Our Kids and Grandkids

On October 30th, 2016, Sophie turned 8 years old.  We celebrated all together at her home in Brooklyn Park on Friday, October 21st, because Jenny and family were in town from Tioga, North Dakota.

My grandchildren, Mia and Sophia Orsen, Addie and Gunnar Norgaard.

Daughter Jenny and the girls.

The big kids, Nick and Christopher, Jen and Jenny.

Grandma Sue gets in the picture.

Grandpa Al gets in the picture.

When opportunity knocks to get a picture of my kids and grandkids all together, I open the door.

Gunnar and Mia played basketball outside for a while.

Back home in Victoria, we showed Jenny and Chris and kids some of the new sights in Victoria — like the new location of Enki Brewing.

It’s spacious and bright and we sat at this bar to have one of Enki’s craft beers.

We peered over the edge to see the beer production equipment.  Enki cut a hole in the floor of the two-story building (the former HEI) to accommodate the needed height.

John Hayes of Victoria is an Enki owner.  His partner is Dan Norton.

Explained John, “Those are spent grains being hauled out by Dan Hesse.  After we soak the grain (malted barley) in hot water to extract sugars, the leftover material — for example, fiber and protein — is fed to Danny’s cows.”

There are still cornfields in Victoria, Minnesota, and Gunnar went out to pick a couple ears for the squirrels.

Gunnar loves everything to do with fields and farming.

It’s hard to beat the fall colors surrounding the St. Victoria Catholic Church.

We showed them the Hartman Barn that is under construction on Bavaria Road next to the Tree Farm. 

The barn was first built on a farm in Indiana 150 years ago.  A company near Brainerd takes the barn apart, numbers all the ancient timber, and sells it for reconstruction.  Jeff Hartman brought one to Victoria.

Jenny and family left Victoria on a beautiful fall day.

Thank you for coming, kids.  Love you.

Actually, it’s hard to beat the fall color in our very own yard.