norah to Whitewater State Park to do some hiking and swimming. The Alderman family joined us for the day. We hiked up the 500 or so stairs on the Dakota Trail so Norah could get a good look over the park. She walked only about 20-30 steps before wising up and asking daddy to carry her the rest of the way. After that we headed over to the Chimney Rock Trail. It too was pretty much straight up, but she a lot more walking on that trail.


After we finished the two hikes we went to the beach and swimming area. Norah loved playing in the sand and in the water (which happened to be about 5 degrees above absolute zero). We got lots of great pictures of her playing in the water and on the beach with Isabelle, Alex, and Will.


Then on the 4th we went down to Stewartville to catch the parade. We were a little uncertain if we would stay since it was raining all day long. We stopped off at the Pizza Ranch first and had dinner since it was raining and we didn't want to sit out and get wet. It was still sprinkling after we finished and got downtown. But we stuck it out and it payed off. The rain stopped as soon as the parade started and then picked up again as soon as it was over. Norah was pretty stoic for the first 15-20 mins. I don't think she really knew what was going on. But then the horses came and she started waiving and screaming, she loved it! From that point on she had a great time. She is still a little too young to understand the candy aspect of the parade, so I made sure I collected for her :-)

Jamie already has Norah on the bottle (don't worry, it was empty)

waiving to the horses

this was before she got excited, as you can tell.

This sucker lasted her the entire parade!

Finally, having a good time

Mmmmmmm

One piece of flair...

Lots of flair! We told Tim Walz to take his sticker and "stick it".

Update: We had the pictures from Whitewater on a different computer since I used the super-duper expensive camera. Here are a few of those.

Up to Chimney Rock.

My favorite from the beach.

Walk For Life

What an eventful day. It started this morning at 4:15am. That's right, read that as three hours before people should start their days. It didn't matter that I put Norah down an hour later last night to hopefully get her to sleep past 5:30. But she spited me by getting up an hour and half earlier.

After the early start, we went up to Como Park for the New Life fundraiser. It started out overcast, but turned out to be a great day (if you consider 85 degrees, 90% humidity, and no cloud cover great). We met Norah's birth mom there, as well as an uncle, 2 aunts, and 2 cousins. We had an absolute blast walking around the lake for the Walk For Life. Norah spent the first half in the stroller, but finished out strong walking probably the last half mile all by herself.

After the walk we spent about an hour just sitting and talking with Sarah and her family. It was fun to get to know them. And they got to see Norah running all over the park and playing with two cousins she had never met. Speaking of which, Norah has a pretty sweet setup. She's got grandma's, grandpa's, aunts, uncles, and cousins on Jamie and my side of the family. But she also has all those from her birth mom's family. Like I said, pretty sweet deal.

After all that fun, we all went to Snuffy's. I had never heard of it before, but it was great. It was an old-style malt and burger shop. After that, we headed back to Rochester. Only problem is that we got home and starting about 6:30 tonight Norah started puking her guts out. Luckily Jamie was in the leather chair, so no major damage, just don't plan on sniffing the carpet in front of the chair :-)

Norah and her "new" cousin Luke

Sitting with Sarah after the walk.

Her new cousin Olivia.

Giving cousin Olivia a good-bye kisses.

Diaper Wearing Baseball Star

We found out yesterday that some wanker(s) stole the baseball bag out of my truck. It had two bats, my glove, cleats and all baseball related equipment. I was not real happy yesterday. Luckily, the $275 glove I bought when I played at Taylor was in the house so I still have that one. Buts its an infielders glove and doesn't do so well with softballs. So yesterday we headed down to Dick's Sporting Goods. I told Jamie, at the very least, I need to buy a cup before our game on Monday. So I got my much needed cup and a new pair of cleats. I was proud of myself though, they were the cheapest pair of baseball shoes I've bought in my entire life. They cost the same as what my Walter Payton kangeroos cost when I was in the 3rd grade... $35. The difference, I think I just scored a sweet deal, but I remember my mom nearly flipping out when I asked for $30 shoes 25 years ago.

