Hey Persons! So, I found out like 5 minutes ago that I, ( KDTD) am posting today…the whole post! Again, bear with me.

This morning we went to church, Pastor Kevin Barnhart preached. Usually I don’t understand his deep sermons, well it’s not like I try, I usually doodle on my bulletin. Sorry:( But today, I listened, because the ink on my pen had run out:) The sermon was really kinda funny, it was about Labor day or something like that. I don’t know. We got back from church and chillaxed a while, which I LOVE, I would MUCH rather be at home checking email, calling friends, watching TV, or even reading a book…or rather skimming through the books Mom has me read for school, than going on a hike where bugs attack me.

We drove down to Alma, WI. It was a long drive, yeah like an hour and a half! Ben, Mom, and Dad were listening to a book on tape, some Chronicles of Narnia one…the one after Prince Caspian. Mom must have forgotten that Caleb and I were desperately attempting to listen to our iPods, and had the book blasted like SUPER LOUD! So like, Caleb and I had our music cranked up to the highest volume level, it was craziness!!!

We went on a letterbox, it was sorta fun I guess. We went to this cliffy thing, and stood so far up in the air, and close to the edge. Mom was wigged out! We went into this really pretty trail, and while Mom, Dad, and the boys climbed down the hill, in the woods, the steep hill, digging through trees, bushes, and dirt, trying to find a small box with a stamp in it, I sat on a bench jamming to my favorite music group, Sugarland. I am not so amused with the whole idea of Letterboxing, it used to be fun, but not any more. Dad just discovered geocaching today. I am doomed. So my fam found the Letterbox and all was well again.

We then drove around Alma for a while looking for an Art and music festival in town. We found it, and it was coolness! There where Booths, Popcorn, Pop, bands, Art things, eagles from the national eagle center, storytellers, Pony rides, and Minnow races!!! We stayed for almost 2 hours. We sat and listened to the sweetest band ever! It was called, Ron Sacia and the Fat Daddys. They where like bluesy swingish, or Tony Bennett type music. The dude, Ron, was so cool! He was so energetic! He would just scream into the mic. and like we were sitting right in front of the speakers, it was ear piercing loudness!!!!

Ben did the Minnow racing, which I found to be really sad. I mean those poor little baby minnows, forced to like be handled and drpoed and move and splashed around by hundreds of kids! ( BTW, I used all of the ‘ and’s” to make it really dramatic!) Caleb did the pony ridding, and liked it. I think. He is a deep kid you know, I can’t always tell what is going on with that Little guy. In the end it was fun fun!

We had A&W for supper, and then came home, and the boys and Gracie did some Star wars geocaching close to home. It is so cool, cuz you get a prize at the end.( I think I could do that part)! well, Ben got a small prize that I am jealous of. He got a small figurine of Batman. I am not so crazy about Batman in particular. I have seen the new one twice in theaters, and it’s my favorite movie! The dark Knight!!!! But, I LOVE the face behind the mask! Christian Bale rocks!!! 

Well, that’s it for today’s post. You probably skimmed the post, because it was so terribly written, sorry. Again, I will have much more to say on Wednesday, Mall of America day! I will talk your ear off with  stores such as… Aeropostale, American Eagle, Abercrombie and Fitch, and Hollister. I am so excited! I hope you persons have a great and wonderfully perfect day tomorrow!!!!! KDTD:)!

The weekend is here and so is the warm and sunny weather in MN!  We began our morning with brunch with our fabulous friends, Mike and Kyra Brinker.  We were invited over for a delicious brunch.  If you were wondering, Kyra is a bit of Rachel Rae/ Martha Stewart when it comes to brunch.  Nobody left hungry!   We enjoyed catching up on all the summer happenings.

After our visit, we headed over to the fairgrounds in Rochester for the AKC Agility Trials.  This competitition involves pure breed dogs doing all the same hurdles, jumps, tunnels, and balance beams that you see on those really cool programs on Animal Planet.  All the kids were saying “Hey, this just like Air Bud and Firehouse Dog!”   We met some very friendly dog owners from the Twin Cities area who kindly shared their shade from the hot sun and gave us all the ins and outs of the competition.  This was very helpful to us, since this was our very first Agility Competition.  We spent a few hours watching experts and novice dogs and trainers alike. 

