snow tubing, three rivers park district

conditions were perfect, a nice hard packed, slick surface. we linked up 8 tubes and shattered our previous record in time and distance. if the speed mats hadn't stopped us, we may have ended up in the middle of a wal-mart parking lot.

christmas wrap 09 edition...

had a fabulous and very white christmas this year! the price's started things out on in rochester last sunday by celebrating christmas with my sister's family. we then had christmas morning at the martin's and christmas afternoon\evening at our place with everyone. it was great to be able to spend some time with my boston sister and family. i am looking forward to having this week off to recover and resume winter activities with my wife's boston gang.
peace on earth.

see the pics here, video below

merry christmas!

christmas vacation begins for me now and with it the usual flurry of activity. i'll be enjoying some time off of work and time with family.
have a safe & happy christmas. recap to follow.

it's official...

congrats to my nephew ben and christina on their recent engagement!

just dance!

.
noelle is on the left side. she's the one that's awesome.

say hello to friends you know

we find ourselves double-booked this friday night a week before christmas. first we will go see noelle's dance recital and then back home for a quick change of clothes.
tonight is also the annual snowball party at the st. paul hotel that we have been attending for many years now. in fact, i think allie and i went to several of these before we were married which puts it pretty close to 20 years! i have never missed, allie missed once due to illness. i'd have to dig deep to remember exactly how many of these i've been to consecutively but it's not that important. the best part is seeing friends that we rarely, if ever, get to see throughout the year. it's a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the season and a great chance to see, be seen, and wear your sunday best. maybe a few pics to follow.

think before you buy...

this might play in the 60's but i'm pretty sure it was a bad idea even then.

if this doesn't get you in the christmas spirit...

happy birthday to wifey!

birthday wishes for my best gal today. her birthday means many things to me, not the least of which is that you'd better be close to done with your christmas shopping.
happy birthday hon!

update: a couple of pics here

merry christmas from itunes...

apple has posted a free christmas music sampler in iTunes LP format, so you get the songs as well as some bonus material. If you have itunes installed click here to download. track listing below:

O Come All Ye Faithful - Amy Grant
The First Noel - David Archuleta
Silent Night - Sarah McLachlan
Carol of the Bells/Jingle Bells - Barry Manilow
It Snowed - Meaghan Smith
Above the Northern Lights - Manheim Steamroller
Baby It’s Cold Outside - Lady Antebellum
We Three Kings - Toby Keith
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Rascal Flatts
Silent Night - Wynonna
12 Days of Christmas - Mexicani Marimba Band
We Wish You a Merry Christmas - Weezer
A Snowflake Fell (and It Felt Like a Kiss) - Glasvegas
Another Christmas Song - Stephen Colbert
Greensleeves - Vince Guaraldi
Dream a Dream - Charlotte Church
The Nutcracker, Op. 71, Act 2: Character Dances - Kirov Orchestra & Valery Gergiev
Angels We Have Heard on High - Aretha Franklin
O Holy Night - Musiq Soulchild
Auld Lang Syne - The Lonesome Travelers


source here

st. charles white basketball

alaina's basketball schedule kicks off this week and runs through mid february. last year was a rebuilding season but this year the pieces are in place to make a run at the championship. or something like that. either way, we'll be pulling for alaina and the st. charles "white" squad. clarification: white is referring to one of the 3 st. charles squads and not necessarily skin color. go chargers!

www.mcyo.net

in memory...

today marks the 20th anniversary of the passing of my wife's mother, janet martin. i never had the pleasure of meeting this woman but in many ways i feel like i know her well through her daughter. there is little doubt that my wife inherited her warmth, outgoing personality, generosity, and kind spirit. janet lives with the angels in heaven now, but her spirit lives on here, in the lives of those she touched.

