Family Camp is terrific!

We enjoyed attending family camp at Inspiration Point Bible camp from Thursday evening until Sunday noon. Along with Wally and me were Daniel, Meghan and the children and Meghan's family including her Aunt Sherri & Paul and their family and Aunt Rita. Here is the main building at camp and the way many spent the warm sunny afternoon!

Brooklyn, Julia and Aunt Rita enjoy the lake!

Preston thought the sand was fun - but it didn't taste as good as it looked...

Also enjoying the lake were Wally & Lynn (Meghan's dad) on the red sailboat and Daniel on the sailboard in the center of the picture. The sailboard to the right is either Meghan's brother Patrick or her cousin Andrew.

I decided I had to try the climbing wall! I wasn't quite as good was Wally or Rae (Meghan's mom) , but at least I did it!!

Julia (in pink) and Brooklyn (in light blue) enjoyed the playground equipment.

The food at camp was outstanding. It was so great to be together and have someone else do all the cooking! We must do this every year!

Daniel and Meghan and Brooklyn and Preston pause for a picture before we all head home.

Another favorite picture

Here is one more picture I had to post today. Preston enjoys playing with this little Fisher-Price drum that had once been played with by his Daddy and his Uncles. In fact, I have most of the wonderful Fisher-Price toys we had from their era! Am I ever glad I saved them now!

The toddlers are off and running.....

There are two young ones in our mix - soon to be replaced by another two young ones (August and December). Miss Hannah is off and walking and pretty pleased with her new found freedom!
Preston, the youngest member of the Berge grandchildren (soon to change in a few weeks...) is oh-so-close to walking by himself. He is willing to take steps between people but hasn't quite mustered up the courage to try it without those willing hands waiting for him...

Girls and Boys.......

Here is a sweet picture of our two grand daughters, Brooklyn and Hannah - slightly outnumbered right now by the boys.....
And here are the two oldest grandsons having fun with Uncle Daniel! Boys are soo different then girls!!

Welcome Home Troops!!

On Sunday in Fergus Falls some of our troops arrived safely home after serving our country in Iraq. It was definitely special for many families and as a town. We were encouraged to show our support for these men and women by lining the route that the bus would be driving as it went to our local high school for them to join their families. Here I am on the main street of our town with my friend JoAnn. Our hubbies waved the flags that are laying on our chairs while JoAnn and I held this huge flag. (This flag was presented to my Aunt at the burial of my Uncle Stan, who served in the Aleutian Islands during World War II). When the bus carrying our soldiers drove down the main street there were many many people welcoming them. Preceeding the bus were lots of squad cars with their lights flashing the sirens blaring. It was wonderful and very very emotional. Also note the yellow bow on the tree to the right. There were yellow ribbons tied all over town to welcome them home.

Happy Birthday brother John

Happy Birthday today to my brother John. It was a great time vacationing together, thank you for that. I hope today is a good day for you. Saddle up Jake and go for a good trail ride!

Check out my Slide Show!

Montana moutain views

I am still working through the beautiful pictures from our vacation - I could post so many but thought I should be prudent and restrain myself - else you may not want to visit this blog! As you can tell, I have now learned how to post a slide show (dangerous knowledge!!) and even a little video from my camera (wasn't that special?? I had just learned that feature on my camera that day!) At any rate, here are two more pictures from Montana - I wanted to see what happened when I choose the "large" size for posting pictures.

This lake view was from the highway that goes over the Beartooth mountains taking us from Red Lodge, Montana towards Yellowstone Park in Wyoming. Stunning.

Old Faithful!

Check out my Slide Show!

Purple mountains majesty

After 2200 miles of traveling we have arrived safely home. Along with lovely weather we enjoyed some outstanding scenery along with my brother John and Laurie. Here is one of the few pictures of the four of us - we had to set the camera on a rock as our tripod and put it on self-timer. It may look like we are standing in some field or on the prairie - but check out the next picture to get the perspective. We are on top of a mountain and on a plateau entitled "hellroaring plateau." It was fabulous! Wally drove us up to the top in our 4-wheel drive pick up truck slowly over a gravel road (if you can call that a road!) - it took a hour to drive the 6 miles to the top. But is was sooo worth it!

