Proud Parents and Grandparents

Grandson Gunnar and son Steven in 110 in the Shade.

Tuesday night many members of our family and friends went to opening night to watch Steven and Gunnar perform. When Steven came on stage there was no mistaking the roll he was playing. He was the star and it showed! He brings such life, excitement and fun to the stage. Even though I have never heard any of the music before I loved listening to Steven sing on stage again. It brought back the memories of his days as Huck Finn in Big River at the Jackson Hole Playhouse. Gunnar was not only fun to watch but we could also hear his beautiful base voice in the chorus. Wednesday night Micah went again and we watched the kids. Then tonight Micah took all the kids except Peter so they could see their Dad and we watched Peter. Saturday night we are going to the show as we want to enjoy our son and grandson in the show again.

Steven's kids excited after seeing their Dad play the lead roll of Starbuck.

45 Years Old!

I forgot to mention that while sitting the kids today, I tried out their Wii-Fit and according to Wii-Fit I have a fitness age of 45 - not bad for an old retired guy.

Another Year Older!

Today has been a great day - starting with Amanda fixing my favorite breakfast for my birthday - love Belgium Waffles and ending with a Church Social with birthday cake. The party was out in the country and as we drove home we had the most fascinating sight. When we moved to Minnesota 29+ years ago there were no fireflies and the first time I saw a firefly was when we drove south into Iowa. We think the spray they used for years to kill the mosquitoes also killed the fireflies, but now they use a different spray that must not effect them and every year we have more fireflies. The sight as we drove down the county roads tonight was like there were twinkling Christmas lights spread out over the fields - a constant twinkling of lights just above the fields creating a very ethereal look. Back to my birthday - besides all the phone calls and cards, Steven and Micah bought me a crepe pan. Finding a crepe pan is not an easy undertaking and on top of the challenge of finding the pan Micah is going to make me a chocolate hazelnut crepe cake - doesn't that sound special. The reason behind the crepe pan goes back to when Kristi was here and I made the "sandwich" which requires cooking two batches of crepes and without a good crepe pan (mine disappeared in our move) it isn't too easy. So having had to do without, Steven and Micah knew just what to get me. One other interesting tidbit for the day. I made a Eastern Mediterranean bean salad for the party tonight which required removing the seeds from 10 tomatoes and chopping them up. I didn't get the tomatoes done before sat with Connett, Gideon, Abby and Peter while Benjamin went to Mayo with Steven and Micah. I dished up a bowl for Steven and Micah to try and Gideon sat down and started eating it. He is an unbelievable eater. Can you imagine a 6 year old eating a mixture of garbanzo beans, black beans, tomatoes, onions, parsley, garlic salt, olive oil and lemon juice. It is good but a 6 year old!

Cenneidigh's Baptism

Sunday was a special day for Cenneidigh and our family as we gathered for her baptism after Church. Cenneidigh asked Uncle Steven to preside, Grandpa to conduct, cousin Eric and Aunt Bonnie to speak, Grandma to sing a special song, Aunt Amanda to do a slide show of her, Uncle Steven and her Mother to say prayers and her Dad to baptize and confirm her. She also invited two neighborhood families. Later in the day everyone who came to the baptism enjoyed dinner at her house.

What a Celebration

The community of Austin Minnesota really comes together for the 4th of July considering we are a small town of 22,000+. For three days we have had many activities for all type of interests. Besides Kristi and Karl's family being here we also had several of David's family too - everyone enjoys a celebration and along with Independence Day it was also Cenneidigh's 8th birthday. I took hundreds of pictures of the activities on the 3rd which concluded with the Austin Community Band and fireworks. Then on the 4th with a parade, a Ward picnic and Cenneidigh's birthday party in our old front yard (Lisa and David bought our house when we went on our first mission to Romania and they put on a great party) and finally ending with the Austin Symphony performing prior to the fireworks. Sorry for so many fireworks photos, but they lasted so long and were fantastic - the photos really don't do them justice. Kylie, Elle and Cordie enjoyed two weeks with their cousins, aunts, uncles and grandma and grandpa and really didn't want to go home, but I think Kristi and Karl were ready to leave this afternoon after spending the week with all of us. It was great fun to have so much family together for so long and Steven and Micah provided the space for all of them to be together this week.

Family Home Evening at the Nature Center

It is great to have Kristi and Karl's family with us so we decided another fun way to have everyone together was to go to the Nature Center for Family Home Evening. Lisa, Qatar and Zeke rode their bikes with JT and Cenny towed behind Lisa. Lisa is going to make sure she saves enough on gas this summer to pay for the bike. Luckily she thought to bring misquotes spray as the misquotes were bad. They sprayed in town so we didn't even realize they were a problem. We all hiked out to the fire tower and then back through the Nature Center across the covered bridge. It was another beautiful day and evening. The cousins are all enjoying the time together.