a christmas carol

the wife and i went to see disney's animated remaking of "a christmas carol" last night. there have been scads of flavors of this classic story over the years, but this one was a fresh take and in 3-d was truly remarkable. the imagery was flat-out stunning. yes, it had a dark side, some of the ghost scenes bordered on a horror film, but the characters seemed real and believable and of course, yes, the old miser has a change of heart at the end (sorry for the spoiler). as someone who takes in at least 3 movies a year at the big screen, i can highly recommend it. leave the kids at home please, unlike some rubes sitting behind us. perhaps one of the best parts was this song "god bless us everyone" as sung by andrea bocelli at the end credits. i purchased it on itunes as soon as i got home.

bring it...

enjoyed a great thanksgiving yesterday with a large percentage of family. the friday after may mean "black" to some, but for me it means the start of the christmas season. the end of the christmas season is less clear, but ususally goes into mid-january at our house. we'll turn on the house lights tonight onward, the ipod is loaded with 553 christmas songs, and the holiday madness commences in earnest. those of you involved in the family gift exchange, please submit 3 ideas per person in the $25 range ASAP. need to get the listings posted so people like myself still have time to get the items purchased online and shipped.
when i have a chance i'll post a couple pics for yesterday

updated: pics from thanksgiving here

holiday season begins...

this week begins the holiday hyper-speed time warp to the end of the year. if tradition holds true, it also begins a fairly lazy work week. although i technically work 3 days this week, i expect a lag in activity, at least though friday, which would be a welcome break. guess we'll see.
it seems as though there is an abundance of early spirit this year as there are several houses in my neighborhood diplaying lights, local radio stations playing christmas music 24\7, christmas shopping ads on tv, "the grinch" has already aired at least once (tbs), and we have yet to carve the thanksgiving turkey. that seems to be the trend these days, rushing the holidays in earlier and earlier. though we have the lights on our house, we won't illuminate them until friday and not until then can one freely listen to christmas music in our house without shame. so, let us enjoy the week, spend time with family, and give thanks for our blessings. after that, it's officially christmas time for me.

the end of sleep...

modern warfare 2 has been out for a little more than a week now, and in my opinion has totally lived up to the hype. infinity ward has amped up the game even bigger and better then ever and the insanely popular multi player online mode includes more advanced weapons, perks, kill streak options, etc. the mp pattern follows previous editions where they key is to level up, gain xp, and take advantage of your gained arsenal of weaponry.
the single player game picks up 5 years after the previous installment, where a new anti-terrorist group, task force 141, have to fight a russian ultranationalist terrorist and counter a russian invasion of the U.S.A.
there is also a co-op special ops mode, that you can play solo or with a friend, which is divided into five separate groups of missions: alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, and echo.
i've logged about 10 hours in the game now, between completing the solo missions (on "regular" mode) and multi player (where i continue to be beaten down by most players who have advanced much further, have better weapons, and are just plain better than i). despite my seeimingly permanent "noob" status i still enjoy the multi player game the best. the key for me is to enjoy the game for it for what it is, and not get too sucked into stats. according to my achieved accolades, i seem to spend more time "crouching" than nearly anyone else in the games i have played in, an accomplishment that i can always be proud of.

noelle returns...

noelle came back friday afternoon after having spent the whole week with her classmates at wolfridge. they had a great time and the weather was unseasonably warm which was an added plus. nice to be back to full strength in the price household.

northern exposure...

following in the footsteps of her older sister in 2007, noelle left bright and early this morning for her week-long nature adventure at wolf ridge environmental learning center with the rest of her fellow 5th graders. wolf ridge is located north east of duluth near silver bay, right on lake superior. to say she is excited for the trip is a huge understatement. noelle has been away for us for an extended length before so i know she'll have no problems adjusting. we'll still miss her though and look forward to her call sometime this week. she'll return to us friday afternoon and we'll take her out for a celebratory dinner. i'll post some of her digital pics in a future post.

happy birthday beck!

hope you have a great bd sis! how many weeks have you been listening to christmas music now?

when i grow up...

i resemble the guys in this ad a lot more than i am comfortable with

october 31...

kids had a great time on halloween this year. we carved pumpkins (the kids made a charlie brown, i made a scary standard electrical outlet, and allie went with a simplistic darth vader), made a jello brain, and went trick-or-treating. it was an excellent night, clear, not too cool with an almost full moon. the kids dresses as: alaina-"not a morning person", owen - start wars jedi, and noelle - go go dancer. see the rest of the pics here.

