**In Memory of Ben** UPDATED

Check out this video, it's an amazing story to add to the life of Ben Kopp.

ABC News Video

Gillette Children's Firefighter's Carnival

On Tuesday, it was the 50th Annual Gillette Children's Firefighter's Carnival.
The kids had a blast and the best part, it was all free. Awesome prizes, pony rides, hot dogs, ice cream and drinks, all free!
Emily loved the pony rides and could have gone on a ride 100 times. Louie wanted no part of the pony rides. He did get a prized possession for a prize... a slinky with a the Jolly Roger on it (the pirate flag!)
Lots of fun, but not very many pictures....(I was not the photographer!)

In Memory of Ben

Emily, Louie and I drove down to Rosemount this morning to go to the funeral of Ben Kopp. Ben is the son of my co-worker, Jill Stephenson. He was an Army Ranger and was injured in Afghanistan on July 10. It was a beautiful day and the ceremony was amazing.
The Patriot Guard was there.



There was a bagpipe player there, Emily and Louie were quite fascinated by him. Of course, the second that I heard the bagpipes playing, I got all choked up.

Officers from Ben's Ranger Unit were there to honor him.

And when his casket was removed from the hearse, a Blackhawk helicopter flew in and hovered about 100 feet above the casket for about 30 seconds and then it very slowly rises up. It was pretty spectacular to see this. Louie was fascinated by it.


I told my kids while we were driving down there what we were going to see. Louie asked if Ben was going to Heaven, with Papa and Jesus and the Angels? I also told them that when they see all the flags and the one on the casket, they should stand quiet with their hands on their heart. Surprisingly, they did it.
Today got me thinking of all the men and women serving our Country in the military and how grateful I am for their service. Ironically, my boss Gil Hernandez, is leaving today for his 7 month deployment in Iraq. We're all praying for his safe return!

Monday

Today was a hot and lovely day. Dan had baseball, so I took the kids over to the wading pool for a little fun.

And this is what happens when the boy whose boat you borrowed, goes home. Poor kid, forgot his boat at home and we can't go to the pool without a boat.

85 and sunny!

Sunday was a beautiful start to a gorgeous day! After church, I took the kids over to the Wabun Park wading pool. It was lovely. We stayed until after lunch and then home for naps.

After naps, I filled up the pool in the back yard to cool off a bit. Emily enjoyed lounging in the pool.

What kids don't love to play with electronics??? Louie's favorite is the Flip. Emily is into Dan's old cell phone.
Then the ice cream truck and I went for the mom of the year award, again. Ice cream and chicken nuggets for dinner! Louie picked out the Batman ice cream thing.
Emily wanted the Pink Panther.

They loved it! Who doesn't love ice cream?

Don't ask.....

We had a friend over for dinner on Saturday night. I went inside for a second and came out to find this in my chair. Emily said that she wanted to try her mommy's beer....one sip and she decided that she didn't like it. Is she my child?? maybe not????

cheap toys

Last Thursday afternoon, we bought some new patio furniture. Turns out that the boxes are the cheapest toys we have ever had for our kids to play with. When we were outside after dinner, some U of M student was going door to door for MPIRG, he was yammering on about BPA in our drinking water...I was not paying attention because Louie and Emily announced that they were sleeping in the cardboard box that night. I told the MPIRG guy that we had our own little activist movement going on.

Bedtime stories

This past week, Dan started reading the kids a "chapter book." He chose the Little House books to start with. He's never read them. They started with Little House in the Big Woods.

Sleep over

Lorenzo had a sleep over at our house tonight. Louie was very excited to share his room with him. We will see how it goes, I told him that he wasn't supposed to get out of bed until he heard Lorenzo talking in his crib. We waited until Lorenzo was asleep before Louie went to his bed. Lou was so cute, he tip toed into his train bed to be quiet!
But before they came in the house, all three of them had a popsicle out on the front step.

He was watching the other two so closely to see how they did it. Lorenzo hardly made any mess and he is so good at following directions!

We'll see what it's like around here in the morning! Pancakes!

How to be a pirate ......

Wednesday night, I took the kids to the Mall of America to get a fun pirate shirt at the Janie & Jack store. Louie found this pirate ship hat there too. He's excited to have something to wear for his upcoming pirate themed birthday party next month.

When we were in the Janie & Jack store, Emily announced that she would like something too. So, we found these cute sunglasses in the sale bin. She loves them!!