This is a LOOOOONG one!

At the Food Bank the Sisters (Christensen and Pointer) got their pictures taken because they were the fastest labelers.

Becky and Scott fled from the high temperatures in Arizona and came to nice, cool Duluth for a few days. We tried to get Becky to relax but...

These are the kinds of things we did with them: a flat bike ride and then a mountain bike ride-

just Scott and Ron.  A hike down Chester Creek to the lake. A trip to Gooseberry Falls and the lighthouse. Not to mention a stop at the candy store and Rustic Inn for pie. There was also a short trip to the quilt store and one baby blanket project.


Plus, Scott managed to work quite a bit.  We left him alone in the office and he still found plenty of people to talk to in there.

On the day that Scott and Ron rode mountain bikes, we dropped them off and then we drove to Lester Park to wait for them.  On the way we stopped at a garage sale and bought an Upwards game.  So Becky and I sat at a picnic table in the park and played Upwards.  It was a pretty much perfect morning.

So we have been having a sort of contest for the best pies in Two Harbors, MN.  It is between Betty's Pies and the Rustic Inn.  We are leaning toward Rustic Inn because they have a couple of cream pies that have merange for the crust.  It is yummy!  Plus Ron likes the wild rice meatloaf.  (FYI if you're ever on the Northshore.)  We are continuing our research.

This is the long stairway (177 steps!) that goes from the lake shore up to the parking lot level.   You should be able to make up a "moral of the story" for this, right?

We went to St. Paul for a zone conference all day Thursday (8/20).  And then we went to the temple and spent a night at the mission home. 

This morning we met the Krepps for breakfast. They have sold their home in the east part of Duluth.  They now have a camper (big) and truck (big) to pull it.  (And a couple of storage units).   They are ready to submit their mission papers. They hope to be called to a Family History (genealogy) mission in a warm state.  They will bring their camper and live in it.   I am so excited for them! (except for the big dog and 2 cats!) --

Visit to the Rose Garden in Lief Erickson Park

 The Middletons came to visit-George and Mary Ellen from Naperville!  Of course, the librarian would love to see the neighborhood libraries.  Ron took them on a hike along Chester Creek.  They were having a nice stroll until Mary Ellen happened to ask about "wildlife".  When Ron mentioned bears and the stroll turned into a jog.  Then he mentioned ticks and hoooeeeee!

"Before"

"After"

Yes, we did take them to Split Rock Lighthouse and Goosberry Falls and the Rustic Inn.   Mary Ellen definitely got into the spirit of pie test/tasting!

Our favorite thing we did with them was take a train ride in the dining car from Duluth to the Lester River.  The Salmon was divine!  Also the scenery and the company!  Perfect evening!

We have also been busy with getting ready for the new seminary year:  Meeting with teachers for orientation and training, in-service meetings, set up classes, speaking in Church and so forth.  Good service.

Last Sunday we spoke in the Grand Rapids, MN Branch; afterwards we went to the home of Jerry and Gail McLane.  We had known them when we lived in Naperville and they lived in Bolingbrook. The wives had to remind us husbands that we knew each other.  Anyway, we had a great overnight visit with them in this beautiful isolated home on a lake in the North Woods.  The kayaking on the lake in the morning was a special experience.

View from the deck

McLane's home

That's different...

 On the way home from Nauvoo we passed through Brookfield to see Scott and Vance and Jessica.  Vance smiles at us now and it is pretty stinkin' cute.

We had a chance to visit the Cirrus factory and see how these small planes are made.  It was really interesting.

Elder Winder and Elder Hurst

Braden, McKinnon, Ben, Ron, Josie and Sophia.

The Selfie stick was at it again.! We were all at Whitney's baptism.

This is Whitney and it was her baptism we were celebrating!

Then we got together with the other senior missionary couples of the Minneapolis, MN mission. We try to do this every few months.  We had 13 people attending.  The first thing we did was ride on the riverboat.

Then we ate at the Frostop in Taylor Falls, MN

We spent a few serious moments at the park.

 Ron finished his goal of 57 miles on the Mesabi Trail.








As far as missionary work goes, we held an Inservice last month in two places.  We had a north meeting with our seminary teacher from Thunder Bay, Canada on Facetime.  She felt she was almost with us.  I overheard a couple of whispered comments from her, "go find your dad." and "I am in a meeting so quit bothering me."  I don't think she meant us.  We had decided that we have more time to travel the stake and that we would bring the meetings to them.  It worked out really well.  We are preparing for another meeting coming up on Saturday.  We have also been to orient 3  new seminary teachers.



Last night when we met with the young single adults, Josie had us write down something that we felt was holding us back in some way.  Then she had us write on a paper and put it in a balloon.  She filled the balloons with helium and we all went outside to let the balloons go.  We watched them rise up into the sky and float over towards Lake Superior.







From the "How To Speak Minnesotan" book:  The second phrase you need is "that's different" with "that's" being high and "different" being low and stretched out. It means that this particular Minnesotan thinks you are downright looney but he doesn't want to offend you.
Stay tuned for more information about feed caps.

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.