It has been a long week already and it is only Tuesday!

Saturday was very busy day and we were outside literally all day. I woke up and went for a run. The temperature increased almost 10 degrees from the beginning of my run to the end. It was also very humid. I did 2.6 miles so that was good.  I’m struggling with getting runs in. It has been too stinking hot and humid.  According to the weather guy we have hit 85 degrees or higher for 21 days in a row. The record is 23.  The current forecast would put us at 27 days.  I guess we will see.  Anyways, after my run and shower we went to Hopkins Raspberry Festival with DJ and Beth.  The Root Beer stand is gone :( which makes me very sad. I played my concert and we bolted for the car to head to TCF Bank Stadium at the U of M campus for DCI.  It was so much fun.  There were some amazing groups.  We stuck around to see who won and I was sad because my favorite didn’t win.  It was almost 11pm before we got out of there.  Here is one short video I took.

Surprisingly, I slept in until 10:30am on Sunday!  Boy did I pay for it though; I didn’t get to sleep until 1am Monday morning.  We really didn’t do much Sunday.  We checked out Greg and Celeste’s new flooring and had lunch with them. That was about it.  Eric also had a soccer game. 

Yesterday we had a Twins game. It was 100 degrees at game time and didn’t really cool off. It was still over 90 degrees on the car ride home at 11pm.  Yep. It was a really LOOOONNNGG game.  Twins scored 7 runs in the first inning and 12 additional runs in the other innings.  It was a marathon game and in the heat it was a bit miserable. Thankfully they were winning.  So again I didn’t get to bed until after midnight. 

The lack of sleep the last two nights made today a really long day too.  I’m busy so it went by pretty fast but it was hard keeping my eyes open.  I think it will be an early night tonight. Fingers crossed I’m in bed by 10pm.

So this week has been filled with Soccer games and Band Concerts. 

Sunday I went with DJ to watch Abbie’s soccer game in Minnetonka.  It was pretty awesome. I got to see some dude break his leg in the game before hers. There was a lot of action down by the goal and then we hear this screaming and players running off the field yelling CALL 9-1-1!!!  It was kind of exciting.  I guess it was a compound fracture! We had to wait for the ambulance to come and haul him away.  It definitely livened up my evening.  Eric had his own game of soccer to ref. 

Monday was another soccer night for Eric.  He reffed a Division 1 Women’s game.  He said it went well.  He really has been getting a lot of games recently.  He has another game Sunday and three the following week. I managed to go for a run. I’ve been really slacking in that department. I was able to do 2 miles nonstop so that is good and my time was faster than the last time I went.  I really need to get on this kick again.

Tuesday I had a concert in Minnetonka.  It went well. Eric came along to watch Haley, my friend’s kid.  She was crawling all over him, it made me laugh.  She was very loud and disruptive so he took her to the playground.  All these little kids were hanging around Eric and talking to him. Eric doesn’t understand why little kids are attracted to him. I was picking on him. “Come here little girl” in a snarky voice. LOL!

Wednesday was the only night this week we didn’t have any soccer or band.  It was a bit hot so we went to the waterpark at Valleyfair.  It was kind of dead so we didn’t have to wait in line for anything and the big wave pool was mostly empty. 

Yesterday I had a concert at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis.  It is such a nice setting and area.  Again it went well. We were entertained by this woman who performed what I would call interpretive dance.  It reminded me of my time at the mental hospital…if you get what I mean.  Another funny thing happened when we played Trombone Tiger Rag.  For the whole concert it was grey and cloudy but right before we played that the sun shined through the clouds right on us.  It was like God was turning the spotlight on us for our song.  What is even more bizarre is when we were done with the song the sun went back behind the clouds. My only complaint about the place is the low flying planes over head, they were very distracting.

Tonight we went to Abbie’s district soccer game. Districts were in Shakopee so we didn’t have very far to go.  Unfortunately, their team lost 3-1 to Prior Lake.  Abbie’s team finished last in the division so they had to play the best team. It was nice to see her play again.  She is very fast.  But it was her last game of the year because it is one and done.

Tomorrow is another busy day for us.  I have a concert in Hopkins at 2pm and then Beth, DJ, Eric and I are going to a Drum Corps International competition at TCF Bank Stadium on U of M’s campus.  I’m excited, 24 bands from around the US performing on the football field. It should be awesome! It starts at 1:30 (so yes we will miss a few bands) and goes until 10pm.  The Minnesota Brass is performing at 9:45pm so we will get to see plenty of performances.

  

Well it has finally cooled down.  It was only 86 degrees today…that is 15 degrees cooler than it has been recently. 

