Lots of Fun!

The last weekend in October Darrin blessed us with another visit home. This time he brought a 'friend' aka 'girlfriend'.  We had heard about her, we had seen a few pictures of her, a few of us have spoken to her on the phone or via text messaging, now we get to meet her in person! We are excited.

 For the first meeting we didn't want to overwhelm her to greatly and make her meet the WHOLE family at once... we are quite the large group if you put adults and kids all in the same building at once.  I mean someone brand new to this group might go crazy if we did this.  I mean someone who is already a part of this group might go crazy having us all together. What I really mean is some of us have ALREADY GONE CRAZY when we all get together. 11 adults, 11 kids (ages 2-9) that is a sure recipe for CRAZINESS!

 So we thought we would be considerate and arrange an adult gathering first without the kids.  This in and of itself is quite a deal, since I don't think we have ever all gone out together, all at once as adults.  There is always someone missing or some kids present.  We did pretty good though, we had all of us 'grown-up kids' with spouses and Mom together at a bowling alley.  We didn't get Dad there as he was busy hauling manure (that sure sounds like fun!! you know busy farming MN season). 

We did miss him though and wished he could have made it.

 So Mandy got to met us as adults with no kids.  And we got to hang out as adults with no kids!

 So we have (left to right) Christy, Terri, Wendy, Shelly, and Darrin. 

 The Sohre 5!

 And this is dear Mandy with Darrin.

 Sister Love.

 I thought I had to include this picture of the score board. Believe it or not in the last frame of our 1st game I did bowled 3 strikes in a row!!!!

 The entire Sohre gag (minus dear Dad):

 Christy and Ted

 Wendy and Jason

 Darrin and Mandy

 Marty and Me

 Darrin and Mandy again

Double Cheers to Good Times!!!

(by the way Mandy we decided we like you, so please keep dating our brother and come visit us again!)

Ice Skating!

 Gracie started Ice Skating lessons this year at the community center in Redwood Falls.  I wasn't quite sure what she would think of it, but she LOVES it.  She is so excited to go.  The first time with the skates on she tumbled right over, but after her first lesson she already learned how to walk with them.

She passed the 1st session last week with was called Tot 1.  Now we start Tot 2 next week.

In Tot 1 the kids learn to march in place with skates on, march and move, how to fall down properly, and how to get back up without falling. 

She falls down quite a bit, but the instructor says she doesn't cry. She just gets right back up.

I have only been on skates once in my life and I don't think Marty ever has,

so I told Gracie she is going to have to teach me!  She got a kick out of that.

I hope she keeps liking it... maybe one day we will see her in the Olymics!!! Ha ha!

Halloween 2010

 Boy Halloween gets more and more fun as the kids are getting a little older and more into these events. Gracie was a bumble bee.  She loved her costume.

Zach was Elmo and also loved his costume. 

 Christy has three of her kids having birthdays around this day so she always has a nice Halloween party/Birthday party for us to attend. Then we take the kids out trick-or-treating. 

The fun part is the adults dress up too!

 So Marty and I are Jailbirds.

I am not sure if Christy and Ted are a matching couple, but they are a witch and a clown.

 Shelly and Jesse are a Cowboy and Cowgirl! 

And our dear Darrin got to come this year too, as he was home with his girlfriend Mandy. I am not sure who Darrin is suppose to be but Mandy is that wonderful Uno Draw 4 card! 

Poor Mandy this is how she gets introduced to the whole family!

Hopefully she will come back to visit us again!!

Getting ready to go out and get that candy!!!

Mankato Marathon, 1/2 Marathon, 10K, Kids K

This is a posting I started several weeks ago, but never got it uploaded.  So here it is....

So a couple of weeks after our run in the cities with the Malecek's Marty and I ran with a few of the Sohre gang in Mankato.  This was the first year Mankato did a big event run.  They hosted a Marathon, Marathon Relay, 1/2 Marathon, 10K, and a Kids K (1K). 

Shelly and I did the 10K run which is 6.2 miles. This was Shelly's first run and she did very good. It was fun to run along with her and encourage her.  We had a few laughs along the way too. I was so proud of her to for training for over 2 months and then doing the run.  When I first was trying to convince her to sign up for the run, she kinda laughed... thinking it wasn't something she could do... then with a little perseverance and dedication...she did great!!! !

The rest of the Sohre clan were the cheerleaders which included my Mom, Wendy, Christy, and all our kids.  They caught us a couple of times along the trail and it was so much fun to see them cheering us on and holding the signs.

Marty and Ted did the 1/2 Marathon. Marty finished something like 1 hr 42 minute (I can't remember exactly), anyways he did pretty good. I was proud of him. This was Ted's first run. He did very good too!

Carter did the Kid's K which was held the evening before.  He did really good and I think was one of the top 10 finishers out of like 100 kids.  This was his first run too!! Good job Cart!

It was a great day for a run and was lots of fun to do something like this together. Maybe next year I will talk my other 2 sisters into participating!!!!

95 and Still Pickin'

95 and Still Pickin'

(This posting is copied for the most part from my sister Shelly's blog,

she didn't copyright it...so I thought it was fair game!)

My Grandpas is AMAZING! He defines the phrase, "living to the fullest". He is 95 years old and this fall he got back on that combine, which he hasn't done in years and years. He kept teasing my dad and uncle (who run the farm) that he was going to drive the combine this year. Well my dad wanted to see if he was bluffing and guess what? He wasn't. He crawled up there (on his own) and sat right down. My dad rode along with him but he truly did all the work. When he was done I went up to him to asked him how it went and his face told the story. He was beaming. He stated, "I'm slow but I catch on!". He usually spends most of the day running chisel plow or stalk chopper so this was a special day.

(This is written by Shelly, but I very much agree.)

I admire my grandfather for so many reasons but mostly I admire him for his attitude towards life. I have never seen my grandpa loose his cool. I have never seen him get upset about anything. Days come and go and you have to make the most of each day. He lives by that philosophy. I try my hardest to duplicate that in myself but let me tell you I am not as successful as my grandpa. Maybe by the time I am 95 I will have it down like he does. Until then I'll keep trying and keep learning from a man I love so very much. He is amazing and a blessing to all who know him.

My brother Darrin who lives in Washington DC decided to take a week of vacation and spend it helping out with the harvest.  I think he enjoyed himself and I know my Dad enjoyed having him help out.

3 Generations working the field: Darrin, Grandpa, Dad.

Random shots