Train Surprise

We went to my home town for Thanksgiving and visited both of my parents. When we got to my dad's house, for whatever reason Gibbie decided to go straight upstairs. What did he find waiting for him but a Lionel model train! We all had a lot of fun making it go and getting it to unload its cargo of logs. Apparently it will have an expanded track the next time we come. Thanks grandpa Bill!

Our Fall Vacation

Here's a look at our fall vacation. I took last week off from work and we went to the Perlieu cabin, and then Libby's grandparent's place near Battle Lake, MN. We'll write more about the trip itself when we can, but for now just enjoy the photos!


(If the slideshow doesn't work for you, here's a link to the photo album.)

Christmas Downtown

Well, not really Christmas. Monday before last we spend a wonderful afternoon in downtown St. Paul with our friends whose last name means Christmas in another language. I grew to love downtown when I worked at the Central Public Library there. Not too many folks go downtown if they're not working there or living in one of its homeless shelters. I like interesting old stuff and there's plenty of it downtown.


Our friends invited us to go to the Minnesota Children's Museum with them. Every 3rd Sunday admission is free, which just happens to match the amount we have in our budget for children's museums. After we were done with the sensory overload of it all, we hung out in beautiful Rice Park and ate homemade candy from a Wonka-like store called Candyland.
A very nice day.

Papa's Papa

That's how my dad described himself to Gibbie today. He drove over for an afternoon visit with us. We went to the Cherokee Sirloin Room and then Cafe Juliana, both on the same corner of St. Paul's west side.

I forgot my camera, but did have my phone to capture a bit of the domino playing with Grandpa Bill, Gibbie, and Mama. I think everyone had a great time. Part of our conversation had to do with the mechanical bent of my Dad's family. While Libby's ancestors were farmers, most of the men on my Dad's side of the family were machinists and engineers (although one was a successful musician). I grew up seeing my dad work on cars, but as he pointed out today, he didn't systematically educate me in auto mechanics. Now he sees me working on diesels, which he doesn't know much about, and guesses that it's only natural.

Cafe Juliana used to be Old Man River Cafe. It's still a great space, and the coffee's still about average.

A Winter Visit

Our dear friend Liz Winter just finished staying with us for a few days. She lives in Maine most of the time and is one of the several important Liz's in our lives. Gibbie has a little book of photographs that he likes to look at which contains pictures of Liz eating at a restaurant with us when he was Ezra's age. So I thought it would be fun to get some pictures of it happening this time around at Maria's in Minneapolis.
I love how Liz and Gib are both examining the menu.
Lastly, here's what Ezra does for fun at a restaurant: (that's a packet of jam.)