Happy 4th of July!!

Hope everyone had a fun day today! We did. We went to my mom and dad's for a pool party and bbq. Then from there we went to watch fireworks in the evening. The day started out to be a real scorcher, it was sooo hot! Then around 6pm the storm rolled in, and it really cooled off. There was actually a severe weather warning, and they were urging everyone to get indoors, as winds were up to 60 mph! We drove away from the storm tho, to the west side of the valley to watch fireworks, and it was still windy over there, but not so nasty. And the temp dropped to the low 90's, we didn't even break a sweat watching fireworks, it was so nice outside! Quite a bit better than last years 114!

Here are a few pics from the day...Will be waiting to see pics from everyone else's day!

Frans, Alanys and Trina swimming.... Trina LOVES the water!Our family....Frans and Trina...The girls...Kierstyn, Toni, Alanys, Lindsey and TrinaTrina just in awe by the fireworks!Toni thought they were too loud!

a day at the shop

I have been snapping some pictures periodically, trying to capture the events that happen here. Hoping that Charlie will be able to use some for his website. Thought I would share a couple on here, too. ~ Cody has been coming to the shop this summer and has been taught how to weld!

~jen~

summer flyin' by

Here are some pictures of Gary's place. Though it has been awhile since I said I would take them, thought I would post them. The first one is the outside of his barn/garage. For those of you who remember where the culvert is/was between the two fields, that's where I was standing looking both up and down the driveway. As you can see, his driveway comes out directly across from Miriam's garage.

I was able to spend three weekends, in a row, up on the Range which was a lot of fun! The first weekend was just chillin out. Heather and I were able to go for a 4-wheeler ride to Velma's and was able to visit her again. We then went to Gary's to snap these pictures, though he wasn't home. That evening though, him and Tristan stopped in at Heather and Shawn's so glad I was able to see him after all. That Sunday, Howard Parks was scheduled up there. Always neat to be able to visit with him and Linda. The second weekend I didn't get up there until late Saturday night, after picking up Heather from the airport. That Sunday morning, I rode with Liz to Wisconsin for Lee & Terry's 40th Anniversary. Though we were unable to stay for the entire thing, was able to be there long enough to give hugs to all and chat with everyone. From there we headed straight to Eveleth for a "Volunteer Appreciation" event for Horizon's. And the third weekend was Land of the Loon where Heather and I were able to walk around and think how neat it would be to make more things if either of us had more time! And, of course, was able to sample way to many types of food! And I was able to attend my first "Bike Rodeo" where the last picture was taken.

Now I plan to stay put for a couple weeks. This past Saturday, was able to get in some garage saling with Riitta and catch up with her since it's been awhile. Then off to St. Cloud to purchase an air conditioner! No more sitting in the apartment, dripping with sweat and silently crying that is only 65 degrees outside! Straight from St. Cloud, I headed out to Litchfield to spend the evening at Tarja's. Was excited that Sonja and Renee were able to come there so I could finally see Renee's new baby. For those of you who may not know or remember: Tarja and Riitta are Jari's sisters and Sonja and Renee are Riitta's daughters (Amber is there sister). Opted against going to the Sunday School Picnic in either Cokato or Elk River and instead enjoyed a day of pure relaxation! This long weekend will be spent at Summer Services. Glad they are in Cokato this year, so I can attend them. Anxiously awaiting to see some people that I haven't seen for awhile! Two of which are Mom and Isa!

Hope you all have a wonderful July 4th weekend!

~j~

Busy

Hey all, just thought I'd take a minute to update y'all about what Missi and I are up to. We've decided on a house in Farmington that was built in 1900, it's about 2,000 sq. ft., it has an oversize three stall detached garage and the lot if I remember right is about 12,000 sq. ft. The house needs a lot of work to be nice and being as some of the work (such as new roof) needs to be done right away we decided to go with a rehab loan through FHA called 203K. So what we're going to do is borrow the money to fix up the house and add it to our mortgage. The house price is around 100k and we're borrowing an additional 24k. The downside is we've got a time limit of six months to get all of the items that we specify done. Extra money can be used for additional approved items or is applied to mortgage balance. I'll update more later, gotta run. #9

With age comes wisdom

A guy is 85 years old and loves to fish. He was sitting in his boat the other day when he heard a voice say,'Pick me up.' He looked around and couldn't see any one. He thought he was dreaming when he heard the voice say again,'Pick me up. He looked in the water and there, floating on the top, was a frog.
The man said, 'Are you talking to me?' The frog said, 'Yes, I'm talking to you. Pick me up then, kiss me and I'll turn into the most beautiful woman you have ever seen.
I'll make sure that all your friends are envious and jealous because I will be your bride!'

The man looked at the frog for a short time, reached over, picked it up carefully, and placed it in his front breast pocket.
Then the frog said, 'What, are you nuts? Didn't you hear what Isaid? I said kiss me and I will be your beautiful bride.'

He opened his pocket, looked at the frog and said,
'Nah, at my age I'd rather have a talking frog.'

With age comes wisdom

The guess who at the Kaleva Festival....

Plenty of music, skit, history, etc. took place at the combined Midsummer Festival and 100 year anniversary of the Kaleva Ladies festival at Kaleva Island.


500 points for those of you who can guess who she is....
This is my favorite picture. Doesn't she look thrilled?

Guess who? He's a relative....
The Grand MatronSylvia Lahti

It rained a little, sun shown, rained, sun.....
Karen KiviluomaRuth Kippola

Jane Nevala Some of the people....
Ruth Williams Delores (?)

