50th in Duluth!

My parents celebrated their 50th anniversary by taking our family and my sister's family to Duluth. What an impressive milestone and a terrific trip!

When we toured Glensheen Mansion, we didn't realize it was the 40-year anniversary of the Congdon family murders. What a tragic event. This estate is probably the closest thing Minnesota has to Downton Abbey. We enjoyed our tour, rock skipping and climbing, massive ships, and big water views!

 

 

Father's Day and Camp

Seeing a HUGE great gray owl today was the best surprise present Joe (a birder). We drove north early this morning to bring an excited Jia and her friends to camp for the week, and stopped by a place where owls are prevalent in winter, but rare in the summer. It was a great Father's Day gift for Joe who is a tremendous dad. Also tremendous is my dad who spent an hour cleaning up our yard while we were up north!

 

 

Jia's camp has the kids write to their families at least once, and we just received this letter. I don't think she missed us AT ALL!  

Camp letters

So, Jia's heading off to camp soon for a week and as I walked past her bedroom this morning, where she was hunting for items she needed to pack, I thought I heard her say "What if I get homesick?" And I thought, "How nice!" Then I realized she didn't say homesick; she said PHONESICK, like what if she starts missing her iPhone, which she is not allowed to bring to camp.

So, we prepared some letters for her:

Wabun

Gotta love our park system. Heard a great band playing at the bandstand by the Falls as part of the Music and Movies in the Park series. Had a fun walk along the creek to the Mississippi and then meandered up to the Wabun splash pad to conjure a water spout!

All Love

Willa surprised me with just what I needed today. 

Girls on the Run

Jia did not want to do GOTR again, but signed up as her friend really wanted her to join. Joe was her running buddy and they did a great job at the 5K. There were 4,500 awesome runners at the event!

Some pics from practices:

The 5K!