As you may have gathered from my last post, we lost Great Grandpa Stuart on Saturday. Great Grandpa Stuart was Kris's maternal grandfather. We received a phone call Friday night that he was headed down hill rapidly. We called again Saturday morning to check on him and things didn't sound very good at all so we headed down to see him. We were able to spend about 3 1/2 hours with him before he passed. It was very sad (of course) but also peaceful in a way. He had his family gathered around him, holding him and each other, as he took his last breaths. He was a great man and he will be missed by so many. The funeral is this Friday and although it is very sad circumstances, it will be nice to have the whole family gathered together again. There are cousins that I'm not sure have ever even met Annika, it's been that long. OK, and now before I start crying again, we need to move on to another subject.

Even though I was on vacation all last week from work, we did very little. Our 4th of July was very low key. We spent the day at home and Grandpa Dan, Marcia and Uncle Mathias came over for a quick, impromptu barbeque. Kris used the week to help his Dad with some trim work and some other odd jobs around our house. We also applied for a permit to build our deck. Kris is working yesterday and today on getting the footings holes dug so they can be inspected tomorrow. All the wood and other materials are being delivered today and he'd like to start (if not finish) building it this weekend. Of course last night the weatherman said this weekend is going to be the hottest of the summer yet (95+ degrees). That just figures, doesn't it? But if Kris doesn't work on it this weekend he will have to wait until August as the next two weekends are booked up with family commitments. And he's pretty anxious to get the deck done.

Sunday Annika attended her first baseball game. Auntie Krystle, Grandpa Dan, Marcia and us went to the St. Paul Saints game. It was a very warm day (85 degrees) and we were in the direct sunlight the whole time and Annika still behaved perfectly. Of course at a Saints game there are enough distractions to keep just about anyone entertained. And she was lubed up enough with sunscreen that she didn't even get tan lines, much less sunburned. Go parents! The Saints ended up losing 4-3 but it was still a fun afternoon.