Sonshine Music Festival

The closest thing we took for a vacation this summer was a 3 day trip to Wilmar, Minnesota for the Sonshine Musical Festival in July. We just attended 1 day of the 4 day event, but were able to hear some of our favorite Christian bands perform that. The music you hear as you look at my blog is from 2 of our favorite groups, Sanctus Real & Tenth Avenue North. We were able to see both bands plus Needtobreathe & Addison Road. I encourage you to buy their current albums "Pieces Of A Real Heart" by Sanctus Real and "The Light Meets The Dark" by Tenth Avenue North. I believe you will be blessed by the messages in their music. Vacationing for us has changed this past year. As the kids have grown up and have jobs it's rare that the entire family goes together. Those who made the trip with Randy & I were Jensen, Caleb, Elijah, Hannah, Reid, Avery & Autumn.

 Addison Road

 Sanctus Real

 Pete Prevost & Matt Hammit

 Matt Hammit

 Pete Prevost & Chris Rohman

 Chris Rohman

 Needtobreathe

 Bo & Bear Rinehart

 Bo Rinehart

 Tenth Avenue North

Mike Donehey

I'm Back!

WOW...it's been a whole year since I updated my blog. I considered quitting it, but decided not to. I know there are some family & friends who used to check my blog regularly when I kept it updated with the goings on of my family. Since I started Facebook I let my blog go, but realize not all of you keep up with me on Facebook. I am going to attempt to keep my blog updated for you that do follow my blog. I can't begin to make up for the year, but would like to add some pictures of a few of the highlights of our year.

 In October Randy, Jensen, Simon & Reid went to their first Kansas City Chiefs game.

 We survived the worst winter that I can remember

 The ice was so thick

 We lost power for 8 days. Praise God we had a generator!

Started off 2010 with Simon breaking his wrist while snowboarding on Jan.4

 He had surgery on Jan. 7 at the University of Iowa

 We made monthly trips to the U of I from January - July 26

 X-ray of the screw and pins

 Jesse finished school

 Autumn & Avery played softball

 Avery as catcher

Autumn at bat

 Reid played baseball

The Mall of America

Three excited girls with their dolls ready to shop!

So many choices

Three girls happy with their purchases!

Trying on princess outfits at the Disney Store

Avery as Belle

Autumn as Cinderella

Hannah trying not to be eaten by a crocodile

No trip to Minneapolis would be complete without a trip to the Mall of America. The girls had been excited for weeks to go to the American Girl store. The girls would have been ready to go once they finished at the American Girl store. Randy and the boys hung out at the Lego store.

Diners, Drive-ins and Dives

We had some good laughs about our failed attempt

Can you find the bouncer?

The caution tape was for the new sidewalks poured the day before

Before: The kids were trying to talk us out of going in

Autographed poster of Guy Fieri

It really was pretty cool inside

Look at all the awards....we were impressed!

Jensen's Mushroom & Swiss Burger

My Bacon Cheeseburger with Sweet Potato Fries

Not the best picture, we were looking into the sun

We started off September in Minneapolis for 3 days. When Kesha went back home Hannah went with her and spent a week in Minneapolis with her. When we went to pick her up we spent several days in the Twin Cities. One of the things Randy & I wanted to do was eat at a restaurant featured on the Food Network show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. The Twin Cities actually had a number of restaurants that had been visited by Guy Fieri. We failed at our first attempt at a pizza place called Psycho Suzi's Motor Lounge, we arrived about 10pm to find a sign on the door stating No One Under 21 Allowed After 9pm. We took a few pictures then went back to our hotel and order Domino's Pizza. Before we left we decided to try again at a place called The Nook that was famous for their burgers in St. Paul. We were sceptical when we pulled up and saw how small it was and the caution tape out front. We all enjoyed our meals, the burgers were honestly the best burgers we ever had. Great Memories!