Just when you think there's nothing left to celebrate in 2006 . . .

This rainy day was not so dreary

though gray as it may be.

Yet, the wait did make us weary,

but word came: John passed the P.E.

Official Christmas Card 2006

John and I had a great time selecting photos for the background. This year has held many adventures and blessings and I thank God for using various situations to reveal more of his loving character to me. Merry Christmas everyone!

Posting while on the moving walk

So this is a picture of my favorite fountain. It is in the detroit airport.

Early Merry Christmas

So people with kids aren't the only ones that need a few attempts at a Christmas card picture. :) We needed a few attempts to get ours as well. Here is an early preview of a test-shot. As you can see, I am wearing a fancy plain white t-shirt and I set the tripod to crop off my forehead. Both these problems were remedied in future versions...

We are happy with how our final version turned out. The final version will probably get posted here eventually.

Time for a new post

Our weekend was fun. Sara baked Christmas cookies: spritz and krumkake (my favorites) and florentines. She also made some awesome homeade pizza. I finished putting up Christmas lights. It was a lot colder than when I put up the first batch. On Saturday night we went over to Old Man Levangs to celebrate his 30th birthday. Much fun was had by all.

One from South Dakota

Here is a picture from Custer National Forest in SD. We cut down the tree not too far from here.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We just got back from Thanksgiving in North Dakota. We had a great time with family, eating lots of turkey, panning for gold from Idaho dirt (we found a few flakes), and cutting down a Christmas tree in South Dakota. It was a fun and relaxing weekend.

Three generations enjoying Thanksgiving!

And here is a picture of the turkey and some fixins! Delicious!

And yes, we really did pan for gold.

Groceries . . . and Pie??!!

From the first moment I entered, I knew shopping would never be the same. I looked up and saw chandeliers. I looked down and saw carpeted floors. This is a grocery store, for goodness sake. Well, once again, Byerly's has blown my expectation of a grocery store. This morning I went online, placed my order for beef chuck roast, garlic, diced tomatoes and other miscellaneous edible goods and selected a pickup time. On my way home from work, I drove directly to the pickup lane and my groceries were placed into my car. Not only that, since I was a new online customer, I received a FREE APPLE PIE! Not a wimpy 8" pie, no, a 12" All Butter Crust, Haralson Apple 4 1/2 pound behemoth Pie. Ahhh, let them eat pie!

Saturday Night at Home

So after a Saturday of shopping, final fall yard clean-up and putting up Christmas lights (don't worry, they are not turned on yet) it was time to make a nice dinner at home....

Here is what dinner looks like on the stove...

And on the table...

The menu consisted of Moules Normandes with a Mushroom Risotto and Chocolate Pot-du-Creme for dessert. It was as good as it sounded (Notice the elegant surroundings, including the Dewalt drill in the background).

Random picture I like

Here is a random picture that I took last January. I kind of like this picture, and I thought I should get Allen off of the top of our blog... This is Lake Superior in the background, if you are interested.

Voting Day

Don't forget to vote today! If you don't vote than don't complain if someone like this ends up winning an election:

Finally Back!

OK, after going a week without internet access (broken cable modem) we finally have access again. It is interesting to see how dependent on the internet we have become. Losing TV for that long wouldn't have been nearly as big of deal. Anywho, here is a fall picture:

Back to the future

So when I was at Best Buy over lunch yesterday buying the new weird al CD (yep, I still listen to Weird Al, it keeps me young....) I saw an awesome De Lorean in the parking lot. I decided that this was a car worthy of parking next to. If only I had some flux capacitors I could have really had some fun and skipped out on the afternoon of work. By the way, my car is the cool blue Mazda.

Let it Snow

Alright, so this isn't much, and I am sure it was gone within a few hours, but this is what I saw as I pulled off of 494 this morning:

Sara and Brooklyn

Brooklyn and Sara get along very well and love playing together. It is fun to watch our nephews and neices grow up and get to know us better.

Adam and his boys

Here are Adam, Timothy and Luke on the carousel at Como Park. The music was turned up waaaaay too loud, but I think the kids had fun.

Apple Orchard

This past weekend the Berge clan all got together in the Cities for some good times. We stayed at a hotel, played in the pool with the kids, played outside with the kids, went to an apple orchard, went to Como zoo and had lots of laughs. This is a picture from Saturday late afternoon. We had a dinner of apple brats at the orchard.

