7 in October, and finally lost a tooth

Well, today Joshua finally lost his first tooth. I didn't even know he had a loose tooth until yesterday--when I saw him smile and thought "boy, his bottom teeth are getting REALLY crooked." I felt the crooked one and it was REALLY loose. So today, while we were bowling, Joshua was extra grumpy. I went up for my turn to bowl, turned around and said, "Steve, check Joshua's tooth, I think it's bugging him." Then Steve said, "Joshua, can I see your loose tooth?" And low and behold, Joshua took him literally and pulled it right out, and gave it to Steve. And that was that. We officially have caught up to all of his other friends! He's really excited to show his teachers when he heads back to school. I must say, he's pretty proud of himself.

Where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average

This weekend we took a trip down to Minneapolis again, this time with our friends Mike and Andrea. We had a great time--IKEA, Mall of America, Twins game, we even tried to go to the Como Zoo, but with all of the 4th of July festivities, it was impossible to find a parking lot, so on the way back to Fargo, we stopped in Avon, Minnesota to listen to the the live 35th anniversary broadcast of Garrison Keillor's A Prarie Home Companion. It was awesome. It was a beautiful day, around 78F and sunny, and tons of people (much larger than the population of Avon) gathered around to hear the free national radio broadcast. We sat right next to the Lake Woebegon trail. Here are some pictures:

It was SO sunny. I actually walked right up to the stage to take this pictures of Garriosn Keillor. The woman beside him is Amy Klobuchar. Up until a few days ago, the only state Senator from Minnesota.




I was so disapointed the pictures were so washed out. My feeble attempts to adjust the lighting aren't much better :(

Mike, Andrea, and Whitney:



Steve and Joshua:


Me and the crowd:


Avon, MN

We did a ton of driving to many different places, but the kids were troopers. We pulled into Fargo/Moorhead at 10pm and watched the fireworks before we finally got back home.