Como Butterfly Garden, Swimming Lessons & a Rocket Launch

What a crazy busy week it has been in our house. Somehow summer always seems to have a way of doing that, though. We start out with pictures from the Como Butterfly Garden on Wednesday, July 9th. It is a new attraction this summer at the Como Zoo & Conservatory. It was fascinating for the kids, and I really enjoyed trying to get pictures of the different butterflies. We also took some time to go and see some of the animals in the zoo before hitting Como Town once again. We cannot begin to explain how much we love living within walking distance of this wonderful gem of a park.

On Thursday, July 10th I snapped some pictures of the kids during their swimming lessons at the Como Pool. This was the last day in their 1st of two sessions this summer so the teachers were doing a lot of testing to see which children should move up to the next level. Taylor passed with flying colors and Ian's teacher is going to let him try the next level to see how he does. He still has a fear of jumping off of the diving board unassisted, but if you look at the last few pictures of him on the board, the teacher doesn't actually touch him or help in into the water at all. So, we'll see how he does starting tomorrow in the next level.



Next up was the Trioli rocket launch on Saturday, July 11th. The forecast was for sunny skies, temps in the upper 70's (yay!), but winds gusting as high as 40mph. We left early in hopes of getting Panod's new, large rocket up before the winds got too bad, but it was already windy when we got there at about 9:00am. I volunteered to launch my new (first ever) rocket, since it was smaller. Panod has been so patient in helping me build it, and even the kids have taught me so much that they know - I was proud to put it on the launch pad with the other rockets, but I was a little apprehensive that I wouldn't see it again. See, the winds seemed to have a nasty habit of blowing the rockets ever closer to a corn field with plants there were about 3-4' tall. That would make it very hard to find any rocket in if it were to blow into the field - and that's exactly where mine ended up! As I was running to catch my rocket after it launched, I remember the announcer commenting on my fine-looking streamer, and then saying that it looks like my rocket might be the first one we lose today in the corn field. I wandered in that endless sea of corn for 90 minutes after it launched, but eventually I gave up. I got back to the site and announced to Panod and the kids that I had lost my rocket. Sad as it was, I knew it was a possibility when I agreed to do it - and we now knew for sure that Panod was not going to launch his new one. Nobody wanted to risk losing that one! We stayed until about 1:30pm when most everybody that had agreed to launch theirs had - and they were out looking for them in the corn field. lol Panod said he wanted to take a stab at trying to find mine before we had to go, so I started packing up the kids while he searched. Sure enough - after about 30 minutes, he called me on my cell phone to say that he had found it!!! If that's not love, I don't know what is! We were able to get out to the ball fields in Como Park last night when the winds died down to launch Panod's new rocket. It did so well that we ended up launching it twice. Enjoy the pictures.

Finally a Summer Post

It took a while for it to finally feel like summer here. I'm going to use that as part of the reason it has been so long since our last post. There's also the fact that I have ended my spring semester and started my summer semester, the kids have finished up school, and their summer activities have begun.

Our first set of pictures comes from Ian's last days at his school, JJ Hill. His grade put on a play for us all to watch, and then a few days later we were there as his name was called to come and get his kindergarten diploma.


The weekend after school let out, I took the kids camping for a few days. We went to the Bunker Hills campground since it is so close, and we had a blast! I really wish we had brought the camera and taken some pictures, but I'm sure we'll be going camping again this summer and we'll be sure to get some then. If you ever need a close place to the cities to take the kids for a few days, I would highly recommend the campground at Bunker Hills. The sites are clean, big, quiet, and the wave pool was a hit for us.

Our next set of pictures comes from a newly-found family hobby - rockets. Panod and the kids had gone to the monthly meeting back in May, but we all went to the one in June since they had so much fun the last time. Panod, Taylor & even Ian all built rockets to launch on the launch pads that are provided. We also got to watch other rockets launch, and some of them were really, really big. We had so much fun that we are planning another trip next weekend for the July meeting - I'm even going to get in on the fun and launch my own rocket, too!


We did get through Back to the 50's again this year, but we did not get any pictures this time around. Grandpa Bob even paid us a visit that weekend and he really enjoyed the old cars.

June 14th was a big day for us,too. We went to the Star Wars exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota. The pictures really tell most of the story, but there is something really scary about a six-year-old who knows the difference between all of the different droids.


And then there are all of the summer activities. These pictures are from a trip to Como Town & a train ride that a neighbor got tickets for and shared with us.


Both Taylor and Ian are involved in swimming again this summer. Taylor is also playing tennis every morning in Langford Park, and Ian is doing t-ball again this year. I will be getting some pictures of those goodies this week to post here. Otherwise, we are all doing well & we hope that your Independence Day was as fun as ours was.