The Duluth flood

After a few rainy days, we had a day where we got 9 inches of rain in 24 hours.  The result was unexpected in Duluth (we are a city on a hill), but the water was too much for the drainage system and it was just simply too much too fast, and Duluth flooded.  This is a picture of the water rushing over the street down to an area where a small creek runs. 

This is what the small creek turned into...

One of the employees at Greg's work sent this picture in with the caption "New Pool".  It was his reason for not making it into work that morning.  When you realized how high the water is compared to the light fixture on the ceiling...it just makes me shake my head. 

This is a street 3 blocks from us.  One of my best friends lives on this street.  It looks like an earthquake happened.  I had never seen anything like it. 

It gives you a new perspective for the power of running water...

This is the end of the street where the mud pushed up from under the road.  I can only imagine what the people's basements look like on this end of the street. 

Craziness.

This is a picture Greg took on his way to work the morning after the worst had hit.  Oh yes, he kept on driving to work...even when he saw cars falling through the roads. 

There are so many pictures and videos of the destruction and raging waters online.  I couldn't believe how many people were effected and how much damage was really done.  Car dealerships under water, huge sink holes, home damage, and over 50 million dollars of road damage.  Because of the loss at our zoo, we made national news, and my parents even sent me a link to their local news in Brazil!   We didn't have any problems at our house and feel extremely blessed.  Not all of my friends were as lucky. 

The day after, I was out and saw this rainbow.  It was especially beautiful that day. 

On the way home, I passed over a bridge and the water underneath was raging and loud, but the rainbow over the lake was so beautiful.  I wish I had audio to go with the picture because the combination of the two was quite amazing.

Music and Silks

Greg and I went on a really great date a few weeks ago.  We have a friend that plays in a few bands and he was playing a show where they had a silk painter who painted to the music.  It was fascinating to watch him paint in real time - he is extremely fast - and fun to see how he made it fit to the music. 

The first scene was a couple dancing to orchestra music, then he painted the picture on the right with the circus theme and finally he painted the girl in the sculpture garden. 

The sculpture garden was my favorite.  I especially loved the birds that were sitting on the sculpture.  It was just so amazing to see how he painted them and the blue and purple and grey was beautiful on the silk. 

The silks were for sale, but were huge (10 feet tall) and out of our price range!  The artist did have a bunch of original sketches for sale and we bought 3 of them.  They were a great price, we both love getting original artwork and it's a really great memory of a wonderful date. 

Happy Father's Day

On Father's Day we did one of Greg's favorite things - we had a picnic at the lake.  It was a beautiful day and we had a wonderful time. 

It was a sunny day so it was hard to get a picture with everyone's eyes open, but this will do! 

Eyes open or lighting, eyes open or lighting...

I love this picture of Zach just watching the lake.  It's really amazing how captivating it can be. 

Greg is the master rock skipper.  I can skip a rock, but only 2 or 3 times.  Sometimes Greg can get the rock to skip in the teens!  He is always picking out the perfect rocks for us and showing us his mad skills! 

Andrew is getting good at it too...

Ava is such a little outdoor girl!  So girly and so outdoorsy all at the same time!  She could play in the sand and water all day. 

Andrew and I were venturing out looking for rocks.  I was doing the spotting and he was getting in the lake and retrieving!  We made a good duo. 

A Lake Superior cowboy...

Right across the parking area was this wild duck.  It let us get pretty close before it decided we were scary.  It was so funny to hear all of the kids trying to attract the duck with their duck calls.  I can't imagine that they were "speaking" duck, but if they were, it must have been offensive because eventually he flew away! 

                                      

After we left the lake we went on a short drive.  This is still in Duluth, just up the hill where the view is great! 

Another view from the top.

Hold on to that rock!  It's really hard to tell in this picture, but there is a good, steep drop behind the boys. 

It was fun to get to spend the day doing things that make Greg happy - especially since he spends so much time doing things to make us happy through the year!  He's a great father and it was our pleasure to let him know how much we all love him.  Happy Father's Day Greg!

