July/Summer in MN

Truly, there is nothing better than Summer in MN and July is the peak of summer! We have been having so much fun and enjoying every outdoor minute.

Highlights include...

~ KCC (Korean Culture Camp)

~ Craig and Mona's wedding and stag/stagette

~ Backyard music and music in the park (both Tina S and the John Susza Memorial Band)

~ ICE CREAM!

~ New foods, like kimchi carbonara and sushi cake

~ Roadtrip!  Billy and his Meadowbrook friends roadtripped to Yellowstone and the Black Hills. LOTS of adventures including sending Malcom home on a Grey Hound bus with an ear infection, the car breaking down and making a wrong turn at 2 am in the mountains of Montana.

~ Dog cuddles

~ Birds, wildlife and trees

~ Wendy's new tattoo honoring Annemiek, her dad, brother and Lucy

~ Mini martini's

~ Reunion party/dinners with St Louis Park taekwondo and my bonus kids Esa and Ace

~ Dinners with friends from India (Millers) and Korea adoption (VanMeters)

~ Oh, and Kay had strep and a abscess on her tonsil but...at least we've avoided a tonsillectomy (so far, fingers crossed)  

Hope you are all taking in each minute of summer.  Looking forward to August and some actual vacation time at the Cottage in Michigan and Thornes on the North Shore.

Love, peace, sun, water, friends, food and fresh air!!

T&T 

Stag 

Post wedding brunch set up

LOVE these white herons the migrate to us each her 

Patriot 

Free Sebastian Joe's ice cream! 

Yum!

Miss these guys - Hayden, Karen and Jeff

SOOO gorgeous and a true work of art 

Tina S!

Maui cuddles 

Sunday afternoon on the deck 

Sushi cake! 

Lunch at KCC

You'd BETTER show Mister Murphy some respect! 

xoxoxo

Wyatt and Caden, the Bangalore Bunch 

They are more organized than they look 

6 am load up and breakfast at our house before the big trip 

The "smart" car

mini martini

The neighbors cleaned up and showed up for Craig and Mona

Gorgeous couple 

Bjorn got the fancy hair style and chewed gum the whole way through the service. Boys.... 

Jeri (Kristins mom) dancing with the happy couple. She's 93!  

SLP TKD reunion! 

How it started 

How its going

OWWW!

Joint stag/stagette

The crew - love these guys.

Jimmys summer vacation

 He golfed, ate good food, slept. Worked out, toured U of M law school, researched law schools and worked on his personal statements. Saw friends, networked and was a complete slob. Dog cuddles, Korean Culture Camp, Veep marathons

We’ll miss hm terribly but have our tickets booked for parents weekend and senior weekend.

Oh the places you’ll go. Love you to the moon and back - xoxo  - mom and dad 

20 years for this beautiful human

 Kay, you are kind, courageous, capable, clever, charismatic, charming, determined, loyal, generous, kind, athletic and creative.

My hope is that you’ll tackle and then minimize any shame or self doubt that’s keeping you from your best and highest good.

I hold for you that you will step into all that you are, want to be and what the world needs you to be.

You are loved, you love and we love you beyond measure.

Sending you light love peace health and joy for the next 20, 20 and 20 years.

Also holding your birthday and foster families close to our hearts today.

Xoxo 

Mom and Dad

Ps thanks for choosing Greek for dinner, so yummy!

Nationals 2023 Fort Lauderdale

 What a week!

I have to admit, I was very crabby about a week in Fort Lauderdale over the holiday week - crappy location, heat, humidity, missing time at the cottage with my family, missing Tom’s, missing the dogs, missing my bed… 

Overall it wasn’t as bad as I expected. The room and pool were nice, even though other hotel expectations were ‘broken’ (stairwell key pads, elevator, 1/2 fitness room equipment…) but you could walk to everything. It was damn hot though. Almost unbearable …

This team and their families is so fun, makes up for the rest. The kids worked hard and did great, regardless of wins or losses.  It was a great learning experience.

Billy took gold in weapons for the 3rd year in a row! 3peat 🏅🏅🏅 he also took bronze in traditional pomsea and got his goal score in points pomsea. 6.23 on sip-jin - it was the 1st time he’s ever done it in competition and he wanted to get a 6. He lost in the 1st round of sparring. They switched him from a bye to fighting the 1st round of the day and it threw him off. Couldn’t get out of his is own head.

Billy was also part of the inaugural AAU varsity letter program and earned his letter. They had an extremely disorganized awards ceremony but it was fun to see him get recognized for all he’s put into taekwondo through his high school years. 

Amiir and John also got gold in weapons and there were other bronze medals all around.

I’m a slightly scary situation, Isaac took a nasty face shot and was knocked out (video 5 - see link below) he’s ok but … hoo, very scary. 

We had amazing team dinners, swims in pool, shell hunting and, I’m sure, lots of video games.

The kids hung out, cheered their friends both on our team, and others, and basically ribbed each other non stop.

I found a cemetery to walk through and saw 2 new ‘life’ birds - the duck was huge!! The ibis has the prettiest pink undertones.

We had the best server I’ve ever had - Kady at Duffys. In fact, the boys asked to eat there the next night so they could have her again. Then they tried to impress her with an atomic wing eating context. Billy won. I tried one and it was good! 

Billy also always ends up celebrating his ‘gotcha’ day while we are at nationals. Of course I embarrassed him by announcing it to the whole team. They all rallied and  made sure he got his traditional brownies as well as a shamrock pie.

 I loaded all the videos to our YouTube channel and included highlight photos below.

This will probably be the last nationals for a few years while Billy adjusts to college and new adventures.  I am grateful I got this time with him before he’s off in the wide world of the U of M. 

Billy we are so proud of you… your kindness, character, dedication, smile, attitude, work ethic and how you support your team as a friend and leader. 

Love you beyond measure 💕🥋

 Videos of competition- 25