Feb 5 - 26, 2007

As mentioned in the last post, in early February we were waiting for the arrival of grandchild number two/granddaughter number 1. (Kjirsten and Scott announced the gender on Christmas morning when we were together in Steamboat Springs!)

Not knowing for sure when the baby would arrive, but to be on hand to help in case it was early (due date was Feb 11), Joan flew from Minnesota to Colorado on the 5th. I hung around Minneapolis to take care of business and work on taxes until the 13th. Fortunately, I was in Colorado when Olivia Cate Wallace arrived on February 15. She weighed 6 pounds 15 ounces, and was 19 1/4 inches long.



After the due date passed and it was determined the baby was essentially full term, Kjirsten and Scott decided to help the birth along and went into the hospital the morning of the 15th. The hospital staff started "the drop" around 1pm and Olivia made her appearance five and a half hours later. (Seems to me Joan labored with Kjirsten about 24 hours. She (Joan) seems to think this was somehow unfair!)

Joan and I, along with big brother Zach (age 23 months), headed for the hospital on the morning of the 16th. Olivia had by then, of course, been weighed, poked, bathed and prepped for public viewing.

At this point Zach didn't really understand what had happened, but he wanted to see his baby sister. In spite of being cautioned to "be gentle" the first contact was a pretty healthy poke on the head. I suppose he thought he was being gentle!

After all that had taken place, even if she was maybe not feeling the greatest, Mom was looking pretty good.

Everyone came home from the hospital on Saturday morning.











At this point it was decided that Joan would stay in Colorado to help out until it was time for us to head to our golf outing near Conroe, Texas on the 27th of Feb.




I had to go back to Minnesota to finish the tax work and take care of other business. So, on Sunday the 18th, I headed east. I was going to stop in Pierre, SD and spend the night with one of my South Dakota baseball friends, but because of a problem with the foundation in the apartment building, I decided to get back to Minneapolis as soon as possible and drove straight in.

Before I left we took a picture of three generations!

Joan spent a lot of time with Zach and Olivia which, of course, bothered her to no end!

Following are a bunch of pictures taken between the 20th and 26th.

Catch Up from Dec 26, 2006 to Feb 2007

It seems I spend more time catching up than I do creating current BLOG info! So be it. My motto remains, Better Late Than Never!

After getting chased off the mountain by the "weekend blizzard de jour" or "de la semaine" the family left Steamboat Springs the morning of December 28 and, at about 4pm, Joan and I left Denver for Minnesota. On the way, we dropped Laura and Chris off at the airport for their flight back. (They were supposed to leave around 7 pm and actually got away around 11. At least they did leave as several airlines were cancelling flights all afternoon.)

We ran out of the storm finally near Sterling, Colorado where we stopped for dinner. By the time we finished eating, the storm had caught us again and we drove nearly to North Platte, Nebraska, before we again outran it. We spent the night in North Platte and the next day drove in the rain and fog all the way to Chaska.

On the 8th of January, 2007, we again left Chaska for our 5th year at the Minnesota Twins Fantasy Camp in Ft Myers, Florida, and that night stopped at the Durflingers in Morton, Illinois. We traveled to northern Georgia on the 9th, and on the 10th stopped in Orlando for golf club fitting by the same guy we took some lessons from on our way back to Minnesota from Florida in November.

We stopped in Ellenton, Florida, to see Unk Lee and Aunt Jessie Vandervort on Thursday afternoon. Fortunately, Unk was being discharged from the hospital that afternoon. He had been in for a few days due to kidney troubles. Unfortunately, we decided not to spend time with them so as not to put Aunt Jessie through the additional stress of "entertaining". So we continued to Osprey, Florida, where we spent Friday with our friends, the Dukates, in their beautiful home in a golfing community. Saturday morning we went on into Ft Myers where the camp officially opened with a welcome dinner Saturday night.

After the rookie game (where the pros who are the managers/coaches evaluate the new guys), teams were drafted and announced at the dinner Sunday night.
For the first time in five years, I was not coached by Eric Rasmussen, but was on a team managed by Rick Miller (2nd right) with coaches Tim Laudner (R) and Jim Corsi (L).

Our team, "Miller Time", finished undefeated at 6-0 in the pool play/seeding games and won the first tournament game. We lost the second game 8-7 which put us in the position of having to win the next day to be in the championship game. We did so, and faced the same team that had beaten us earlier. After coming back from and early 6-0 deficit to tie the game at 7-7, we were unable to hold on and eventually lost 12 - 7.
The game was played in the Red Sox stadium because the Twins' Hammond Stadium is having repairs done to it. We were all disappointed with the loss, but everyone had a great time at camp and, most importantly, suffered no major injuries.



Jim "Mudcat" Grant was unable to be with us this year because of recent hip replacement surgery. While Mudcat is always fun to have at the camp, his absence was tempered somewhat by the appearance of former Twin and Hall of Famer, Harmon Killebrew. Harmon is a real gentleman and all of us campers enjoyed talking with him and listening to his stories.

While we were in Ft Myers, we had the pleasure of visiting with Ron Godina, a former Cat colleague with whom we spent time in Moscow and now living in Punta Gorda, Dick and Phyllis Hermann, friends from Geneva and Dubai days now living in Peoria, Il, but - on purpose - soon moving to Novosibirsk, Russia, Jim and Barb Sheldon, friends from Dubai now living near Tampa, Ann Hermann, Dick's mother living in Ft Myers, and Steve and Dianne Smith, with whom I work at the Chaska Town (golf) Course and who winter in Ft Myers. (I will edit and add a picture later.)

As it turns out, Cathy and Norm Durflinger came to Ft Myers near the end of camp to visit Jim and Vickie Foster. (Vickie was Norm's secretary when he was Superintendent of Schools in Morton.) They all attended the championship game and Norm was kind enough to buy lunch for the six of us afterward.


After checking out of the motel on Sunday morning following the camp, Joan and I drove to Jupiter, Florida and spend the night with Terry and Diana Robinson, friends from Singapore days, second round.


The Robinsons have a nice winter home in Jupiter and will spend time there deciding if they want to move south full time. Sunday afternoon we took a ride to the pier and watched the fishermen and pelicans. The four of us played golf Monday morning


After lunch at the club and a shower back at their place, we headed north to Melbourne, Florida and the home of Tom and Annmarie Waite. Tom and Annmarie are also friends from our last Singapore assignment. They have a beautiful condo on the Intercoastal Waterway.



Here is a picture of the view out their "back door".



After Tom, Joan and I played golf Tuesday afternoon, we had dinner at a quaint little Italian restaurant in downtown Melbourne.



Tom is a musician and has purchased a state-of-the-art Karaoke system. Of course, we had to try it out. I am sorry to have to report that Joan chickened out!













Following our visit with the Waites, on Wednesday we headed back to Minnesota where we arrived home Friday late afternoon. Not having had enough driving, we rested up for a few hours and Saturday morning, Jan 27, we drove to Sioux falls for a reunion of the South Dakota baseball teams that played in Vegas and the Roy Hobbs Florida tournament.

We got home from that event on Sunday afternoon. Joan then proceeded to ready her bags, waiting for the call from Kjirsten to come help in Colorado as we awaited grandchild #2/granddaughter #1. She ended up flying to Denver on the 5th of February.