The Great Minnesota Get Together!

I can't believe it but it is that time of year again ... the Minnesota State Fair. Bill and I have a mutual love of the fair. In fact for me other than maybe when I was very very very young, I only know of two years in which I missed the fair and that was only because I was living out in Boston and was not home for a visit during fair time. I love the sights, the smells and the sounds. O.K. -- well maybe not the smells in the barns -- but all the different foods are literally a well orchestrated musical to my nose. I simply wouldn't miss the fair and it seems that love is already shared by Ryan and Anna. We had planned to head to the fair early this past Sunday morning but because Friday and Saturday were spent moving Bill's mom and brother into their new home, we were all quite tired. We got a late start but arrived at the fair in time to enjoy our first fair food for lunch.

Ryan, Bill and Anna settled on foot long corn dogs while I enjoyed a fry bread taco. The photos here show the three of them with their delicacies on a stick -- pardon the funky red color - we were sitting underneath a red awning that reflected off of us when we took photos.

After filling our tummys we toured the various barns and then headed towards the big slide. Unfortunately when I went to take a photo of the three "kids" coming down the slide someone stepped in front of my camera so I have no photo. :-( I swear I must be getting old --I went down once and that was all I could stomach! Light weight!!

Next stop was the Butterfly House. The kids have enjoyed sitting in here each year while thousands of butterflies hang out on the walls, trees and best of all on the humans. This year was no different however as a family we didn't have much luck with many sitting on us. Here are a couple shots of Anna with her "friends."

Next stop was the kiddy midway. Anna enjoyed her bumper boats while Ryan worked his way through the house of mirrors. Then together they ventured onto a rope climb and suspended ladder thing that ended with a very long slide back to the bottom. The ended their midway time with a ride on the bumble bees - they go around and up and down.

We ventured up to the pet center as well but not before Anna got herself a new hairdo. She got MANY compliments after she was done. This style was made with lots of back combing, TONS of hairspray, sprayed on color and glitter. You don't even want to know what it took to get her hair back to normal that night!

We decided to take the ski lift style air glider rides back up to the grand stand area. I am so very glad I had the camera because Bill would have otherwise captured the fear on my face as we rode through the sky. Poor Anna -- I think I squeezed her hand so tight it nearly fell off. She, fortunately, was oblivious to my fear. Like I said earlier, I must be getting old -- these things that never used to scare me sure do now.

For the last ride, Bill and the kids rode through "Ye Olde Log Mill" while I stood in line to get a bucket of hot Sweet Martha's cookies. Then after touring the DNR building we headed to the milk truck for the famous "all you can drink milk" for only $1.

It was getting late and we were tired so home we headed. But first we had to stop in the fire station we always park at and capture our annual photo of the kids on the fire truck.

Food total for the day (for the family): 3 foot long corn dogs, 1 fry bread taco, 1 chips and cheese, 2 orders of cheese curds, 1 order of onion rings, several glasses of assorted sodas, 2 malts, 1 bag of cotton candy, 2 glasses of lemonade, turkey jerkey and beef sticks, 2 bags of mini doughnuts, 1 bucket of Sweet Martha's cookies, 4 glasses of milk and 1 container of salt water taffy. Hmmmm ... no wonder I haven't felt good!!!

It's a Girl!

Although we are still mourning the loss of our kitty, Kali, we decided we needed to add a new 4-legged member to our family. No disrespect for Kali, but our house just didn't feel like home without a kitty. We made a couple trips to the Humane Society. Last Thursday night we ventured over to the Buffalo location. I had been monitoring the web site and it seemed that the Buffalo location while a bit of a drive, had a larger selection of kittens. We arrived there and I went over to a cage with three kittens, 2 orange and white boys and a grey and white girl. The little girl immediately scaled the cage to see me -- almost as if to say, "here I am." We took her into a visiting room and within minutes the four of us were smitten and we said we needed to take her home. This little kitty purred her little heart out and visited every one us as if she were picking us. Sophie as we FINALLY named her has already worked her way into all our hearts. She is playful but cuddly and sweet. A wonderful new addition! She is slowly venturing out into her new home but much to my delight immensely enjoys sleeping with Bill and I at night. Who would think a little 4-pound fluff ball could be so therapeutic!

Vacation Day 4

For our final day of vacation -- we packed a lot in. We got up early, packed our rooms and checked out of the hotel. We headed to the bike rental hut where we rented several buggy style bikes (they have a specific name that escapes me right now!) and took a bike ride on the lake walk. It was very hot out so the ride was grueling -- Bill and I were the only peddlers in our bike as Ryan and Anna are too small to peddle. They enjoyed the scenery while Bill and I harassed each other about who was peddling more. We rode out to the lighthouse at the end of the walkway next to the lift bridge where the big ships come in and a Japanese tourist asked to take our photo. Needless to say, I have no photos of the bike ride but some nice Japanese man some where does! :-)

After cooling off with some ice cream, we headed to the Duluth Aquarium. Honestly I wasn't impressed and by that point tired and hot and ready to go home. Finally we got in the car and headed back to Maple Grove. It was good to get home but we were in for a long, late night as the bridge over 35W in Minneapolis collapsed about 15 minutes after we got home and Bill and I were riveted to the TV.

Vacation Day 3

Day three of vacation was our lazy beach day. The weather was unbelievably hot by Duluth standards with temps in the 90's and dew points in the 60's. We decided a day of sand and sun was in order. After locating pails and shovels at Target for the kids, we headed to the beach. We crossed over the lift bridge in Canal Park and drove to Park Point Beach. The sand is gorgeous and you almost think you are at the ocean. Well, that is until you dip your toe into the water.

