I love the Minnesota summer, and have been enjoying our neighborhood outings, with Brandy on her leash, and Emmett in the stroller. Jess sometimes rides her bike. But I’ve been pretty stressed out at work lately, so I was very glad for a break which we are using to head out to Atascadero, California via San Francisco. My brother is the Director of Wine Making at EOS Estate Winery, and we are staying with him and Kristin at their beautiful new house.

We caught a Sun Country flight from Minneapolis/St. Paul to San Francisco on the 15th at about 10pm. We got into SF at about Midnight, and to the hotel by 1am (local time). We were wiped out tired, but Emmett and Jess were perfect on the plane. Jess really liked flying, and Emmett only fussed for a total of about one minute the whole time!

The problems began at the hotel. We checked in fine, and got to the room, but Emmett would not sleep for anything. He finally fell asleep around 2:30am, but woke up at about 4:30am. We got a total of two hours sleep, and then I went and got the rental car from the International airport.

I picked up the family in San Bruno, and then we set off on the 101 heading north; our route was up across the Golden Gate, then down highway 1 along the coast to Watsonville. Turning inland, we would head through Salinas, stopping to pickup a few baby necessities, and then continue down 101 to Atascadero.

It was unfortunate and awesome that the fog was in, and as thick as it was. It was absolutely gorgeous, but the shroud of fog was enough to keep the tops of the towers hidden. We went across, stopping at the scenic viewing area, and then turned heading south. Going across again, we managed a few photos, and then we paid the toll, and exited onto Highway 1.

To be continued…

My Maternal Grandmother’s 80th Birthday is coming up in September. As a part of the preparations, my parents have been going through boxes and albums of photos and scanning them. They sent a couple of them last night, and I thought I’d share, as we all like photos of old cars.

The first is my Grandmother pumping water in front of her parent’s house. The house was torn down back in the 80’s; the land it was on was purchased by a concrete and paving company, and is now a gravel pit.

The second photo is of my Grandparents together. I think the girl in the background is one of my Grandfather’s 12 siblings.

The final photo is of my Mother and her younger brother, along with their dog Sam. I’m not sure what car is in the background… a Galaxy, perhaps?

Anyways, I was just excited to see the photos, and thought I’d share.

-Ben

Image via Wikipedia

A couple years ago Michelle and I bought a used Volvo S80 T6. Since it was used, we bought an aftermarket warranty from Ultimate Warranty Corporation. It’s a pretty darned nice car. Lots of power, very comfortable, haven’t had a single problem with it problem with it until the day after Emmett was born.

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I sent an email off last night to a bunch of people I know who I thought might appreciate this photo. I was holding my little boy, and he grabbed hold of my thumb like he does… I asked Michelle to grab the digital camera and I snapped the photo. I can’t stop looking at it… it’s not that the photo is anything special, it’s not my composition, it’s the perfect little fingers that God gave our son.

Just think… in a few years, they’ll be greasy, and dirty like his dad’s!

Well, on the 7th of January at 5:20pm, Michelle gave birth to Emmett Curtis Carlson at the Wyoming, MN hospital. Mom and him are doing really good! He was 6lbs 10oz, and 19-3/4″ long. We have had about three hours of sleep so far, and are either coming home today or tomorrow. He was almost a month early, and I’m hoping his first car show will be the World of Wheels Extreme show in St. Paul at the RiverCentre at the end of the month.

For Christmas, I took a photo of Michelle in front of our Christmas tree. She wasn’t too happy about it, but she sure does look good!

Ben