My, My!  Here it is August and two months of our summer is gone already.  What have we been doing beside the normal everyday stuff?  Weeeeelllllll, Gary installed an umbrella for the pool

Cool Umbrella

That will help keep the sun burn off this summer. (Too bad when we got back from up north we found one of our condo mates broke the PVC pipe off.  Kids!  You can’t leave them home alone for a second can you?)

The first part of June we had a big storm roll thru. It rained so much I bet Noah was starting to build that ark ;).  Our pool almost over flowed

Our pool

The canal had a lot of water in it too, look at this guy’s boat

Boat across the canal

Same boat today

Normal pool

Quite a difference huh?

Then, as per our tradition, we had to head home for the 1st grandchild’s birthday.  First we had to prepare ourselves for the long journey

Get those batteries re-charged

Once we took off, we thought for sure Smokey was a well traveled cat and enjoyed the trip

Bored Cat

but I think he is giving us the stink eye.

When we were stuck in one of our traffic jams I did see this cool car inch by us Maybe because it is such a purty blue and even had blue wheels to match!  It sure caught my eye.  Much too low for me though, I’d have to be crawlin in and out of that thing.

When we stopped for a potty break and a delicious and nutritious lunch at our favorite stop, McDonald’s, we happened to notice the different motif of this one.

Mac the Knife

It looked like really a fun place for the kids (and us old people too!).  Too bad we didn’t have more time to visit and play :(.

Once we arrived at our daughter’s house, we were just in time to go to the White Bear  Manitou Days Parade.  We met up with a few of our nieces and nephew

Our group (sittin on an ant hill, icky!)

Then it was time to watch the parade

Exercise Club

I don’t know if that was an exercise club or a juggling group but I think I could do that with my chair!

Short Straw

Then you got the kid that drew the short straw and had to wear that costume.  Or maybe everyone wanted to wear that costume and he considered himself very lucky, ya never know ;).

Here come the clowns

LSD 60’s Clown

I don’t know, some clowns are very scary……

and lets not forget the Vulcan’s from the St. Paul Winter Carnival.   They used to be able to run up to a girl and rub their black greased check on the girls to mark them.  All in good fun mind you.  Now, they have to ask your permission and use a grease stick.  Man, where is the fun in that.

All in all, everyone had a fun time

Whee! Beads!

Not to mention a sugar high from all the candy we caught 

That was a lot of fun and tasty too ;).

Then we had to celebrate someone’s Birthday.

Whoa Mom, watch that fire!

That was another fun and tasty day.  Too many more of those days and we’ll have to hire a crane to get us back into the van for the ride home.  Luckily they put us to work to pay for our room and board while we were there.  We were

Scraping

and

Primering

and

Baby Sitting

while they scraped, primered and painted.  We did get off for good behavior and were able to visit the people at Beartrax and their cigar smokin dog 

By the time we got back, we found they had hired a professional painter to finish the job

He’s cute and cheap

He does have a little drinking problem so we are keeping our fingers crossed he’ll get the job done ;).