Our Little Soccer Star

Emma started soccer this fall. I had a feeling that she’d really enjoy it, but I had no idea how much she would truly love it. She prides herself on refusing to take a break during games.

Mayhem on Millbrook Circle

It was a quiet slightly chilly fall morning. Emma and I were hanging out before it was time for the church chaos to start. Them Emma said “…hey come look at this!” When I went to look out the kitchen window, I saw a hot air balloon out our back window and flying pretty low. My first thought was that it was just taking off, but as it came closer, it continued to get lower. I was certainly surprised when it landed just a few yards down in an open field. All of the neighborhood was out in their jammies watching this very cool event. Just after the hot air balloon landed, I noticed one coming the same route as the one that just landed. I thought “They aren’t going to land 2 that close to each other are they?” Yes, they were. The second one didn’t land neatly in the field, it actually traveled down the round about and landed in the street.

What fun!! We enjoyed our fun hot air balloon fun on a crisp Sunday morning.

Our Little Entreprenuers

Well, it’s summer and the logical thing for kids to do is have a lemonade stand. Our two little entreprenuers opened a shop with 2 flavors of Kool-aid and a variety of candy. They had a pretty popular store and have opened for business several times since.

Anniversary Trip to Duluth

Well, we are celebrating another year. It’s been a full year of fun and excitement at the Odebrecht’s! With all of the craziness this year, I was thrilled that we were able to sneak away for a night to Duluth. I enjoyed the time to reconnect with my wonderful husband. It’s amazing what just a night out of town can clear your head (if only for a few moments). We stopped in Sturgeon Lake to hang out with the family and leave the kids with my mom for the night.

Larry found us a great hotel called the Fitger’s Inn (www.fitgers.com). It’s a historic 1885 hotel that was renovated in 2008. It sits up on the hill and has amazing views of Lake Superior. It’s also part of the Fitger’s complex that has a few restaurants and shops.

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After we got settled, we started to explore the area and look for a place for dinner. We stopped at a few restaurants before we found the perfect one (although we didn’t know it was perfect when made the decision): Va Bene Beraducci’s Caffe (http://www.vabenecaffe.com). They sat us on a four seasons porch that overlooked Lake Superior. It was amazing. I should have known at that moment that we had an amazing find, but I didn’t yet know how great it was. We ordered drinks and bruscetta as an appetizer and it was the best bruscetta I have ever had. Then we decided to split the Fettucine Carbonara which is one of my all time favorite Italian dishes. The restaurant had a pasta bar with fresh pasta. This dish was out of this world yummy!! We were so full after dinner that we had to take a walk before dessert. We investigated a few other places for dessert…but we ended up back at the same place for dessert. We had a homemade cake that I couldn’t pronounce the name but it was simply fantastic…really fantastic. After dinner we wandered back to the Fitger’s complex and had a final drink at the Fitger’s Brewery and called it a night early (because we are old and tired).

The next morning, Larry was really anxious to walk along the water. We had easy access with a staircase that was right next to our hotel. The views from the path were outstanding. Lake Superior is such a beautiful lake. We walked along the water until we got to another part of Duluth where we found another great find called Amazing Grace to have breakfast. We waited a bit to be seated and then a long time for our meals, but it was worth the wait. Breakfast was…well…amazing. The yummiest breakfast I have had in a long time. We shared French Toast and a Cheese & Sausage omelet.

Overall, a really fun trip. Great time away from all the chaos of our lives. Don’t get me wrong, we love the chaos, but we also love getting away. I truly love exploring new places with my husband. It’s one of my most favorite things to do!

What a great way to spend an 11th Anniversary!

Our Little Helper

Emma is such a little helper. She was super nice to her brother and volunteered to help him clean his room after she cleanted hers. This morning she took abby upstairs, picked out clothes and was changing her diaper when I came upstairs. Such a sweet little helper.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame – New Stadium

This weekend Accenture had a family outing at the new Twins Target Field. We had such an amazing day for a ballgame. The weather was completely perfect. It was a beautiful sunny day. We traded little miss Abby for Emily, so it made the whole day a little more enjoyable. We took Jake, Emma and Emily to the Twins vs. Oakland A’s. It was kind of fun that it was the A’s because that was Emma’s t-ball team. Our seats were in the last row of section 239. We were way out in the outfield and way up at the top of the stadium. Truthfully, the seats even up there weren’t bad at all. Through the wonderful gift of facebook we located another friend who was attending the game. This friend had very good seats including an extra one. So, Larry and Jake went down around 6th inning and the girls went down in the 8th. Those seats were awesome….while we were the very top row, this was the very first row and straight down the first baseline. After the game, the kids got to run the bases -HOW COOL!!
What a day to remember. This is what summer is all about.

National Night Out

Tonight was national night out.  tar took the kids to lakeside park to play and see the games.

I was late but got to see Abby dance in the pavilion.  Abby loved the helicopter, and danced when she saw it take off.

We enjoyed a little time in the neighborhood with our local community officer and got to know the new police dog.

Note: our community officers come with their own trading cards. You can see Jacob holding his.

Cub Scout Camp

I took Jacob to scout camp this month. He scored most of his badges for the upcoming year, and a very, very tired dad.

From the outset they do a pretty good job of keeping everyone in line. I started off pretty grouchy about all the 13 year-old kids barking orders at us… boy scouts appears to teach a good job of being prepared, but not a great job of teaching people skills. To be fair, they really do a great job of organization.

The weekend (Friday night through midday Sunday) is non-stop scouting: archery, physical training, firearm safety, sports, swimming, fishing, et cetera.

Jacob’s favorite part was learning how to make fire and about the four recognized boy scout fire types (which he has shared often with his family:

1. Pile Fire
2. Teepee Fire
3. Lean-to Fire
4. Log Cabin Fire (Jake’s favorite)

Here’s a little lesson from Jacob:

We slept in a yurt (think of it as a huge tent) with ~17 other pairs of dads and scouts. Lots of snoring. They dad who had the bunk next to us had a definite Frank Burns (movie version of M*A*S*H) thing going on, wearing the dad’s boy scout uniform all day and creepy stuff at night.

It was a lot of work to get through the weekend, but I got to spend the whole time with my little boy. He was so well behaved (even when he was tired) and I was very proud of him.

Abby in Jake’s Unda-pants

On one summer Saturday afternoon, we found Abby with 3 pairs of her big brothers boxer briefs on. Here she is with one pair on. Proud as can be.

Amazingly Blessed – Today and Everyday

It was such an amazing day. I got to catch an early afternoon movie with my wonderful husband. Going to the movies is one of my favorite things to do. After that we picked up the kids and headed downtown Stillwater for dinner at Marx with my family. My parents, sister, brother, Kelly and Emily were there to celebrate the big 34 with me. Dinner was yummy and my dad/brother even enjoyed the food. After dinner we enjoyed a stroll with the kids down by the river. It is in these moments that it becomes clear that what I reallly love to do is spend time with my family. More than anything I am blessed – today and everyday. God has blessed me with amazing people to go through this life with.