Solid Gold

Last night, we spent the evening at Lake Harriet bandshell for the Autumn Music & Movies series. We saw a good performance of the local band Solid Gold, who came out of a pink limo dressed as the presidential bank robbers in "Point Blank", which was their chosen movie to be shown after their set.

Ani enjoyed running crazy all over the place and we took turns chasing her! Many kids and dogs were in tow. It was a chilly night, really felt like a night in October, not the beginning of September. That's MN for ya.

Big Bed

In a big bed now.... and thankfully the bedding and comforter, which were mine from before, are PURPLE! Her favorite color.

Brule River

Last weekend, my two brothers and their wives and my niece Tara came up to Minneapolis for a visit. We all went canoeing on the Brule River while Trixie watched Ani. It was perfect weather, low 80's and sunny yet breezy. The water was too high for us to do the Class III rapids that we signed up for, so we had to do a less-complicated run with fewer Class II rapids. Still a great time though!

Me, Kristi, Tara, Kathy - we were channeling Bret Michaels with the bandanas

Mark, Matt, Monte

On the crazy van ride over to the canoe entrance

Kristi & Matt

Monte & me

Mark, Kathy & Tara

Urban Assault 2nd Place

Monte & Hagen took 2nd place in their class (male) and 3rd place overall in this year's Urban Assault Ride! Amy & I did not get the best photos - we ended up chasing a bad lead and were driving around trying to help the boys figure out where the 2nd mystery stop was.

It was a fun time had by all though!

Back In The Saddle

Remember us? We used to blog on a regular basis... not so much anymore.... Busy, busy times.

Last week was our big week vacation - separately. Monte and Hagen rode RAGBRAI together while Ani and I spent a nice relaxing week in Iowa w/ my parents! Thankfully the weather was great so we had a lot of pool time.

The boys left from our house in Minneapolis on their bikes and met up w/ the rest of the Ragbrai crew on Monday. They continued across the upper part of Iowa, going through such towns as Charles City, Waterloo and finally ending up in Dubuque the following Saturday. 8 straight days in the saddle. We went to pick Monte up on Saturday (only about 2 hours away from Muscatine) and came back home.

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Photo recap of our week in Muscatine:

Ani & Meggie outside Whispering Pines

Family at cousin Anne's wedding

Kiddie pool party - look at Ani, she can swim! (with help from her awesome floatie)

The girls - we were kid-free that afternoon so it was fun lounging, talking & reminiscing!

Gammy & Ani swimming

Ella, Jami & Avery

Avery was quite the little performer

Meggie won these sunglasses for Ani at the Happy Joe's arcade

Lovin' the pool

A sad happening toward the end of last week - my cousin Cindy suddenly passed away. She had been diagnosed w/ cancer a few weeks ago and had just had her 2nd round of chemo. I guess the cancer had already spread to several parts of her body. She was only 47.

Tour de Fat

Tour de Fat on Saturday in Loring Park. Monte participated in the bike parade. Ani and I drove down to join in on the festivities.

Parade coming in

Even Ani got a wrist band saying she's 21!

Everything New Belgium at this place

Enjoying ice cream later that night while Dad was out w/ Hagen at the Basilica Block Party. They biked there. Of course. :)

Fourth Festivities

Our 4th of July weekend was spent at Turtle Lake with the Miller's. Always a good time!

Ani loved the water and her "boat"... and her sucker.