Fourth of July Week 2013!

What a busy, full and fun holiday week it was!

Ken's brother Keith, our sister-in-law Lisa, and niece Karissa (Krissie) came to spend the Fourth in Minneapolis.

The week began with jury duty for Ken and a couple of half days of work for me.

Keith, Lisa and Krissie did some shopping at IKEA and the Mall of America, where Toby and I joined them for a little while; we swam in their hotel pool and played LOTS of late-night card games! We grilled fish (thanks, Keith!) and Toby rode in Uncle Keith's truck everywhere we went. 

There was fun on the trampoline; Toby's soccer game at Ft. Snelling;

and a day at the beach, swimming, canoeing, and bike-riding!

Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles- Canoeing and Biking

We went downtown to watch the fireworks over the Stone Arch Bridge on the 4th and hung out at a condo belonging to a friend of a friend after fireworks for more games, treats, and even chocolate wine for the grown-ups!





The next day we spent at Valleyfair!

Jonah, Lisa, Karissa, and Toby

Jonah and Krissie rode Steel Venom first and it remained Jonah's favorite ride!

Jonah laughed on all the terrifying rides!

Scrambler fun!

Toby gathered up his courage to try the "Scrambler" and was so scared he nearly cried while waiting in line.




As soon as he got off the ride, he said, "That was fun!  Let's do it again!" and proceeded to ride it 4-5 times throughout the day.

Krissie and Jonah

There was lots of waiting in line.  We even had to wait in line to go out of the park for our lunch!

Brothers and cousins

Ken, Lisa, and Toby on the train

We got soaked on the water rides and spent lots of time in the water park.

Thunder Canyon

First roller-coaster ride!

Toby allowed himself to be persuaded to try a roller-coaster and rode the Mad Mouse with us! Ken did NOT enjoy it.









It was a fun-filled week and we were sad to say goodbye to Keith, Lisa, and Krissie.

First Job

The other day our neighbor Mary Beth was heading out of town for the weekend and hired Jonah to mow her lawn.  Since Ken was out of town, I suggested the boys could earn some extra cash if they also mowed our yard.

Jonah finished Mary Beth's back yard.

As soon as he started on the front yard, the mower ran out of gas.  We ran to get more gas only to discover that this was not the problem.  I learned way more about our mower than I ever wanted to as I tried some limited trouble-shooting (mainly that it is a messy proposition!), but I was not able to fix things. 

It started to rain and the next morning, Jonah left for a friend's cabin.

What to do?  We still had half of Mary Beth's lawn and all of ours to do. 

We borrowed a friend, and borrowed the friend's lawn-mower, and Toby and Andy finished the job. 

Toby is still pretty new to mowing ("Boulevard?  What do you mean I have to mow the boulevard?  That's not part of the yard!") so the finished product was not quite up to Ken's or Mary Beth's standards, but the job got done and now we have a nine-year old who is very motivated to get some more mowing experience so he and Andy can start a lawn care business. 

Ken still gets to deal with the lawn mower issues. . .