Back in the Midwest--July 27-August 31

July 27th

I went to "Girls' Night Out' in Devils Lake
and surprised the guest speaker--Katie D.
(Bob is her Godfather!)

And I was surprised when Donna K.
walked up to me...Donna was the Speech
Pathologist at Wolford and retired before I did!

 Bob's birthday at the lake was a small group (Bob and me),

so he had a small "cake" :-)

The next day we went to the Peace Garden which borders

North Dakota and Manitoba

 The Pope is blessing the new peace dove statue

 The towers are coming down and a new

memorial is being designed...this might be our

last pic of the Peace Towers

 I think these cacti were tiny last time I saw them!

 We visited the US and Canadian sides of the Peace Garden

before crossing the border back into the US

Double rainbow view on our way to church on Sunday

 The next week, we headed to MN, IA, and WI

We visited Aunt Lena Wentz (we bought their farm)

and Bob's cousin Donna (Wentz) Conley in Albertville

Aunt Lena is 95 and still pretty sharp--she remembered

a lot of facts about her and Uncle Vincent's trip to Alaska

with Bob's parents!

Then we headed to Corey and Ana's  

Claire created a veggie girl! 

 Lydia's "friend" has curly hair! 

 Cecelia's girlie has BIG eyes!

Grampa with the "princesses" :-)

We headed to Tom and Trina's next, but

my camera battery was dead, so I didn't get

any pics.  We picked the garden, ate a lot

of tabouli and salsa, and got ready for school

to start.  This is the result--the kids on the 

first day of school!

Jimmy and Kelly's was the next stop.  After almost beating

Kelly and gramma at tennis, the kids had swimming lessons. 

Andrew beat his classmate across the pool.  I remember when

he wouldn't put his face in the water! :-)

 Matthew was "wounded" from a bike accident,

so he opted to sit out the swim lesson.

 Grace being "grace-ful" in the pool

I think this was the only time Luke sat still all weekend.

 Jimmy and Kelly were busy with their church "Fun Fest"

all weekend, so I did the one-mile walk with the kids.  I was, 

of course, the last one in...Luke was just ahead of me--ha!

Getting ready to leave--Bob and Jimmy worked on mechanical

stuff while Kelly sold raffle tickets, baked pies and brownies,

and managed the money for the Fun Fest.  

 When we left for our trip to see the "Midwest" kids, I had 
forgotten that I had our set of encyclopedias in the trunk.  I
was going to give them away in Rugby, but no one wanted them. 
So, the books traveled with us until we left Jimmy's and drove
past a huge St. Vincent de Paul outlet store in Reedsburg, WI. 
I told Bob to turn around, so we asked if they would take the books.
They were happy to have them, and I was happy to give them up!
Our beautiful "skies" told me that I had done the right thing :-)

 Sunset approaching Devils Lake

 Awesome!

 I had never seen skies like this in Cleveland.

 The "Village Fair" at the museum in Rugby featured
a program about the Germans from Russia, and Uncle
Frank Brossart showed the kids (and me) how to make rope!

They got to keep the rope they made. :-) Uncle Frank is 90!