Rush City Music Festival

For the past several summers, Rush City has hosted a music festival, and it is never very good, but we are a small town so we do our best. Yesterday was the second annual 5-mile run/walk (I missed the race last year because I was sick with swine flu). The walkers started at 8:00, even though the "website" (yes, those quotation marks are intentional) said 8:30, so there were some walkers who started with the eight of us who ran (and why would they start the walkers first anyway? My head is full of questions about the whole thing). This is how the race started: a woman stood at the "starting line" and said, "ok, ready....go!" and started the stopwatch on her phone. We had to run a 2.5 mile loop twice, which included juking and jiving through the seating area they were setting up in front of the stage, and running through standing puddles in the fairgrounds. When we finished, we were rewarded with a bottle of warm water! It was quite sad.

On the bright side, my running buddy Penelope was there to watch me run. I didn't run with her in the race because, you know, it's hard to run with a dog in a crowd of people... but really I wasn't sure how she'd do in a distance race, because she's more used to the slow plodding training runs we do.

The day did get better. We went back for lunch at the Music Fest and it was very tasty! Also, we spotted Fred's car in the car show. I wonder if Fred ever imagined his grandkids posing in front of this car when he bought it in 1968. That would probably have blown his mind.

Pam and Fred had Aly and Emily for the weekend, so the day got even better when Laura and Karl joined them! Here they are at a playground:

The weekend was chock-full of fun in Rush City, because today was the Big Splash at the Pool, and the cousins got to hang out together again. I will say that I love our pool and will do anything to help it out, so I'm glad we had a sunny hot day and a great turnout for the event. Karl, Laura, Aly, and Emily (yes, the goofy-faced children in this picture are mine).

Water Park of America to the Rescue!

It was a rainy, cloudy, grey day on Wednesday, so we took advantage and met our waterpark buddies (a.k.a. the Elliotts) at the Waterpark of America. It was a last minute decision which Laura appreciated, because she said she wouldn't have been able to sleep the night before had she known where she would be going the next day!

We walked up thousands of stairs (there's my obligatory comment about stairs, Laura) and took so many rides on the family raft ride that Laura, Karl, Colin, Jason, and I all had our assigned spots in the tube and knew exactly where to sit when our turn came up.  It was also a great day because the lines weren't long!

Too bad my pictures aren't better, but you'll just have to use your imagination. I've been waiting for the Elliotts to post to their blog so I could steal their pictures, but they're being slower than I am!

Laura gave a big thumbs up as soon as we got there.

Karl and Colin

Here's the only picture I managed to get of all four kids. Little stinker Justin didn't want to sit.

This is what Laura looked like at the end of the afternoon. Those were four tuckered-out kids!

Camp Runestone for Young Wizards

This past week it was Laura's turn to go to (day) camp. She also took a class through the Science Museum, but it was held at Hamline University. It was basically science for book lovers, because she spent the week going to different classes to discuss the science behind books like Harry Potter and doing different projects based on characters in literature. All the campers even had "dorms," which was the students' designated spots in a big lecture hall. Needless to say, Laura had a blast!

On Friday, there was an open house. Here we are sitting in Laura's "dorm."

 

Laura made a "polyjuice" concoction, and we were supposed to guess which three juices she combined. I was right! It was pineapple, apple, and grape, which actually tasted pretty good.

Here are Laura and Karl, both in their Science Museum Camp t-shirts, at Hamline. I'm so proud of my two little scientists!

A Sweaty Weekend

Yesterday we went to the Minnesota Zoo (or, as we say at our house, "the new zoo") basically because it was my weekend off and now we're obligated to go on outings whenever I don't have to work. It was very hot. And humid. And we were reminded that our son does not handle those conditions very well. Poor Karl. First we were going to go to Duluth, which he was all excited about because he loves Lake Superior. But we changed our minds and went to the zoo. But at least he could ride the monorail...well, no, we decided not to ("it's so boring," says Laura). But at least we could see the Hubble space movie in IMAX 3D... uh, whoops, we missed the last show.

So, our zoo trip wasn't as fabulous as we had planned, but we did get to tour the zoo's farm! They have cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, and a real cornfield! We can't see any of that stuff in Rush City! It was all very exotic. Well worth the 75 miles we had to drive to see it.

 

 

Today we celebrated summer birthdays at Lake Johanna near Angie and Jason's. We had a great time, but it was very hot again (and, no, I don't want to hear from anyone living in Alabama that it's hotter down there. It's supposed to be. We're not built to take that kind of heat up here!). Matt was nice enough to point out that I had sweat through the back of my shirt. I had to remind him that I never sweat unless I'm exercising, and even then it's just my body's way of glistening for effect.

At least today we were at a lake! The kids took full advantage. Here, Karl, Damon, and Colin vie for the football while Laura looks on, laughing at how silly boys can be.

Dad and Bryan, before the flies attacked (that's seriously how we decided it was time to go home; when the flies got too bitey).

Shout out to Laura, who is always hot and never once complained about it this weekend--you rock! I, on the other hand, am always cold, but did not handle this weekend's weather very well (I forgot to mention the severe storm warning last night that sent us all to the basement. Not cool. I don't think I have any apples left on my trees.) Oh well, this is going to be a great week! Stay tuned!

Slimy Stretchy Science

Karl is taking a class at the Science Museum this week called "Slimy Stretchy Science." He's having fun concocting all kinds of ooey-gooey experiments. Today Laura and I brought him to St. Paul and hung out together while he was in class.

First we went to Laura's favorite place in St. Paul.

Then we went to see the movie "Arabia" at the Omni Theater. By that time it was time to pick up Karl. After class we were going to walk over to Matt's office to meet him for lunch, but he surprised us at the Science Museum, so he took a picture of the three of us.

Did you know they installed a bench just for Laura in Rice Park?

And a statue for Karl too!

We ate our lunch on the 29th floor of Matt's building. As you can see, their dress code is very loose. I thought Matt dressed casually for work, but then I saw his boss's boss (as in the head of the whole Reuters St. Paul office) come into the lunchroom wearing a tie-dyed shirt, shorts, and Birkenstocks. Whatever. Computer geeks are not known for their snazzy dressing I guess.