Cupcake mania!

Oh my goodness...Andrew loves a cupcake!  Actually, he loves to make cupcakes with me (and I love it too).  He had a friend over last week and I offered them an opportunity to do some baking.  They went to the store to get a few ingredients (Andrew's first trip to the store without an adult) and then they came home and began baking!  These are their creations...from scratch chocolate cup cakes filled with ganache and topped with a vanilla buttercream and a raspberry.  So yummy and so fun to be in the kitchen with two 10 year old boys!!  They are just about the most excited baking companions and taste testers that a girl could ask for! 

Flower power

I really love my flower beds...they bring me so much happiness when they are blooming!  Here are a few pictures of some of the beautiful things that have been blooming at the Bacon house!  Day lillies should be coming later this week...



Eight is great!

Zach is 8!!  We had a great day on his birthday and enjoyed celebrating him.  Here he is after opening up a present from us...all of his cub scout things...he was very excited to get everything and is even more excited to get started on scouting.  I love that. 

We went bowling with friends in the afternoon and then when Zach could pick anything for dinner - home made or going to a restaurant - he chose McDonalds!  So, off we went to get him a happy meal and a toy.  I really think he wanted to go because there was a Pokemon toy...and it was his birthday so that was perfectly fine with us!  Afterwards we went to see Madagascar 3 and then went to Cold Stone for dessert.  We had a great time with our great boy! 

Two days later was Zach's baptism.  He was baptized on the same night as one of his good friends, Cyrus.  The boys were so cute and excited.  The baptism service was sweet and perfect.  Cyrus's sister spoke on baptism, their primary teacher spoke about the Holy Ghost and the welcomes into primary and the ward were from two of our great friends, Leslie and Dave, and then Andrew gave the closing prayer.  It was wonderful to have so many people we love be a part of the program. 

When it was time for the actual baptism, I wish I could have taken a picture of Zach's face while he stood in the water right before Greg started to speak.  I don't think I will ever forget the look on his face, but I wish I could share it with those of you who weren't there.  He was looking up at Greg with his great, big, trusting eyes.  He was locked right on him and was just smiling.  It was one of the sweetest things I have ever seen.  I feel like it was a blessing to have been able to witness it and the Spirit was so incredibly strong. 

After the service was over, we had an ice-cream sundae bar that Zach had helped shop for...it was great too!  It was a special night and it was great to see Zach's understanding and willingness to do what he believes is right.  We are so very proud of him and love him so much.  Being 8 really is great. 

Never smile at a crocodile!

Ava had her first dance recital and was so, so excited!  Here she is giving her best pose from her dance 'Never Smile at a Crocodile'.  She is snapping her arms like a crocodile's jaws!

I thought the costumes were really cute and Ava loved getting all dressed up.  She was tapping her little heart out in the driveway, on the back of the driver's seat, in the parking lot, backstage and even after the recital!

This is her "never" pose...

She is the one in the middle of the group.  She got to be the one to "tell" the other dancers not to smile at a crocodile - not to get caught up in their tricks or they will snap!

Here she is with her "snap"!

I put this picture in mainly so you could see part of the back drop.  The whole recital had a jungle theme and the decorations were awesome!  They borrowed the elephant from the Shriner's Circus...it was way beyond what I had imagined for a kid's dance recital!

This is Ava and Miss Stacey - her dance teacher.

In the finale number, all of the dancers came on stage wearing some type of ears or head piece.  You can't see all of Ava's piece, but there are scales that go down her back too (I think it was actually a part of a dragon costume, but who's really monitoring the jungle animals anyway).  The boys gave her flowers after the recital and she was so happy.

Yippie!  The recital was great!

And when the adrenaline finally wore off at about 10:30 and we were in the car, she put her little tiger print slap bracelet across her eyes and fell right to sleep.  It was a great night, after a great first year of dance!  And all of our family now knows to never smile at a crocodile!