Another Autumn Saturday with Sammy...

Yesterday was another autumn day with Sammy. Since Sammy expressed an interest in understanding the environment around us, went to Rochester's Quarry Hill Park and Nature Center. There we saw all sorts of live (and unfortunately dead and stuffed) animals. Then we went to the children's park by Silver Lake.

Quarry Hill Park and Nature Center...

Michele and Sammy looking at fish native to the area...

A red fox shown in his natural habitat...

Another Redd Foxx in his natural habitat...
(Creative Commons credit to here)

Sammy shows how to rob a train...don't try this at home...

"He's Sammy the sailor man..."

Sammy strolling in the park...

Sammy does his impersonation of Gene Hackman at the end of "The Poseidon Adventure"

Sammy was here...

We captured Sammy's first encounter with a playground bully in a photo...
...when the bully saw Sammy climbing into the front...
...he climbed in from the back to put his feet on both spots in the cab...
...hoping to prevent Sammy from entering...
...as bully's parents passively look on...
...but Sammy persevered, got in, and rightfully took the driver's seat...

The driver on the bus says, "Move on back!"

Sammy rides his steed to the finish line...

Sammy...

The Tapioca Pudding Heiress

This past weekend, we went shopping in the Twin Cities. More precisely, we went shopping on France Ave in Edina. As an analogy: France Ave is to Edina as Rodeo Drive is to Beverly Hills. Granted, the chances of seeing a Bently or (*gasp*) Bugatti are extremley lower in Edina than Beverly Hills. Still, Edina is a hot spot where the rich and famous of Minnesota go to spend money. We occasionally go there to marvel in the good and services that are available there...such as a personal favorite of ours, "Restoration Hardware."

While we were in Edina, Michele decided to have her hair cut (as her favorite hairstylist in Rochester is not available for some weeks to come). So she went to Rocco Altobelli's at the Galeria. While she was having her hair styled, she overheard next to her one of Minnesota's rich & famous women telling a hairstylist about herself. What follows is practically verbatim, no exaggerations:

"One of our good friends' son is going marry the tapioca pudding heiress [company name redacted]. The wedding is going to be in the Hamptons. Normally we go to Florida that time of year, but this year we will be going to New York...because this is one wedding we are NOT going to miss!"

There was also some discussion about drinking vanilla vodka rootbeer floats. The hairstylist asked how is just adding vanilla to a rootbeer float any different. The woman replied, "Doing it that way diminishes the fun factor."

In any event, we learned two important lessons from our brief encounter with the rich & famous of Edina:

1. No more bedtime stories of unattainable fairy princesses whom Sammy might one day save from a dragon and marry. Instead we're going to follow the social pages and find a tapioca pudding heiress daughter-in-law of our own.
   
2. Before drinking a vanilla rootbeer float, always make sure you know what is in it
   

But honestly, we hope Sammy finds happiness in life as we have found in each other. But if he marries into wealth which can secure for Paul his Bugatti, that is all the better.

We later shifted gears to got to the Mall of America (more in our budget) where we bought Sammy a rugby shirt. Later on during the weekend we took Sammy to Silver Lake in Rochester where we took some pics.

Sammy in his new Rugby shirt from Old Navy....

Michele and Sammy at Silver Lake...

Sunday in the Park

Panoramic photo of the playground...

...this picture was sticthed together from several photos

One of the nice things about living in Rochester is the city park system. It has over 60 miles of trails...and perhaps more importantly now with the addition of Sammy...some excellent children's playgrounds. Over by Silver Lake there is a very large playground. So this past Sunday Michele, Sammy, Sharon, Ana, Noah, and Paul went to the park. To describe it as large is a bit of an understatement. Now that Sammy is with us, we're more than happy to have our taxes go to these types of things. We didn't expect it to be as hot as it was, so after about 45 minutes the kids had had enough. But we took a few pics. Enjoy.

Sharon, Ana, & Noah on the bench swing

Michele, Ana, and Ana's hat

Michele & Ana

With the price of gas, we'll all be driving something like this soon.

No top notch playground is complete without a pirate ship!

Sharon loading the kids up on the choo choo.

Where in the world...are Michele & Ana? (see hint)

Mr. Excitement at the park.

Sammy catching some Z's

Sammy and Red Dog at the park