So clearly, a monthly (or even every other month) update on alynfamily isn’t sufficient to keep everyone updated as to our where abouts and what we’ve been doing - so here’s a summary of the last few months. Pictures of some of it will be following soon, just as soon as I sort out the changes I need to make to the new Wordpress site. I’ve been having some issues configuring the different themes to work with our data. I also discovered a small bug in the way tags are handled which is very odd - because it had been working until yesterday 
This year marked our 10 Year Anniversary! Yep, let me say that again, 10 years - Wahoo! Of course the kids picked up another year each and we’ve also moved (again) to Rochester, MN. We’re selling our house in West Dundee, IL - let us know if you know of someone who want’s to buy it! I am still working for myself with a couple of different clients, including a Facebook application called Honesty Box which has been doing very well. NWF is still in the picture too as is the NJ Synod and a few other smaller clients. Gretchen has been working very hard to get us moved in and settled in the house. In addition to managing the kids, doing 99% of food prep-shopping-laundry-keeping the house running type stuff, she managed to get the kids 90% unpacked the same day our stuff was delivered. She really is amazing.
This summer was really fun. Erik joined us in May, just in time for Oskar’s birthday party at the Great Wolf Lodge. Both he and Oskar took golf lessons and spent time visiting the pool and driving Gretchen nuts. Gretchen was able to get a brief break in June and headed to Vermont with Patty and Rachel to a health spa, but not the kind that you bathe in Cucumber Juice, but rather one where you spend your days hiking, doing yoga, attending nutrition classes, eating healthy food and otherwise living a healthy lifestyle. In late June, we headed out from IL, visited Kevin & Rachel in VA for a bit (long enough to call the fire department!) and then headed south to NC to visit with Vince and Jan for a bit as well. Then we headed a bit further up the Outer Banks to vacation there with Patty - and the house was unavailable! So Kitty Dunes moved us to a different house. Erik headed back to NM in late July. We concluded our time in NC with a week long Caribbean cruise (without the kids) and had an amazing time. We collected the kids in VA and headed back to IL. Then after just a couple of weeks there, we packed up a U-Haul - took our essentials and headed to MN.
Oskar is attending school just a few blocks from the house; so he walks to school this year. 1st Grade! He has been making friends and is generally doing very well, we had our first parent teacher meeting just this last week. Did I mention he’s reading? He wants to master multiplication by the end of this year (at the rate he’s going, he’ll have it down by Christmas). Xavier is doing well too - he’s HUGE and growing more each day. He’s a little bit jealous of Oskar who gets to go to school each day, but he takes solace in Sunday School at Zumbro Lutheran Church downtown.
So hopefully that brings everyone up to speed on our goings on… posts should follow more regularly now.
