I got a Swanson dinner in the freezer, with your name on it!

Greeters Readers,

Busy couple weeks for the Strehlo Fam. Posted a good amount of pics so i'll just write under the captions if that's alright with everyone.


The little man celebrated his 3rd birthday on 9-4. He's getting too old. We went to Sam's Club and picked out a star wars cake for his birthday party. No less than 5 hours later he changed his mind and Sam made this "mermaid" cake for the pre party festivities.

Carson, Max, and Martin. That's about as close as your going to get for all of them smiling and looking at the camera.
Carson & Max opening presents. He got quite the haul. So far I think his favorites are all the legos and the transformer action figure. That could change in 2 weeks though.

The star wars cake. It's a little shocking to me that Star Wars has had this long of a run. Fat Albert died off years ago.

Enjoying a little snack.
Next it was off to Austin TX for Sam and myself. We got there on Thursday afternoon (sorry, no pics of that day). This was a shot from the top of mount bonnell overlooking Lake Austin.
Eating at the Shady Grove. Lot of local restaurants in the Austin Area, didn't find a lot of chains at all, which was a nice change of pace from Woodbury. Everyone likes eating outside there too, which is a little wierd, considering it was like 100 degrees every day. It wasn't horrible in the shade though.


Swimming at Barton Springs Pool. It is a spring generated pool so the water is always stays about 68 degrees year round. Even on a hot day that's chilly, but it felt good.
Sam soaking in the rays. I guess you are allowed to go topless in Austin too. We didn't see anything scandalous though. Sam wanted to get the ball rolling but luckily I stopped her.
We stopped by Sam's cousins house on Friday night and visited with Neil, Katie, and their daughter Sibley. It was nice catching up with them since we haven't seen them in a few years and it was our first time meeting Sibley.
Austin City Hall
Hot Mama's! We went down before the Longhorn football game to check out the tailgating. It was pretty nuts down there. Lot's of RV's, grilling out, some live entertainment.

Cigarette Machine. Hadn't seen one of those in about 15 years, had to document it.
Me & Lindsay on the Jackalope at the bar on Saturday. Not sure who has the funnier face. 6th street was pretty crazy on Saturday night. Lot's of bars and most were pretty packed. We behaved ourselves though and were home somewhat early. Even heard some Ween at one bar and then broke down the discography with some dude at the bar. I think he thought I was the coolest dude ever.


Decked out in our Longhorn gear.
Lot's of exercise on Saturday night. We decided to take a pedicab a few blocks. It's still pretty hot at night and he can tell the guy was working up a good sweat.

BFFs, Special thanks to Lindsay for her hospitality this trip. Also for the grandparents taking care of Max.
There are tons of trailers down there that serve food. I think hands down this was Sam's favorite. It was a doughnut trailer.
Lindsay with her concoction.
Sam's doughnut covered with chocolate and oreo's.
Lindsay had us go to her fitness class with her on Saturday. Packed class and of course I was the only dude in there. Someone had to whip those ladies into shape though. Our abs are still sore.
We didn't feel as bad stuffing our face.
The cowgirl. She got some boots down there, but the hat is a surprise for someone else.
Our last night we went down to the Salt Lick for some BBQ. Not going to lie, it was delicious. The place was huge too, must fit like 700 people on a busy night. Luckily it was much less than that and got to eat right away. I was about to burst for about 20 min. after the meal. They had some live music that night as well. The guy playing was going on 7 hours and asked if anyone wanted to come up and play or sing while he played. Of course the ladies volunteered me to go. I did okay, played 4 or 5 songs.
Lindsay and Sam with Jenn and Anne.

It was a good trip but it's nice to be back in MN with the fam.

Clip of the week, an oldie but a goodie. Just catchy

Monday, Monday

Can't trust that Day...

Hello readers, another fun filled blog edition. It was a fair heavy extravaganza the last few days. Saturday we took a trip to the Henne's so Max could hang out with his buddy Joe. We came back for Woodbury Days and some fireworks. Max wasn't a huge fan of the loud noise but rocked out to the Dweebs beforehand. Not a bad cover band in my humble opinion. Sunday was uneventful and Monday we headed to the great MN get together. We ended up doing the park and ride so we wouldn't have to deal with construction and fair traffic. Max was pretty pumped about his first bus ride. Of course while getting on the bus we realized we forgot the stroller. Max was a trooper though, did a good amount of walking and getting carried. Onto the Pics! enjoy!


**** Special Welcome Back to Wayne for starting up the blog again. I like to think my lobbying at Tomten had some hand in bringing it back. If you like things that are kick butt awesome, check it out. *****

True fans stand for the show, not look at their phones Rachel!

Rockin Out.
Family Photo Time!
First Bus Ride!
The Slide. I think I'll be taking a trip on that one until I'm 60. Just good old fashioned fun. It almost felt like we were going to get some air over one of those bumps.

Deep fried candy bar. I thought it was pretty tasty. Sam liked it, but wasn't amazed. And it looks like Max is about to impale himself here but he's fine.


$1 chocolate milk, he downed the whole thing. Bravo to you $1 milkstand. I remember I went there as a kid and you got like a dixie cup full of milk. Not this time around. Had to be a solid 9 ounces.
MMMMMMM Corn.
Checking out the John Deere section. Pretty sure he would've stayed there all day.
Can you tell I'm excited?
Time to leave :(






Vid of Max grooving to the beat. Yes, that is 4 non blondes.

