You bet, it's summer in Duluth!

This is Hazel.  She is one of our favorite little people.

This is what summer looks like in Duluth--peonies, and 4th of July picnics-two of them.

                                                             And fireworks!                                                


And a ride on the tour boat under the aerial life bridge.

                        And these two (crazy) brothers went on a 37 miles bike ride!! And then they went 47 miles another day!!                                Paul and Ron

 And we went berry picking!  They were so yummy!!!  Then we had strawberry everything.

 And we went on an adventure on the Brule River in northern Wisconsin.

Paul paddled a kayak.

Wade and Patti Newton

 This is really a beautiful river. It is not very swift or very deep for most of the route but there were a few  rapids...
There was this big rock just under the water that we couldn't see until our canoe stopped right on top of it. It tipped the canoe enough that things started floating away--my paddle, Ron's life vest.  I didn't actually float away because I found a rock to stand on.  Ron eventually freed our canoe with Wade's help. Meanwhile Paul was rescuing the things that had floated down the river.

These forget-me-nots were blooming all over.  All they needed to grow was a water source and a log to anchor them.

We went last week to Nauvoo with our stake youth conference.  We enjoyed being with the youth and talking about Nauvoo and Church History.  I helped in the kitchen and Ron became an instant success with his selfie stick.  Then he posted some of his photos and now he is Facebook friends with lots and lots and lots of youth in our stake.  And he thinks it's pretty fun.  I will not post his hundreds of photos but just a few.

making brownies

I have been reading a book called "How To Speak Minnesotan" and I have learned some things.  One is that you only need three phrases in Minnesota and the most useful one is "you bet" or "you betcha".  This phrase can be used for just about any thing. It can be used to say yes, no, I agree, or you're welcome.

For instance:

"Here is your suitcase.  It got stuck in the conveyor belt."  

" Oh. Well, thanks." 

"You bet."

"Warm enough for ya?"

" You bet."

"My mother is coming to stay with us for a few months."

" You bet."

"We also lost your dog"

"I am really gonna miss him."

"You bet."

( more useful phrases next time!)

13 months into it and I think we are getting it.

So we passed our year mark on June 9.  We are no longer surprised by things because we saw them last year.  For instance, it does not surprise us to see the fog billowing across the parking lot in June.  It doesn't surprise us to see a bear in a neighborhood.  It doesn't surprise us to have our high temperature 73 in July and hear people complain about the heat.  And we learned never to go anywhere without our bin of games, especially the cards and dice.  Also, we know the importance of "you betcha" in a conversation.  And we know all about feed caps.


 Zone Preparation Day.  We went to Enger Tower and took pictures of this wonderful view!   Then we went to Park Point and had a BBQ and volleyball.

 I helped these Elders, Elder Foggin and Elder Winder, order I pad covers that had keyboards included.  This is the day they arrived.

Transfer day!

Grandma's Marathon! The Elders and Ron handed out water and ice to the participants at mile 22.
And a photo of the finish line.

Ron and Bryan Pugh (from Naperville) went on a LONG bike ride.  I kind of suspected that it might be long and hilly and muddy.  Sure enough.                            

This was a better choice!

Things we have done but don't have a photo of:

Zone conference

Dentist

Graduate open house

Seminary and Institute reports

Church--I did 2 hours of Primary by myself! The highlight was finding a caterpillar on Othan's shirt! He sorta freaked out!

Young Single Adult activities

Institute class
Inspected 2 missionary apartments

Pancakes at our apartment for missionaries on Saturday mornings

Potluck Sunday
Foodbank service

We almost went to the Rhubarb Festival.  Who knew it would be over at 4:00 in the afternoon??

This pic is taken at Mineview in the Sky. You can look out over a huge iron ore, open pit mine.  And this truck holds over 400 tons of ore.  

Then we went to inspect the elders apartment and took them to lunch.  And the portions were so big we took a picture! Both these missionaries cleaned their plates.

Their moms would have been so proud.