happy 50th

Today is the day Bud and Betty were married 50 years ago. What a journey it has been!

valley fair!

One of my goals this summer was to get the kids to Valley Fair for the day. Katie got an opportunity to go with her friend Rachel and two other friends, Emily and Cheyanne.

Looks like they had a great time--she's now at a sleepover at her friend, Rachel's house.

open house for MMS and River Falls High School

On Tuesday evening, I got the chance to spend time with Katie--taking her to Meyer Middle School for orientation with her TA teacher Mr. Fuller and getting her locker arranged.

I would say she LOVED me taking her photo

On Wednesday evening, I got to go with Anders to his high school orientation night and learn about all the standardized tests, the new grading scale and also got to learn that his classes will be a lot more rigorous this year...YIKES for him.

Here's Anders on one of his last DQ shifts this year

Praying our kids have a really great 2018-2019 school year!

para para para

I got to work with my new dedicated paraprofessional, Mr. Ben today. He is a very nice student here at UW River Falls who is studying to be a school counselor. He will be in my classroom every morning this school year. I'm so excited!

birthday greetings a day early

to our lovely, kind and generous Mom, Mother in Law and Grandma Betty. Wishing you an incredible 73rd birthday on August 27. Tomorrow is my first day of workshop, so I want to make sure I get these greetings off early ;). Love, the Olsons

great MN get together

After celebrating a friend of ours 50th birthday last night, we woke up early this morning and traveled as a family to the great MN get together.

We parked at the Wilder Foundation and had a free shuttle to the fairgrounds. We arrived shortly after 10am and immediately staked out our menu:

Anders--churro, all the milk you can drink and a snowcone
Katie--cheese curds, all the milk you can drink and a snowcone
Osten--cheese curds, all the milk you can drink and a snowcone
Brad--scotch eggs, all the milk you can drink
Karen--pretzel dog, all the milk you can drink, a cup of egg coffee and a piece of rhubarb pie

Then we did some drag racing at the go-cart track, sought out Ross' bench near the 4H building where a couple was enjoying some rest from the humid day, scoured the eco building where Katie and Osten spent time building in the outdoor play area.

We then made our way back to the shuttle and ended up walking at the end of the parade with some clowns.

Fun day the fair and we did it all in just 4 hours as we got back on the road to River Falls by 3:00pm.

bouquet of the week...

From Bud and Betty's 50th anniversary party. Thanks Bruce and Julie,

last day down south

On our final day in southern MN, we opened the morning bidding Kurt farewell as he traveled to the MN State Fair. Osten and I spent time exploring the farm with greeting pigs and cats. Then we stopped by the Butterfield cemetery to greet my Dad...

and also got to see my aunt Ruby as she was out watering the flowers at loved ones graves. 

Then to St. James to eat lunch with Mom, give her a tutorial on her new cd player and listen to her read the story of Hansel and Gretl to Osten. We realized what a morbid tale it tells...

Then we packed up the Prius to get Osten to his football practice with his team--team 4

The last part of the day consisted of us watching the Cleveland Browns take down the superbowl champions--Philadelphia Eagles in a preseason game 5-0. 

What an action packed day!

great MN get together

Today my dear brother Kurt revealed a new installation at the MN State Fair near the 4H building...

Today’s pleasure for me during the opening of this year’s State Fair was locating the bench we had made in Ross’s memory. The picture and placard tell a nice story and what the MN State Fair meant to him. It is appropriately placed next to the large 4H building where he performed. This year’s Arts-In group was making their first performance while I found and sat on his bench. Later I found his paver stone near the Grandstand.

 

southern living

Yesterday, Katie, Osten and I traveled south to Saint James to spend some time with Grandma B. Night one we had dinner with Vance, Kaitie, Kim, Kyle, Liana and Ryan. During our time after dinner, we talked Osten into removing his dangling right front tooth.

Liana was the brave dentist who promised Osten that she would buy him Dairy Queen if she would let her pull his tooth. He reluctantly agreed and she did the operation. He was very frightened and made a lot of noise throughout the procedure and bled a fair amount but he now has a different smile.

We spent the night at Kurt's farm and then came back here for lunch and spent time at the St. James community pool. Fun on the waterslide and swimming for several hours. We all got plenty of sun. Then to the football field to play some football and walk some laps.

Home to Mom's for dinner with Cory, Joan, Trenton, Kyle, Kim, Ryan and Grandma. Now we are enjoying some television and will be heading home to Kurts for sleep again.

happy birthdays and anniversary

I'm a little behind on birthday and wedding anniversary wishes.
The beautiful Stella Hauser turned 7 on the 17th...

the handsome Henry Quintana turned 10 on the 19th

and the dashing couple Jenna and Cody their first wedding anniversary on the 19th

and lastly our precious Godson Trenton Anders is 11 on the 21st

baseball and shopping

On Sunday, Anders had to work at DQ so was not able to choose a fun day option.

Brad and Osten opted to head to Target Field to watch the Twins versus the Tigers...they were thrilled to watch a Twins victory 5-4. Eddie Rosario hit a homerun in the bottom of the 8th to seal the win as the Tigers went scoreless in the top of the 9th.

Katie and I went to the Mall of America and went shopping at SoftMoc, Old Navy and American Eagle. We then went for lunch at Noodles and Company and to the movie Crazy Rich Asians.

photo from cnbc

Brad and Osten took the train to the Mall of America as Katie and I had dropped them off for the game. We dined at Jamba Juice and then Brad and Osten rode the Pepsi ride while Katie and I shopped in vain for pajamas. 

We got home and then started our school year routine of getting to bed because we are going to get up at our normal school year time in the coming weeks. 

celebrating 50 years

Setting: Manitou Grill in White Bear Lake, Minnesota
Characters: Bud, Betty, Rodger, Shirley, Mary Ann, Bruce, Julie, Dionne, Brad, Karen, Anders, Emma, Katie,Osten, Ibby, Mike, Joe, Henry, Dehlia, Brent, Molly, Siri, Ivan, Ike, Nate, Kimberly, Natalie and Micah

Our family drove to the event center and starting setting up our decorations at about 3pm yesterday--it tooks us a lot less time than we normally take so we went downstairs into the restaurant and had some beverages and waited for the rest to arrive.

Ibby's family arrived first. There was a small park across the street where we had seen wedding parties taking photos so Henry, Katie, Osten and I went to scope it out.

then we saw the celebrants van pull up so we went to greet them

and back up to the reception area to greet the rest of the guests. Katie spent time taking some photos of people.

      

above: Natalie, Nate, Bud, Betty, Mary Ann, Bruce, Rodger, Ivan, Micah, Ibby and Mike

Then Brad did a little speech and a toast and then Brent did a prayer and we ate really delicious food. Salad, buns, grilled vegetables, roasted potatoes, pot roast, chicken with mushrooms and a truly yummy cake from local business Three Schweet Sisters. People ordered drinks of their choice and I had a cup of coffee with my cake.

The kids enjoyed a fair amount of space outside the celebration room and played while adults conversed in the party area. There was a photo mat for people to sign, some photos on display, a movie with family photos throughout the years scrolling on a computer screen, lovely centerpieces from Bruce and Julie, some lovely accent bouquets from Ibby and Mike, some huge golden balloons with a 5 and a 0 for photo ops.

I took some family photos:

The hostess offered to take a large family photo of the whole crew

then we went back into the party room and Bud thanked us all for attending and then we went on our way where Katie snapped one last photo