The Peace Gardens...

Enjoyed one of our last days of summer vacation at The Peace Gardens...an hour and 40 mins from Minot right on the border. We had a picnic, went frog hunting, explored the beautiful gardens all throughout the park, ate ice cream and had the most relaxing day! Here are a few for your enjoyment. Can't wait to go back...they better have some Coffee Crisps next time!!

thought I should post...

SOMETHING...since it's been forEVER! Things are definitely different around here now that we are in the recovery stage of the flood. Not a pretty site around our parts! The smell...not so good, either! Everybody should see this in person to know what has here happened here. I won't go on about the flood and the aftermath...mostly because I don't have time. So here are a few picture shares. Enjoy!

Minot Flood 2011

I've heard that all of the national news stations are or were covering Minot's Flood right now, but I wouldn't know that since our local news stations have been on continuous coverage since last Wednesday. It has been a whirlwind of craziness around here. Our town has over 12,000 displaced people, over 4,000 homes under water, 2 (for now) Elementary schools flooded and 1 Jr. High with water up to the roof and many businesses gone at this point. My 3 brothers and their families/dogs are evacuated and have homes under water. We are safe and up on the hill, but what we've witnessed over the last week has been intense to say the least. Luckily the river crested yesterday and it is slowly on it's way down. It is going to be a long, trying time before our town is back to normal. It's safe to say that it will never be the same. Many people will be displaced for months. But one thing is for sure, our town is known as the Magic City and it clearly is magical when the community works together to help each other out. Out of 12 thousand plus people, only 250 people are staying in shelters around town. That means that all of the other people displaced are with friends or family. And when everyone had less than 2 days to evacuate their homes...yes, that means getting EVERYTHING out of their house (or at least try to) so many people stepped up to help each other out. I hope I will never see anything like that again in my life.

Here are a few pictures of the sites around my area. I will have more, but getting around town is almost impossible at times. We've been doing a lot of walking, as many of the pictures I'm posting are just 6-7 blocks from our house.

*Taking in the flood sites*

* Probably won't be playing any golf for a looooong time*

Continued...

It was Girls Night Out last Saturday...Lala took us to the musical OLIVER!

* Thank you Lala *

My girls...

Jace usually has to hold the hose...he sprays it everywhere, so watch out!

Chillin by the pool...what we do best :-)

This was taken at the petting zoo...he loved watching the animals!

Can't Talk but...

here are a few more pics from TX. My hubby is buggin me about posting some for him, since he's back home missing out on all the fun! We are on our way out for a while...so no time to talk! This first shot is how Jace looks if we aren't in the pool. Diaper and boots. Hey, it's 95 degrees everyday! Gotta keep the kid cool, ya know?!

And now he's a little fishy again...he did this last year, but it took him over a week this time to get comfortable in the water again! Now we have to do everything in our power to keep him ABOVE water!!

More to come...