Fancy dancers!!

This video was taken at the St. Croix powwow. You'll see Emma's friend Quannah a Navajo from New Mexico dancing in the beginning of it, he has the eagle feather bustles and the other guy is her friend Travis from the Cherokee Tribe, Atlanta, Georgia, he was all over the place - covered the entire arena a few times during the song.

Both very good dancers and travelling and placing on the powwow circuit all over the U.S. and Canada this summer.

Last night's dinner....

This was our dinner last night. Emma and I made the stuffed mushroom caps, I grilled steak for Gary and also grilled Louisiana Andouille (pronounced "ahn-DOO-wee")a cajun smoked sausage. It was all delicious, there were only 3 mushroom caps left over. Afterwards, we attempted to watch the Dracula movie. As soon as I got comfortable on the couch and covered up with a blanket, I crashed at about 8:30. Woke up at 11:00 and went to bed.

Tonight, I'm grilling chicken and potatoes.

Sunday sunset....

As I was outside trying to capture the beautiful sunset and getting eatin alive by mosquitos, I took a few pics.

Then Gary came home and I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of my beautiful baby. He's a photogenic guy, but it's soooo difficult to get him to pose!.

I took advantage of the situation and he was actually cooperative, so I snapped pics of him as he walked into the house!

greasy sunday & banana bread

Well today was one of those lazy Sunday's at home. I spent most of the day with the book I'm reading and can't put down. I changed my reading spots from my comfy, cool bedroom to sitting outside on the deck. The weather was beautiful for a while, then suddenly it clouded over and cooled down drastically within seconds, so I came in and made banana bread with chocolate 'sniffs' (chips)! It's really good, gourmet like, it'll be delicious with the morning coffee.

Went back outside after it cleared up and warmed up and read more until the damn pesty mosquitos were unbearable then came back in...watched a little bit of the batman movie Emma was watching and got bored. Gary's little girlfriend is gone, so he's missing her and went to visit a friend this evening.

So here I am blogging before turning in for the night.

Emma and I had a greasy Sunday - - as you can see from the pics. We weren't going anywhere, so why not just relax, nap off and on, she watched movies and read all day too.

Tomorrow we plan on grilling chicken and making the stuffed mushroom caps. This summer is going by waaaay too fast!! I do not look forward to the pending winter, we had conversations about uprooting and moving to a warmer climate. Anything's possible.

Our Saturday

We had a really nice day on Saturday!! Walked around Art in the Park in the rain with our gigantic umbrella's we purchased at the St. Croix pow wow. Saw a few people we knew, made small talk, ate delicious cheese curds and a spicy beef stick.

As we were walking around, Emma says to me "I wonder if people ever wonder if we get sick of each other". I asked her if she ever got sick of me, she said only when I get on her nerves - like when I'm asking her too many questions, etc. Of course, I NEVER get sick of her. Little sidebar here....one of our favorite movies is called "Anywhere but here", with Natalie Portman and Susan Sarandon....you have to watch it!!!

Anyway, Emma decided she wanted to grill brats, so we went grocery shopping. Also bought gourmet mushrooms to make the stuffed mushroom caps they serve at Tutto's. We stopped at Tutto's after shopping, we told the owner we were going to try and imitate their mushroom caps, so he wrote down the ingredients for us, maybe we'll make them later on today. A friend of Emma's text messaged her while we were there, so we invited him to join us.

Came home and grilled the brats, including the spicy italian's. They absolutely hit the spot - they were phenomenal!!

New Harley for Vince

------------------------------------------------------------------------

These are pics of the Harley Roadking Vince bought yesterday. Not sure if you can make out the airbrushing on the tank, but its of a white buffalo. Pretty cool. He said the bike is even more beautiful 'in person'. The pictures here are from the ad he showed me, I'll post better pictures when he brings it back. Maybe I'll even have him pose for me on his new bike.

He took off yesterday morning on his other bike for Redwing to look at this bike, called me about 4:30 from there. Then texted me about 9:00 that he bought it. Today, he takes off from Minneapolis and heads to LCO Wisconsin to MC another pow wow! Next weekend he's off to Coeur d' Alene, Idaho for another pow wow. Two weeks after that, he's hitting the pow wow highway again via motorcycle to MC the Fort Hall, Idaho gathering.

He's just a pow wow fiend!

Really cute!

This is really a cute picture of Emma and her baby brother Dallas! The second picture was taken by Mary, Martin's wife, this is the family brood!! Martin and all his kids. All very beautiful. Emma and Gary's other little brother Marty hugging his big sis.

This was taken at Itasca State Park July 12, at Gary's birthday celebration. Their dad had a little get together at the park for Gary's birthday, a complete cookout. He baked a cake, had a complete food lay out!! The weather was really crappy that day too, it was really cold. And, the baby is in a diaper, but shinaab babies are tuff right? ha ha

But they made the best of it and they all enjoyed themselves.

Summer romance.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have a little summer romance going on here. He's been taking her out on his four wheeler to check the eagles nest everyday, which is about 3 miles from our house. So far, haven't seen any new feathers around here.

They've been hanging out, eating a lot, going for ice cream at the dairy queen, picking up her little feminine products at Target, going to movies, she even got him to eat this chicken flavored rice she cooked for him, now it's his favorite.

Now he just needs to find a job!!!

Happy Birthday Ga-wee

When he was about 3 years old, whenever anyone asked him his name he'd say "Ga-wee". I meant to post this happy birthday message to him yesterday, but didn't get around to it. So here it is a day late.

Happy 19th birthday Gary! Can't believe you're already 19. In some ways you still seem like a little boy to me, but more and more those features are fading in you as you continue to mature. I really appreciate the young man you're becoming, very level headed. So, here's to you and hope that in the coming days, you'll grow into your independence and find your way through education, life experiences and continuing your involvement and growth with the drum and singing. Love you...Mom.

More pictures from the weekend

These guys danced in the powwow, both won in their catagories. Now they're off to the next powwow and the next one after that.

4th of July Powwow..Redlake!

A few pictures from the powwow celebration in Redlake. The powwow was great, a lot of good dancers and singers from all over.

Gary and Petra

Here they are....Gary and his little girlfriend. It was hard to get him to take a picture of course. They've been spending a lot of time together lately. She's a nice girl.

More powwow pictures

A few more powwow pictures from last weekend. The two dancers are Tate from Arizona and Quanah from New Mexico. Both really good dancers, pretty funny too.

Happy 54th Anniversary Ma and Dad!!

They were married 54 years ago today by the Judge! They didn't need a fancy wedding dance afterwards, instead they danced the night away at a little red barn converted into a tavern in Deer Lake - Deer Lake Charlies.

These pictures were taken at the St. Croix pow wow last weekend. Even caught them dozing off, Emma thought they looked cute from the back.

Happy Anniversary ma and dad! Have a good weekend.

St. Croix Powwow M.C. (Hammer)... ha.

This is Vince, he is rated as one of the top 5 MC's in the United States and Canada. If I was an MC I would not want to be his co-mc. He is well respected on the powwow circuit nation-wide, can't go anywhere with this guy without being surrounded by PEOPLE! But it's always good.