Luna Plants Wedding

My college roommate (and best man in our wedding) was married this weekend in Pella, IA. His wife is Lacey Luna of Cuba City, IL. They have a 5-month-old girl Ellie who was born with a congenital heart defect requiring surgery when she was 2 weeks old.


Holly and Lilly with little Ellie

The wedding and bachelor party went very well. The wedding also doubled as a 10-year reunion for a large group of our friends who met at Iowa State. Very fun weekend. Great to see everyone again, reminisce about old stories and hear a few new ones.

Part of the bachelor party involved racing mini sprint car go-karts. The picture below is of Cory (the groom) and his brother Jarrod (the best man). Notice the sign in between them. The groom is a car guy and he took the big race.


Goofballs

Cory and Lacey make a great couple and with little Ellie, a great family.

Boating Season Has Started

I scrapped the ride tonight to get the boat in the water. I was able to get a decent ski run in on very flat water. The water was a little cold but I was fine once I was up on the ski.


Lilly doing "circles"


Boo snuggled up


It's at the dock

Memorial Day

The weather was amazing this Memorial Day weekend.

Saturday, I woke up early and rode long with Larry, Mike and Dave H. We met Jorge, Andy and Melissa downtown and rode to St. Paul with them. Thanks Jorge for the coffee! After getting home I spent the afternoon in the yard picking up stuff blown down from a windy week, mowing and weeding the landscaping. Holly sat on the dock and read while Lilly and the neighbor kids played in the river all afternoon.

Sunday Holly woke up early to do the "Chili Dog" ride with Carol, Mike and Dan. Lilly and I went to church and then played at the duck park on the way home. After lunch I waded into the river to adjust the boat lift and remove the latest bunch of driftwood. The river is easily warm enough to wade and swim. The kids saw I was in the water and decided it was swimming time. After Holly returned from her ride she watched the kids and splashed in the river with them while I uncovered the boat and changed the oil in both engines. I also squeezed in a quick bike ride in the park while Holly and Lilly watched, "The Incredibles."


Lilly at the Duck Park

Memorial Day Holly woke up early again to go on a shorter ride with Cindy. Lilly and I played around in the boat pretending to clean it until mom came home. Holly and Lilly went on an REI run while I ran a long one in the park. My ankle didn't hurt at all so I'm optimistic it's healed. I spent the afternoon cleaning out the inside of the boat and washing and waxing the hull.


Shiny Boat

The good news is the boat is ready to be put in the river. The bad news is we're busy enough this week and weekend that it'll probably be a couple weeks before we do.

We finished up a great weekend eating out as a family.

90 Degrees and 100 Pounds

It was 90+ degrees both Tuesday and Wednesday this week. It made us wish the boat was in the river. The plan for this weekend is getting the oil changed in both engines, washing it, waxing it and getting it in the water. Dave Hoglund volunteered to ski behind it to ensure it's running correctly. Just the kind of guy he is.

My dad has lost 100 lbs on his diet! Unbelievable. I'm so happy for him.

Iowa Weekend

This weekend we went to Iowa (and South Dakota) to see our niece Alicia's graduation. Alicia is talented in music (instrumental and voice) and is off to USD in the fall to study Music Education.

On the way down Holly, Lilly and I picked up our niece Kalie from the airport for a surprise visit to Alicia's graduation. She found a last-minute sale and was able to fly in for the weekend as a surprise to Alicia. Fun.

Holly and I were able to bike both Saturday and Sunday. Jeez it was windy. Both days. I'm guessing a constant 25 mph with gusts to 35 mph.

Medtronic and Biking

Last night I rode with 4 other guys out of our Mounds View campus. It was a nice ride around Bald Eagle Lake. Steve, Scott, Pete and Bruce. With the ride to/from work it was probably around 60 or so miles for the day. The wind finally broke and the evening was very nice.

Today is "Bike to Work Day" for Medtronic. I got a granola bar and free coffee at Caribou for biking in. Funny/scary story too. I was riding the last stretch with Mike, a guy I've mountain biked with before. We were riding side by side through the roundabout and each were planning to take our normal route into the parking garage. Unfortunately, that meant I was taking a right turn and he was going straight - not the best scenario when I was riding on his left. We bumped into each other and luckily our bikes locked together so we just skidded and flailed until we came to a stop at the side of the road. Whew, I'm awake now!

