Shelly sent this neat picture of Sam & Miranda before the Twins game today. She doesn't know if they got circled or not but don't you think they should have? Great sign, Shelly! You can tell it was made by a teacher. :) Glad the Twins won!
All the Larson Family minus Paul was up last weekend. It started off with rain on Friday when just the Floms were up. Sat and Sun were very sunny and Monday was very rainy again so I guess we were pretty lucky. Here's Ellen with Gracie who is just learning to walk. It was fun to watch her. She's such a happy pleasant baby!
Ellen's favorite cat is Maisy. She also happens to be the hardest to catch! Carly likes kitties too but at a distance.
Royce snapped this of us Sat afternoon. We got this at Costco and it's perfect just for lounging although it's great behind the jet ski too.
Mom taught Carly how to play badminton and they played for close to 2 hours I bet! I made them pose here. I have lots more pictures to post. Shari and Carly stayed til Tuesday morning. Ellen stayed with me and we're having fun together just the two of us. Later I will bring her back to Keewatin and spend a few days up there too. We have a full day ahead of us in Elbow so I'd better get ready to go. Ellen is going to help at the Bargain Bazaar today.
We stayed at the Monte Carlo mainly because of it's great location on the strip and nice pool area but my favorite hotel is the Bellagio. We stayed here once and loved it. This glass piece or whatever you would call it is in the hotel lobby. I might put the top picture in a frame someday.
This photo of Dan is taken on the Bellagio grounds but you can see the Paris hotel in the background, the Venetian too I guess.
Just laying out here (in the shade) enjoying the view of palm trees overhead and construction straight ahead!
I got about 4 inches cut last week and had Dan take a photo for you. My favorite thing about Vegas is that my hair doesn't flatten due to humidity. I LOVE Vegas hair. No wonder they just had the hairstyling convention there last week.
We bumped into some celebrities in Vegas this week. We were there from Tuesday-Thursday. It was a fun trip even though we didn't win any money.
Is that still like a Golden Birthday? I was born in 1964, there's another 4 for you. It's 2008 and 4 plus 4 is 8, wow......freaky. Okay, I'm stretching it a bit. 
Do you see the storm coming up behind us? There's the finger in that cloud just behind Sean's head that was shooting out. Jan, Gary and Toby stopped over with garden produce and Jan took this photo for us. Thanks Jan!
We ended up having dinner in the tent dark after all the storm excitement.
On Friday morning, I picked up Charice in St. Cloud where Sean was working-bright and early in the morning! We toured the Munsinger/Clemens Gardens on the river. It was Charice's first visit. It was absolutely gorgeous- nice and quiet at 7:30 am too. If you've never been there, it's definitely worth a stop if you're in the area.
We arrived home and got our outfits ready for a little trolling. Charice was the official "Face Painter!" She did a great job as "Horace" the troll!!! We had a lot of fun and besides trolling we hit a few rummage sales, took a tour of the Bargain Bazaar, my classroom, the public library and other events going on that afternoon. There were 30 rummage sales but I only went to 4 including a huge one at the Humane Society. People have a lot of junk(treasures) to get rid of I guess. Nancy, does Charice's mask look familiar?? Charice only made one toddler cry and she was at least 10 feet away. It must be the mask as Nancy had the same thing happen last year.
After enough fun in town, we went home and made 2 Key Lime Pies(one for us and one for the pie sale.) We used Mom's recipe that is very easy and will show up in a post soon. Sean decided to go to Dan's game in Alex so Charice and I hung out at the cabin and had good tour of the lake on the jet ski. The lake was totally calm so it was perfect for that. We got the screen tent up and a good fire going just before the guys got home. It was a very fun day and nice to have lots of time together. I have other good pictures to post later. Dan's working at home on Monday so I won't get a chance for awhile.
The first tomato on the grape plant is turning red...very exciting for me. Seriously. I counted about 40 little tomatoes on that plant. I can't wait to start picking them. The Roma is coming along too but only about 8 tomatoes.
The rotted stumps with the petunias are blooming nicely. Better than a couple weeks ago for sure. Of course I have been fertilizing them and deadheaded more diligently.
Finally, I have a blooming hollyhock! I have tried to grow them around here with no luck. I had some in Morris by the garage and I loved them. This one is a transplant from the school where they grow like weeds. I had no idea what color it would be but I am very happy with pink. There is still another to bloom. It's under the kitchen window at the cabin.
The Morning Glories are beginning to bloom too. They can't figure out how to crawl up to the top of the pergola. I may have to assist them.
I picked these old skis up last summer shopping with my mom and aunts in Alex. They were a boring tan color so I painted them red and white. I found the little beach sign for $2 recently at Ben Franklin. Notice the colorful plastic Adirondack chairs? I've been debating getting a pair of wood but storage and moving them around is an issue. Today, Dan and I went out for breakfast in Ashby and they had these chairs lined up in front of the hardware store. The colorful lineup definitely caught my eye and decided it would be perfect with the green on the cabin. Another nice thing about these is that you can plunk them down in the lake, not to mention stacking them all on top of each other.
This stone came from Dad's rock pile. I noticed it had a nice indentation and it's a perfect spot for sunflower seeds. The angel seems right at home there.
Thank you for your suggestions for this corner. For now, I put smaller hostas and divided my favorite hosta down at the cabin and brought up three nice chunks. I had an extra chunk for Jan so now if the hosta down at the cabin dies with those nasty north winds in January, I'll have some back up plants. Kris has one too that I gave her last year and that made it too.
Here's a different angle on the new bed. You can see that the view is better. I added some mulch too. I suppose I'll have lilacs popping up next spring but if I keep cutting them maybe they'll die????
Becky, Jan, Gay, Annette and I attended the vintage cottage tour in Alexandria. It was a very fun tour-not quite as good as last year, for me anyway, but very fun. This is the only house we toured on LeHommeDeu. Here's a shot of the beautiful hostas, pond, landscaping in front of the cottage. This was a 100 year + home. It originally belonged to a Dr. Granger and he was sponsored on his way to America by his cousin the founder of Annheiser Busch. No idea how you spell that.
Fieldstones, and old bench and hostas, what else could you ask for in a border?
