Canyon's 11AA Baseball Are State Champs!!

Super exciting weekend for the last weekend of summer baseball. Canyon's team fought through with a tough weekend of long games to make it to the championship. The tournament included the top 40 teams in the state. In the championship, we took out Woodbury decisively to end an amazing season of baseball!. Great game. Great season!

Basillica 2013

No summer is complete without a trip to Basillica Block party. This summer had a great line up of bands. We were able to check out Mayer Hawthorne, ZZ Ward, and both Matt Nathanson and Grace Potter. Beautiful night and great live music!

Weekend in Spooner, Wisconsin

We were fortunate to be invited to our pals' cabin in Spooner, Wisconsin. Presley represented the Pergandes for the entire weekend with some of her favorite pals. Canyon was in a baseball tournament so Mom and Dad had to divide and conquer. It was a super great trip and we were excited to share in the experience -- including a rodeo, tubing, showering in the lake, and late night bonfires. Super fun trip with some super great pals.

Stanley Cup Comes to Eden Prairie

We were very excited to get an encounter with the Stanley Cup. Nick Leddy, from the Blackhawks, is originally from Eden Prairie. He was the first Blackhawk to get the cup and he brought the cup back to Eden Prairie to celebrate the Blackhawks' 2013 Championship. Canyon got to touch the cup with some of his pals. A real honor and a super cool experience for Canyon.

The Town of Medora

Theodore Roosevelt National Park is situated right next to Medora. Medora is an old historic town. While in town, we saw the local holiday parade, a cowboy shootout, the Knotty Pine peanut bar and the ice cream shop. We also went to the famous Medora Musical, which started off with a pitch fork steak fondue. Cute and kitschy! The kids highlight was running into the star of "High Voltage", a variety act featured at the musical after the show at the Bunkhouse.

Petrified Forest and Painted Canyon

We took two great hikes into the National Park. The first was Petrifed Forest, which is a "forest" of fossils and petrified trees that were buried by flood deposits and volcanic ash. We hiked through the prairie to get to the Petrified Forest. It was a super cool hike that ended with the cattle were waiting for us by our car.







When Grammie came to town, we started our visit at the Painted Canyon. After a short ranger program, we talked Grammie into a mile hike into the bottom of the Canyon. Initially she didn't want to do it. But she did great and it was a beautiful hike. We then ventured over to a tour of Theodore Roosevelt's Maltese Cross Cabin, with Emily, a cool forest ranger, that taught us a lot on this trip. While in Medora, we stayed at the Bunkhouse, an interesting economical lodging (kids loved it because it had a pool).

Exploring Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Theodore Roosevelt National Park was a real nice surprise. The scenery was beautiful and we experienced a ton of wildlife sightings including wild horses, bison, prairie dogs, deer, and elk. Our first day, we drove the 36 mile loop around the park and enjoyed some easy hikes to some beautiful vistas

Boicourt Overlook Trail



Morning Deer Sighting



The Prairie Dogs in Prairie Town


Top of Wind Canyon Trail



Top of Buck Hill Trail



Pausing Along Coal Vein Trail



Elk Sighting



Buffalo Sighting

Drive and Arrival in Theodore Roosevelt National Park

We left Bismarck for the 2 hour drive to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. North Dakota is filled with many interesting sights. Enroute to the park, we stopped in New Salem to see the famous Holstein Cow.



En route, we also we got a glimpse of the Enchanted Highway, which includes a gallery of large metal sculptures along the highway. We only had time to check out the flying geese. Will save the other sculptures for our next visit!



We arrived at the amazing Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the scenic northern "badlands" along the Missouri River. One of our first views was from the lookout point at Skyline Vista.



We set up camp at Cottonwood Campground along the Missouri River. We set up shop, making dinner, roasting marshmallows, playing dominoes, and learning about the CCC and the importance of night at our nightly ranger talks.



The wildlife is abundant at the park. We awoke to some wild horses wandering through our campsite. Fun start to our visit in the park!

Visit to Grammie in Bismarck, North Dakota

Pergande family made our first trip to North Dakota to visit Grammie in her new home state. We started our adventure in Bismarck. We took a trip to the super cute Dakota Zoo, where all the animals are super happy. We saw the bears chasing each other, monkeys coming to say hello, and the badgers showing off their digging skills.



Took Grammie to Central Market to see Mom's new product launch of Pillsbury Fresh Pancake Batter.



And then we explored sister town Mandan, with an inaugural trip to the annual Rodeo and a glance at the famous Broken Oar (kids not allowed).




Before we left town, we enjoyed lunch with Grammie at Peacock Alley before heading to Medora and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Fun first visit!

Summer Solstice 2012

This year's summer solstice party was definitely one of our best to date. We were blessed with amazing weather. About 150 people came out to our party this year. We kicked off the party with a visit from the B52 Slider Squad Food truck. We had two bartenders featuring the Summer Solstice Punch, Mosquito Mojito, Sunset Sangria and Summer Shandy beer. We enjoyed fun yard games. And we topped off the night with an amazing performance from Track 7 and a bonfire. Great night, great food, great friends!!! Here's to Summer 2013!!