Fall Update

Well, its been a while since I actually posted something about what we've done (I'm still planning on posting more Poland pictures to flickr...it's just slow going right now).

This fall has been lovely.

Over Labor Day weekend we spent the weekend western Minnesota at the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion in Rollag, MN. We had a wonderful weekend staying with our friends Scott & Marna and seeing Greg & Cari too! If you are interested in tractors or steam engines, I highly suggest the show at Rollag. Scott's family has played a big part in the show since its inception.

B & A pre-show. They were very dirty after the steam show. For more pictures of our Rollag trip, click here!


In the middle of September, Clay's brother and family came up for our annual tradition of attending the first home football game. B loves her cousin M so much. B wants to do anything that M. does. Here is a picture of M reading to B. This was the fourth year of our tradition, and it's great fun.

We've also spent a lot of time outside this fall (someone has been making up for the rotten Spring we had

We've also spent a lot of time at the Lake Superior Zoo. We even went to the lion cub's birthday party. They turned 1 year old.

Click here for more fall photos. I hope you're having a great Fall too!

Pictures of our trip

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be adding Poland photos to our flickr account. The link to the Poland set is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunshinec/sets/72157606952486958/

Keep checking the site for updates, as I plan to add new photos most every night.

I have detailed comments for most of the photos, so I probably won't be blogging much about the trip until I get all the pictures up. The pictures are taken by both our camera and my parent's camera.

Arrival in Wroclaw, Poland

Well, we made it to Wroclaw, but barely.

The long-haul flight to Munich was, well, long. B only slept 2 of the 8 hours and 19 minutes of the flight. We were hoping for at least 5 or 6 hours. The flight was very bumpy, which is slightly disconcerting when you are flying high over the Atlantic. Oh, and the reading lights didn't work.

Our layover in Munich was not fun. We spent our 1h 20min trying to figure out which Lufthansa line to stand in to get our boarding passes for Augsburg Airlines. 5 lines later and 50 minutes later, sweating bullets and being near tears (me), we jumped the line and barged our way to the counter (there was no way we would get our tickets otherwise).

We got our tickets and then we ran....as fast as we could. It was just like the movies. Our flight was leaving from gate G83 (!). Did I say it was just like the movies. I pushed B in the stroller and Clay ran with the roller backpack. Then we heard last boarding call for our flight. Yikes, still more gates to run. Then we hear them calling our names (Carter passengers, please report to the podium). We had to run down these stairs and we were yelling "We're here, we're here!" without knowing how much farther our gate was. It was at the bottom of the stairs. We made it!

And a short flight later, we landed in Wroclaw, Poland. I've never been happier to get somewhere in my life. My parents were there to greet us (they'd arrived an hour earlier). Here are the shots as we got off the (we had to take a bus from the plane to the terminal). Oh, and B decided to sleep as soon as we landed in Poland.

Life in a Northern Town

To say that weather is king in Duluth is an understatement. Winter here is long and cold. Most people living in regions with four seasons survive the long winters by anticipating and looking forward to spring and summer. Usually summers in Duluth are wonderful. Spring, is s-l-o-w to come and by June we are ready for summer to show its face.

This spring and (so far) summer has sucked! People are just sick and tired of the cold, wind and rain. I hate to admit it, but I did wear my winter hat one day this June.

I had self-proclaimed this the "Summer of Fun", which it most likely won't be weather-wise. I'm just throwing in the towel now and assuming it could be this way all summer. I'd envisioned daily trips to the beach. Sniff, sniff.

We did have a super warm and sunny day on Sunday. It was lovely. The kind of day that makes you want to cry. Clay, B and I spent part of the day gardening. The first video is of B watering the plants. The second video is of us goofing around and B trying to say grandma.