Our Generation Vol. 3 No. 10 Minnesota Here We Come!

Our flight to Minneapolis, Minnesota went without a hitch. We arrived in MN just in time for lunch and Daddy was able to navigate us over to the Mall of America. Mia and Ben watched the indoor roller coasters with wide-eyes and it made it all worth the 4:30am wake up.

After a short drive south to Northfield, we arrived at the Stanton Airpark. Daddy's cousin, Sharlet, and her husband, Kent, live on top of the airport, literally. You would not believe how crazy stoked Ben and Mia were when we drove up to see a HUGE play-scape and planes and gliders everywhere!!! We were inpressed that the runway was a grass runway and that they had a flight simulator and desk from WWII.

While in Northfield, we saw the Malt-O-Meal factory, Grandma's house that she grew up in, the cemetery where her parents are buried (the church was no longer there), the falls, downtown Northfield and many quaint shops and restaurants such as the coffee shop below. Mia and Ben wanted their own dining spaces (hmm, not a bad idea).

Great-grandma and grandpa Oleson's tombstones

Northfield Falls- the original Malt-O-Meal factory was right across from this lookout

We stayed in a really nice apartment located a short golf cart ride away from the airport. Uncle Bob stayed with us and despite our time zone and sleep schedule differences, we managed to have some amazing tickle fights.

Sharlet planned a wonderful reunion with all of the Minnesota family. It was so great to meet so many cousins!

During the party, dark clouds started to billow and approached with speed. We were forced inside to watch one of the most amazing thunderstorms that we've ever seen.

We were blessed with this sunset after the storm

Mia and Maddie co-piloting a plane, while Ben takes on flying all by himself.

We had such a great time in Minnesota. It was a truly fabulous trip! Next stop... Green Lake, Wisconsin...

Our Generation Vol. 3 No. 9 Summer Summer Summertime

Our summer started off by listening to some live music (surprised?). This time we were lucky enough to see Daddy's new band, Brother Not Brother, perform at the Anne Arundal County Jam for the Animals. It was a sweltering day but fortunately the band scored the covered stage. Mia and Ben had a blast with friend, Avery, listening to Daddy shred and the boys jam out. A good time was had by all!


As the heat index climbs to triple digits, we plunge into the pool to keep cool. Here we are with Allen, Elaine, Owen and Nora. We were surprised to see that someone had installed a temporary tight rope- what fun!


Mia is really into writing and this was one of our favorite samples! How sweet is this? She wrote it entirely unprompted and it just melted our hearts.

Dori and Javi's son, Johan, turned 3 with a dinosaur party. We went to the Prince George County Nature Center for a fun-filled afternoon of dinosaur bingo, petting zoo, dinosaur egg hunt and more.

Our Generation Vol. 3 No. 8 Abi and Tata Come to Town

Abi and Tata flew in to celebrate Memorial Day weekend with us. They had a great time, playing with Mia and Ben, reading, playing baseball and watching movies (Gnomeo and Juliet and Tangled). We went to see Kung Fu Panda 2 (well, technically mommy and Ben missed most of it because it was hard to sit quiet and still) and we enjoyed some BBQs too.

One of the things that Tata missed seeing the last few times he was here was the Vietnam Wall (previous trips coincided with political rallies that we wanted to avoid and the refurbishment of the wall itself). If you've ever been in D.C. on Memorial Day weekend, you would be familiar with the Rolling Thunder. The Rolling Thunder is an organized group of motorcycle riders, mostly veterans, who roll in for the weekend's events. If you've ever spent any time with Ben, you would know that he's obsessed with any type of vehicle. So put two and two together and walla... MOTO CYCLESSSSS!!!!! Toddler excitement was spewing from the boy (and girl). Mommy even noticed that Abi and Tata were yelling with delight when they saw the cycles rumbling down Constitution Avenue. It's pretty thrilling to see ten cycles but seeing tens of thousands of them is more than awesome.


A pit stop to pose by Kansas to honor Grandpa Perry and his service in the Pacific during WWII.

Thank goodness Tata is so smart! He bought the kids delicious slushies to help keep them cool and quiet.

Mia and Ben were so sad to drop off their Abi and Tata that once we got home from the airport, we had a much needed sprinkler run. This made everyone feel better and we look forward to our next visit with them!

We'll see you in Arizona in October for Brad's 20 year reunion!

Our Generation Vol. 3 No. 7 Baby Savannah

The house was awfully empty, the floors were beginning to get dirty and having had a dog/dogs for the last 14 years, we simply didn't know how to continue on without one. Brad and I agreed that we'd wait at least a year before we even considered another dog. But, you can't really anticipate how you're going to feel, what you're going to do and how things might change. Just out of curiosity, Brad looked online at potential pups... just to see what was out there. This led to a series of phone calls and eventually a trip out to meet some of them. I was very hesitant but Brad was insistent on making the 3 hour drive out to Western Maryland with or without me to check them out. We all know that no one can just go and look at puppies so the kids and I went along with to help him pick one out. There were more great danes that one could ever imagine at this place. Sweet, lovable pups just about everywhere you stepped.

Our first inclination was to select one of the two super mellow girls. But then there was this one girl who immediately came up to us and had her snout up in our faces. Then she spun around and after a few minutes, she was on the table drinking the owner's coffee. Hmmm... she had just the personality to deal with a 2 yr. old, a 4 yr. old and the crazy Browns. Against our better judgement, we selected the mischief maker, named her Savannah, made the deal, put her in the cargo area of the car and within a block of driving off, she leaped into the front seat nearly missing both children with her HUGE paws! Meet Savannah- not a replacement for Ulla but an awfully good distraction!