A Day in Richmond

We think Toni's younger sister Kata is making steady progress. She has moved from Lynchburg to Durham to Philadelphia--that's still about three cities removed from Geneva, Switzerland, but a start nonetheless. She is doing a three month stint at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (we hope longer). CHOP specializes in pediatric care not prosthetics.

In typical Kata fashion, a road trip soon evolved. While Ben was at a conference in Richmond, the girls found time for a movie, a pedicure, pumpkins, and a stroll on the rocks of the James river (think Gone with the Wind). Ben joined the ladies in the evening for some dessert at the Jefferson Hotel (think Gone with the Wind again). Richmond, it turns out, has gone through a remarkable transformation since the "war." Philadelphia, it seems, has done the opposite.


We returned home, to an unfinished bed, and the king of the manor on his throne. Ben is not a cat person, but Ben has become quite the cat connoisseur. For that we can thank his majesty, Grayson.

Birthday Weekend in Philly

Living in a land of plenty has its advantages. America's abundance allows, for example, a transcontinental family reunion in just under three hours. In theory at least--Philadelphia's airport is a model of 1970s efficiency. It seems odd to consider that it used to take three days thirty years ago, or thirty days three hundred years ago to travel from MN to PA. In short, we'd like to thank Toni's parents and sister, Mike, Collen and Kata, for making the long trip for her birthday!


Ben would like to thank his wife for allowing a birthday weekend detour to the USS New Jersey (BB-62). Ben and Mike couldn't resist the "Big Guns, Big Fun" advertisements, or maybe it was the fact that the Iowa Class Battleship has nine 16"/50 caliber Mark 7 guns aimed at our loft. Our WWII vet guide assured us that they were pointed at Philadelphia's City Hall. We nervously chuckled.


We did manage to see some lovely non-violent sights in the region as well. We checked out the artisans shops, colonial architecture, and art fair at New Hope in Bucks County, Pa. But not before a "spur of the moment" detour to Washington Crossing Historic Park, where G.W. and Co. attacked the drunken Hessians on Christmas day 1776. The next day, we drove down to the southern tip of the Jersey shore to the Victorian resort town Cape May. Curiously, America's Major, Rudy Guiliani, "happened" to be giving a campaign speech in the town. His stump speech didn't sign us up for his cabinet, but we did enjoy the free hot dogs and obligatory New York Yankees joke-sort off.


Oh, and Toni did have a fantastic birthday weekend.

A Day in DC

Sunday night we received a call from Kata (Toni’s sister). Ulan Bator Air had a little flight delay--a standard feature we hear--so the nurse returning from the Save Mongolia Expedition needed some companions in DC while she waited for her next flight to Raleigh, NC. A half tank of gas later, and a great sleep at the Hilton, we three were touring the Smithsonian, touching moon rocks, scheming on stealing the Hope diamond, and listening to stuffed Lions roar. We also saw some old family friend from Minnesota, Paul and Colleen Irwin. They gave us a wonderful tour of the jewel of Southeast DC, the aptly named, SE White House, a center for urban and spiritual renewal.






Ben went to the Phillies game tonight. Only a half game behind the pennant, BABY! Since it is Toni’s birthday week, he brought home an early b-day present: an oversized homer hanky!

A Puzzle from the Past

We are not part of the Harry Potter generation--unless reading the last page of the last book counts. SPOILER ALERT. Harry lives. Several of our twenty-something friends told us that that they were “finally finishing their childhood” when to got their hands on the seventh and final book. Having never gone through such an important self-defining moment in life, we thought it would be symbolic to complete a puzzle that both of us grew up with but never completed: the 1993 edition of the 1000 piece strong Noah’s Ark jigsaw puzzle. We’re not really sure if we were cured from all of our emotional scars of childhood (not that there were many), but we did learn interesting tid-bits of information. Did you know that Noah commanded all birds to not defecate over the arc? Apparently, we learned piece by piece, he had a little trouble with the Pigeons.

1 Year in Philly!

One year ago our parents helped Ben and I move cross country to Philadelphia. We were so blessed to have our family assist us with all the grunt work of moving. Fortunately our loft looks a little more organized than a year ago, attached are some pics of our current progress.


This Labor Day weekend Ben worked Saturday and Sunday but we were able to do some fun activities on Monday. We went to the cute little town of New Hope just north of Philadelphia and right on the Delaware River. It was packed with people (especially the not-so-tough biker crowd) and plenty of cute shops, restaurants and a few historical sights which Ben was pretty excited about.



On the way home we went by the beautiful Princeton University. I had never seen it so it was a fun stop.



Hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend!

We would love to have any of you come to visit us here in Philly-just let us know when.

All for now...

Hello Again! Ben and I just returned from a wonderful and relaxing trip to MN to visit friends and family. It was so good to see everyone and just be back in MN. Everyone kept asking who was watching our cat Grayson, we left him at home alone with lots of food, water and kitty litter. When we got home you will all be happy to know that he was excited to see us and completely fine! He has been craving tons of attention, but it is cute.



Our first few days of the trip we were in the Twin Cities staying with Ben's parents (Bruce and Marnee) and visiting lots of friends and family. Our new niece Elise from Charlotte was also visiting the Cities with her mom Stacie so we were lucky to be able to see them again too.





On Saturday we headed up North to Detroit Lakes to a cabin we go to every year with the Pearson family. It was our 20th year! It is always a great place to relax and catch up on the water sports. After a few years of attempting to water ski we finally found Ben's niche...knee boarding! He is like a pro. We should have tried that earlier but always kept going for the skis.


While up north we were also able to see our good friends Diana and Rob from Winnipeg who we hadn't seen in a year! It was great to see them.

After a relaxing week at the lake we spent 2 more days in the Twin Cities with my parents. A last chance to see a few more friends and my grandparents. It was the perfect break before a new school year for Ben.


We will catch up again soon...all for now:)

Catching Up...

Hey Friends and Family. Thanks to John and Stacie (Ben's brother and his wife) we are catching up with the times and getting our own BLOG! Very exciting for us and a lot easier way for you to see and hear about our life here in Philly.

I have attached a few pics from our last few weekends so you can see what we have been up to...

Since we are so close to the Jersey Shore it has been a great summer activity to go down there for the day. The first pic shows you that.

Over the fourth of July we were excited to have our good friends from MN Tiff and Joel here. We did lots of fun Philly tourist things with them including cheesesteaks, historic old city...etc.

You can also see pics of Ben and I at a Riversharks game at Campbell's field, which is right next to our loft in the city of Camden, NJ. It was a beautiful night under the Benjamin Franklin Bridge followed by a great display of fireworks.

Then the last few pics show a fun weekend in North Carolina with John and Stacie and our first niece Elise! It was a very relaxing weekend. We were able to see the new Billy Graham library while we were there too. On the way back home we stopped in to see Kata at Duke University Hospital in Durham.

Well that is all for this post but I will keep you updated on new events in our lives out here.