The rest of July

 And..in other happenings...

We spent a lovely weekend with the Van Meters at their lake house, catching up, walking, cooking, boat rides, fishing, books... it was lovely. We saw a bald eagle swoop in and catch a fish. They have 4 bald eagles and a nest on their lake, so cool! Heard loons, saw 4 deer and it really felt like a get away. So much so that we didn't take any photos!  However, Harper was my biggest entertainment. All day long, every day. And when she wasn't doing this, she was sneaking off to play with the neighbor kids in the lake.  Sweetie pie. 

Harper at Van Meylters lake house ….

https://youtube.com/shorts/zGdvLQzy8C0?si=rUltuVvWc5AKVcuO

Its also the summer of love. Both Jimmy and Billy are dating and both are getting fairly serious pretty quickly.  They both met through friends of friends and both are dating people very much like themselves.

Izzy, Jimmy's person, is talkative, fun, athletic (golfer!), just graduated St Thomas and shares his religious leanings. They are having deep conversations about their values, life goals and if this can work when he's in law school and she's here. She's going to see him play drums at church in 2 weeks and he's set to meet her parents for dinner. We shall see....

Billy and Juni are with each other every spare minute they can find. She's quiet, thoughtful, loves anime movies, is an amazing cook, has a sweet bunny and they do crafty stuff together (made blankets the other day). She works at an Asian restaurant and he opens the car door for her, buys her flowers and made her homemade soup when she was sick. He's smitten. Once again, we'll see what happens this fall when he's back at school and they don't see each other everyday (she is working on getting her drivers license). 

Cedric  is ranked 3rd in the Nation in Costa Rica! What a season for him! He was only a few 10ths away from 1st and had his best season ever. Thank god for streaming, he's so fun to watch! 

Kay's killing it at work, they love her (kids and staff alike) and this was a recent project she got the kids to "help" her with. So much talent! 

Jimmy had one last VMI grad feature that was posted on social media about all his accomplishments and an interview with him. He will do great things. 

More fun in August and we'll keep you updated!

Love, peace, sun, relaxation and contentment coming at you for August. 

XOXO

TTJKB

Kay’s very big July!

 Kay hit a few HUGE milestones in the last few weeks!! Moving into her very own apartment AND turning 21!! Woo hoo!

After searching and realizing there is NO affordable (& safe) housing MN, she settled on a very nice apartment in Minnetonka. Its across the street from Jimmy's church and a block from my favorite local bar, Scoreboard.

It has all the amenities (workout room, pool, movie room, etc) and we are hopeful that with her increased work hours, she'll be able to afford it (most of the time). At least we know she is in a safe community close by!

She was VERY organized with packing, everything in its own box and labeled. However, that's not always efficient, she had a LOT of boxes and not all were full. To add to it, we forgot what its like to move into an apartment, with freight elevator, especially when her apartment is the furthest away from said elevator!

Tom did the heavy lifting (literally and figuratively) in helping her plan, organize, lift and move most of her stuff.  Jimmy pitched in on the lifting, moving and I helped with moving in and trying to get it staged in a way that would be easy to unpack.

She's still unpacking but taking her time to make sure everything has its place. Proud of her!

In the middle of all this excitement, she turned 21! We took her out for Brazilian steakhouse and her 1st official (legal) drink.  It was a super fun night despite the couple next to us blatantly staring at us the whole time.  Tom did get the meat sweats so it was veg for a few days after the dinner.

Her friends took her out and (so far) she has survived turning 21.

These are big steps towards adulthood and independence and Kay is doing her best to navigate. We are really proud of her. She's always been feisty and independent and I think she's coming into her own:) Its fun to see.

Kay, love you to the moon and back!!

Mom and Dad 

Fancy 

Its official! 

Gorgeous lobby 

Home sweet home! 

clean spacious, efficient 

boxes 

more boxes 

again, boxes 

starting to stack boxes 

bedroom boxes 

wardrobe boxes 

Getting ready to celebrate her!

My heart

1st drink, champagne pomegrante lemonade

Family toast! 

