So, we have had a few unwelcome guests in our house. I don't want to go into specifics but it was time to get very serious about having a going away party. We are hopeful that our new family member, Artemis (Goddess of the hunt) is a working member of the family. She has a very sweet personality and adores the kids, she follows them everywhere and cries if she is alone. So far, we are enjoying her and feeling like she is a good fit. I will mention that one person would not agree with anything I have written, Martha is miserable and feeling abused, The cat really is mean to Martha and has let Martha know who is un charge, hopefully peace will prevail.

Sioux Falls SD, the rockin' town!

The kids and I were on the long road to Northern Minnesota when we stopped in Sioux Falls SD for the night. Our hotel, to my surprise and excitement, was in the downtown with lots of shops and food choices along with live music. We started out in a Turkish art gallery with some of the pottery being over 300 years old. As we continued on our walk, we discovered we were on a sculpture walk! We took some pictures of our favorite pieces before we ate at an outstanding sushi place, some of the best we have ever eaten. The pictures of the kids are of the last place we stopped, a special candy shop that had candy cigarettes. Tagg asked if he we needed to change to a smoking room in the hotel as I wouldn't let the kids "smoke" in public...





I wanted the kids to see my favorite college, and they were enthusiastic about seeing Concordia College. I have so many wonderful memories on this campus and in all my college days I never considered that I would bring my kids back. We were not able to see my dorm, but they were both impressed otherwise.

96/12

My grandfather, Norman Albertson celebrated his 96th birthday and 12th wedding anniversary on August 1st. Some of our family members joined together in Detriot Lakes, MN to be with him and his bride. We started out with a birthday dinner.







Monday night, Sarah had reserved a fishing guide to take the two of us out. To say that we were excited would be an understatement, but I still had low expectations for really catching fish. To our astonishment, Brad Laabs was the BEST guide ever and had us catching more fish, and bigger fish, than I had ever dreamed. Sarah and I walked away wondering how we had ever fished without guide and counting the days until we can come back and fish with Brad.








On Tuesday, we rented a pontoon boat and had fishing time. Everyone went out on the lake, the kids had successful fishing and Great-Grandpa Albertson began telling fishing stories. This was so much fun, as the kids catch fish, grandpa laughed at their excitement and re-counted all of our similar moments.











The last evening, we sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful lake sunset. I found it funny that "the twins" we were both wearing orange shirts.