Here is a picture with Wally in the distance so you can get the feeling of where we actually were. Notice all the beautiful blue/purple flowers. We picked a great time of year to visit - lots of wild flowers in bloom.

Headin' West, Pardner!!

And now we are heading out west for a little cowboy life! Wyoming & Montana, here we come!! We'll see ya'll later!!

Erica and Matt

It was a lovely sunny (and warm!) day for a wedding. I was happy to be the wedding coordinator for Erica and Matt. Here are a few photos from the special day. Congratulations Erica and Matt - the wedding you planned was beautiful and meaningful!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! We were fortunate to see John and Sara as they stopped at the "Berge Bed and Breakfast" last evening. They are continuing on to Sara's parents home in western North Dakota this morning. Daniel and Meghan and Brooklyn and Preston joined us for breakfast this morning. Everyone wore their Old Navy flag t-shirts that I bought for them. (Sorry we don't have Adam & Andrea and kids in the picture with their shirts..)

What was I thinking? I forgot to purchase a shirt for Wally or for me. So we couldn't be in the picture!! Next year I'll get it right!

Sara and Meghan enjoy some time visiting while Brookyn and Preston play in the sandbox.

Optimus Prime!

Anyone who had sons during the era of transformers can appreciate the excitement the new movie "Transformers" generates in the hearts of our now adult sons. They say men are just little boys at heart..... and it was sooo true when John unearthed a container of his beloved transformers! John and Sara had attended the movie the night before so he was still in his little boy mode! Here he is holding Optimus Prime!

I think the tongue shows the seriousness of the moment..

And here is Daniel getting into the act. Once again, the choice of transformer just happens to be Optimus Prime!

Vacation Bible School time!

It's that time of year when children can enjoy the music and Bible story teaching of Vacation Bible School. Of course, one of the highlights for us grandparents and parents would be the children singing at the end-of-the-week program. I was fortunate to see Brooklyn in her program on Friday. She was as sweet as pie, standing so still and well-behaved and happy to sing the great songs. (Remember, I only had boys....) She is in the pink dress - it was hard to get a good picture because the boys and girls in front of her kept moving back and forth as they playing on the railing.

I moved over to the side to get a better view of Brooklyn in the second row and she was so happy to look over at me with a big smile. Isn't that adorable?

Face time for Luke!

In the interest of fairness to all Berge grandchildren I thought it would be prudent to get this smiler on the blog! Of course, it wasn't easy catching a picture of this little fella as he was racing around the park when I returned Timothy after his overnight stay. Luke is always good at handing out smiles, though, when he sees the camera and he thought it was funny that I was trying to take a picture of him.

Luke didn't get to come to Camp Grandma but he was old enough to know he was missing out and he really cried when Timothy got into my car to leave him. Now he is all happy to have his brother and wrestling partner back!

Camp Grandma

A very important four-year old came to Grandma & Grandpa B's for an overnight visit!

There were lots of activities to do at grandma's. Grandma B. just loves to play with playdough - and so do I!

Grandma and Grandpa have this cute little tent. You can buy one just like it at Ikea! It was really great and grandma can fit in it - can you believe

that?

Cousin Brooklyn is the same age as I am and I really like it when we can play together. She came over to Grandma & Grandpa B's for supper and we got to play together. Preston was here too but he is kind of small and can't play with the same things we play. Maybe next year, Preston!

This morning Timothy helped water grandma's plants - and then decided that the trees could use some water too!

The best thing for Timothy was bowling with grandma. It was Timothy's idea - and we went bowling in the morning and we had the place to ourselves. Timothy could size up the little bowling rack and he beat me big time! Timothy scored 153 because he had THREE strikes in a row! I think those bumper pads helped too...

