Yes, I AM still alive!!!

Hello! What happened to summer?? I cannot believe it's already August - aside from the frigid temps, the time has gone by so quickly that it doesn't seem real. Clearly I've been horrible about updating this - I promise to do better. We had a busy April as we celebrated Brendan's 6th birthday and my 32nd birthday, I went on a vacation to Virginia to visit friends and run my first ever 5K race, and we geared up for warmer weather (little did we know that would never happen!).

May was also busy with Mother's Day, my 2nd 5K, Brendan's Kindergarten Graduation and last day of school, and our trip to Duluth/Bayfield over Memorial Day weekend for a wedding and mini family vacation.

In June we went to my parents to visit and ride in the equipment (Chance got his first ever tractor ride and we ALL got our first ever sprayer ride in the Hagge!) and have a great time! We passed the one-year anniversary of the tornado on June 6th without incident, though we are still cleaning up from it and will be for quite some time, I'm sure. June 19th was the Relay for Life, where Chance was one of the torchbearers! I received over $700 in donations, which is so wonderful - a HUGE thank you to all that donated!! The night started out a little rocky when huge thunderstorm blew through, but after it was gone it was followed by the most beautiful double rainbow I think I've ever seen. The luminaries were ruined in the storm, so we were unable to light them, but were were still able to hold the ceremony - it was great - Chance was a total ham and had a blast being a torchbearer! The day after the Relay, we headed to the Twin Cities to celebrate my cousin, Nikki's graduation. It was such fun to see the family and spend time together. My cousin, Jacinta and her husband, Matt and their son, Calvin (who is the same age as Chance) also came over and we were able to get some great pics of the boys together.

July 4th was celebrated at our home - Grandma Carol and Cameron came down to share the weekend with us. The weather was fantastic all weekend, which really was the only really nice weekend we've had all summer. We shot off fireworks on Saturday night (the 4th) and really enjoyed the show. We bought them from a different location this year, and I think we'll definitely be going back! A lot of bang for our buck (pardon the pun)! July 7th, Cary celebrated his 38th birthday and the following weekend we took the kids to the zoo in Wahpeton, which was a lot of fun. The weekend of July 17th and 18th was Cary's 20th Class Reunion in Duluth, so he and I left the kids with Grandma Carol and Cam and headed to Duluth to partake in the festivities. The reunion was really fun - it was great meeting so many of his classmates, and seeing some of the people I'd met at his 10 year. Cary had a wonderful time seeing his class and they had a really great turnout which was awesome! In between reunion activities, Cary and I took the alone time to do a few things you can't do with three little kids; we saw a movie at the Omnimax (Imax theater), toured the Irving (a boat that now serves as a tourist attraction), drove all around Duluth and revisted Cary's old stomping grounds, drove up the shore of Lake Superior (Cassy borrowed us her Corvette, so we were able to ride in style!) to Gooseberry Falls and Palisade Head, and grabbed a bite to eat at Betty's Pies. It was an awesome weekend!!

We arrived home from Duluth to sadness, however. Our Golden Retriever, Cami, succumed to kidney failure over the weekend while we were away. Based on our research it appeared she must have had Lyme's Disease (unbeknownst to us) and in rare circumstances it can affect Golden Retriever's by shutting down their kidneys. We were very sad and the kids took it very hard. She is buried on the hill in the pasture where she loved to run. We were very fortunate to find an adorable new puppy almost right away, though. Roscoe P. Landstrom is a Siberian Husky/Golden Lab cross and has done a lot in the way of helping our hearts heal. He's a wonderful puppy, very well behaved, mild mannered, loves the kids, and has really become a member of our family.

Last weekend we went to Itasca State Park where Brendan tried out his new roller blades for the first time, Halle rode bike, Cary was on 'blades, and I pushed Chance in the stroller. It was very fun, but a little stressful as it was both Halle and Brendan's first time on wheels on the trail - and there are a lot of hills at Itasca!! We ended the day by going to the huge playground there, where all of the kids had a blast, of course.

Whew - that was a long update -- I'm sorry I've been so bad about updating! I will be better!!

Above are a few pictures from the past several months...to see all of the pictures please visit our web-album - the link at the top, on the right hand side under "Landstrom Family Photos" - be sure to check out!!