soccer season over...

alaina's school team's season ended with a 3-0 playoff loss last night. she had a great year this year, grew physically, learned a lot, and enjoyed playing soccer for her school, her self-proclaimed "favorite sport".

official school pics are in...

apologize for quality - these are optimized low-res for fast loading on web. if you really want to see the high quality pictures you are probably getting one from me anyway.

a good sign...

extended family...

my boston sister and family are expecting to get their boston terrier today. hope all goes well. welcome to melrose "spanky".

updated pics

gopher in hole...

much has been made, at least locally, of the video featuring "goldy", the u of mn's mascot apparently mocking a penn state player before their game last saturday. a couple of things come to mind. was the player pray show boating? he seemed to come and kneel right in front of the gophers cheering section. on the other hand, certainly the guy's got a right, and even a responsibility to pray assuming he is a christian man. bad judgement by the rodent to be sure, but after actually watching the video, i'm not sure if it warrant's all of the attention. you've basically got a chowder head in a gopher suit, pretending to join, or mock a guy who is praying. and it appears the penn state player's prayer was answered as penn state beat the gophers 20-0.

the official statement of response from the u:

We have had a discussion with Goldy about the incident in Penn State on Saturday. It certainly wasn't his intent to offend anyone or trivialize their religion. The life of a mascot at a sporting event is fast-paced and enormously high energy. This was plainly a mistake. On behalf of Goldy and the University of Minnesota, I want to apologize to the Penn State player involved and anyone else who may have taken offense from this incident. We have reiterated to Goldy the importance of exercising appropriate religious sensitivity in the future.

perhaps now we can put this all behind us and move on with our lives

pleased to meet me...

Did you have a nickname when you were younger? yes and i still do. if someone calls the house asking for harvard it is either someone i don't know at all, or someone i know really well

What were some things you and your friends did for fun as a child? i was more outdoorsy than the kids of today. lots of biking on a cool huffy with mag wheels, playing at the park. re-enacting famous battles with toy guns. lots of baseball.

What was something you did that was really scary? we lived next to a cemetery when i was young. running around there at night seemed scary at the time.

When did you attend your first movie? Was there sound? If so, did the sound match the action on the screen? i was at a friend's house for a sleepover in the summer of 1985. yes, plenty of sound, blood, and machine gun fire. it was "rambo, first blood". i think we told his parents we were seeing "rustler's rhapsody" a lame g-rated, western comedy. should i be saying this?

What activities did you enjoy in school? basketball and soccer. the time i impressed my teacher with a paper i had written in government class. getting booted out of choir semi-weekly.

What is your most prominent memory of your grandmother? Your grandfather? besides their unconditional love, it was the weird food we had to eat at their house.

What was your first occupation? Your starting salary? i had a paper route as a boy but my first "real" job would have been at mcdonalds. navy blue, double-knit polyester and $3.75 an hour.

When did you first learn to drive? What kind of vehicle? How fast did you go? 1986, a brown dodge omni, and not very.

Do you recall any wartime experiences? yes, i was born on a military base and lived on another until i was 10. and then there was the persian gulf (desert storm) and the current war in afghanistan (enduring freedom).

What first attracted you to your spouse? i wish i could replay that day. i had my hair dyed jet black and she had a perm. we looked nothing like we do today! we became very good friends right away and hung out all the time. after that, it was a natural progression.

What is the most lovely thing you've ever seen? the birth of my children. and the new twins stadium

What are some of your favorite things to do now? hang with my family and be silly with my kids, play guitar and video games, tinker with my technology

What do you like about your life today? as strange as it seems, i like the routine of it. i need structure and enjoy the rhythm of daily life. work, home, work, home, weekend, repeat. of course some time off for vacation here and there is very welcome too.

