Another Sunny Day at the Pool

Laura and Karl have missed each other while they were in their respective classes the last couple weeks, but they made up for lost time by having a great time together at the pool today. Now that Laura is becoming a super-swimmer (watch for a future post with more details), they have more fun than ever at Rush City's star attraction.

Laura spends hours (and I mean that literally) going down the slide, swimming to the pool stairs, then running back over to run up the water slide stairs to go down it again. And again. And again.

Karl likes the slide too, but he also likes the diving board, and has mastered the perfect diving form.

But he also likes just jumping in too.

Karl's Egyptian Treasure Camp at the Science Museum

Karl had a very busy week this past week. Every day Matt dropped him off at the Science Museum for a day-long class on ancient Egypt. He learned about hieroglyphs, built a treasure chest (he sawed and nailed his own pieces of wood to construct it!), and played soccer during breaks. After class, Matt would pick him up and take him back to his office, where Karl would "work" on the iPad (read: play solitaire).



Iggy the Iguana is outside the education wing of the Science Museum. The kids love Iggy.


On the way back to Matt's office one day, Karl posed with Herb Brooks.


The view from the Reuters break room.


Look! You can see the Science Museum from Matt's building!

Karl's Awesome Soccer Season

This past Thursday was Karl's last soccer game of the season, and he certainly put his all into every game. For the last week, Karl decided he wanted to try being goalie, since he had never been before (he's always thought being goalie involved way too much standing around, when he prefers running after/with the ball). Matt gave him a quick lesson in how to drop-kick, and Karl got the goalie gloves on. He was ready.

He soon learned that being goalie involves a lot of diving on top of the ball, which is one of his FAVORITE things to do in soccer. He made a lot of stops and also proved to be an excellent kicker! He'd fall on that ball and quickly drop-kick it to the other side of the field. He did so well that the coach from the other team came over to tell him what a good job he was doing! He got to be goalie for the first half of the game, and then it was back to running. Karl wants me to mention that he soon got a goal.

Here of some picture highlights of the season:



Karl had a t-ball game at the same time as his last soccer game, but he chose soccer because he knew he would go home with a trophy!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today we celebrated Mom and Aunt Carolyn's birthday at our house. Angie and Jason brought Chinese food from the Fortune House, (and I mean A LOT of food!), so those of you who weren't there missed out (unless your spouse was here and was sent home with leftovers).

The birthday girls. My mom is on the right.


Mom with Baby Adam


Mike, Dad, Mom, Matt, Jason


Peggy, Wyatt, Karl, Justin, Colin


At 3:00, the Twins crew headed to the TV room.

Happy Birthday, Mom. I hope you had a great day!

Laura at the Loft

The Loft is a hip place on Washington Avenue where all the serious writers go to work on their craft. They offer lots of classes and workshops, and this spring we found out they offer classes for kids! Naturally, Laura chose to do the weeklong day camp. She spent her days last week in classes with real authors, and produced some very good work.

She even got published! Here's a link to her illustrated story, "Hot Dog!"

On Friday, there was an open house where the kids in her class gave a reading for the parents. She read her exercise in dialogue:


One of her assignments, as she sat along the Mississippi River, was to write a story about the most creative thing she could think of that someone would find in the river. Today at my mom's birthday party at our house, she gave a dramatic reading. Here is the transcript (with the author's permission, of course):

I am a bra, floating on the river. I look light pink, and I sound like a bra. I taste like fabric. I got into the river because my owner threw me away. I sat at Target until someone bought me. I was put on the conveyer belt, I got put into a bag, and I was taken home. I was put into a drawer and that's when I met my friend, Underwear. Some days my owner would wear me, and I got a view of the inside of her shirt. Then one day she threw me into the river. Good thing I'm waterproof. Each day, I float down the river. People giggle and say, "Look, a bra in the river!" Good thing too. I love the river.

Karl's Summer of T-Ball/Baseball

This past week Karl had his last t-ball game, except they didn't use the tee this time, so it was really a baseball game!

I've always had to argue with Karl about tucking his shirt in, until he realized that all the Twins players tuck in their shirts and wear a belt without whining. Now he always tucks his shirt in, since he takes his sports very seriously.

Great season Karl!

A Weekend in Detroit

Last winter, whenever we told anyone we were going to Alabama in the spring, the inevitable follow-up question was, "Who do you know in Alabama?" Earlier this summer, whenever we told anyone we would be going to Detroit, it happened again: "Who do you know in Detroit?" This weekend we went to Matt's cousin's wedding in Detroit, and we had a great time!


Steve and Tanya were also there, so we got a nice brothers and sister shot.

The Mold siblings were there too, so we did the same thing with Barb, Craig, and Pam.

Matt with Greg, the groom.

Emily and Oma

Aly and Emily were my main dancing partners that night.

Not many people know this, but Steve can be quite inspirational for me. He's always been a very good influence...

I wish I had a picture of the groom AND bride, because Greg got really lucky to have such a great new wife!

P.S. The kids stayed at home with my parents. To see where they got to go, click here.

Cousins at the Pool

Aly and Emily stayed with Pam and Fred this past weekend, and you can't be in Rush City in the summertime without hitting the aquatic center! Emily was very happy to discover that she's officially tall enough to go on the big waterslide by herself, so now the adults can be lazy and just watch the kids climb all the stairs. Yay!

Colin's Soccer Game

Ok, so we haven't taken many good pictures of Karl at his soccer games, but we did go and watch Colin at his game last week, so I'm going to beat Angie to it and post pictures from that!

Colin is a very serious player. You do not want to get in his way!

Justin and Karl were buddies during the game, at least when Justin wasn't doting on his baby brother.


Laura has been very good at getting out of soccer and t-ball games this summer (she cons people into taking her to Perkin's), but sometimes she just can't get out of it. Here's the obligatory picture of how Laura watches sports.


Mom and Dad with the youngest grandbaby.


I try to hog Adam as much as possible. It's easy because he loves me so much.

I gave Karl the camera and secretly told him to take a picture of Angie when Colin scored a goal (Angie is a GREAT person to have cheering for you). It didn't take long until Colin scored, so now you can see how Angie reacts. Just wait until these kids are in high school!

Great game, Colin!

It's So Good Not to be at a Twins Game!

While the boys were at a Twins game, Pam and Laura hit the biking trails again. Laura has gotten to be quite the biker this summer. Once she got the biking bug, there's just no stopping her!

We're Going to Win Twins!

Fred, Matt, and Karl went to a Twins game on Sunday, and they got to watch an exciting game with a final score of Twin 9, Milwaukee Brewers 7. It was a gorgeous day, and they even got to sit in the shade for 7 innings. Ahhh, summmer.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of Brewers fans around. Good thing Karl is so good at talkin' smack.


Fred got to find out how fun it is to watch a baseball game with Karl.


Let's see, how many combinations of Meissner men can there be?