Long time no post....

I am still alive here. I just realized today that the last August post I made marked the beginning of a very busy 9 months for me. After coming home from Europe my boss announced her retirement. She had the end date set, a few things happened and she stayed on and worked part time for about 6 months before fully retiring. Then, I was the interim director until the firm decided to hire a new head librarian who started April 1st. It's been so incredibly busy and I haven't done anything much in the past 9 months. I definitely was not able to have any vacation when I was working as a solo librarian for 4 months. 

Now that I have another librarian to share the load with I'm hoping to get back to blogging. I do have some great pictures of our trip to Duluth when we saw Andy's directorial debut at the Duluth Playhouse. 

Europe Part 1

Yes, I know it's been almost 2 weeks since I've been home, but I've been busy!

Brian and I had such a great time in Europe, traveling with Mandy and Andy around London, Paris, Prague and Berlin.

This is the first leg of the trip.

We went to the Tower of London. The crown jewels were amazing, and there is so much history to learn. We also went to the British Museum.

Tower Bridge:



Brian and I on the Thames -



Now Paris - we stayed very near Notre Dame, and went inside on the first day. It was cloudy outside, but the inside is so beautiful.


We went to the Rodin museum. It is housed in an old mansion and has a lovely garden. This was one of my favorite sculptures - The Burghers of Calais


And of course, we saw the Eiffel Tower. It is lovely, and so much larger than you would expect.



We also went to the Louvre, Sacre Coeur and the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris, so much more to come....

San Francisco

Brian and I wen to San Francisco over Memorial Day weekend. We spent a day visiting his family in Sacramento and then headed out to San Francisco for 3 days. We had a great time walking around the city, seeing the sights.

Brian in Chinatown:



The Palace of Fine Arts, near the Exploratorium:


View from a park in Haight-Ashbury:

The sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf:



Fisherman's Wharf, with Alcatraz behind me:

Sleepy and Dirty Dog

Spring has finally started and that means longer walks for Oscar. He has been running with Brian sometimes too, which really wears him out.

Tired boy...

Exhausted dog...

And finally, the dirty dog needed a spring bath today:

He did not care for it much, but put up with it long enough for me to rinse out the soap.

Here are a few more pics from Easter up north.

Grandpa George and Keenan:

Great-grandma Annie with Jared and Dylan:

Mandy and Easter

Oscar's second favorite girl was in town for Easter. He did his happy dance when she walked through the door. There were lots of kisses for Mandy all weekend long.

We drove up north for Easter weekend and surprised mom at the Elks club for yet another celebration of her birthday. She was so shocked and happy to see Mandy.

Mom and Ailee with the birthday cake. Check out Ailee's great pose!

Mandy finally got to meet Keenan face to face. - kind of....

Keenan also got to meet Great Grandma Annie for the first time.

Of course, we also had to play with the nephews.

It was a fun weekend, and we were able to surprise mom, even though dad may have told a few people about Mandy's upcoming visit.

Baby Keenan and Big sister Ailee

I visited Martha & Dan's house again this weekend. Keenan is so very and Ailee too. She told me a story while I took her photo. Then she was sad because she couldn't find the princess game.

New Nephew!

My sister Martha had her baby today. My new nephew Keenan is a tiny cute bundle of squirminess. Did I mention how cute he is?

Martha and Keenan:


Baby Keenan with all his hair

So tired from eating, he can only keep one eye open...

Martha kept telling us how big his feet are, so we had to check it out for ourselves...

Keenan and Martha are both doing great, though tired from the long night spent in labor. His big sister Ailee is fascinated by this tiny baby boy, though excited to be the big sister.