Who are your favorite entertainers? actors: steve carell, kevin james, john malkovich (where have you gone?), james spader. musicians: too many to mention

If you could re-experience one thing in your life, what would it be? maybe being in jamaica for a week in the winter of 1993? or the time the usher let us into the baseball game for free in chicago.

mom...

it's not fair?

i know this comes off sounding like sour grapes but, really? we have 2 extra umpires in the playoffs and this is the best we can do? mauer's double was fair not once, but twice. it was fair the instant it hit cabrera's glove in fair territory (regardless of where it would have landed after that) and it landed fair...by plenty. the truth is, the twins had multiple chances to put this game away themselves and did not. one can't help but wonder what may have happened if mauer was allowed his hit and was on second base with no outs.

see video

four letter word, starts with "s"...

the positive? easier to track deer now

you cannot be serious...

three weeks ago you could put me in the camp that declared the '09 twins officially flat lined. 7 games out, season winding down, bring on target field. what we have witnessed is one of the most improbable comebacks in recent memory with the twins peaking at the right time, winning the games they had to win, and taking care of business, especially at home. (yes mom, you were right, i was wrong)
yesterday afternoon\night the twins gut-checked themselves to an epic 5 hour, 12 inning central division championship against the detroit tigers. the comeback is of course, that the central is the weakest of all divisions (it is) and that the winner of the central would have the toughest row to how in the playoffs (also true). i have always said the the goal is getting to the post season because none of the stuff that happened in the season matters anymore. clean slate now, 0-0. first team to 11 wins takes it all. do i think they'll beat the yankees? no i don't, but i also didn't see them winning the division so it apparently doesn't matter what i think. the dome is not quite done with baseball, at least not just yet. anything that happens after this is just greed on my part.

see twins coverage here, here, and here.

side note: all three of my favorite mlb teams are in the post season, twins, cardinals, and redsox. a rarity to say the least.

nothing beats major league baseball in october.

doh! a deer

peddling for non public education

updated
bike marathon 2009 is history. it was a cool & wet ride this year but we soldiered through the 8.2 miles with relative ease. my biggest mistake was not wearing gloves -hands got very cold! there was no drama this year, such as the blown tire we had a couple of years ago. thanks to family for pledging for the cause! see the pics.

the first saturday of october is drawing near and that can only mean one thing, the bike marathon fund raiser for non public education. if you haven't been paying attention, this is one of the main fundraisers of the year for the kid's school and the 4 of us will be biking the 8.2 miles this year. this is my 6th consecutive year of participation! (see last year, the year before that, the year before that, and 2 years before that - what happened 2005?)
the last couple of years the weather has been spectacular and the views this time of year can be fantastic. the forecast calls for a chance of rain but we'll be soldiering forward rain or shine. thanks to family and friends for pledging, will report back post event.

swinging in the rain...

updated
we got in our round of golf despite playing through drizzle pretty much throughout and some serious rain on the front 9. the back 9 was better but the conditions were less than ideal and we lost zero chances of using the soaked landscape as an excuse for our typical stellar level of golf. among the casualties: a broken five iron (mine, surprisingly not lost in a fit of rage but rather through natural causes) and a lost 7 iron (al's). word is out in the clubhouse for the stray club and i might expect a call sometime this week to retrieve it. either way, we had fun with the golf and enjoyed the camaraderie just the same. viva la inatg.

today is our annual INATG golf outing (see last year). coincidentally, it may also be the day that our local streak of 1,265 dry days is concluded. a most inopportune time, but we'll see how it plays out. i pointed out that wet conditions isn't always bad in that it provides for a miriad of new excuses (club slipped, lost footing, etc.,) either way, i won't be working today or monday and there ain't nothin wrong with that.

fall forward...

today is the last full day of summer, at least according to the calendar. although we've enjoyed some warmer than average temps recently, there is no mistaking the twinge of autumn in the air. a little darker than normal in the morning, quite a bit darker in the evening, much cooler temps at night, and trees just starting to turn everywhere. if it wasn't for the seemingly endless raking season (we have a ton of mature trees in our yard) it might be my favorite season.

a teaching moment...

