181/365

I finally started my "family" album...I've had the cover done for ages but never just dug in and started. Of course, my first page had to be Alice!

180/365

These little guys were made from Jordan's pattern that was left behind when they went back to Virginia. I'm thinking of selling these in my Etsy shop and donating a portion of the proceeds to her Juvenile Diabetes Walk. Jordan will have to name them as soon as I get all the different colors made.

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As part of our "explore Minnesota" adventure we went to Cold Spring, MN (near St. Cloud) to see Assumption Chapel. There's quite a store behind this adorable and very very tiny Catholic Chapel. It was originally built during the grasshopper plague in 1877 (hence the nickname Grasshopper Chapel). Father Leo Winter believe the plague was punishment sent by God so he built the chapel for the town to gather and repent their wrongs hoping in return that God would end the plague of grasshoppers...miraculously it worked. In 1894 a tornado lifted the Chapel and dropped it a few feet away onto two oak trees. The original Chapel was destroyed but the two crippled oak trees still stand (badly disfigured) to give testimony to what the tornado had wrought. The chapel was rebuilt in 1952 and is absolutely beautiful. The Virgin Mary is etched in the stone above the doors with two grasshoppers at her feet. They've also got all the stations of the cross around the courtyard in little houses as well as tributes to St. Joseph and St. Francis Assisi (under which Tom and Sebastian are seated). I easily could have spent hours here, we were the only visitors and it was very peaceful and calming there. (do you think the light colored transparent blob in the lower right-hand corner of the top picture could be a ghost?)

178/365

This weekend we started a new summer adventure project sightseeing around Minnesota. I've lived here for 41 years but I haven't really seen any of the "sights" around the state so we headed to Darwin, MN which is about 1 3/4 hours northwest of Woodbury. This little city is famous because it houses the World's Largest Twine Ball created by one man. It weighs 17,400 pounds and has a 40 foot circumference. If you look closely you can see it through the glass.

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Pokemon, nintendo DS...everyday, every chance he gets.

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Shelby finally got her thank you notes addressed. Now she just needs to find an "on-campus" job!

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Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen. Shelby went to the midnight showing this morning (or should I say Tuesday night?) and Tom, Sebastian and I went to the 5:00 showing this afternoon. ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!!! I guess we'll just have to go again this weekend so Matt can see it as well...as Sam Witwicky once said "no sacrifice, no victory"; I'm sure everyone will be willing to make that sacrifice!