25 Weeks

We thought we'd post a picture of Allison at 25 weeks. Here she is.


We haven't done much the last couple of weekends other than try to create space in our house for all of Junior's stuff we're sure he'll accumulate. There's another bag and a half of clothes that are ready for good will. Guess who's they are -- mine or Allison's?

Last Friday we went out to grab a hamburger at Red Robin with our friends Mike, Michelle, and Holly. After our food came Michelle took the top bun off her buffalo chicken sandwich to remove some lettuce and noticed that embedded in the chicken patty was a small screw! I've never seen such a thing. Luckily she didn't just bite into it the thing. I suppose she could've sued them to cover her dental bills if she did. All in all no one was hurt and the restaurant credited 50 bucks toward our bill. It cost us $12 for the 5 of us.

It's brain teaser time. If you can figure this one out please post a comment as "Anonymous" and sign your name in the message body. You win then win our humble admiration.

You have two identical pieces of rope. Each piece takes exactly 30 minutes to burn. You have no watch and need to find out exactly when 45 minutes have elapsed. How can you light the pieces of rope on fire to determine this. Remember, you need to know exactly when 45 minutes have elapsed and cannot estimate.

Good night,
R&A

Jealous?

Chaska was named the 8th best city by Money magazine. Here's a link to the article.

2007 Best Places to Live

Camping Again

We went camping this past weekend in Lake City, MN. Our friends Holly, Brett, Alicia, Buzz & Tara, and Griffin were all there. Lake City is southeast of Minneapolis and not a bad drive at all. We've been camping there once a summer for 5 years in a row now.

Once again we spent a lot of time playing Norwegian Golf.


The campsite was right on Lake Pepin. Allison snapped a pretty cool picture in the evening.


We try to eat like kings when camping. That's a lot of taters.

Corn on the cob was on the menu. Luckily Holly brought some floss.

Here's a couple of pictures of us and Junior at 23 weeks.



They have a nice public beach there and we spent most of Saturday lounging around. Electronic Catch Phrase always makes an appearance.


Buzz and Tara's dog Griffin caught doing something wrong.

Brett and his huge tent.



Good Night.

Still a boy!

We had another appointment this morning. Everything checked out okay again. From what the doctor told us little Junior is a boy so that confirms what we were told a couple of months ago. We've been used to referring to him as a boy for quite a while now so it would have been strange to have to reverse course and talk about Junior as a girl. It would have been equally as great though.

He is now weighing in at 14 ounces. The doctor checked on his little heart, measured his femur, looked at his brain and spine, and checked on many other parts of his anatomy. Everything is looking great! The first thing she checked was the sex and confirmed he was a boy within a minute.



She also gave us a couple of those 4D pictures of his face again. They are very cool. Here he is with his hand up by his mouth.


Both hands are up by his mouth in this one.


We were hoping to get some pictures of him showing off his dance moves again but I guess he wasn't in the mood. Once again it was absolutely amazing to get to see him with the ultrasound. The next time we get to see pictures of him won't be until he's born in November.

Allison's been doing great. Her back has been bothering her a little lately but that's about it. Over the last couple of weeks Junior's really been kicking and moving around. I've felt him kicking a few times and it's amazing how strong he is when he's still under 1 lb. I'm sure it will be even more interesting as he gets bigger and stronger.

For the 4th we went to Como Zoo in St. Paul with our freinds Paul and Jaime and their 18 month old Carson. Brett also came with. Carson thought every animal was a puppy -- it was funny. Brett knew what most of the animals were and I only had to tell him what a few of them were. :) After the zoo we went over to Brett's house and did a little grilling, shot some hoops in his driveway, and played a little Norwegian golf. It was a fun time. That night Allison and I drove over to the Home Depot parking lot and watched the Chaska fireworks. They're not too bad for a small town.

It was almost 100 degrees this weekend so we decided to spend the weekend inside and clean up the house a little. Saturday night we went down to the Chaska theater and watched Ratatouille. It was a great show! It's probably been 2 years since we've gone to a movie and when we decide to go to one it's a kid's movie. I guess we're weird.

Not much else going on. It rained for a couple of hours yesterday which was nice. Everything is brown around here.

Have a good week.
R&A

Camping

Well, we took Junior on his first ever camping trip. We left Friday night for a little campground just outside of Red Wing. It was a nice hour and a half drive from home. Allison and I usually camp with friends in Lake City every year so we're quite familiar with the drive. Here's a link you can paste in you browser if you're curious where these cities are.

Where we camped

The campground wasn't exactly what we're used to. When we first drove in it appeared to be an RV park and it looked like most people moved in there for the summer. One of the families there had four little lab puppies they were giving away -- I had to quickly escort Allison away from that campsite. It seemed like everyone had golf carts they used to cruise around the campsite. All in all everyone was nice and were there to have a good time.

There were only 4 spots for tents and the one we got was pretty cool. We were fairly secluded in a treed area right next to a little trout stream.


Before we left, Allison's co-workers had told her about a great bike trail nearby called Cannon Valley Trail that sounded like fun so we decided to bring our bikes. I, in all my infinite wisdom, didn't plan ahead on finding a bike rack for my Explorer until the Thursday before we left. The only one we could find required my vehicle to have a rectangular hitch -- which of course it doesn't have. After consulting Dad I decided to go to Home Depot and buy a hitch kit that I could install to the frame. Unfortunately Home Depot doesn't sell that particular item. I gave up on the project that night and we searched online and found a local store that sells racks that connect to the hatch. It worked just fine.

Boy, I bet you were waiting for some amusing end to the long paragraph about a bike rack. Sorry to disappoint you -- reading back over what I just wrote I'm not sure the whole point of why I thought it would be worth posting. Oh well, if I bored anyone you can leave a derogatory comment. There'll be a joke later to try and make up for it.


It turns out the trail was great. It was heavily treed and right next to a stream the whole way. Allison and I put in 20 miles round trip. Don't worry, it was spread over 3 hours and we took plenty of breaks and drank plenty of water throughout the trip. Allison and Junior didn't strain themselves at all. Here are the three of us on the trail.


Junior liked his first camping trip. We think he must think that the air mattress we slept on is a trampoline because on Saturday morning between 5 and 6 he was kicking like mad. It was the second time I've felt him kick -- he's getting stronger everyday.

Here's Allison and Junior at 21 weeks (just a little over half-way done!).

Here's a joke:

Two guys, Joe & Bill went camping in the desert. After they got their tent all set up, they fell sound asleep.

Some hours later, Joe wakes his faithful friend and says, "Bill, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."

Bill replies, "I see millions of stars."

"What does that tell you?" asked Joe.

Bill ponders for a minute, then says, "Astronomically speaking, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies, and potentially billions of planets.

Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo. Time wise, it appears to be approximately a quarter past three in the
morning.

Theologically, it's evident the
Lord is all-powerful and we are small, and insignificant.

Meteorologically, it seems we will have a beautiful day tomorrow.

What does it tell you, Joe?"

Joe is silent for a moment, then says, "Bill, you stupid moron, someone has stolen our tent."

That's all for now.

Later.