my oldest was recently involved in a minor accident at school. nothing serious at all, and although temporary, it was painful. details are sketchy but it turns out that a person of authority was partially responsible. this person felt horribly about it and unbeknownst to us, gave my oldest a more than generous monetary gift to express remorse. this presented a bit of a moral dilemma for us because it was neither expected, nor deserved (accidents really do happen). of course my oldest was excited to receive the gift - who doesn't like money? but it all felt a little bit weird and the wife and i actually had to ponder this one for awhile. of course the person responsible feels badly! - isn't that enough? what to do...gratefully accept and move on? graciously return and move on? it was a sticky wicket. after some careful consideration, my wife and i decided that we should have my oldest return the gift with an appreciative note, which is what is going to happen (maybe it shouldn't have taken us 2 days to come to this conclusion??) we presented the idea to my oldest and were pleased that it was greeted with understanding and agreement. we were told "it feels right" - a sign of maturity!

kicking off the school year...

alaina has made the jv soccer team at her school and their first game is tomorrow. she has had practice every single day since school started so i know they're looking forward to "real bullets". i'm hoping that it's a positive experience for her and that her squad is not the league punching bag that her cub basketball team was last year. historically her school does well in soccer so hoping that that trend continues. there's something a little more exciting about playing for your school than say, the city leagues, where it's all about learning and participation, and nobody keeps score. wins and losses are part of life and i think that they contribute to the character of the participant. just like real life, extra effort and team work are usually rewarded.

rough start...

the first day of school was a little bit of a downer. for starters, noelle developed a cold and fever the night before and she was a late scratch for day one. alaina had an incident toward the end of the day where she somehow mashed her thumb in a door at school - very painful. her thumb was swollen and her nail turned black. got to listen to her cry in her bed last night. owen had disturbing dreams involving some great white sharks which we had seen on the news earlier so he was up whimpering a few times. here's to day two.

summers end...

labor day is pretty much the end of it. yeah, we'll have some more warm days to be sure and i plan on golfing at least once more before we're done but the dog days are done. school starts tomorrow for the kids (except maybe noelle, who is kind of sick, we'll see) and we just watched the last flames of our annual summer end bonfire die out. we wrapped up are summer in style be going to the state fair on friday, which was largely documented above, a cookout at my folks on saturday, and some of us went to a pool party at one of my wife's friends house today. the kids are all looking forward to the school year (in varying degrees) with great anticipation and can't wait to get back in the routine.

a fair ball...

re-cap
we checked in at 9 hours at the fair today, a solid effort by the price bunch. we have seen a string a ridiculously gorgeous days, mid seventies and bright sun, and today was no exception. we ate the standards, breakfast pizza, pronto pups (i passed on that), turkey sandwich (still best of show for me) ect.,.the highlight was seeing governor tim pawlenty and getting our kid's photo with he and his wife. i twittered a variety of fascinating commentary throughout the day, the feed which can be seen to the right on this page. all in all a great day. we'll be back next year for more of the same.


my gang is preparing for our annual friday-before-labor-day visit to the mn state fair. it's trip that is always looked forward to with great anticipation, especially by the kids. it also means that school is just around the corner but we'll save that post for another time. right now it's all about looking forward to a 4 day weekend, starting for me in merely minutes. we'll hit the usual high-cal snacks, people watch, walk down long, dusty, and in some cases manure covered streets, and leave when we are tired and poorer. look for a state fair first, a couple of tweets and pics from me through out the day.
recap to follow.

happy birthday blogger...

the original blog publishing tool, blogger turns 10 today. as it turns out, blogger is the publishing tool i have used since april of 2002. we've had our ups and downs, good times and bad, but 10 years seems like a solid achievement and worth at least a mention.

some fun facts: (or at least some facts)

On August 23, 1999, Blogger was launched by Pyra Labs. As one of the earliest dedicated blog-publishing tools, it is credited for helping popularize the format.

In February 2003, Pyra Labs was acquired by Google under undisclosed terms. The acquisition allowed premium features (for which Pyra had charged) to become free. About a year later, Pyra Labs' co-founder, Evan Williams, left Google.

In 2004, Google purchased Picasa; it integrated Picasa and its photo sharing utility Hello into Blogger, allowing users to post photos to their blogs.

