Higher Ground 2008

This weekend I took 4 of our nieces & nephews camping at the Higher Ground Music Festival in Winsted, MN. I took Sophia & Emily from Todd's side and Nicholas & Evan from my side. Todd does not like camping so he did not go. :) The kids had a great time playing together and have already been talking about next year. :)

Sophia helping set up one of the tents.

Emily helping set up one of the tents.

Evan, Nicholas, Emily & Sophia playing GO FISH in their tent.

Emily, Nicholas, Evan & Sophia playing DON'T WAKE DADDY!

Evan had a bug catching kit and the kids spent ALOT of time catching bugs this past weekend. They caught grasshoppers, crickets, ants, spiders and who knows what else. :) At one point they had somewhere between 15-20 grasshoppers in the container. We were even very surprised when we discovered Sunday morning, that the really big grasshopper they caught the night before had babies overnight. There were 4 or 5 little larva in the container. The kids were a little sad when I told them that they had to let everything go and not bring them home in the van. "Even the babies?!" Oh, yes...........so they went to find a "safe" place to leave the "babies". :)

The kids had a lot of fun playing the bean bag toss game. Emily & Nicholas.

Nicholas tried his hand at juggling the bean bags. :)

Evan & Sophia

Nicholas

Emily, Sophia & Evan

Emily eating her french toast on Saturday morning. She was pulling the crust off all around and it looked like she was slurping spaghetti. :)

Evan, Nicholas & Sophia

The kids all got "blinking" sunglasses as their one thing they could buy in the merchandise tent. You can't see the blinking lights here, but.................

..................using the fireworks setting on the camera worked well for having the lights show up. :)

Sophia, Nicholas, Emily & Evan.

Sunset over the tents.

Before we left St. Cloud on Monday to go home, we went to the Clemens & Munsinger Gardens on a recommendation from Sonja's Mom. They were beautiful gardens by the river not too far from our hotel. We were glad we took the time to check them out. We got some great pictures! :)

Janelle Thompson becomes Janelle Clepper! August 10, 2008

This past Sunday, our friend, Janelle Thompson, married Keith Clepper up in Sauk Rapids, MN. It was a wonderful wedding and we had a great time!


Janelle & her dad, Curt Thompson. Of course, Janelle was a beautiful bride. :)

Janelle's sisters: Leah, Theresa & Andra. Aren't they lovely? :)

I was honored to sing "The Prayer" with Keith's cousin, Tim, in the wedding ceremony. I also got to get a fancy new dress to wear for the wedding (since I am an "adopted" Thompson sister). :)

Mr. & Mrs. Keith Clepper! :)


What a beautiful wedding cake............and tasty, too...............chocolate cake with peanut butter filling. :)


The wedding party.


Leah, Janelle, Theresa & Andra


Leah, Curt, Micah, Claudette, Janelle, Keith, Theresa & Andra


Keith & Janelle with a heart-shaped rock that someone found.




Keith & Janelle's 1st dance as husband & wife. :)


Sonja & Todd


Keith & Janelle


Janelle & Sonja :)



Keith & Janelle's "get-away car" was a very decorated golf cart! :)

Maddie is a Happy Girl! :)

We watched Maddie & the boys about 3 weeks ago and I got some good pictures of Maddie smiling & cooing before the battery died on the camera. :)

Dybvik for President??

Look..........apparently I am running for president & didn't even know it!

http://www.news3online.com/index.php?code=771XKK6Wah500Oy41Mc6

:)

My Dad's cousin, Doug, sent this to me.