A Good ol fashioned Dingwop

Hello readers,

Been meaning to get a post up the last few days, just didn't get around to it. 2 weeks ago was the big trip to Fargo for Josh & Kelli's 10th anniversary. Some of the Capra crew and Gma Anne made the trip. Last week was the biggest bash of the year, Tomten music fest. We received our traditional sprinkling of rain but overall the event was great. Wayne and Del made some delicious ribs and possibly the best cuban sanny I have ever had in my life. Bravo Misgens! I got a little sloppier up there than past years, so I completely forgot to capture a lot of moments, maybe that's a good thing. Onto the pics!


Sara and Sam showing off their climbing skills.
The kids turn. At one point there were about 4 kids under 3 trying to climb up, 3 of them we didn't know. Pure mayhem.
No Illusion, g ma JoJo going down the slide.
Grandma Anne and the great grand kids.
Getting ready for the gig, our drummer in the making.
The tomten stage, Wayne and Sid. Really enjoyed the stage this year, you can't see it but this years banner was pretty gnarly.

Decided to break out a stache for the event.
The next day. Jeremy's face just about says it all.

Go Go Go Go.... On an adventure

Greetings readers,

I am back from a trip up nort, you betcha! Jeremy and I spent a couple days in the BWCA. It was my first trip up there. Good times. I actually kinda of thought it would be a little more miserable at times. The mosquitoes weren't too bad. If you were in the tent by 9 you didn't get too many bites. Also, the food wasn't awful at all. There was no need to get a juicy hamburger or anything after we got out. I would definitely go back again. Here is a recap of the events if you are interested. I wanted to keep a journal, but we forgot a pen.

Off we go!

About to begin the trip on the Little Indian Sioux river. What you see behind is basically what it was. Pretty narrow, long grass on both sides and a good amount of curves. A nice peaceful start, saw a very deer on the river.

Goofing around at Devils Cascade.
What we slept in after our long first day. Actually it wasn't too bad. I probably got about 9 hours a sleep each night. More than I get at home.

Jeremy doing some portaging. The portaging wasn't too bad. I expected it to be a little harder. Only ran into one tough one portage Slim Lake to Fat Lake. About 220 rods (i'll let you find out how far that is). Took like 45 minutes to get through. There was another group making multiple trips with their gear that was there like 2 hours, so basically we are machines!

I was more of a bear pack carrier and Jeremy preferred the canoe, so it worked out nice.
Stopping for lunch on the lake.
Sweet and Sour Pork, yum! A little better than the Barbeque and Beef. Who says, ill have some barbeque.... and some beef?
View from the last campsite.
Entry point and Finish line.


Just some estimates

Miles Canoed- 33
Miles Portaged - 4
Deer - 3
Loon - 200,842
Muskrats that hissed at us - 1
Moose Droppings - 3 piles

Hello Again, Hello

Howdy blogerinos,

Well, my Justin Bieber trick didn't work, not a lot of extra traffic this week. Maybe it was a lackluster blog entry, how dare you! Kinda a relaxing weekend for the Strehlo fam before all the madness starts up. Should be a busy next 2 months. Relaxing day at the beach on Saturday then over to the Strehlo's for dinner on Sunday.

Funny things max said- like I said before, funnier if you actually hear it:

Max: I don't feel good, my tummy hurts.
Sam: You should go lie down in your bed.
Max: I'm feeling better mommy, my tummy doesn't hurt.

Me: Would you like to go to the farmers market on Sunday.
Max: I would love to dad.

Kids. Well, onto the pics!

*** The pics are a little sorry this week, didn't realize we didn't take very many. ***

Nice Outfit!

Hanging out at the beach.


Yep, that's the newest addition. Got my motorcycle license a few weeks ago and pulled the trigger on this. 82 Kawasaki 550. Planning on doing some commuting to work. Not quite ready for that yet, but I am working on it. Thanks to Jeremy for helping to take a look at it and taking it for a spin.


Fittingly, the clip of the week from the best bike movie ever. Couldn't get the scene before it for some reason.

Justin Bieber

Hello Bloggerinos, Been awhile since we posted. I won't bore you with everything that has gone on (Carson's 1st b day, 4th of July, Sam Being "laid off" from the state, 2 year anniversary, etc.). Past weekend was pretty busy for us. Dining out on Friday, park, concert and bar on Saturday, and carshow Sunday. New segment for the blog, let's called it Funny observations and moments: A guy bumped into Sam at the bar, proceeded to then touch her face and say, you're beautiful. I was 2 feet away and didn't see any of this, so she's probably trying to make me jealous. Max told me today that I was his hero. I asked him if it was because I was so good looking and he said yes. I guess mom Sam has some competition! We'll have to start getting more Max quotes in here. He brought me into his room today and he wanted something in his closet- he says you're big, you should get it. Might not seem funny, but it was. Checked out the stats for the blog today. Over 4,000 views for the site, wow! It was interesting to see the searches that people did to get to our site. Check them out below. Search Keywords strehlo family blog chad strehlo samchad.blogspot.com blogspot i'm still cooler than chad strehlo i'm right here and i always will be strehlo stephen strehlo caprafeist como zoo dingwop

I especially like that dingwop is in there. Also seemed Como Zoo too. Since Como zoo brought some people in I thought I would title the post Justin Bieber to see if the Bieb would bring us even more. Onto the pics! FYI.. some of our pics got screwed up while trying to load, so I have a limited vault to choose from.

Carson's b day. His legs somehow got separated from his body. Don't worry, he's fine.

Getting ready for Cars2- first movie at the theatre! He did pretty good for about the first 40 min. Struggled a bit toward the end but we made it.

Feeding the ducks in Minneap with the Larson crew.
TBT

Eric and Max in the 67 olds 442
Transformer car, they were hyping it up at the car show, we were a little disappointed.



Video of the week:

Trampled by Turtles covered shelter from the storm for the last song. Luckily it started raining about 15 min. later after we made it to the car.