Spring in Minnesota - 2008!

We decided to create this online journal so friends and family can check in with us and see what we are up to!

We look warm in this first photo - and we are - because the picture was taken in Key West during spring break. The winter of 2008 has been especially long and cold this year, so we decided to spend the first week of April in Fort Lauderdale and in the Keys. We stayed on the Navy base at Key West, and used some of the facilities there. Laura's parents came along too, and we had a great time in Florida's sunshine!

The kids took to the water, naturally, and worked on their tans to impress their Minneosta friends back in school... of course most of Woodbury seems to find itself in Florida or Mexico this time of year, anyway... in fact, one of Libby's friends pulled into Key West for the day on a large catamaran. We took Michael and his family to the pool on base for a couple of hours.

Luke generally manages to be the one who can't provide a normal pose for the family photo... This is the southern beach on Key West, Smathers Beach. It was allegedly created by bringing in sand from the Bahamas, since there aren't natural sand beaches on this key. We sailed a catamaran along the beach here - a Hobie 18. Jack was pretty proud of 'skippering' for a while, even in the really high winds we had that day, since he now knows what he is doing after sailing camp on Lake Calhoun last year.