In the end, we all agreed that our own Gracie would not likely stack up against these well trained pups

–although we still think she has the cuteness factor going for her! 

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I survived another day of early appointments. Caleb and I left for the Mayo Clinic shortly after 7 a.m. and made it home by 9:30. We stuck around for two hours while his eyes readjusted after the dilation meds. What a trooper!

Then we packed a picnic lunch and drove to Wabasha where we ate in a park. Then we made our way a few miles up the road to Pepin, WI, one of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s homes. We didn’t actually visit her sites, but instead found a letterbox at the Pickle Factory … which isn’t a factory at all, but a bar and grill on the Mississippi River. It was a “Larry Boy” letterbox, so we had to go into the restaurant and say, “I am a cucumber.” The boys were thrilled and the hostess knew just what we needed by the coded message! Too funny.

Then we went to the National Eagle Center and got a close up look at 3 live eagles inside plus one soaring over the Mighty Mississippi. The Center is new and it was fun to check it out as a family. 
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This is going to be short, cuz this Momma is tired! I had a very early morning and took Kadi to the dentist for a tiny filling. Seriously, it took 15 minutes start to finish to fill that baby. We had another lazy morning at home … well, I paid bills, etc, but we didn’t get up and go … unless you count the dentist.

Our family is super addicted to reruns of 7th Heaven, so we hung out here until 2. Then we took off to Oxbow park to go letterboxing. We successfully found two boxes and most of us enjoyed the hike. In Caleb’s post below you’ll hear something about a prize. Daddy made a comment that Caleb was going to get a prize. He meant it because Caleb was being so sweet to everyone and nameless others were being snarky. Caleb thought it was because he found the last letterbox (which we let him find). Ah, day 3 of our staycation and we’ve implemented new rules … if you like what we are doing, great! If you don’t, slap a smile on your face and keep your thoughts to yourself. Unnecessary grumbling today was met with sibling handholding … a torturous, but highly effective consequence, I must say! Read the rest of this entry »

“Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday, dear Daddy … Happy Birthday to you!” Today was Mike’s birthday and we started out our second daycation by singing to him over homemade caramel rolls with a candle in them. We were all pigging out by 8:30 a.m. and Kadi couldn’t understand why we couldn’t have called it “brunch” and kicked it off a little later.

Yesterday, Ben had the genius idea that he wanted to “make” Mike a birthday present and Caleb would be his assistant. He came up with the entire idea himself, found the necessary resources, and only required a little tool help from me. He worked for over an hour and we were all thrilled with the results. I was positive he’d give Mike the gift the moment Mike walked in the door from work yesterday, but, by-golly … that boy can keep a secret! He somehow managed to cram the gift into his bedroom closet and brought it down right after we ate breakfast this morning.  Check it out! Read the rest of this entry »

The Tiede’s are on Staycation. That’s right. We are on vacation and staying home. Well, not exactly staying home. We are sleeping here and eating most meals, but we are planning many mini-outings for the next week and a half. We are affectionately calling each outing a “daycation.”

While we have a long list of things to do, which we don’t typically get to do or don’t take the time to do, I thought I’d add something to the list … blogging. Our summer has not been very conducive to consistent blogging, so (with my family’s permission) I am taking you all along on the 2008 Tiede Staycation. Each night we are going to give you a glimpse into the daycation we enjoyed that day. I am twisting my family members’ arms and asking them to co-blog with me each night. We’ll see how that goes. So, tune in for pictures and stories from our Staycation!

Tonight we kicked off our tour of local attractions by attending a Monarch Butterfly tagging and release at the Quarry Hill Nature Center. Twelve years ago, Kadi and I participated in a similar event and Kadi’s picture was on the front page of the Post Bulletin. She was 8 months old at the time. We learned some fascinating things about Monarchs tonight and even though we’ve studied them before we all learned new things.

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Shamefully, I have not posted in … well … forever. I’ve had very good reasons. If you think I’m going to say, it’s summer and I’ve been soaking in the sun drinking fancy drinks with umbrellas, you’ll be disappointed. Here are the top ten reasons I haven’t posted in … well … forever …

10. I’ve been cheering for my nephew, Carter Wevik (age 13), whose Little League team just won the Midwest championship and is headed to the World Series in PA!! (Way to go, Carter and Canyon Lake team!!) Note: Watch ESPN beginning next Friday to see them play again!

 
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