Oh my. What a day from

This has been some day. It seems like it has been raining for at least a week.

This is the view from our bedroom window. Our parks low spot is just filling up with water. This is as soupy as we have ever seen it.

Today and tomorrow are off school days in all of Minnesota. It's the weekend of the state teacher's union convention. Apparently, it's important enough that every school I know is off for two days.

So in honor of this event. Brenda and I took the kids to the Twin Cities for a day of shopping and fun. So far so good.
We went to the Mall of America. Traditionally, we go the weekend of July 4th. On this weekend we go to home plate in the Park At the Mall. For those of you that don't, there is a plaque in the floor of the park that marks the spot of home plate from the old Metropolitian Stadium. As a huge Twins fan, I find this special.

Well, this year...no such luck. These next two pictures show the current state of the plaque. Not sure I'll be getting a family picture here any time soon.

This really didn't stop us from having all kinds of fun today. I took Emilea on her first big kid ride at an amusement park.

This is the big precursor to Daddy getting his long awaited right to take his kids to Valley Fair or some other large amusment park and scare the bejebeeze out of each other.

Ashlea got to ride on her favorite ride, the ferris wheel.

The smile you see here is the reason parent take their kids to parks like this.

We also took the girls to the Rainforest Cafe, or as Ash calls it, The Scary Place. Mom and Dad got to go to Ruby Tuesdays for a fantastic supper, but the Volcano at the Scary Place is a fun way to top of dinner.

Brenda found her planner for 2008. Many of you Moms will understand this. Organization of dates and times is critical for a family. Dad...he just uses gadgets that never need replacing, but Brenda, its a valuable as her limbs.

As iPhone owners we enjoyed some quality time in the Apple Store looking for new accessories. Those new iMacs are cool...might be keeping that thought in the back of my head.

We packed up and left for home. The planner was actually purchased at Burnsville Center since B. Dalton was the only place in MN that had the planner. We were heading home, in search of a restroom, beverages and snacks for the ride home. We opted for the Kwik Trip in Apple Valley. This proved to be a bad decision. When we were leaving, the front driver's side tire was thumping. CRAP! What the heck is wrong now. Our van has a tire pressure warning system that should be going off if I was flat, but it wasn't. The tire wasn't flat either...it just had a very large screw and washer STUCK IN IT!

FAN FRIGGIN TASTIC!

I phone a buddy for some advice about what to do. I didn't want to pull it out for fear of an instant flat. I got a can of fix-a-flat just in case, and following the advice, we drove on to see if it would fix itself...it did. It snapped off maybe a quarter mile away. And then the tire raced me to the nearest gas station...would it go flat BEFORE I could get there.

I just made it. Thanks to Chrysler for making such a wonderful spare tire changing system. Well, lets just call the entire time, frustrating. We made it home on the spare and all are safely sleeping. Thank Goodness!