On May 9, 2004, Blogger introduced a major redesign, adding features such as web standards-compliant templates, individual archive pages for posts, comments, and posting by email.

On August 14, 2006, Blogger launched its latest version in beta, codenamed "Invader", alongside the gold release. This migrated users to Google servers and included some new features.

In December 2006, this new version of Blogger was taken out of beta.

By May 2007, Blogger had completely moved over to Google operated servers.

In October 2008, Turkey temporarily blocked access to Blogger

ipod touch myself...

as recently reported i ditched my 80 gb ipod classic on craigslist to prepare to procure the upcoming, yet to be released version of the ipod touch. details are sketchy but the unconfirmed rumors are that there will be a larger 64 gb version as well as a camera for stills and video. all will be revealed in the next keynote scheduled on september 9th. i will wait to see what the price points and features are before i choose a size but either way i'm pumped up to get mine. been living off a 1 gb shuffle the past week which is not quite the same. more soon.

a rite of passage...

alaina flashes her new metal mouth. she's handled it well and has a great attitude. now, to pay for it.

wanted: home for

5th gen 80 gb ipod classic

* a couple of hits on the first day. three bogus emails from people with sob stories wanting me to ship it to italy or germany using paypal money transfers, and a couple of phone calls from local losers trying to low ball me. i'm not good at having patience when it comes to this stuff *

como park zoo

took a day off of work and hit the como zoo with the family and boston gang. enjoyed beautiful weather as well as the sights, sounds, and yes, smells that the zoo offers. we had lunch and then hit a few rides at the end of the day. very nice way for me to wrap up their visit. tomorrow, it's back to work ;-(

the sports section...

the summer sporting events are nearly over. one more soccer game this week and it's a wrap. all of the kids enjoyed their teams and coaches and even learned a little bit along the way. alaina continues to ramp up her game and improved leaps and bounds over previous years. she is considering playing in a fall soccer league as well. i was proud of noelle for coming out of her shell a little and trying something different with softball. she really improved over the course of the season and made an amazing catch playing third base in one of the games. owen loved t-ball and will miss getting together with his buddies on monday nights. he will probably move up to coach pitch next summer.
the challenge will be to recognize my kids in the team pictures without pausing.

right on target!

coming back down...

we returned to the cities this afternoon after a week of "roughing" it in the woods of northern michigan. ok, not really roughing it per se, as we did have a 2 room cabin with a shower, coffee maker, toaster, stove, fridge, and microwave, but as far as the price's are concerned we were one with nature. the weather save for parts of the first and last days was remarkably good. we did a lot of swimming at the lake by our cabin, we did a few bonfires, i golfed 36 holes, everyone caught at least one fish (except allie). we went into town a couple of times (had to get some unscheduled car work done) and visited mclain st. park as well as allie's relatives in houghton. a great trip and a great time!

see the rest of the pics.

checking in from upper michigan

it's an unprecedented mid-vacation post from the u.p. i went from never having even brought a laptop in the past to getting lucky this year with wi-fi at twin lakes java, a short hike from the cabin.
the weather has been great although it's looking a little iffy the rest of the week. possible showers just about every day. so far we've grilled out twice, done two bonfires, been to mclain state park, i've golfed 18 holes, we've been to the local playground a few times, and numerous dips in the lake. i don't want to ruin the post vacation wrap but i've posted a couple of pics just to give you a feel.
not sure when i'll be checking back again. hope to come back for coffee and wi-fi at least once more.

u.p., u.p., and away!...

packing up and prepping "the pod" (car top carrier) for our semi-annual trek to the upper peninsula of michigan where we'll invade twin lakes resort. this all started about 20 years before i met my wife as it was her family's summer getaway every year. not much has changed in cabin # 9 since those days. i haven't been since 2007, which was also the year the taurus took some major hail damage, but the wife and kids went with grandpa last year. the plan is to leave saturday morning and arrive late afternoon in time to fire up the grill. we're walking distance to the parkview lodge, where we plan to eat at least once, and hang at twin lakes java, which according to their 2007 website posting had wi-fi "in the works". we'll see about that but either way don't expect to hear much from me in the way of blogs or tweets. it's a lo-tech affair and always has been. i'll take plenty of pics, maybe shoot some video and post later, but the emphasis is on the beach, bonfires, hiking, golfing, feeding the mosquitoes, and just generally being as lazy as possible.

gone too soon...

