Friday at the Dakota Zoo

Ben and Grace and I have been searching for things to do this summer.  Preferably things that are free :).  Since we have a Zoo Pass and haven't been to the zoo yet this year (it's been closed until a few weeks ago because of the floods), we had to make a trip on Friday.  It was a perfect zoo day, not too warm and not too crowded.  We rode the train, had cotton candy and got to see Zebras and Gibbons that were on loan from the Minot Zoo, which is closed because of the floods. 

A Gibbon ...they were really cool.  The monkeys are my favorites.

Hello Scary Raccoon, please don't claw my eyes out.  Grace said "Does someone need a hug?" like Buddy the Elf does on 'Elf' LOL.  I thought he was going to attack us right about then.

We got most of the entryway painted.  Pictures of that to come...we still have to get new laminate and a hall tree.  Oh, and frames for the Grant Wood prints I got for the wall.  So maybe not pictures too soon LOL.

Tyler may get to come home for a few days before we take him down to college!  We're excited to see him, we all miss our brother. 

Happy 14th Birthday Matt!!

Our little Matthew is 14 today!  He bought a new TV for his room with all of his birthday cash...a big Thank You to everyone for his cards!  His birthday dinner of choice was Applebee's, where he gorged himself on his favorite food...buffalo wings.  We came home and sang Happy Birthday and had cake, now he's back to doing what 14 year olds do best:  playing XBox 360 :).  We love our crazy, witty, smart 14 year old kid!

Painted garage door

We got the garage door and the side entry garage door painted last week.  It looks really nice!  Much better than it was, I think.  I also put some black numbers on the front door.

This is the half-dead pathetic Locust tree that needs to be removed in our front yard.  2 big branches blew down in a storm the other day...too bad the whole thing didn't blow away!

Hello? Is this thing on?

I'm a slacker, I admit it.  I won't even give excuses, I'll just make a new post and that's it (Ok Tyler??).  We have had a busy, busy summer so far.  Lots of traveling and swimming and playing with friends and going to camp.  Last week, Matt went to camp over in Medora.  It was Night Life camp again, so they slept during the day and stayed up at night.  He had lots of fun...he had a couple of friends there too.  He was super tired this weekend though!  Of course he wouldn't allow pics.  We came over to Jim's on Friday, it was New England's 125th anniversary and they had a lot of stuff going on.  Friday evening we went on a bus tour to the top of the East Rainy Butte.  It was really interesting, lots of indian lore and artifacts.  The tour guide was an archeologist and has studied the Rainy Buttes for many years.  Grace was terrified that the bus was going to go over the side of the butte (I have to admit, a few times I was too :) ).  I have pics to put on here, but for now it'll just have to be narrative because it's really hard to upload pics on Grandpa's computer :).  Saturday we went to the New England parade.  Grace saw her friend Paige there, Paige's grandparent live in New England.  It's funny because she just lives around the corner from us on Laredo Dr., and she was in Grace's class last year.  Small world!  Another small world...there were about 20 people on the bus tour, and 2 of them were college students from the University of Iowa. 

I took the kids to the pool Saturday afternoon, and Matt met up with his camp friend Connor.  Rich & Grace and Ben set up the tent in the afternoon too, and they all slept there last night.  G & B woke up and came inside at 5:15 am and plopped on the couch like they were all set to watch TV for the day.  Um, NO!  I made them go back to bed and I had to wake them up at 9:40 :).  Today Rich and Matt headed back East...Rich took Matt to his next camp 45 miles NW of Jamestown.  After a crazy event-filled trip (tornado warnings, guy whose car started smoking in front of Rich...R gave him a ride back to Bismarck, more tornado warnings), Rich got back home this evening.  Grandpa and I took Ben and Grace over to Medora camp this afternoon too.  They were SO excited, especially Grace!  She seriously couldn't wait to get there.  No separation anxiety there!  I'm staying at Jim's until Tuesday, when we go back to Medora to pick Grace up.  Ben's camp goes until Friday....Grandpa will pick him up and Grace and I will go pick Matt up on the other side of the state :).  Then I think we're done for awhile.  We'll go to Iowa City to take Tyler to college on August 18th, then Grace starts cheerleading practice on Aug. 23rd and school starts Aug 25th!  The summer has flown by.