Anna was the first brave one to get into the water.

Her dad and her cousins followed. Anna actually dipped her head under and finally Bill decided to do this as well. I captured him below (center) right before he braved the cold water.

Ryan enjoyed playing on the beach but eventually he went and dunked under as well.

In the end everyone but yours truly put their heads under the water. Never having been a big water fan, this should come as no surprise to anyone! We headed back to our hotel, tried to someone rid ourselves of all the sand and ordered pizza for dinner. After s'mores, we settled in for our final night in Duluth.

Vacation Day 2

Day two of vacation proves to be hotter than day one. Nonetheless we decide to venture to the Duluth zoo. For a small zoo it is pretty nice. Unfortunately the heat kept many of the animals out of view. The kids enjoyed petting a hedge hog, which we learned is very prickly just like a porcupine. Bill's sister Kim made friends with a llama and a small monkey almost stole my nephew Andrew's glasses. This was much needed comic relief in the intense heat. We left the zoo and headed back to our hotel and spent the afternoon swimming.

That night we headed across the street to Little Angie's Cantina for some Mexican food and some darn good margaritas. Once again we enjoyed s'mores by the fire and then, exhausted, fell fast asleep.

Vacation Day 1

After our eventful start our first vacation day went well. Following breakfast at McDonalds we headed north. The kids were watching a movie and Bill and I got some uninterrupted conversation time. We arrived at our hotel around 1:00 and found out the web site is incorrect and check in is not until 3:00. Our lucky day however, our rooms were ready and they allowed us to check in. After hauling two carts up to our room (really are we only here for 4 days??) I got us unpacked and settled into "home." We decide to head out further north and visit Gooseberry Falls and then stop for dinner at the infamous Betty's Pies. We enjoyed a beautiful hike and the kids really enjoyed playing in the water. The falls were very low given the hot weather and lack of rain.

Dinner at Betty's was good but we learned lunch is a better time to stop there. By dinner time the pie selection is pretty low. We returned to our hotel, swam, enjoyed s'mores by the fire overlooking Lake Superior and collapsed into bed, tired but relaxed after a good first day of vacation.

Vacations, vacations

It wouldn't be summer without some type of vacation. This year we embarked on a 4-day trip to Duluth, aka The North Shore, July 29 - August 1. Our vacation was again shared with Bill's sister Kim, her husband Terry and their kids, Andrew, Matthew and Marah. We began with an aggressive plan to meet at McDonalds for a 9:00 a.m. breakfast. We had checked the hotel web site and learned check-in was at 1:00 p.m. so our plans were to be there no later than check-in time. All was going well; Bill and I stayed up rather late to have the car basically packed and ready to go. Bill spent a good amount of time in the garage with all the doors open to his van cleaning it out in preparation for the trip. Given the heat wave we have been enduring, the garage was basically a sauna. The alternative was having the van outside in the bug-infested evening so the garage/sauna option seemed pretty good. Now you must know that from a woman's perspective it seemed odd to me that Bill wanted to clean the van only to go on vacation. Those of you with children know how dirty one's vehicle becomes on a trip with kids! Me -- I would be cleaning AFTER the vacation. Nonetheless, it kept him out of my hair as I attempted to pack everything for the kids and I. :-) Unfortunately for us the time spent with the doors open wore down his battery ... unbeknownst to us ... and we were in for a treat in the morning ....

The morning was going well -- we were behind schedule but only by about 15 minutes. The van was loaded to the gills (hmmmm were we going cross country or only two hours north???), the kids were buckled in their seats already fighting over what movie to watch on the DVD player and I was doing the usual female "final sweep" of the house to ensure nothing important was forgotten. That was when Bill appeared and said the dreaded words, "there is something wrong with my van." We have been suffering various car maladies with my van this summer and didn't feel comfortable taking it on a long trip so I immediately starting having visions of our vacation being on our deck. Don't get me wrong I like our deck but for me vacation means you leave your home. Turns out his van won't start, nothing, nada, not even a weak attempt to turn over.

Is it the battery, the alternator, something worse? Grab the jumper cables, pull my van out, hook everything up and ta dah! Van starts. Bill and I vow we will not turn it off for the remainder of the trip . . . a bit extreme . . . o.k., we vow to only park in places we can easily use jumper cables.

Kali, 2.16.96 - 8.17.07

It was a very sad day yesterday as we unexpectedly had to say goodbye to our beloved Siamese kitty, Kali. Kali was 11 1/2 years old and we thought it good heath for a kitty in her "senior" years.

We noticed Kali suddenly and without warning stopped eating last Sunday. By the time we decided something serious was going on, on Thursday and called the vet, she had stopped drinking. He blood tests revealed the worst, end stage kidney failure. Aggressive treatment might have given her a few extra months, but we quickly decided months with lots of needles and doctor visits didn't see like a very good life.

We took Ryan and Anna back to the vet to say their goodbyes and then later Bill and I went back and stayed with Kali while the vet helped us do the most humane thing we could do.

Many tears were shed. I told Bill on the drive back home, "we have been together over 15 years and we have lost 4 pets together ... we don't have a very good track record."

These darn pets, they come into your lives and weave themselves right in and they always leave us too soon.

Welcome!

Greetings friends and family from the Minnesota-based Lamberts! We have created 4 Lamberts (composed of Bill, Carol, Ryan (8) and Anna (4)) as a way to update you on what is happening in our lives. I have been wanting to build a web site for some time and have made some attempts but thought I would give blogging a try. Please bookmark our site and check back often as we post photos and updates on us.