Caturday: "How can I murder that little white dog?!?"

I think I need to play with Pippa a little more. Her belly is starting to hang over the ledge!

Happy Birthday Peggy!

Peggy's birthday was last Wednesday, so those of us who could met her for lunch in St. Croix Falls.

Peggy and Wyatt

Wyatt and Justin

Angie and Adam

Mom and Justin


Dad and me

A Week with Howard

While Mom and Dad were basking in the sun with Mike and Lamiae in San Antonio, Howard came to stay with us for a week. He and Penelope are pretty good buddies, and Penelope was actually excited when I brought Howard home. He's calmed down quite a bit since we had him, and I had a lot of fun giving him hair cuts!

Howard basically followed Penelope around wherever she went. Since Penelope follows me everywhere I go, I had a bigger entourage than usual while he was here.


Howard had never seen a cat before, so he was very curious about Pippa. Luckily Pippa is not easily scared, because at first Howard barked whenever he saw her. They slowly came to an understanding that the other was ok, but it was obvious that Pippa wasn't too fond of this little white dog.


Whenever Penelope went outside, so did Howard. I let him off his line a few times to run around, and it was really cute to see Howard's little legs romping around the yard and barking back at the German Shepherds next door.

Bath time!


Clean and pretty!

While Howard was a very good boy when he stayed with us, we all sighed in big relief when he was reunited with his mommy!

Mini Golf in Scandia

Karl had been asking every bloomin' day if we could go mini golfing. "I've always wanted to go!" he'd say, even though he's been several times. When a Groupon for mini-golfing at Eko Backen popped up in my email, I bought it, thinking that I'd heard of Eko Backen, lots of people go there, it must be a decent place, and it would be a great way to fulfill Karl's lifelong dream. Let's just say that Eko Backen may be better suited for its main attraction of snow tubing…

Even though it was October, it was actually a lovely day. As you can see, a little lovelier than the golf course.


Laura was a true sport and golfed too.


We found out the men in our family get a little worked up over mini-golf, but we managed to have a good time anyway. And now Karl doesn't ask me to go mini-golfing every day! Bonus fun fact: All four of us golf left-handed, I guess because we all know how cool left-handers are!

Laura's Art Show

Laura took a series of art classes several days after school during the past few weeks. On Thursday, the students showed their work. Here's a sample of Laura's projects:

I can't remember the name of this one, but it was ball-themed art.


3-D effects

"Pointilism Bacteria" (Which I am especially proud of because ALL the other kids made landscapes. Bacteria is way cooler.)


A Picasso-esque portrait done by looking at the other person while you draw their picture in one continuous line.


Crazy Hair

Laura was wearing Crocs when she made this picture.

Nice job, Laura! I love your style!

Caturday: Rub my tummy!

Pippa has the most irresistible tummy in the whole world!

Ready for Some Football

The Rush City Youth Sports Club offers football for third through sixth graders. Karl eagerly signed up last spring and waited patiently through baseball and soccer seasons for the first practice in August. After about a month of practice, the regular season began the weekend after Labor Day. The third/fourth grade team started with three games in six days, a pretty rough schedule for 8- and 9-year olds. For his first game, Karl had a great cheering section: the Elliots, Opa, and Grandma and Grandpa all came to Forest Lake to watch the Tigers face the team from Columbus. It was a pretty late game for a school night. We weren’t sure what would happen first—time expiring or night falling! The next night, the elementary school teams scrimmaged at halftime of the varsity game. It was Karl’s first time playing under the big lights of Andy Saloka Field. The next morning, we traveled to North Branch to face the first squad of Vikings. Karl has been playing outside linebacker on defense, and doing a great job. After a couple days of rest, it was on to Pine City to face the Dragons. They had a fourth grader sporting a nice five o'clock shadow… The following weekend it was back to Forest Lake to play the Rangers. We have a bunch of good running backs on the team, Karl among them. A week later, here is one of Karl’s biggest fans enjoying a beautiful autumn day in North Branch while the boys played the second squad of Vikings. This was a momentous day—the Tigers won their first game, and they did it emphatically: 40–0 ! It was a big day for Karl as well as he scored his first touchdown and his first extra point! Here he is running in for the PAT. After such an impressive victory, the coaches took the team to Dairy Queen. The boys went to Forest Lake yesterday morning and beat the team from Scandia. But it was cold. Karl decided to wear his ski gloves when playing defense, and the team had a collection of dad-sized jackets on the sidelines for the kids to slip over their shoulder pads when they were resting. Next weekend is the final game of the season. It has been a lot of fun watching Karl’s games and I’m already looking forward to next year.

Family Football Classic

A few weeks ago, the Elliotts held the second annual Family Football Classic. We start out by watching the Vikings (and eating tons of delicious food), and then move on to the main event—kids vs. adults touch football! Laura is not the biggest fan of the F.F.C. Justin, Karl, and Colin, however, are big fans. In another year or two, and Adam will be part of the kids’ unstoppable run defense. The kids were short one player, so we loaned them Jason.

Loft Visitor

A few weeks ago, Angie came up for a visit. Laura was happy to show her around the new still-new loft. About an hour after she went to bed that night, Laura stumbled into our bedroom and asked for a snack. This photo was not posed—she ate the entire snack with her eyes closed.