Luke & Avery's 18th Birthday

Luke & Avery's 18th Birthday

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for July 16, 2017

On Monday night, I connected with my old buddy, Tom Gray.  He's doing great and we had a pleasant conversation catching up on each other's lives.  Plus, we ate at Chili's which always makes for a great evening.

On Wednesday morning, we were invited to the Prior Lake Rotary Club meeting.  Avery was honored to receive a scholarship from the organization and they had him come in so they could present it.  It was a very proud moment for us.

During the meeting, we had the pleasure of sitting with the Superintendent of Prior Lake & Savage Area Schools, Dr. Teri Staloch.  She's always very nice to our family.

On Thursday night, Grandma Linda stopped by to wish Luke & Avery an early Happy Birthday.  She brought a cookie cake so we were all very excited to welcome her in with open arms.  Even Blue couldn't keep his eyes off of it.

This is my workplace.  I work for Oracle selling enterprise software and my office is in the middle of downtown Minneapolis.   So this is my regular view on most weekdays.

On Friday, my buddy, Mike, and I walked down to US Bank Stadium.

  

The X Games were taking place there this weekend and I was hoping if we wandered down, we might be able to sneak in and see some of the action.

We didn't have any luck, though.  They had everything pretty well fenced off and there didn't seem to be much going on inside yet.  I watched some of the events on TV, though, and it looked like it was a pretty cool place to be.

On Friday, Luke & Avery officially turned 18 years old and a couple of friends came over to go to Mystic Lake Casino with them.  It's like one of the only new privileges you get when you turn 18 and they didn't want to waste any time going there to check out the place.  Their friends were curious to see how many times Luke would get carded and they weren't disappointed.  They had security come up to them on 5 different occasions to request ID.  It's the little things that get us excited.

Later that night, the boys had several more friends over to see what kind of mischief they could create.  

Happy Birthday, Luke & Avery!!

On Saturday, we went boating with our good friends, Jen & Dan Walters.  It was really, really hot and the only place that sounded fun to go was in the water!

We went out to Candy Cove and swam around with other boaters as well as some ducks and fish.  The water felt extremely refreshing.

On the way back home, we stopped at a bird party.  These guys get pretty rowdy so you gotta watch out when you're around them.

This guy kept giving us an awkward eye so we got out of there.  We weren't looking for any trouble.

We ended the evening at Red Lobster for a little Crabfest.  Usually Miss Sheri and I do our best to avoid crabs, but when we're with the Walters, it's anything goes.