Family Weekend

The Barondeau family was in town recently, and they brought along their own version of TJ in Macy the goldendoodle.

Happy First Birthday, Macy!

We took a quick trip to Winehaven in Chisago City for their summer Rhubarb Fest and left with more than enough bottles to throw a rockin' party.

That evening, we tried our luck at Target Field, hoping against hope to score tickets to the Twins game. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be, but we got in a few free looks anyway.

I promise that we'll try for family tickets again next year.

(Sorry for the grainy, irregular photos. Blogger is driving me absolutely NUTS, and keeps giving me "Aw, Snap!" page errors. Not cool.)

Fun with Dry Ice

A recent delivery left us with a few small chunks of dry ice. Not knowing what else to do with it, we tossed it onto the driveway. Then we killed about thirty minutes just staring at it. Good times.

South Dakota for the Fourth

The Fourth of July was ages ago, but we promised to share a few photos with family. I hope you all like photos of dogs, because that's what we deliver best.

We spent our holiday weekend with the Johnson family in Mitchell, SD, with recreation time at the campground near appropriately-named Lake Mitchell. TJ led us in morning prayer, and then we were off to the races - the tennis-ball-retrieving races.

Mark and Mikayla's dog Tucker never took his eye off the ball, no matter how much TJ tried to interfere. Fortunately for Tucker, water is TJ's weakness and Tucker easily found a competitive advantage in the lake.

Even on dry land, Tucker guarded that ball. Of course, by this time, TJ had moved on to cake.

Back at the farm, we took some time to go exploring. Mark and Mikayla made it a real Fourth of July by lighting the whole package of snakes at once...just like old times!

The TJ Experiment

TJ has been particularly reluctant to go into his kennel lately. On a normal day, he runs to his kennel to wait for a treat following one of our morning rituals: the spraying of hair product, the filling of the Nalgene, the putting on of socks, etc. Lately, however, he has decided to use these triggers to hide in our bedroom and look downright pitiful.

So, we tried an experiment whereby we let him sleep peacefully out of the kennel - no supervision - to see if his morning mood improved. I came home on my lunch break to take a sneak peek, and our work days were cut short to verify his goodness. However, signs of trouble soon began to appear. It seems as though TJ was taking this experiment a little too nonchalantly.

We gave him the benefit of the doubt for a few more days. I was certain he would become the good dog that all previous dogs of mine had been. I was wrong.

In addition to the following photos, he also ate the cat food (a portion of the 10 pound bag, not the dish), most of our paper recycling, and a good percentage of our bathroom trash. We probably shouldn't publish any additional photos, but he also left us a pile of sparkly poop that - on closer inspection - contained our missing roll of duct tape.

He is now back in the kennel.

We're Back!

Several weeks ago, we had to buy a new computer and this long-overdue technological upgrade left me unable to download and/or locate our photos. Well, it's been six weeks, and I've finally figured it out! If I get my act together, I'll try to add some stories from our summer.

First, our recent canoe trip on the St. Croix. Poor TJ and his sad eyes had to stay home.

The day began gray and cloudy with absolutely perfect (not humid) weather. We set off from William O'Brien State Park, 12 miles north of Stillwater. This stretch of the river has many smaller channels to travel and very few motorized boats, which provided numerous opportunities for bird-watching and exploring.

We saw two bald eagles, several herons, and too many songbirds to count. You can see the bald eagle and a great blue heron in the collage below.

We stopped for a picnic lunch in the shadow of the old Arcola High Bridge, where the sun finally decided to come out.

After a few more miles of paddling, we took a break to soak up the sun. Warning! The following photos are glaringly white and should be viewed with shades. (Come see us today; we're a prettier shade of pale.)

The original intent was to canoe to the public dock in Bayport, a few miles south of Stillwater, but we consider ourselves lucky to have washed up at P.D. Pappy's along Stillwater's downtown riverfront. Dodging the giants paddleboats, speedboats, yachts, and ridiculous jet-skiers proved too much hassle for a lazy Saturday afternoon. Next time, we'll end our trip at the St. Croix Boom Site and start our evening barbecue that much sooner.