NEW HOME UPDATE

Update – as of 12:30pm today (8-29) Erick and I “officially” joined the ranks as new home owners. Yeah!! Closing went well – although my hand really hurts from all the signatures. There must have been 80 apiece. We will be moving some items over the next two weekends and will have the movers here for all the big furniture items and such on September 12th for our official move in day. It is our hope that we will be able to have a house warming/open house event by the end of the year. Please know that each and every one of you will be welcome to visit.
Kim

A fun week end in Chicage

Hello to all
just want to say Hi. Ken and I spent the week end in Chicago to see Brian and Sarah. We did lots of walking. Kim, we walked the magnificent mile, of course, we had to walk 3 miles to get to the mile. Brian was too tired to walk back, so we had to take the train back to his place. On Sat morning we went to the beach, always a necessity if the weather is nice. The dogs really enjoy running along the beach and getting their swim in. Hope everyone else had a great week end.

Savannah

Little Savannah had her surgery yesterday and everything went very well! It turned out to be a diaphragmatic hernia, so surgeons went through her belly, had to bring down the loop of small intestine and part of her liver that had crept through the hole in her diaphragm and squished her right lung. The hole was repaired, and Savannah's belly looks a bit distended due to swelling and the rearranging of her intestines to prevent further growth problems with them.
Both the doctor and the surgeons were confident that Savannah would be moving forward in no time at all, and the NICU doctor has been extremely impressed with Savannah for treading water so successfully all this time as she grew for surgery, and feels that she'll be very healthy when she comes home with us.
We're hopeful this will only be about another six weeks - but we'll have to wait and see, pray for no further problems, and keep our faith.

Bridge

Thanks Ann for all your good thoughts. Erick and I are fine and we have checked on all our friends who live in the area. All are ok. The scariest moment came when talking with Gretchen and knowing she takes the bridge twice a day. She had just been on the bridge ½ hour before the collapse.
Kimberly Hofer

New Home

Hi there – I hope this is the right process in going about getting something on the website as I have yet to figure out how else to do anything. As most of you learned at the family reunion – Erick and I have finally begun the process of hunting for a new home. After looking at several less than exciting places we have found one. We made an offer Thursday afternoon and by Thursday night it was accepted and we owned our very first.

The home is in Coon Rapids and is a 4 bedroom/2 bath 1 ½ story. The home came from an estate sale and the same family had owned it their whole life. The basement is unfinished – which we loved – and Erick is already planning the in home studio. It will be tough to keep him on budget. We have a corner lot – lots of yard space but thankfully no sidewalk shoveling as there are none. The backyard is fenced in and I am already thinking where the new garden spot will go next year. We are set to close on August 29th and would plan to move in during the month of September (we have the apartment until Sept. 30).
I will try to remember to bring some pictures from the\nwebsite this next weekend
I will try to remember to bring some pictures from the website this next weekend. See you all soon.

Kim

Hello Everyone

Hello Everyone,Well we made it home. It was a wonderful vacation andwe had a lot of fun. The first day we were there wehad a yearling bull moose run across the road in frontof our vehicle. They really grow their moose big upthere. They usually stand about seven feet tall atthe shoulders. We also was a cow moose and her calfseveral times while we were there. They actually wereeating in the back yard of the house we were stayingat. I got some really cute pictures of the littleone. We went halibut fishing on the ocean twice whilewe were there. The largest halibut we caught wasaround 90 pounds. I am sending you a picture of Bobholding one that weighted a little less than that. Weall caught halibut, and I must tell you that they area real challenge to pull in. Bob helped pull in the90 pounder. He had to haul it up twice off thebottom. The first time he got it to the surface itdecided to go back down.The scenery is breathtaking up there. On one of oursight seeing expeditions we got to see mountain goats. We also got to hike up to the Exit Glacier. I wasamazed at how blue the ice is in it.We went salmon fishing on the Kenai River a couple oftimes and were fortunate enough to see several baldeagles along the banks of the river. Bob didn't catchany King salmon, but he did catch a really nicerainbow (about 20 inches) and some Dolly Vardins. Oneof the people in his boat did get lucky enough tocatch a 50 pound king. The salmon were not runningwhen we were up there. It was a couple of weeks tooearly. Bob says that he will have to go back now sohe can catch a King.Bob just talked to our friend and his son told himthat after we left someone caught a 358 pound halibutout of the same port that we put out of. Evidentiallythe big boys finally showed up.Bob and Julie

Message to Teresa

Hi Teresa
I see you have left a couple of comments about your new boyfriend and his son.
If you would like to write anything about them, send it to hayesfamily9@gmail.com
and then it will be posted on the blog----just alittle easier than everyone going to
the comments. That way you can tell us all at one time how things are going for you.
Sorry you missed the reunion. Take care and have a great day. If you (or anyone)
want to send anything directly to me, my email is annstorlie@yahoo.com
Love Ann