Please pray for our friends Dave and Lea Nyberg and their son Johnathan. Here is a link to their blog so you can read about their family. http://www.dandlkids.blogspot.com Johnathan is having a hard time bouncing back after his most recent heart surgery and needs a lot of prayer.

MLS Game: Chicago Fire v. D.C. United

My brother-in-law, Aaron Grenz, my nephew Karsten and I took a quick weekend trip to Chicago for my first MLS Soccer game at Toyota Park, home of the Chicago Fire. I have been a fan of D.C. United since the beginning of the MLS, so this was a good chance to visit the Fire's new, soccer only stadium. D.C. United won the game 1-0.

Aaron and Karsten outside of Toyota Park.
Toyota Park is a 20,000 seat soccer only stadium built in 2006. The stadium was simple but quite beutiful, with great views of the Chicago skyline to the north and every seat with a great view of the game. Here was our view (at kick off) from the second level where we caught all of the action from mid-field.
The Chicago skyline to the north of the stadium.
Here is a picture of the only goal that was scored off of a corner kick. It is hard to see the ball, but the player who scored (he goes simply by the name of "Fred") is in the blue jersey in the bottom right hand of the picture.

Aaron and Karsten after the game.

Anniversary Trip to Cabin

Natasha and I spent a quiet and relaxing anniversary weekend at our friends, Greg and Pam Deckert's cabin near Perham, Minnesota. Here are some pictures of the cabin and Lake Boedigheimer. The Deckert Cabin.
Again, more pictures of hot women at the lake!
That is one white dude. I wasn't even able to give me a tan by playing with the lighting and color! Too much time at the office and not enough time at the lake!

Another babe shot on the lake. Natasha accompanied me to golf at Thumper Pond golf course in Otter Tail, Minnesota. Natasha enjoyed sitting in the sun and riding along in the cart and offering up encouraging comments like, "Nice shot, you didn't hit that one in the woods!"

When I wasn't hitting out of the woods, I was hitting out of the sand. Here is a video of me hitting from one of the sand traps setting myself up for a par put. It's ugly, but effective. If you are a golf purist, I strongly urge you NOT to watch this video.

Lake Elmo Camping

The first week of August always means our annual camping trip to the Lake Elmo Park Reserve with friends from our church. This was Katie's first camping trip. Katie was excited to sleep in a sleeping bag in the tent. Here she is at about 9:00 p.m.
Here is Katie at 4:00 a.m. after I calmed her down after a 20 minute meltdown when she woke up and didn't know where she was! Kenzie and Jake sleeping in.Saturday is always a day at the beach which is at a man-made, filtered water lake. Here is Kenzie and here friend, Katie Peterson being a mermaid.

I can't help myself from taking pictures of hot women at the beach.


Katie chilling out after a long day swimming.
Cool Kenzie.

Duluth, Minnesota

We went to Duluth the first week of August where I attended a Solo/Small Law Firm Convention put on by MinnCLE. Unlike many other legal seminars/conferences, this convention was "family friendly" with activities for spouses and children during the seminars, family luncheons etc. The conference and offered seminars ranging from technology, quality of life, office management and more specific legal seminars. Here are some pictures of our time in Duluth.
We were able to catch the tail end of the "Tall Ship" convention where, I guess, pirates and buccaneers share the tricks of the trade.Jake, Kenzie, and especially Katie, enjoyed the tour of the tall ship.

Pirates run a disciplined ship. Sailors who get out of line are tied to the deck. We told Katie to stay off the Brass Monkey!

Natasha and Katie by Lake Superior.

No trip to Duluth is complete without pictures of the Lift Bridge. Here is a picture of Jake and Kenzie during a late night lake walk.

There is not the typical beach scene on Lake Superior, but there are still hot women there!

Family bike ride. Supposedly all four people can pedal this thing.......Katie loved waving at everybody we saw, which came as a relief to me as people were not laughing at me chugging my family around on a 4-seater bike!