Full of sparkles!

A big smile for grandma's camera this afternoon! Andrea and the grandchildren are visiting her folks in Fargo while Adam is on a mission trip to Mexico. It was a hot and sunny day and the pool in her parents backyard was the place to be. Timothy swims like a fish, Luke was napping but he loves the water too (and has no fear so must be watched closely!!) Hannah cooperated by giving grandma a great big smile when I got out my camera! Thank you Hannah!

Norwegian church service

Today Wally and I attended church where the language spoken was Norwegian. In fact, the church itself was an exact replica a church in Norway. It was beautiful craftsmanship and also a wonderful service. We sang and recited in Norwegian (Wally knows the language and I only know a few words and phrases) although the sermon was (happily) delivered in English. The special music included authentic instruments that would have been used during our ancestors lives. The minister was also dressed in the fashion of the past. It was all part of an annual Scandinanvian festival in Moorhead, Minnesota. We also enjoyed tasty food from Sweden and Norway.

This is a view from inside the little church. The minister is the fellow with the white collar. The musicians are off to the left and they are dressed in Norwegian outfits.

Here I am posing with some trolls. I think Wally should learn to carve these!

Preston had a birthday - his first one!

Hi folks, I thought I'd write on grandma's blog. I had a birthday party last week at my mom and dad's place. That is where I live too. My sister lives there too and they are my family. Lots of other family came too - lots of grandma's and grandpa's and great grandma's and a great grandpa - my Aunt and cousins and friends too! I really had a great time, everyone paid lots of attention to me!!

The nice people who love me brought me presents! I really liked getting the paper off - it is really fun to rip things.

Mommy said I had a "theme" party. Can you guess the theme? I don't really know what a theme is but there are lots of things I am trying to figure out. This is my cake.

This is one of my favorite toys. My mommy's mommy bought it for me a while ago. She was pretty smart because I just love riding on this train. I can sit up big and tall and I don't even have to hold on when someone is pulling me! If I press these buttons all sorts of cool sounds happen. Did you know that?

We had pizza for my party. I hope mommy and daddy give me pizza for all my parties. I just love it! And I can eat it all by myself - in fact, I would rather eat all by myself all the time. Maybe it is a control thing. Apparently my daddy was just the same way. Hm.....

Here are my grandma and grandpa - Daddy's Mommy and Daddy - and silly Daddy - did you see that he got into the picture when they weren't looking? He does funny things like all the time!!! I hope I can grow up and be just like him!

Sara bakes galettes

Yippee, I am glad to announce I am back on line and this time I can enjoy high speed. That means I can now watch some of those video clips many of you put on your blogs. (That was nearly impossible to do with slow dial-up)

Here are some pictures I wanted to post after our weekend at John and Sara's. Sara baked really delicious galettes - a sort of little french pie. You can figure it out from the pictures - sorry I can't have a scratch and sniff part of this post! ha ha. A new idea for the internet? Can we add smell too? Perhaps we're on to something here...

A close-up of the pastry dough with the fruit filling inside...
















Ready for the oven....












Now, don't they look fabulous? They were!

What? No internet? Are you kidding?

Okay, here is a post minus a picture... since I am posting from the library. Yes, no internet for me at present. Shocking!! I was planning on connecting to high speed and I ordered a new computer tower with an ethernet card, etc. But the company that provides DSL to our neighborhood cancelled my order because of the complaints with the service to our neighborhood - they plan on laying a new line but perhaps not for months yet!! What? Are they kidding? Now I may have to go back to dial-up?? Hopefully, there is another option I am pursuing that my computer guy told me about. Someone who provides high speed to rural areas ...and I am in the coverage area. They will have to install an antenna on the roof of the house to receive the signal from his tower. Keep your fingers crossed that our home will be located in such a fashion that we can receive the signal from the tower. I'll learn more next week when they come out to access the situation. In the meantime ... trips to the library to check email now and then and read a few blogs! My withdrawal symptoms are lessening....