Entering customs at Newark airport

Entering customs at Newark airport

As I write this, it’s Sunday September 9th, 2012. Tanner and I are settled down into the home of Cari’s parents for an unknown period of time, and all the girls are back in St. Martin.  Andi has begun 8th grade at Learning Unlimited, a private k-12 island school, and Tanner is enrolled at Highview Junior High in New Brighton, MN.

Nine weeks ago, Andi, Tanner and I left Saint Martin and flew back to Minneapolis.  Four weeks ago we were joined by Piper and Michelle, and two weeks ago Cari escaped finals and made it back here in time to squeeze in a short visit as well. One week ago, Carina, Andi, Piper and Michelle left to go back to the island, and Tanner and I stayed here.

It has been a crazy, intense nine weeks, full of the entire spectrum of emotions plus lots of catching up with friends and family.  We shuttled back and forth between St. Cloud and the Twin Cities, and managed to squeeze in a trip to Utah to see my family as well.

I’ll let the photos do most of the talking. My good camera was broken the entire extent of this trip, so this post is heavily indebted to the photography of others, and to the very few pics taken with my poor little ancient iPhone camera. Read the rest of this entry »

Our famly on the beach. I hope we'll have more chances to take photos together as a family on St. Martin.

Heavy Loads

My dad once told me that his dad used to tell him, “If you pray for a strong back, the Lord will give you a heavy load to carry.”   As a child, this expression always struck me as something a farmer would say, perhaps more so because my dad grew up on a farm where back-breaking hard work was the normal daily routine.  I’ve come to realize, however, that “heavy loads” don’t always mean farm animals or bales of hay.

The past few weeks at the Crookstons have been a time of heavy loads.  Collectively as a family, we have been hefting around the very real possibility of splitting up our family for the next 12 months until Carina is done with classes at AUC. Read the rest of this entry »

The Crookstons is proudly powered by WordPress and the Theme Adventure by Eric Schwarz
Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).

The Crookstons

Work hard. Play often. Be nice.