Family
Heartfelt updates about family milestones and everyday moments. From taking Mazie to college and annual visits to the Renaissance Festival to Swedish‑pancake breakfasts and VR outings with the kids, this category celebrates togetherness.
- Mark Eliason: These graphic pieces captivated me right away. The “John Wick” one had me staring at the detail for a long while.
- Neil Russell: Abstract art with intense colors and very pronounced textures.
- Wired by Bud: These wire sculptures were cool and made us all smile.
- Wenwen Liao: Incredibly artwork with cool scenes that sparked the imagination.
- Roth Illustration: These pieces were impressive and I loved how the people and shapes blended in with the wood and the scene.
- Bloom Key Papercrafts: These were really cool but hard to display as they are lit frames and that is difficult to show in the bright sunlight of an art fair. The scenes were really great and the lighting effects were well done.
- Barret Lee: I liked these paintings a lot.
- Faith Mebli: The organic look of the wood carvings that Mebli does is incredible. She had an Octopus that was at least five feet tall and incredibly eye catching.
- Carla Bank: Tammy and I were both very taken with Bank’s work, particularly the Blackbird piece. We really enjoyed all of her work.
- Hardwood Music Company: These make such cool and rich sounds, and they look amazing.
- Brian Schmidt: Mazie bought some prints of Schmidt’s last year and his style is very cool, the scenes suck you in.
- Andrew Carson: We’ve had a windmill from Andrew Carson for years and love it. We stopped by his section hoping to say Hello as he announced he is retiring shortly. I particularly find his kinetic sculptures fascinating!
- Tiny People Big Laughs: This is a regular at the art fair and the scenes with miniature people are always great.
- Naomi Tiry Salgado: The detail and scenes in these oil paintings were both modern and classic at the same time.
- A. D. Hogan: His National Parks Collection really struck a chord with me. I loved the style and bold look. Plus I’m a big fan of the National Parks.
Mazie Turns 18
Today we celebrated Mazie’s 18th Birthday! Both of the kids are out of school, and I took the day off, so we were able to make the day extra special for Mazie.
Tammy had the awesome idea of reliving each of Mazie’s 17 preceding birthdays! She wrote out a brief remembrance of each birthday event, along with a few photos from that year. Some of the years also revisited a gift she got from that year. It was awesome.
Highlights of the day included a morning visit to Shady Oak Beach, lunch at Yum! for her kid favorite of Mac & Cheese, a revisit of the Mad Tea Party at Zero Hour Escape Rooms that she did a few years ago with friends on her birthday (Room 50!), a new version of the Instax instant camera, and much more.
It was an incredible day with incredible memories — old and new!
Mazie’s High School Graduation today! It’s official!
Apple Vision Pro Reactions
We all watched the Apple Vision Pro segment of WWDC tonight. I wanted to watch it again, and I was curious to see what the rest of the family would think.
Tammy: “Looks cool but scared of where it takes us.”
Mazie: “Exciting, extremely cool, but destructive to humankind.”
Tyler: “Wow. I want to try it.”
Jamie: “When can I get one?”
Chess game with Tyler tonight. We both made a couple of major blunders, but he forced me to resign (I was black) and won the match. ♟️
Edina Art Fair 2023
We endured the very hot afternoon and visited the Edina Art Fair. This is one of our favorite art fairs every year. Some of the artists that caught our eye while we were there:
Today was Mazie’s last day of High School! 🎉 I took her out for our “last” last-day-of-school breakfast at Sun Street Breads before dropping her off at Washburn, and Mom welcomed her home with flowers to celebrate. 👩🎓
Levi and Tyler ran around after the Minnesota United game and collected signatures from: Bongokuhle Hlongwane (21), Sang Bin Jeong (11), Kervin Arriaga (33), and Joseph Rosales (8). They had an awesome time and the players were great! 👏⚽️
Did 10 stair repeats on our walk tonight. 320 steps. Also breaking in new boots for our hiking trip this summer. 🥾 Tammy joined me and Mazie decided to run them many, many times. 😅
Tyler started playing Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom tonight and the intro was great. I’m not a gamer, but the story and world of Zelda is great.
Tyler got to perform as part of the MN Statewide Honors Choir today. It was a lot of work but he enjoyed being part of it and the perfermance was great.
