All My Children

In the last two weeks I have seen all of my children and almost all of my grand kids. The Hinton's came from Arizona for a week of fun in the sun, food, Education Week (Bruce was faculty for 2 classes this year), cousin bonding time (with Kennedy and Ellis) and fishing (with Papa, Matt and Nick). Aaron surprised Adrienne and Matt (Jen knew but kept the secret) by flying into Jackson, Wyoming (I lied - I hope I'm forgiven - and told Adrienne I had to work that morning and drove over to pick him up). Tami and Carter came up also and we had a Kusch Klan semi-reunion. On Friday night we went to the farmer's market in town and the kids got their faces painted. So cute!
On Saturday morning Bruce, Jen, Adrienne and Matt ran a race together. They decided they would cross the finish line in reverse birth order. Bruce took their race t-shirts to have them embossed with "Kusch X Four July 25, 2009" on the back. He won a medal and Jen and Ade each won a bag of potatoes - only in Idaho!

Alex was waiting for his pancakes. He is so cute and such a loving little guy. I could hug him all day. He runs everywhere!

Clayton made pancakes from scratch - amazing to say the least. He did wonder why I didn't make syrup from scratch too, sorry - when it's just Bruce and me we don't make a big batch. They managed to gag down the store-bought syrup without complaining.

When you look at the picture of Andy can you tell that the kids had just finished watching Ghostbusters? This is his big squirt gun, tucked into his shirt like the movie. He also took a pipe cleaner and made a hands-free head set that he is wearing on his ear. He decided a good place to watch Clay and Papa play catch was sitting in the little wheelbarrow we have.

The next week we flew to Minneapolis to visit Aaron and Livy. On Saturday Bruce, Aaron and I went to Mankato to see a Vikings practice (we left after Bruce and Aaron ran a race that began in Wisconsin and ended in Minnesota). Les Pico (he is responsible for player development for the team) made the arrangements for us and we had sideline passes. We could hear them calling plays and making the grunting noises they do when they smack each other. Les met us and had us wait after the practice was over so we could meet some of the players (one player was so tall I came all the way up to his elbows) and the coaches (both the head coach and offensive coach). It was an amazing day. On Monday we took Zoe on a date to McDonald's, Dollar Tree and Target, of course. The picture is not that great because I took it with my phone but you can see just how grown up she is. We had the best time.

This is a picture of Quinn riding her horse. She is so cute and makes the greatest belly laughs.

We took a little trip up to Duluth (on the banks of Lake Superior) for a couple of days. Here is everyone on the little pier.

We watched an enormous ship come through the gate and pass under the bridge. It raises and lowers - cars and pedestrians pass across when it is down. It looked to us like this huge ship would not clear the bridge but it made it. I hope you can get a sense of just how large it was.

We spent a really time at this little spot. There were perfect stones for skipping and a great place to do some toe dipping (the water was COLD). Aaron threw one stone that hit some sea gulls on the jetty you can see in the distance. They flew over where we were standing, calling loudly and we hoped they weren't thinking of making a "deposit" on Aaron's head. Bruce and Aaron showed us the great stone-skipping skill they learned while in scouting.

Here is the cabin where we spent the night. It was called the Fox Den and the floor had a bit of a slope to it but it was a very cool place and we had fun. The next picture is what we saw the next morning just beyond the deck outside our bedroom window. It was beautiful and so green.

We drove on up the coast to see the Split Rock Lighthouse. We hiked down the hill to where the rocks and water were and then found this place for a picture about half way back up the hill. We toured the inside of the lighthouse and the keeper's house.

We went on to Gooseberry Falls and then got pie at Betty's (a pie shop that is very famous). After a trip to the Mall of America so I could get some shoes and some very tasty burgers and ribs it was time to make our way back west and we flew into Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Friday night. What a great trip and I was so grateful to see all of my kids. They have grown up into the best adults and I am so very proud of the wonderful people they are. I love you to the moon and back.