Our Swedish visitor :)

We were very fortunate to have a visitor from Sweden.  Jasmine is the step-daughter of one of Joacim's best friends back home in Sweden, and she came here for her "language trip". According to Joacim, most of the kids her age (~15) in Sweden go on a language drip during that summer in school in order to learn a more conversational English.  Usually they go to England where I guess they have these special programs set up for this, but since we're here and she was already familiar with us from when they visited last summer, she wanted to come here.  I say "I guess" because, well....it's Joacim and his Swenglish explanations are sometimes lacking in clarity :)  

She got here on a Tuesday, and I still had to work, but Joacim WAS able to take some time off so she wasn't alone initially.  Izzy was beside herself with excitement the weeks approaching her arrival, to the point where she was driving me batty with questions.  The funny thing is that, once Jasmin arrived, Izzy kinda clammed up since she's in her shy phase :(

We were having lovely weather, and wanted to spend as much time outside as possible, so we went to the "fake lake" as we're affectionately referring to it.  It's a swimming lake run by the parks department here and it's fantastic.  It's relatively shallow, chlorinated and there are no fish or plants to feel gracing my legs.  In other words, it's heavenly for me.

Izzy seems to enjoy it too!

Jasmine's visit was luckily during the Aquatennial, with the MOST AMAZING fireworks display!  We are very fortunate to have wonderful neighbors who saved us a spot with a fantastic view!

One day we headed downtown to check out the miniature golf course at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.  We didn't call ahead, not even thinking that it was necessary, but we got there and all we saw was a sign that said "sold out".  Bummer.  Not knowing what else to do, we headed to the sculpture garden to take a look around, and now I can finally say I've seen this famous sculpture!

4th of July weekend with Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Bri

We were lucky to have Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Bri make the drive up here to help us celebrate the 4th of July.  They usually come around Izzy's birthday, but there was something going on around that time (can't remember what it was though :) but this actually worked out better.

We had a tremendous amount of rain in June (over 13 inches!!!), which ended up moving the annual Taste of Minnesota (typically held on Nicollet Island) out to the Carver County Fairgrounds.  I thought this would be a whole lot of fun, and that we'd get a chance to sample some of the local restaurants downtown, but I think that the move caused a lot of restaurants to back out, and we were left with your typical county fair fare :(  We made the best of it, though!

There were a few carnival rides there too, which Izzy had to sample.  You can't tell, but she WAS having a good time :)

And then that evening, our friends Jessica and Blake offered to host us at Blake's parents house, which is right on Lake Waconia.  This is usually a fantastic spot for fireworks, with them normally being set off from the island in the middle of the lake.  However, due to the rain again, they had to have the fireworks launched from the far side of the lake.  Our view wasn't as great as it could've been, but it was still lovely, and we had WONDERFUL hosts!  Plus, when we were leaving, the fireworks from The Taste started going off, so it's like we got a two-fer!

 It had been unusually chilly the night before when we were watching fireworks, so I was relieved when we woke up on the 5th to warm, sunny skies.  Perfect day for a boat ride!

The boat ride was followed-up by a yummy steak dinner on the deck

And then our own fireworks that Grandma and Grandpa brought with them :)

Later that same evening I was able to get this great shot of the moon.  I don't have the best equipment for moon photos, but I'm pretty happy with this one :)

4th of July

We did nothing during the day on the 4th of July.  It was too warm to do much of anything, so we hung out during the day, grilled some steaks for dinner, and then headed over to Lake Ann Park in Chanhassen to watch fireworks.  I really wanted to be able to park our cars and watch the fireworks somewhere near them, and we were lucky enough to do just that.  It kinda reminded of when I was a kid and we'd watch fireworks as a big family in Wolcott :), and I loved it!

New Year's Eve 2008

For New Year's this year, we decided to invite the Benatti's over for dinner. Now, I tend to get VERY stressed out about making big dinners, so I swore that I was not going to do that this year. Usually I get stressed out because I try some recipe that I've never attempted before, but not this time...I was going with a tried-and-true recipe. It's this WONDERFUL chicken wreath thingy that my friend Rebecca told me about. And since I'm so proud of the way it turned out, I, of course, took a photo:

The photo didn't turn out too well (too much yellow), but as soon as I figure out my new photo software, I'll show you what it SHOULD look like :)

Anyway, enough about that. We had a very nice evening...spent a lot of time around the kitchen table, eating, talking, drinking...and then some more eating :)

Here we area all around the table:


Neither did Bianca


Oliver didn't quite make it to the end


At midnight, we got out glasses and bottles of champagne (ok, sparkling wine, whatever...) and went outside to shoot off fireworks. I can't tell you how magical it is in Sweden on New Year's Eve. Everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE, shoots off fireworks at midnight. It's better than our 4th of July! And the last few times I've been there, it's been kinda foggy..it's partially a downer because you can't see them very well, but the ones you can see are shrouded in this fuzzy fog, and it's just fantastic!! Anyway, nothing too spectacular here, but here's a video for Joacim ( he LOVES fireworks!)

Happy 2009!!!