She loved all her presents from Grandma, Grandpa, Sue, the dogs and the boys 

Getting carded!! 

1st official carded drink 

https://youtu.be/4wzmBQpabuk?feature=shared  Our surprise, her Mahi Mahi mounted. Its crazy how big it is, its going in her living room above her couch, if we can get it there! 

Notre Dame or Bust!

 Jimmy decided in late spring to forgo all the Law School offers he had actual offers from places like, Madison WI, The University of Minnesota and chose to be on the waiting list for Note Dame, remind any one of VMI? So Jimmy turned all the offers down and began putting all of his eggs in Notre Dames basket. The real amazing thing is he put his future on the line and was betting on himself. His ethics, work ethic, all the accomplishments that he achieved at VMI came through and early one June morning we heard hime moving around and he came around the corner with a big grin and a huge smile and said " I got in" Awesome

Before heading out for the tour Jimmy made us watch the movie Rudy, very cute.

Jimmy and I headed out for a quick meet and greet, a tour and an orientation session with the Law School intake and career counselors. It was the exact opposite of his previous college  experience. 

The campus is gorgeous, the people incredibly welcoming and helpful. Jimmy was on cloud .We managed to find a couple of great restaurants, toured the campus and found him an apartment.! All in all a successful few days....more to come

Fish on!!

 What a blast we had! The weather was not the best however we were able to spend the weekend with Carl, Johnny and Timmy.

Kay and I headed up mid day on Friday to get the rooms settled and get our boat. The timing was perfect and by the time I was back at the resort with he boat Jimmy and Billy arrived. We set out fishing and it was pretty tough going. Kay who is always amongst the top fisher people only had 1 fish, Jimmy and Billy both the goose egg, the author has not be skunked in over 3 decades, I will just leave it like that.Billy did take some awesome pics of the Sky, lake and surrondings.

Friday night we had a great dinner at the steak place in the Casino just the four of us missing Tracy. The rest of the crew whom are to many to name spent the day basically drinking so when we ran into the at the casino, Carl and his boys and us left and just chatted.

Saturday morning we were up and at em. The free breakfast go us going and the spirit of completion was in the air. Kay spent a great deal of time looking at the map and we set out for a journey across the big waters of Lake Vermillion. We had a limited time because both Jimmy and Billy had lo leave early that afternoon. Kay was on fire finally catching several nice sallies and a 26: walleye which is huge but not a keeper . Billy got on the board early, as did the author which left Jimmy the sole owner of no fish. 

We gave Billy the job of running the trolling motor and he was doing great right up until he was not paying attention and the motor knocked him in the lake, meanwhile Jimmy was deciding if he put his line in the olive well he would have a better chance. At one point he exclaimed " I will call this outing a success if I get a nibble !" Patience and being able to follow Kays lead with just a few short minutes left before we had to take the Bus back to the Resort, Jimmy yelled " Fish On" We all hooted and hollered, High 5's all around the board was full the boat happy.

Kay and I dropped off the boys we helped them pack up and they headed home. Then Kay and I had lunch took a brief nap and headed back out for the night. We caught fish laughed and I was very happy Kay stayed to fish with me. She is a trooper when it comes to fishing. She went back to the room to clean up I fillet the fish which we ended up with 2 gallon zip lock bags full of fish. Kay decided to have dinner in the room so I went out with all the Dads had dinner told stories and had a great night.

We got back in time to turn around and head over to Troy Burne for the 17th Annual Golf for the Gift. 

We as a family have been involved in this golf tournament since 2009. Kay has been volunterring for almost 10 years and loves it. Both Jimmy and Billy have helped out when they can and Jimmy was able to play this year. Tracy and I have been helping with the Board and supporting this great cause.

If that wasn't enough Father's Day came rowing in. Kay railed the family and I was shocked that they got me a Blackstone. Not only a BlackStone the 36 inch  king kong with all the accessories. In the middle of all this Billy introduced us to his new girlfriend, Juni, a lot going on here at the ol" homefront however that's how we roll .... more to come!