Wednesday was the 4th of July.  It was a busy day for me. Danielle, Bradley, Mom and Anna came up for my concert.  The day was so hot. Danielle, Bradley, Eric and I tried out the Shakopee Sand Adventure pool.  I’m kind of embarrassed to admit it but, we had never been there before.  8 years in Shakopee and we finally went to the pool.  It was so nice.  There is a big slide, 3 smaller slides and a diving board.  It wasn’t too busy considering it was 100 degrees outside and a holiday.   We spent a couple hours there before we had to get back to the house to get ready for the picnic and concert. Greg and Celeste came over to pick up our extra people and we meet up at Round Lake Park in Eden Prairie. It was still around 100 degrees at 5:30.  We had a nice picnic and listened to the Jazz Band.  After them, we got to play.  I was sweating bullets and drank 32 ounces of ice cold water.  I was so happy to be done and back in the air conditioning.  Danielle and Bradley left and Mom and Anna spent the night.  We were too tired or hot to go out to see fireworks so we watched them on TV.  I’m getting old.

Winniwissa Falls, Pipestone National Monument, Pipestone, MN 

Thursday we went to for a mini vacation to Pipestone National Monument in southwestern Minnesota. It was very interesting.  American Indians have quarried the red pipestone found at the site. These grounds are sacred to many people because the pipestone quarried here is carved into pipes used for prayer. Many believe that the pipe's smoke carries one's prayer to the Great Spirit. The traditions of quarrying and pipemaking continue there today.  We did the 3/4 mile hike to the quarry, water fall and other sites.  It was very cool…but very hot.  We stopped at a few of the state parks as well. We were going to camp at Split Rock Creek State Park near the site but it was too hot and humid…we would have been miserable.  We are becoming very spoiled.  So instead we drove to  a hotel.  We had a nice meal for dinner and played some mini golf.  I was victorious!!! I beat Eric by 5.

Yesterday we slowly made our way to Flandrau State Park in New Ulm.  For a while we were by ourselves.  We had some lunch at Pizza Ranch (yum) and made 3 trips to Target.  When we go camping, especially the first time of the summer, we always forget things.  Speaking of being spoiled, we bought a queen size double air mattress.  It is so comfy!  We went to the park and waited for the others.  Greg, Celeste and Evelyn finally got there after their rough start to the day. Evelyn fell down the steps and had to have two staples put into her head.  She didn’t seem fazed by it.  DJ and kids showed up next.  We went to the really nice sand bottom pool.  Eric bought some toys for the pool so we all had a blast.  Eventually Danielle and Bradley showed up.  We swam until 8pm. After that we had a campfire and food.  S’mores are so good.  It was still hot.  When we finally put the fire out at 10pm it was still in the 90s I think.  It was miserable falling asleep.  I eventually fell asleep, the mattress helped.

I woke up at 3am to the storm shower.  The nice thing about the storms is it really cooled down outside that I was able to get back to sleep. But I was awakened again at 6am to a massive storm with thunder, lightning and down pouring rain.  It was quite the storm. I looked at the map on my phone and the only place in the state that had storms was by New Ulm.  Go Figure!

We packed up our site after the rain went to Perkins for a late breakfast and then came home.  We did nothing today but relax.  It is so nice to be home and being in our own bed again tonight.

It was a very nice couple of days, even if it was sweltering.

Yesterday was my Monday and today is my Friday.  I love 2 day work weeks.  I’ve had 2 this summer. 

Saturday after church we went mini golfing in Bloomington.  They renovated the course so it is really nice now.  Eric beat me by one I think.  After that we swung by Davanni’s for a deep dish pizza (get the golfing pun there?).  Eric was craving Davanni’s and I wasn’t going to disagree with him.

Sunday we went to the water park at Valleyfair to cool off. It was so stinking hot.  We were there about 2 hours.  The water felt so nice. 

Also on Sunday, I broke the top pipe under the upstairs sink trying to clean the hair out of the drain.  I guess I pulled up the plunger too hard and it cracked off the main pipe.  I was so happy I managed to get the plunger completely out that I didn't realize at first what I had done. I put the plunger back together and it wasn't working properly.  It was then I realized that it broke off.  There was some water under there from when I was testing out the cleaned drain but the towels soaked it up. I duct taped the hole for now (LOL! duct tape does wonders) and put a bucket under the sink until Eric has time to fix it.  But with soccer last night and tonight and then all the stuff the rest of the week it might not get fixed until this weekend.  Thankfully the duct tape seems to be working and hasn't leaked yet.

Eric has been soccer crazy lately.  He had a game Sunday night, last night and tonight.  The temperatures have been hovering just under 100 degrees and with the heat index it is way over 100.  Poor guy.  He comes home soaked in sweat…it is gross.  And we are doing laundry every night.  He already has 2 games next week too. Hopefully the weather will cool down.

Tomorrow is the 4th of July and we have our concert at Round Lake Park in Eden Prairie.  We are playing your standard Sousa march Stars and Stripes and other patriotic songs.  One that we are playing, that I love, is Armed Forces Salute.  This video is amazing.  It is the West Virginia University Marching band playing this song and marching in formation.  I love the last one of the submarine.