Watch CBS Videos Online

from cbs "sunday morning" show...

Millions around the world will remember the day Michael Jackson died. Martha Gillis will, too - but she'll be thinking of someone else. She shares her Opinion with us now:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My 24-year-old nephew, Brian Bradshaw, died in Afghanistan on June 25, killed by an IED, but you'd never have known it from the national media.

I cannot tell you how that silence added to the pain of losing this bright, funny, thoughtful young man, whom I remember so vividly as a toddler, wandering the house in cowboy boots and hat (and nothing else).

I suspect it's a pain shared by many of the 4,000-plus grieving families whose loved ones have sacrificed their lives in two wars that have largely disappeared from the news.

When I flew West for Brian's funeral, the mayor of his small home town personally met each of dozens of flights of arriving family members. Flags flew at half-staff. Six hundred people attended the funeral service.

That is partly a testament to Brian's remarkable capacity to connect with people and leave a lasting impression - his lopsided grins were so infectious. It is also a testament to the level of caring and support the town offered to my bereaved sister and her husband.

Even the desk clerk who checked us into our hotel attended, as a simple gesture of common humanity.

Along the route from the church to the cemetery, people came out of their houses to stand with their hands over their hearts or to wave small American flags. Cars going in the opposite direction stopped. Some drivers got out to stand in respect.

To all of them, I say "Thank you. You know how to honor those who serve to protect you."

Once I left town, though, soldier's deaths once again became invisible.

Because of the incredible kindness of the people of Steilacoom, Wash., however, I wonder how many other people, in Maine or Texas or New York City, would also have honored Brian and the other soldiers who have died in the last two weeks if the media had simply let them know:

Somebody's little boy died today. Someone's little girl found out today that Daddy is never coming home.

That news is hard to bear; when the nation they died for barely notices, it's crushing.

eagan parade

above is my digital documentaion of the eagan parade this fourth. it was muggy and a little overcast but that didn't discourage the parade goers or my kids candy harvest. enjoyed a great day and great food at my folks place afterwards. still debating on fireworks tonight. happy 233rd usa!

happy july 3rd, 4th, and 5th

have a safe & happy holiday weekend and independence day. we'll be heading to my folks for the annual parade and festivities. pics and possible video to follow. out

productive out...

here's a video of noelle playing coach pitch softball. she lays good metal to this one but the pitcher nabs it and they get her at first. she does her job though and scores the runner from third.

abbi

please pray for the family of this little girl who passed away this weekend.

www.caringbridge.org/visit/abbi

happy fathers day!

plan your work, work your plan

today was a particularly eventful day in the price household. it started as it has every day this week with swimming lessons for the kids. then tonight i took noelle to her softball team pictures at 5:45 with owen's team pictures to follow at 6:15. noelle hitched a ride with her coach from team pictures to her game which started at 6:00. meanwhile, mom took alaina to her piano recital with started at 7:00. after owen's team pics we hightailed it to noelle's softball game. after the ball game we proceeded to alaina's soccer practice which ended at about 8:30.
now, instead of collapsing in a heap i'm posting and uploading pics and vids. what's wrong with me?

above pic: noelle guarding the dish and brandishing the tools of ignorance
above video: alaina with "minuet 2, j.s. bach"

owen's sweet swing...

schools out, time to get busy

today: noelle volleyball camp, owen, allaina, and noelle swim lessons, noelle softball practice
tuesday: owen t-ball game, alaina soccer practice
wednesday: owen t-ball team pictures, alaina piano recital, noelle softball team pictures and softball game
thursday: alaina soccer game

there may be more...that is just what i know about

a thrill a minute...

perfect weather for valley fair day. we managed about 8.5 hours at the park before finally succumbing to exhaustion. see the pics here.

please exit to your left...

kids are amped for a big day tomorrow at valley fair. weather should be great, looking forward to it. pics later