Lilly Can Crawl

Swimming, that is:



I went for a run for the first time in a week yesterday. My ankle felt pretty good. It didn't hurt but I could feel something wasn't quite right. I ran again today and was able to do the 7 mile loop at work. Same feeling. The big positive is no pain. I'll take a few more days off and see how it feels next week.

Gardening

Tonight was gardening night. First, Lilly "mowed" the little pot of grass she planted at daycare:



Next, Lilly and Holly (mostly Holly) planted the beans, cucumbers, pumpkins and sunflowers. The pumpkins have been hand selected to reach up to 500 lbs!





I watched an impressive gymnastics show tonight. In the outfield at T-Ball. Actually, Lilly also did a great job tonight aside from the few handstands. She was very good at being patient when it was her turn in the field.

Happy Mother's Day!

Holly's mother's day present:



At first it was going to be a cruiser to ride around town and to work. Then I thought it should have some gears and decent brakes so she could take Lilly in/on the trailer/tag-a-long for longer rides in the park. Then I thought what sense does a flat-bar road bike or hybrid make when she could get a mountain bike and put slicks on it? Then she could have a town/trail bike and a bike to do off-road stuff when she wanted just by (me) switching out the tires.

Spring Pics

A few tulips and one Lilly


The sunset off the bridge and
calm water can be so peaceful

These are the pictures I'll look back on in February to convince myself that spring will come.

New Daycare / Riding to Work

Lilly started her new daycare this week. It is preschool and summer daycare provided by her new school. Holly has been dropping her off and picking her up so I'm free to bike into work again. It has been nice - I really missed it.

200,000

The 4Runner hit 200,000 miles today. Holy cow. I'd have gotten out of the car and done one of those, "I love what you do for me...Toyota" type heel clicks if I wasn't late for Lilly's swim class.

T-Ball on a Great Night

Outdoor baseball, whoops, T-Ball in summer. Doesn't get any better. Lilly did well tonight with a minimum of kicking dust and picking dandelions.

Biking, Yard Work, Sitting in the Sun

Thursday I biked with the Trailhead group. Good ride. I picked up my new Loon kit from the shop afterwards. Upon leaving the shop I noticed I had 7 missed calls. Crap. Holly and Lilly were stranded at gymnastics with a dead battery. I rode home, to get the 4Runner and came back for the jump start.

Holly went for a ride on Friday evening while I took the kids to the park.

Saturday morning I did some singletrack for a couple hours and then rode a lap on the bike trail. Great morning to be in the woods. I found a little loop with a nice climb and just turned it over for an hour. I returned home around 10 to a load of 4 cubic yards of mulch to be put down. I'm guessing we laid down around 100 wheelbarrow loads. Sheesh. Part of it was expected as mulch decomposes every year. The other part was unexpected as the river took a bunch on the way out of our yard.

Holly did the "Chili Dog" ride Sunday AM. She cut a little off and came home early because she wasn't riding the best. That and Berger ran her off the road. Actually, she said it was most likely her fault. Lilly and I were excited to see her in time for lunch at Jimmy John's.

Lilly colored a picture of Jesus in church today. He was wearing a pink robe. "Boys can wear pink too dad." I'm not sure about me, but I'm cool with Jesus wearing whatever he wants.

Pastor Bill shook my hand in church today and told me he ran across this blog while looking up our mailing address. Immediately my mind is racing to remember if I said anything objectionable. He said it sounds like we lead an interesting, active life. That sounds about right. It was really cool to hear he read something about us.

I did some more yard work today while the kids played in the yard. One of my tasks was to put together the dock and pull some more wood off the dock. Sure enough my luck caught up to me and I ended up in waist deep, 50 degree water. I'd be lying if I said it was pleasant. But it also wasn't terrible. I was able to stay in the water long enough to clear all the wood off the lift. All the kids were in stitches. Yeah, that's right. Keep laughing.

Right now I'm out in the driveway, having a beer, watching the river flow by. The kids are playing behind me and it's 70 degrees and sunny. Relaxing. I hope you all are doing the same.