Then we decided to have some fun:

Surviving the Storm

Well, we just experienced probably the worst storm I've ever been in last night and lived to tell about it. Luckily Norah was asleep and, amazingly, never woke up. It showed up around 9pm last night and brought with it torrential rains and unbelievable winds. It was raining so hard you really couldn't even see the neighbors house across the street. Then, almost instantly, the winds came. The reports are that winds topped out around 78mph in NW Rochester, and I believe it. The rain was going straight sideways... thats when we decided to head to the basemment ASAP.

We didn't sustain any house damage that I can see, which is amazing. There are numerous trees in our neighborhood that snapped like toothpicks, the biggest one was probably about 10" in diameter. We did loose the canopy on our deck though. The wind was so strong it snapped the 4 straps holding it down and tossed if off the upper deck. When we assessed the damage this morning there was no chance for a recovery. I pronounced it dead at the scene.

At about 10pm I headed over to the Kelm househould to help out. They faired much worse. All the front windows were blown out, and a couple in the back as well. Not to mention their garage door now looks like a fruit roll-up. It was incredible the damage in their neighborhood. The house behind them was missing its roof!!! From the looks of the soffet in front, their roof was closing to getting ripped off as well.

I already took the canopy off, but here's one leg.

Side view, with canopy laying in the back.

Where it came from and where it ended up.

RIP beloved canopy (2008-2010), you served us well.

Tilt your head 90 degrees left to see the 3 branches destroyed on our neighbors tree.

Wide angle view of the huge branch that snapped off this huge oak.

Broken Appliances and a Smile that Saves

About a month ago Jamie and I were standing in the basement when the furnace kicked on. All of a sudden we heard this annoying high pitched squeal coming from the furnace. I narrowed it down to the induction motor, but decided at that point it was time to call in the pros. They came and fixed it, but not before leaving us with a nice hefty bill. And you know what they say, when it rains it pours.

We noticed a couple of days ago that the contents in our upright freezer were not frozen solid like they should be. I monitored the freezer for the next 24 hours and noticed that while it appeared to be running, it wasn't keeping the food frozen. Not surprising considering this freezer was made before I was born I'm sure. We ended up getting a brand new upright from Lowe's yesterday, and dang, those things are expensive!!! The only part that I was okay with is that we did get a "deal." They knocked off 10% right from the start since it was an Energy Star freezer (as a side note, since our old freezer was built in the 60's, the sheet says this one should save us over $80/yr in electric bills, another score). We also just got a $25 off card in the mail if you spend more than $250. So we cashed that bad boy in. We also got a $25 rebate from the local electric company for using an Energy Star appliance. And we paid with Discover, which is paying 5% cash back on purchases from Home Improvement stores right now. So, all in all, my miser side was appeased with all the savings.

Yesterday Norah and I went down to the farmers market with our friend Pico and something happened there that just absolutely made my day. I had Norah in our stroller and I was just pushing her through the market. She, like usual, was just waiving and smiling at everyone. At one point we came to this one stand with a guy who was probably 85 years old. He was just sitting on the bed of his truck with a bit of a scowl, but mainly just a dazed look on his face. He looked like an old guy that just needed a friend to be honest. Well, we come rolling by and Norah gives this old guy a huge smile and starts waiving to him. You could just see the fog lift off this old man's face. He just looked at her for a second, then scowl vanished, then a slight smile. Then he even started waiving back and saying hi to Norah. It was just one of those times where a dad hopes his kid always has the ability to brighten someone's day like that, it was pretty sweet.

And here's a couple photos from a couple of weeks ago when we took Norah in for pictures. Enjoy.

This is a favorite of mine since I don't think we've ever seen this face before.

Dancing, like she always does.

Dear Lord, please make them put the camera away.

(Workin' at the) car wash

Today Norah decided to help daddy wash the van. I think she ended up drinking more water from the sponge and getting more water on her clothes than she did on the van, but she sure had fun. And looked cute doing it.

She dried the sponge by sucking on it, so she needed more water.

This is our favorite, look at that smile.