Hannah

And here is a picure of our little niece Hannah. Pretty little girl, eh?

Preston

Here is a picture of our nephew Preston. Cute little guy, ey?

Double play

The twins just turned a double play in this picture. Now we need to score some runs.

Baseball

So last week we were both out of town for work. Sara was in Madison for a big user conference and I was in Raleigh-Durham NC for some vendor sponsored education.

One of the evenings the vendor took the whole group for dinner at the Durham Bulls baseball stadium and we got to go take batting practice and catch balls after dinner. It was a ton of fun. Nothing like a bunch of middle-age engineers acting like 10 year olds.

Parking ramps

Sometimes after class you get stuck in the parking ramp. I have moved ten feet in 25 minutes. ugh

Update

Twins win.

Go Twins

Here we are at the Twins game with COJ. We are winning 9 -4.

Bees and Weeds

Oh, how I love my 100mm macro lens!

Beginning of the End

John's final semester of school starts after Labor Day. Yet, why wait until then to begin flooding the neurons with World Ecomonics?

However, it is still summer and we love to spend Saturday mornings on the deck with a cup of coffee. This is one of my favorite summer activites and I try to use every opportunity to enjoy this treat! -s

Isle Royale Trip

We just got back from a backpacking adventure on Isle Royale National Park with Allen and Nicole Lee. Here are some stats from the trip:
30 Miles Hiked
9 Moose seen (6 cows and 3 calves, no bulls)
3 nights on the island (4 days)
Lots of other wildlife including multiple bald eagles, lots of Seagulls, squirrels and even a fox.
1 set of fresh Wolf tracks.

View from the Tower

We made it to this tower by lunch time. Five miles down with five to go on this day, but at least it was all downhill from here. Notice the hikers on thier way up to the tower.

Northern Lights

Enjoyed some Northern Lights...

Enjoying a sunset

Here we are enjoying a sunset at Siskiwit Bay...

Cutie

Lookin' Good!

On the Trail

Here we are hiking...

I'm the King of the World!!

Self-explanatory....

On the Ferry

We took a ferry from Grand Portage to Isle Royale.

Guthrie Theater

Sara and I went to the new Guthrie theater last Friday for her birthday. We saw a performance of The Great Gatsby. It was very well done. The architexture of the new Guthrie Theater is fantastic as well (It is the building on the left. The other building is the Mill City Museum).

Duluth at Night

We went on a nice walk just before the rain started.

Interesting Sweatshirts

There was a sweatshirt stand selling some cheap, and interesting sweatshirts. Oakland Community College Dental Hygene anyone? This was $5.

Canal Park Pier

Mom was obviously happy to have a weekend in Duluth.

Duluth

So last weekend Sara and I met my folks in Duluth for a quick weekend trip. We stayed in Canal Park and had a great time walking around the harbor and hanging out. We also toured the Glensheen Mansion, which was a tour that was definitely worth it. I have posted a few pictures...

So close

Daniel and Meghan are so close to moving into their new house they can taste it.

Aaaahhhhh Summertime

These are the beginnings of hops, yes, as in the traditional flavoring for beer. Sara's friend, Mary, gave us some roots this spring and the vine is steadily crawling up the deck.

Picnic at Lake Calhoun

So a few weeks ago we went kayaking at Lake Calhoun with Allen and Nicole. Unfotunately I have no pictures. But last week Sara and I did have a picnic lunch at Lake Calhoun and I had the camera with this time. Here is a quick picture of our view.:

Prague Castle

Although I didn't bring a tripod, I found the statues on the Charles Bridge could serve as a decent substitute.

Prague - Charles Bridge

Prague was awesome, although it felt a bit more full of tourists than some of the other places we were (well, I don't know about Italy).

And another from Venice

Here is another one of Sara's pictures from Venice that I really liked. This is St. Mark's Cathedral, I believe.

Venice

They also went to Venice. Which looks like it will be a great city for me to visit someday as well.

Florence

Sara and Bev went to Italy while I was in Warsaw. Here they are in Florence.

Salzburg View

It was mostly rainy while we were in Salzburg, but the sun decided to crack through briefly in the evening, which made for some nice garden shots. That is Salzburg fortress far in the background.