Katie, Mom and Dad on a scenic train ride along Lake Superior.

Near Ace

Here is where my tee shot landed from a 149 yard Par 3 at Sawmill Golf Club. You can see my divot mark at the upper right corner of the picture.

Katie is learning her ways :-)

Recently, Katie walked into my parents room and hugged my mom.

Katie said,

"Mommy, you great!"

Then she walked up to my dad.

"Daddy, you great!"

Then she asked both of them,

"Can I have cake?"

Katie is learning her ways! :-)

I pulled this bead out of Katie's nose tonight...

There is a saying: "You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose."

My version of this saying is that you can't pick your kids, but you can pick your nose and you can pick your kids' nose. Tonight we learned that we can also pick beads out of Katie's nose. How and why it got there in the first place, we'll never know. I'm just glad that I was able to pull it out with tweezers without a trip to the emergency room.

Why We Love Mom....

We celebrated Natasha's birthday today. McKenzie and Jacob decided to make an extra special gift for "mom" this year with a book they wrote with reasons why they love their mom. Some of the reasons were that she listens to their problems, helps them when they are hurt and takes them to the park.

The above journal entry literally brought tears to our eyes. It sure is nice to have well adjusted kids!

Lakes Bike Ride with Jacob

Jacob got a new bike a couple of weeks ago. He and I have gone on a couple of 10 + mile bike rides already. This week we drove to South Minneapolis to ride the Minnehaha Creek bike paths to Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun. We got to the north side of Lake Calhoun, about 1/2 hour from the van, and it started to pour rain. We waited the storm out under an overhang near a small pavillion/cafe. The sky made for some pretty pictures on our return trip. Here are a few pictures from our ride.
Minneapolis Skyline from Lake Calhoun.
Jake at the Big Green Chair at Kenny Park.

We finished the night with some Grand Old Creamery Ice Cream!

Cookie Crisis

Our nation is in a serious crisis, a cookie crisis. I grew up watching Cookie Monster and even had a Cookie Monster puppet (I cut a hole in the back of his mouth so I could feed him cookies). I think my brother had an Oscar the Grouch puppet. I'm not sure what our parents where telling us with that gift selection, but that's another story. Anyway, it appears as if Cookie Monster has sold out to big fruit. Thankfully, Stephen Colbert, our nations pre-eminent political journalist, if you ask me, has brought this story to light in this exclusive interview with Cookie Monster himself.

Deckert & Van Loh is a great place to work...

Sometimes the office staff needs to be reminded what a privilege it is to work with me. If not, I hear that H&R Block and the Air Force are hiring. So this Office clip is dedicated to those at the office who are so privileged to work with me(you know who you are).

Katie's 3rd Birthday

With Katie's birthday on July 5th, it is hard to follow the excitement of Valleyfair and late-night fireworks with any fanfare suitable for a 3-year-old's birthday party. On top of that, we are always tired after a long day at Valleyfair, especially the birthday girl.

We decided to take Katie to a cool playground called Chutes and Ladders driving all the way to Bloomington along with her cousin Teagan. Not having been there before, we had no idea that the playground was better suited for kids 5 or older. We decided to "bail" after 15 minutes and went to get dinner at McDonalds where there happened to be a more suitable playground for 3-year-olds across the street. Katie and Teagan had a great time.

Natasha made a special birthday cake for Katie made up of her favorite donut holes held together with frosting!

Katie watches carefully as Mema lights the candles on her birthday cake.

Here is a video of Katie blowing out the candles on her cake. It turns out that she needed the help of a little hot air from her Mema! (Did I say that?)

Here are a couple of pictures of Katie opening her presents.

Portraits of Valley Fair

Mema with Kiera, Kenzie, Jake and Karsten.
Katie.
Jake and Kenzie.
Natasha and her mommy.
Katie and Mommy.
My nephew, Idris, giving the thumbs up on the day.
Cousins' table at the family picnic.
My nephew, Arkin.
Callie
Cousins: Jake and Karsten.