A Whale of a Good Time...

Earlier to day Sammy went with Ashylnn and Logan to "Underwater Adventures" underneath the Mall of America. Sammy had a whale of a time seeing all sorts of fish, sharks, and other sea life.

Amazing fact...

Crowded waters...

Ashlynn, Logan, and Sammy...

Sammy reflecting on the sealife...

Face to face...

Sammy of the Sea...

A New Years Wedding...

We started off 2009 with a New Years day wedding of Paul's nephew Brian and Vanessa.

The night before the wedding (New Years Eve), we stayed overnight at the hotel where the wedding was. Paul managed to get Diane a teeny-bit-tipsy on Yukon Jack (a family tradition of sorts).

We are very happy to welcome Vanessa into the family. She is a very nice young lady and she certainly makes Brian happy.

Here are some of the photos we took at the wedding...

Grant helps Brian get ready...

Vanessa and Ashlynn sharing a moment together before the wedding...

Diane, Grant, and the Minneapolis skyline...

Paul's nephew Chris and Molly...

Sammy bits a big bagel...

Brian and Vanessa during the ceremony...

Mr. and Mrs. Brian S...

An Engagement...

Yesterday we went up to the Twin Cities after Michele got out of work. We had a cookout up at Minnetonka to celebrate Brian's engagement to Vanessa. The wedding will be next year, but we are already looking forward to the event. Hopefully the entire family can get together for the event.

Vanessa, Anne, and Tony...

Sonny and Barb...

Zdenko and Maria...

Brian refuses to smile for our photos...
...so in the tradition of doctored-up photos...

Diane played a game of Bocce with the kids...
...Sammy releases the white boccino...

Michele, Sammy, Logan wait as Ashlynn takes her turn to bowl...

Logan bowls...

Sammy converts Zdenko into a cowboy...

Surprise Party for Michele...

Last Saturday we gave Michele a surprise birthday party (Paul's sister Diane did most of the planning). We had family and close friends over. We can't say how old Michele is (to protect the innocent)...but we can say it was a milestone birthday. Happy Birthday Michele!

Roses pale in comparison to Michele...

The table & cake...
we had to edit out the numeral candles...

Playing "Cranium Wow", Chris sculpted with clay what looked like a "male appendage"...

Diane tears up with pride over Chris's sculpture...
...then we realized it was an umbilical cord...
...notice Michele's birthday girl head wear...

Molly, Johanna, and the 2oz bottle of Heinz 57 Ketchup...
...Johann promised to take the bottle through airport security....
...to Uruguay...
...and take a photo of her, her mother, and the ketchup...

We had "n" balloons...one for each year of Michele's life...
...so we can't say how many, but one can speculate...

Chris ties up Sammy to the balloons...
...moments before he lifts off the floor...

Sammy loves balloons a lot...
...and a lot of balloons he loves even more...

After some helium escaped from the balloons...
....Sammy touched down...

Ashlynn gives Sammy a hug...

Sammy instructs Ashlynn on how to be a rock star...

Playing Apples to Apples...

Vanessa, Brian, Jaime, Molly, and Chris...

Chris...
...the man of 1,000 faces...

Brian gives the camera his serious look...

Chris and Veto...

The case of the missing number...

This past Friday we were hit with a bit of a mystery. You see, Molly (with Sammy's help) made Michele a cookie "cake" for Michele's [redacted] birthday. But something was amiss...it was the case of the missing number (or how to stay young)...

Sammy sees what happened but does not rat out anyone...

Inspecting Molly's work, Chris notices
a number is missing from the cookie "cake"...

Caught...we found out Michele had removed the number from her cake cookie...

Unable to determine Michele's exact age...
...we still lit the cake...

Sammy helps his mommy blow out candles...

But even Sammy's help was not enough to help Michele blow out the candles...
...fearing the smoke alarm would go off, Ashlynn helps out...