Son Spark Labs VBS at Mills Church 2015

What would summer be without VBS? This year, we had even more family volunteer participation, which was wonderful. I led the crafts team, ...

Aquatennial Fireworks 2015

We enjoyed another round of fireworks viewed from the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis. This pyrotechnic show is by far the best around here...

Deephaven Beach

Just a slightly random photo I took at Deephaven Beach on another wonderful summer evening. Someday this won't be part of our usual summ...

Gloria's Photo Experiment

Gloria shot these interesting photos in the summer. What a cool effect and great idea!

Excelsior Trolley

Natalie and Jamie wanted to go on the Excelsior Trolley again since they remembered it fondly from last year. We looked at the museum for a ...

Minnehaha Falls and Ford Dam

We visited Minnehaha Falls today and parked in a different area than usual. This enabled us to cool off in the little wading pool and also c...

Storm Damage

A big storm blew through town and caused this branch to fall on our family room. We were amazed that there was no damage. Justin helped Jim ...

Mille Lacs Family Camping Trip

All our photos are in this video on youtube:

Caponi Art Park

Today we went to Caponi Art Park for the first time. I chose this day because there was supposed to be a family-friendly art activity and sh...

Ice Cream Perfected

I think I've completely perfected homemade ice cream in our ice cream maker. Only a few ingredients: half + half, vanilla, sugar, pepper...

Garden Harvest

I honestly didn't do a great job planning the garden this year AND we lost almost all our sugar snap peas to local bunnies. I heard from...

Backyard Chickens

Jim lets the chickens out every single afternoon and watches them for a little while to unwind from work. They are so interesting to look at...

Fourth of July at Taylors

It was a great party at Jayne and Dan's this year because a bunch of the little cousins were there. The girls loved playing with the Ort...

When Life Gets Busy

Sometimes, we get so focused on getting out the door to go to something like gymnastics, we end up with someone who forgot something importa...

Second Harvest Food Bank

We did another volunteer session at Second Harvest today; Jim was able to go for the first time, too. This time, in addition to repacking bu...

Big Sliding Park

Natalie, Jamie and I rode our bikes to Silverwood Park, which we have called the Big Sliding Park since Juliana was little. It was fun for m...