...And Summer's Lease Hath All Too Short A Date

So it's August, and we're here, and the last I checked it was merely June. As all summers tend to do when you live in the tundra, this one too, has slipped away. And just when I was about to tell you that we've done nothing extraordinary to even make the time go by so quickly, I realized that we've actually been quite busy after sifting through the latest and greatest photographic evidence of our lives.

Let's see, in addition to traveling to Los Angeles, Nashville, the North Shore, Saginaw, Dallas, and Chicago collectively,

My American Woman in Lutsen

...She floats thro' the air with the greatest of ease...

...You'd think her a man on the flying trapeze!

The Hobbits getting their suds on after a long day of playing in sand and dirt!

The daddies on stroller patrol in Grand Marais

A great 4th of July with

Liza, Andrew, Joey and Sawyer...

...Angie, Aaron, Elena...

...And Eli too!

Hooray for the peaceful, serene North Shore life!

Just like how their mommies used to dream about when they were pregnant together.

The Road Less Traveled

The beautiful house we stayed in on Lutsen Mountain

I simply love this picture of Sawyer

We've also attended family reunions

Grandpa Torres

BFFs Cardo and Jeff

Grandma Torres doing what she does best...Loving her babies

Grandpa Torres in his reunion gear

All of these willing and able cousins keep a girl very busy!

Beautiful portrait pictures like this are why I'm so happy for my DSLR.
Grandma Torres

Bad ass portrait pictures like this are why I'm so happy for my DSLR.
Uncle Valentin

Cousin Isabella

Cousin Gianna

Aunt Yolanda and Cousin Gabriel

Cousin Alexis

Almost all of the grandbabies together!

Alessandra rocks Grandpa's fedora

Grandma's Gusto

With Cousin Mollie

We've been boating

What's better than waves to rock you to sleep?

Enjoying some much-needed grown up time down the St. Croix!

Tom, Valentin, Cardo and Carlos

With Desiree and Lindsay

Samantha and Carlos

Tom, Linsday, Megan, Tim

We've had visitors of the very best friend variety

With Megan at the Stone Arch Bridge...BFFs since the 3rd grade!

Meg drove out with her mama Jennean, and we all still do the same thing we've always done together...LAUGH!

Deciding between the lesser of three evils, Pepto, beer, or 5 Hour Energy

We've honed our art skills

I labeled this Magnadoodle masterpiece exactly as Alessandra told me to

A beautiful sculpture of stacked blocks...And other random things

We've met gangsters (or cops depending on what side of the tracks you're from)

With Ice-T out at E3

We've had a grandma turn 77

Grandma Dambro

And other grandmas turn NINETY!

Grandma Filipiak

I'd be remiss not to mention the crazy weather that is characteristic of Minnesota summers. Stuff like humidity that makes a certain someone look like a lioness with all those cotton candy curls


And every once in awhile an absolutely PERFECT little spiral just down her forehead


There are crazy storms that leaves the dusk sky looking like we're on another planet. And lionesses that act like it too.

Although a month shy, we are also entering the throes of Terrible Twodom. Attitude, anyone?




And trust me when I say, these photos are tame. We've got screaming, kicking, dropping to the ground limply in the middle of a busy street tantrums. We have refusal to eat on some days and voracious garbage disposal imitation on others. Meltdowns should best be left to nuclear power plants in my opinion, but the one thing I know for sure, is that my opinion is of no consequence when she is in the middle of one.

Ali's speech and vocabulary is growing each day and I feel like I can now converse with her intelligently. She still loves to read and new this month is her love to sing and try to carry a tune. She's got the names of her colors, clothing, body parts, and several other items down pat as opposed to trial and error in the past. She love airplanes, cars, trucks, and boats. She says hello to everyone we pass and will insist on a response by continuing to say hi until someone extends the courtesy. (As you can imagine, some are more willing than others.)

What else can I tell you? Oh yeah...She loves an audience. Like when her cousins froze up at the family reunion talent show, Alessandra decided to take one for the team...

Sorry for the long gap between posts. Hopefully I'll get back on the Blog Wagon from now on! Until next time...