On to State!

Veronica had a triumphant night last Friday. It was her first speech meet ever (she's been too busy with dance and voice lessons on Saturdays to attend any of the others). It also happened to be the class A section tournament. And she got first place in her category (Serious Interpretation of Drama)!

Here's a video of the award presentation of the finalists (there were 15 students total in her category):

 

She snapped this photo of us right before going into the final round:

 

These are all the first-place winners from MPA (they tend to dominate, having won the section tournament as a team for the last 26 years, plus the state title itself last year):

Here's the full MPA team (V is the only freshmen moving on to the next round):

She's been really busy lately! This week alone she has a callback at The Chanhassen dinner theater, three performances of Sweeney Todd (plus rehearsals), and then a state speech tournament. I'll let you know how it goes!

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Easter weekend 2026

We tie dyed the eggs this year:

 

Easter morning egg hunt:

It was too early in the morning to get too excited over anything:

Easter tulips and the group of us at church:

Brunch at Churchill St:

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Jeff turns 47

I had a nice birthday that seemed to stretched out over the course of a week!

Here's a look at the angel food cake R and Omri made for me (they ran out of strawberries on this side):

 

Beautiful cards from my kids!

The weekend before, I went out to a cocktail class at Parlour with my dear friend Dan:

The weekend after, I went out with R, which included a stop for drinks at the Foshay Tower:

Drinks seemed to be a theme this year... I used some of my birthday money to buy a bottle of Woodford Reserve Double Oaked (it's delish). On the right is a selfie that kind of represents my life right now (waiting for Veronica in the car).

I also got out on a photo drive that I'm calling the Trollhaugen Route, during which I managed to finish up a roll of film on a bunch of farmhouses... while it poured rain the whole time :-(. Here's a sample shot:

Anyway, thanks for the birthday love!

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The town of Cruz Bay

We were a ten-minute taxi ride away from the town of Cruz Bay, so we found ourselves there at some point on most days.

Sticker for Bemidji Brewing spotted in the photo on the right:

We ate at a restaurant (High Tide) along this beach:

We had some time to kill before a dinner reservation one evening, so we took a walk up this trail...

...to a spot overlooking the town:

It was great for portraits:

I think that's all we're going to do from St. John, unless I get the chance to sort through some outtakes. It was a fun trip, both relaxing and adventurous. The best part was time spent with family, making memories!

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The Westin

The Westin St. John was our home for the week. Here's where we had our first dinner there:

There was a nice beach practically right out our door.

Washed up sailboat:

We all managed to do quite a bit of reading!

The pool was nice, too, and not overly crowded.

These guys hung around the pool and sometimes went swimming with us!

Night swimming:

We spent two of our days just hanging around the resort.

Veronica with her friend, the rooster:

I didn't take enough photos of the inside of our condo. It was spacious, with two bedrooms and a mini kitchen.

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Maho Bay

Another day, another beach. 

This place was great for snorkeling:

And building sandcastles:

This guy showed up after a while:

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