Leaves in the fall...

Michelle's favorite season is Spring - but I've always been fond of Fall - perhaps it is the new school year scent that arrives..I don't know. The kids always like the leaves that accumulate from our neighbors. I told Papa Paul at some point that I'd update with pictures, so here's a few from the fall for you.

We also went to Harriet Alexander wildflower garden this Fall - a great way to spend the afternoon.


The kids are growing up so fast!

Back from Itasca

We have arrived at our starting destination (home). We took a short vacation to see the 1st state park in Minnesota and the headwaters of the Mississippi. At times it was doubtful, but we've all made it home.

We'll be updating you with some more pic and stories later.

Father's Day 2008

As a family, we had a cook out at Central Park- it is only 3/4 mile away, so Michelle & the kids biked over while I tried to prepare the grill. Usually, Papa Paul gets together with us on F Day - we'll have to get back to that next year. We really didn't plan on doing anything, but the weather was fantastic and Michelle had a craving for turkey cheese dogs.

We got a few pics of the occasion for the good of all humanity. Your great grandchildren will be thanking you for showing them these snapshots.

Nature Valley Grand Prix

As a family, we drove to the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood today and biked over to the criterium in downtown MPLS tonight. We had a good time watching the riders cruise through the downtown - only we chose corner 4 instead of corner 3 - that's where the only crash took place tonight. Now, I'm not hoping for people to get hurt, but a mild collision would have been cool to see.

Thanksgiving Day 2007

Tryptophan


Wow! Michelle cooked up a fantastic meal today...somehow she even made sweet potatoes appealing?! I'm not sure how she does it.

If she cooked like this every day, I would be that guy that has his house demolished so the paramedics can get to him. My skin would ooze fluid and I'd have folds on my chest big enough to lose sandwiches. On the bright side, I may get my own TLC special.

We'll load some pics soon. I'm a bit lazy, but today I'll take the tryptophan defense.

Off to more green been goodness...take care and happy holidays to you all.

Please stay in touch. This can be a difficult time of year.

Halloween time!

The weather was only slightly chilly this year, so the kids were able to snag quite a bit of sugary goodness this year. Appearing this year at the Iverson house was Salix "lil' devil", Acer "Ghoul Skeleton", Tilia "Baby Pirate", and Goliath "Fairy".

Goliath doesn't look happy in the picture, but believe me, he was happy as a lark to be strutting around town in his costume. Tilia had an early sugar crash so she was unavailable for the picture.

Happy Halloween!

Hannah Montana Concert Tonight!

The girls are having a GNO (Girls Night Out) tonight at the Target Center. I had the fortunate opportunity to purchase tickets - from ticketmaster during the 30 seconds of time the show wasn't sold out. I don't think it is possible to be fortunate that you could buy tickets from TicketMaster, but this might be the exception to that rule.

Have fun, ladies.

Dumb dog...

I've discovered a possible reason why Goliath is dim. He eats paste. Or more correctly, glue sticks. Yes, Goliath, I caught you red handed.

Happy Easter!

Just a quick shout out to all fam/friends. Cold as it was, the kids enjoyed hunting for Easter baskets and the adults enjoyed Michelle's creation - Chicken Wellington. Like an Easter egg, but for adults.

I'm reduced to this?

I have mad mind reading skills - and I'll quote Goliath.

"I'm a Great Dane. A Great Dane! - you hear me? Great! It's not...Sufficient Dane~! This posing with a mini football is sooo beneath me. Go get a Beagle if you want this type of crap!"

Did I say "direct quote"?

Happy Birthday, Paul

Props to this dude. He's made it 57 years today. Happy Birthday, Dad.

More on Chicago..

This appetizer was sooo goood -0 yeah- that's a 3 o on the o scale. It is unfortunat?e that you haven't invested in the new "scratch and sniff" monitor. This was as good as it looks. This restaurant experience was at the Frontera Grill - run by Rick Bayless (a public television dude in Chicago?). It was recommended by Laura and Brian.


Michelle thought it was cool that she was able to catch up with Laura in person and see the family.
According to the website it is the 3rd Best casual restaurant in the world. I can't vouch for that acclaim, but Michele and I enjoyed the interesting & authentic dishes quite a bit. Michelle laughs, but I like to take pictures of the food we eat while out of town - got a problem with that?