Alaskan Greetings!

Five bonus points to anyone who can tell me what the first picture of green is. I took these pictures a while ago ... before weeks of cloudy, rainy weather. Now the tree is leaning over my stairs heading into the front door of the house. Hint: I duck to avoid the buzzing as I head up the steps.

Thought I'd add a few pics on here. Really need to mow the lawn again and do another little photo day around here. This is our new home. The building to the left is the guest house that Kevin will be living in. It is nearly done inside. 99% plumbed, electrical and sheetrock. Still needs paint, floors and we need to put in one more window! Then the outside at some point.
This picture I took last week. Excuse the white thing at the door ... we pulled out a stackable washer/dryer unit and I need to put it on Craigs List real soon here! We have beautiful blooming trees and whildly growing rhubarb!

Took the kids to Seward camping over the past weekend and visited Exit Glacier. Neat to see one right up close ... just no touching of this one. Will have to go find another one! We are finding all kinds of things to do and places to bring you all when you come to visit!

Our new pet

Do not know if you all heard but we went to Sea World and the beach last weakend. All the kids got to pick one thing the could bring back. They all got stuffed animals except Toni, she got a panda bank. Jenny said all she wants is to blow up a few prints. I wanted to bring home DOLLY THE DOLPHIN.

Happy Anniversary David and Jody

Happy 10th anniversary. Hope you had or are having a good day. I have mentioned that I can't get the menu bar for posting but this time I clicked on the ^ and got it. Must remember
to try it next time. Dial up is too slow to post pictures so had Debbie post those last evening.
Love, Mom and Isä, aka as Mom and Dad, aka as Grandma and Grandpa, aka as Great Grands!

This and that

what was the iron IGA Co-op or the Co-op Economy Mart is now Holm's recycling. yard is full of junk and he is in process of fencing it off.

you are used to seeing deer kill on the side of the road but here is a moose on #53 near #16
Jennifer Wasti Cragg by the sign
Leona and terry with their two children

Lenny and Kathy with their Aunt Diane and Uncle Reino

With Peter and Rick

Ida's surviving children

and then their spouses

Liz's daughter Kirsten Knickerhm adding wood to the fire

Daniel Hawkin III, Kirsten's son Aaron, and Daniel's mom, Brenda

(there were two more pictures but something is wrong with our computer so its not uploading, grandma i will post them on the next one if you'd like, that might work.)

Charlie & Machelles hopeful venture

Still working on it, but Machelle and I are hoping to start doing a lil gig from home. We'll see how it goes. Its image carving, using a cnc router, which carves photo's into wood. Here's a sample... (if I remember how to put pictures in)

Gotta get workin, ya'll have a great day!

Charlie

fact or fiction?

I was lookin at photo's today and ran across this one. Thought to myself, that Kierstyn is our one that will try anything. This might be going a little to far, or maybe not? One of these days I will put one on here were she is really going overboard.

Frans & Kierstyn

AZ Kuoppala's update...

Hey all...! It's been a while since I posted, so thought I would catch everyone up on our lives a little.. thru pictures..

It is really starting to heat up here....we actually have been really spoiled, we had an awesome spring, and June was just beautiful! Now we finally reached the 100 mark, and it looks like it is going to steadily go up from here on! It's supposed to be 104 tomorrow, and we have an outdoor wedding to shoot! It's gonna be miserable! We have another wedding on June 28th, then that is it until September. I will enjoy the break!

We brought the girls fishing about a week ago at a lake nearby, and they had so much fun! I caught my first fish ever, and Lindsey caught 3! And if you ask her about it, she will tell you that, and will include that dad didn't catch anything! Kierstyn didn't have a ton of patience waiting for the fish to bite, and Toni and Alanys would have rathered just running around and playing, but it was a lot of fun! We need to start doing little outings like this more often!

Trina is growing like a weed....can't believe she is already 7 months old! She is such a happy baby, and is at a really fun stage right now. She is almost crawling, she loves playing in front of the mirror, she loves laughing with the girls, and her face just lights up when daddy gets home from work! It's just weird that the Marjanen's don't know her! (I am still looking for cheap tickets)

We are all loving summer vacation! Alanys just finished 8 days of swimming lessons, and is swimming awesome now! And dumb me forgot to bring my camera along every time!! Makes me so mad! oh well... Alanys told me today that she is a big girl now....no more swim lessons, and now she's 3! (we celebrated with cake with grandma and grandpa Forstie)

We are all looking forward to our family trip to San Diego in a week! I have been wanting to go to CA for the last several years, and we are finally able to make it work! And I would rather wait until later in July, then it is warmer there, but who knows how high gas prices will be then! We better go now while we can still afford it! This is our first time taking a family trip like this, so we are so excited! We are going to go to Sea World, the san diego zoo and hopefully make it to the wild animal park as well. We were just planning to go to sea world, but costco had 3 for 1 passes for sale...so we are doing all three! What are everyone's plans for the summer? What is the price of gas in AK and MN? I filled up at costco today around noon for $3.97, and Frans went to costco at 5:00 and it was up to $4.00! A gas station in Tempe was $4.15....outrageous! And AZ is one of the cheapest places for gas!

Anyways...I could keep rambling...but it is 12:30, and I am tired!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Jenny

Attn: Jen

I don't have your email but Jesaiah's wife was accused of aiding and abetting the offender Jesaiah Carlson when she destroyed some CDs.......that's probably what that's about... : ) lk.