Well it has been a busy couple months.  We have been doing lots of biking and Beth has been working hard.  Andy continues to thrive and is turning into quite the little helper... at least when he wants to be.  He loves to empty drawers and shelves only to pile everything right back where it came from a moment later.   Enjoy the pics and hope all is well.

Finally the cake pictures I promised.  Summer has finally arrived and while Andy is slowly settling into the daycare routine we fit in another long weekend at the cabin.  This time with lots of friends and playmates visiting.  We even fit in some mountain biking with enough mechanical issues for a season.  Whats a couple hour ride without an hour of mechanical work.  Either way it was great to get to ride together for a change since we usually have to split up so that the other one of us can entertain Andy.  Andy is turning into a real character, despite being a bit grumpy over daycare illness and a slew of new molars, he loves playing on reactions.  He thinks it is hilarious and loves to do anything that he isn't supposed to do.  This results in a high speed chase for a giggling little man who wants nothing more than to be caught.

Well Easter is upon us again and for the second year in a row we met up with the Junkers at a water park.  This time it was in Fargo and with the whole state sinking under flood water this time golf was out of the question.  The swimming was fun for us and the car and the company great.  Of coarse the weather was with us as always and we drove both directions in snow storms and the news reports were full of reports of drivers sliding off icy roads only to be rescued from the flood water later by the local dive team.  Only in ND.  Upon returning to Minot the weather took a turn for the better this last weekend and we decided it was time to shake some of the rust off the mountain bikes.  The weather was great and the views of the still frozen Lake Sakakawea from the Indian Hills trail were amazing, however the ride was short because all the north facing sections of trail were still under drifts of snow and It was a it much to pull the Burley through.  Andy is loving all the trips to the park and is choosing walk more and more.  He now routinely catches his balance, crawls up stairs, and climbs into and on-top of everything.  The fun continues.

This week we had lots of fun.  On top of the normal biking and running during the week we decided to go exploring over the weekend.  This took us north to the Turtle "Mountains" of North Dakota.... Don't want to hurt anyones feelings, the area was beautiful but we didn't see any mountains.  Just a couple hundred foot high plateau with lots of short trees on it.  First we stopped at the Strawberry lake camping area... which was in fact a very nice campground although even in the mountains of ND the watter appears to be rising.  As a result many of the picnic tables, a few lights, and at least one outhouse are currently submerged or near so.  Next we continued across to Lake Metigoshe State Park for some hiking.  Interesting the park had its beginnings as a transient camp for the civilian conservation corps and was littered with abandoned buildings.  On our four or so mile hike we must have passed at least half a dozen abandoned outhouses as well as several larger buildings and a huge abandoned lodge.  The map also left a bit to be desired and the first trail we took began as a mowed road with variety but suddenly turned to single track.  I followed this path around a group of bushes with a short chunk of fence tangled up in them and headed up the trail toward what I thought was a pioneer grave marker.  On closer look it was very nice chrome colored and said United States on the close side... so I walked to the other side... and it said Canada, causing me to jump back to my side since we certainly were not carrying passports.  Oops...  So we turned around and found some different trails to explore.  On the way home we stopped to see several of the great turtles the guard the mountains... ND has lots of big things spread around and this area is no exception.  The first is a huge turtle made of welded together car wheels, and the second is a very tall turtle ridding a snow mobile...   Go figure..So not a bad weekend and I think Andy had lots of fun.  Let me know how you like the new slide show thing, or I can go back to the old layout.