Pizza Uno

Here is what I took home from Chicago - a pizza that I'm still digesting. They do make a good pizza, however, Michelle and I are more fans of the thick and chewy crust for deep pizzas. This crust was almost "pie" like - flaky and crispy. Acer enjoyed the pizza much more than Salix (surprise?).

Speaking of Acer, he took this great self portrait in Chicago. We'll be posting more Chicago pics shortly. While in the second city, we also hit the aquarium and some restaurant run by a dude on public television. Remind me to post about the awful Sheraton Towers at some point...I'm still recovering from how dry the room was.

Chicago Style

Wow, what a great time we had in Chicago. We took a mini vacation down to the windy city while Salix was competing in the Chicago Style Invitational. It is the largest women's gymnastic meet in the world. Roughly 3,500 gymnasts participated in the event. Salix wasn't feeling as good as normal - still feeling the effects of strep throat - so she was a bit of her game. She still tried very hard and impressed us with her tenacity. Salix was in love with the American Girl store~! This event was like Christmas all over again for the store. Thousands of girls staying the weekend on Michigan Avenue = $$$$ to the American Girl store. We were one of the lucky families and escaped with only purchasing a flapper outfit.

Tilia eating sweet potatoes

Just a "taste" of a weekend at this Iverson house. It hasn't even tried to approach zero degrees outside so I thought I'd spend some time updating our scrapbook. Enjoy!? -0 obviously I haven't fixed the keyboard, yet.

Christmas Play

Papa Paul and Teri swung by to take the two oldest to a play -0 similar to the Disney Snow White -0 The kids absolutely loved it~! They had a great time with the grandparents and enjoyed the actors letting the audience participate in the show. I've been emailed a few great shots of the kids with the actors.

It is hard to believe that today is the end of the year - yet when Acer and I awoke, it was 42 degrees outside and raining. We have no snow at all in our yard, even the small piles that managed to stay with us near the driveway are all melted. I don't remember a winter like this before.

By the way, the record for today is/was 41 degrees in 1999. The average is 23 for the high temp. Average low for Roseville today should be 9 degrees - we won't come within 15 degrees of that. It has been good for us and Tilia to have a warm winter, especially her first year.

+* Polaroid is sending us the cord -0 so pictures of the kids and family should be more prevalent in the upcoming months.

Busy month, this December...

Items of Note:

We found a dog for our home - Goliath - a Great Dane from Willow River, MN. He has been wonderful with everyone so far. He marked the Christmas tree the first night he was home. Should have seen that coming! He's about 32 1/2 inches to the top of his shoulders so he is just the right height to lick the pancakes while they are cooking.

We've got a backlog of pictures waiting to be shared- however, I lost our cord to connect our camera with the charger! *%$@ing Polaroid's website won't accept our checkcard...merry Christmas.

Hope your holidays are wonderful and restful!

Thanksgiving !

Seeing that stuffing the three kids and us into our van and driving around all weekend seemed like a bit more fun than we could handle, we decided to have a remarkably low key Thanksgiving dinner at our new house. I think everyone in the family enjoyed the lack of stress from the travel. The kids were able to play outside (57 degrees) and enjoy themselves while the adults enjoyed the great meal that Michelle cooked up. Hopefully, more of you can join us next year - or for Christmas day at our house! If you couldn't be here, we've done our best to make it virtually possible for you to experience our Thanksgiving dinner - through the modern technology of underground tubes:

We'll be traveling to Papa Paul's next weekend to help him choose a tree for the season. Acer is ready to cut it down all by himself. Have a wonderful holiday - keep us posted!

Wishing all a happy holiday.

We just recieved a shipment of wooden shoes - straight from Holland. Papa Paul must have had a great timee over there. The shoes made Tilia smile - the combination of wooden shoes and a the sight of Michelle is hard to beat no matter who you are. She sure looks an awful lot like Michelle. That's probably a good thing.

Definitely give us a call on Thanksgiving- Salix will be expecting it.

Tilia Pics

Finally, we have replaced our digital camera. Do I really need to say "digital" before camera anymore? It seems to e that since film cameras are used so infrequently that from now on, they should be referred to with an accompanied adjective (film) and "digital" cameras should now be referred to as simply cameras. Look for more pics soon. I just couldn't continue camera-less...If you need us we'll be out happily snapping the wonderful, yet fleeting moments that children bring.