A great Christmas Present

We flew from Las Vegas to Duluth, landed on time, brother Jim picked us up, we stopped for lunch and then headed to Minneapolis. We arrived at the duplex that Carrie, Lonny and Jaime bought to find Carrie the only one home from work. We spent some time with Carrie, then Jaime got home from work and went to pick up Alice. When Alice arrived home, she was very stand-offish, acting shy etc. Anyway, when Lonny got home from work, he said give me a few minutes and I will come and get you guys. He did and Alice had changed cloths, this was the T-shirt she had changed into. It reads "I'm going to be a big sister." What great news! Come to find out, Alice had been coached not to tell us the secret so that is why she was acting shy, shs didn't want to spill the beans. We are very happy for Jaime, Lonny and Alice and of course Auntie Carrie too. The big event is scheduled for early July, so guess where Grandma & Grandpa will be in July.

No Prizes

Well, the purple car made it into the semi-finals but the yellow one did not.

The purple car was beat out in the semi-finals, so no trophy's or ribbons.

But we feel good about it, since these cars were built in one afternoon, but now we know.

MJ went down yesterday to see the show cars and she says some of them were beautiful. I guess it's a guy thing, on somethings, we just never grow up. Some of these guys had to have spent hours working on those cars.

DARN!

Well, one of the cars made it to the semi-finals, the other didn't. But that was it, no big winners except the fact MJ's Boss's had a great time and got to team build with the Engineering staff at the casino. So, it was a win for them and for us, since we did these cars in one Sunday afternoon.

Wait until next year, we are going to kick-butt, because we will spend the 6 weeks building the cars and not waiting for someone else to do them for us.

We had fun.

First Heat Winners

NEWS FLASH!

We still have it!

They didn't race the cars last week because of the short week and too many other things going on, so the first heats were yesterday, Monday, Dec. 1 and guess what?

Both of the cars won thier first heats. The finals are today and/or tomorrow. We are both excited and hope they do well in the finals.

MJ's bosses can't believe they have competative cars to race against the Engineering Department.

We will let you know how we do in the finals.

A different kind of Sunday

About 6 weeks ago, MJ found out that the Engineering group at work had a team building experience last year where each engineer built a Boy Scout Pinewood Derby car and raced them against each other. This year they invited MJ's bosses to participate. The bosses explained their dilemma to MJ who being the good soldier that she is, volunteered to get their cars built for them.

First we asked my staff to build them and they thought it was a wonderful idea, about 3 weeks past and they (my staff) said NO, we don't have time.

So then we asked a neighbor down the street if he would do it, and he agreed but said he was really busy, but would try to fit them in. Last night we called him and he said they were ready but not really racable as he didn't have much time to work on them.

We were disgusted with ourselves for not getting involved right away and found a hobby shop online last night. We went there right after church today. As luck would have it, hobby shops now sell complete kits, ready to assemble with the proper weight, racing wheels and complete instructions. All you have to do is assemble, paint and put on decals.

So guess what we did this Sunday afternoon, you got it, we built 2 Pinewood Derby cars for MJ's bosses for racing tomorrow (Monday). Now do you know where Carrie gets her procrastinating?



Painting, reading instructions, sanding, painting, putting on decals, what an afternoon.

Very hard at work, painting and sanding the cars.

This is a side by side comparison of the ones we ordered and what the finished product looked like, we were very pleased with our handy work on such short notice.

Mary Jo did a wonderful job with the painting and decals, I think they look really good.


This is how they looked when finished, we were very happy with the end result, now it would really be neat if they won a prize.

Sunday in Las Vegas!

LaVonne, Lon, Walt, Bob & Verna, Mary Jo was taking the picture, we had Pork Chops on the grill and Mary Jo had all the fixen's, it was very good.


Walt & LaVonne at Red Rock Canyon

Lon, Walt and LaVonne at Red Rock Canyon.

"O"! What a Night!

Water wheel, kind of hard to see, at the conservatory.

After the show, we had to walk through the Bellagio Conservatory.

Standing by the "O" sign.

Seated at "O", 4 rows back, front and center, really too close to the action, but very good seats.

Walt and LaVonne in front of fountain by the dinner table.

After dark view from our table on the lake.

Note to Stumpf kids: Your auntie Mary Jo can hook you up if you want to come to Las Vegas and party, look at the lake side table we got for your parents anniversary dinner, lake side table at Todd English's Olives in Bellagio.


A limo in front of our house, boy did we stir up the neighborhood! I just told the neighbors that this was my rich sister from Milwaukee.


We had to have a Champagne Toast to start the evening.


Mary Jo & Lon ready to go out on the town, can't wait for our 50th anniversary.


We started with flowers from LaVonne and Walts Children.

50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration in Las Vegas

My Sister LaVonne and husband Walt Stumpf are in town to celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary, so the first night in town we had to show them Fremont Street. LaVonne and Lon standing in front of the Golden Gate Casino where Lon works. Notice the wedding dress on the left, do you think that lady will make it back to Las Vegas to celebrate her 50th wedding anniversary?


Looking East on Fremont Street, now you have to go to Fremont Street when your in Las Vegas, it's old time Vegas.

Preaching on Fremont Street, Walt is working with the Evangelism Committee at their church and wanted to take this picture back to them.

Sue & Bob Visit

Sue & Bob are out traveling visiting as many National Parks as possible and were close so stopped by for a few days. We have way too much fun when they are here, we go out to eat and to casinos and just enjoy each others company. Wish you could have stayed longer.

Vacation day 6

Toy grocery cart in Lancaster, full of produce.

Securing children in grocery cart

Time for a DVD
Playing in Lancaster

Hang'in out with Carrie in Lancaster.


Snack time in Lancaster.

Saying hello to Great-Auntie Ruthie

Vacation day 5

Bath time at Great-Grandma's

Rubber ducky at bath time.

Now here is the correct golf stance my dear.


Trying to get this game down.

More golfing with Grandpa

Vacation Day 4

There is always something good to eat at Great-Grandma's house.

Posing at Great-Grandma's house.

Hamming it up with Grandpa in Lancaster

Vacation Day 2

Alice & Cabeb preparing a meal in the kitchen of the playhouse.

Chris holding Hannah and Alice kissing her goodbye.

Alice holding a toy ice cream cone in front of the playhouse.

Caleb & Alice in front of the playhouse.


Alice & Caleb playing in the playhouse at Sue & Bob's


Carrie with Grandpa in Blaine

Then we headed to Sue & Bob's for a family gathering here are Great-Grandma and Valorie

When we got back from the house tour, I read a book to Alice's cousin Zack.

Playing with Zack at the new house.

In front of the house with a SOLD sign on it, how exciting!

When we got up Saturday morning, we got ready to look at the house that Lonny, Jaime and Carrie are buying, of course, we had to get Alice all duded up since we were going to Auntie Sue's house later in the day.