Minnesota Quick Trip & Barenaked Ladies

One of Jim's camps this summer (more on those later) was Camp Pillsbury, which is a fine arts camp in Minnesota. 

I had never been to Minnesota before - so Jim & I both added a new state! Sam & I drove possibly the most boring 6-hour stretch in all of the Midwest from Columbia up to Owatonna to get him. We did get to stop in Kirksville & see Grim Hall, where we met. It's no longer a dorm, but the building's still standing/in use somehow. The porch swing was gone, though. 

We had lunch at Bellacino's and it was exactly the same as I remembered. 

We stopped in Pella, Iowa & walked around & got German letters (the pastry) & took a picture in front of this windmill: 

There was a buffalo at a gas station/rest area: 

Unrelated to the quick trip, but related to selfies of us, Sam & I went down to Camdenton to see the Barenaked Ladies - such a cool outdoor venue. I had a $13 beer. 

There were open seats closer to the stage so we got to move up. This was probably the result to a pricing problem/miscalculation on vendor’s part - the cheaper back seats all sold out - the blue ones were still available two days before the show:

Guster & Fastball were the openers. 

Ashland Pride

Amelie & I went down to Ashland Pride, which was just lovely. It's much smaller & more chill than the one in Columbia - maybe 300 people or so, all there in the park.

Sunflowers

The MU practice farm grows sunflowers & they posted on Facebook that people should go see them & take sunflowers & photos before they were mowed down so we went! 

We drove out about 8pm & the humidity hit us when we got out of the car, but it was much cooler & the sunset was lovely. 

All of the other women there came prepared & I was a mess from working & then working on our table after work. Ha! It was a cool experience, though, and we got good pictures of Amelie! 

I picked some of the smaller sunflowers to take home:

It looks fake!

There were bees, too

AJR

Sam's taken the big kids to see AJR twice - in 2022 & 2024. (They are big fans.) 

We all 5 went to see them this summer! It was Leah's first real concert & my first time seeing AJR - except it really was JR - just Jack & Ryan since Adam's doing a book tour. 

We stayed at a hotel that had free breakfast & a shuttle to the Hollywood Casino Amphitheater (but it was cooler & easier to walk back afterwards). I think that everyone else we saw at the hotel was also going to the concert, and Jim kept counting the AJR shirts he saw.

Unfortunately, the hotel gave us the wrong type of room & there weren't enough beds for all of us (but Sam contends sleeping on the floor wasn't that bad just for one night). 

It was hot!

Leah got bangs! Hollywood Casino Amphitheater was extremely vigilant about checking our tickets every time we came back from the bathroom and getting snacks, which was surprising since we weren't exactly close to the stage! 

There were 4 opening bands! (Madilyn Mei, Valley, Lawrence, and Quinn XCII - Jim & I both liked Lawrence the best. Amelie liked Madilyn Mei. 

It was dark when AJR came on & a little cooler. They put on quite the spectacle with graphics & videos (as usual, I think!) 

 Amelie said the best song from the show was "Yes, I'm a Mess." 

Excellent Posture

 I mean, how do you sit on the couch to use the laptop? 

Leah's working on ST Math. 

4th of July

We went to Stephen's Lake Park again to see the municipal fireworks. We got there a little bit beforehand & listened to the last band (I think the same one that's performed the last few years!) 

We were set up at the very top of the amphitheater & it didn't seem crowded, but when we walked around the lake there were several thousand people at the park.  

Jim was at camp up in Wisconsin over the 4th! They saw some fireworks there, but he wrote about it in his letter home that he didn't know / maybe was disappointed that he'd miss the 4th with us. 

Here's the rest of us: 

Amelie had to be cajoled into wearing a patriotic shirt. I guess I could have asked someone else to take our photo all together! 

Sleep Study

After some arguing with the insurance company, Jim had a sleep study done. He & I went and checked in at 7pm. They hooked him up at about 9pm & the tech let me know that we got the only room with two beds - I was prepared to sleep on the fold out chair but glad that I didn't have to! I think we both ended up sleeping better than normal, which is probably not the usual outcome. Jim did promptly fall asleep and then snore all night, though, so there's that. I'm curious to see what the results are. 

He wanted me to take a picture of the electrodes. The goo was all in his hair the next day. 

The instructions said that the participant should get some exercise/spend some time outside the day of the study (and no napping during the day!) so I dropped Jim & Amelie off at the pool & unfortunately he got sunburned - he said it wasn't bothering him but it sure would have bothered me. 

(He also requested that I post this!) 

Summer goals

Amelie’s mowing the lawn (she did this a tiny bit last summer) & Leah took off her training wheels.