Busy past few weeks

Hello Friends and family…

It has been a very busy past few weeks for Carey and I. As summers usually are for us both busy and go way to fast. July started out with the Holiday weekend, we actually had a relatively quiet weekend. We bought a small pool from my sister because they can’t use it anymore. Their town requires all pools 15” high or higher must have a fence around them. So we bought the pool for ourselves and for when the kids come up and visit. We got the pool filled and the next day tested it out. The water was still very cold but after being in it for a while it wasn’t bad. We used the pool like three times that week and have used it several more times since. On the 14th we made our annual drive to Willmar, Mn for the Sonshine music festival. We got there about 3pm. It was very hot and humid while we put our tents up, then a storm came through while we were putting up our canopy. We were all so hot that we just kept working on it and all got soaked. It felt so good and after the storm went through then it was much cooler and the humidity went down. We hung out at the campsite for a while then went to main stage to see remedy drive and family force 5. After the show we went back to the campsite and tried to get some sleep. None of us slept well however because our airbeds went flat and the kids made to much noise. Thursday was another hot day but we were prepared with spray fans, sunscreen, ice, water and Carey and Jeremy had covers on their chairs to help keep them out of the sun. We saw 11 bands several new ones and most that were actually totally our type of music but we still listened. Friday was more of our type of music unfortunately we had to miss some of our favorite bands because both stage 2 and main stage had bands we wanted to see. Stage 2 won out though because they had bands we either haven’t seen very much or in my case not at all. I took my video camera and was able to video tape some of the bands, the one I was most excited to see was the O.C. Supertones. I had never seen them and was destined to never see them since they broke up in 2005. But they decided to do a reunite tour this summer so I got my chance to see them. They were super, awesome, amazing and great. We saw a total of 12 bands on Friday and the Newsboys closed out the evening is typical awesome Newsboys style. They have just released a new album called “Born Again” and are on the Born Again tour right now so they had some all new elements to their show that was totally amazing.

Saturday was a slower day since a lot of the bands we hadn’t heard of or had already seen. So part of the afternoon we spent at the campsite trying to stay cool and played some games. The main stage started up early because of the threat of severe weather so we got over there late. About 7pm they shutdown the main stage and sent everyone to their cars because severe weather was closing in. They did not lie, about ten minutes after getting to our car the winds and rains came. We were all worried about our tents because we were watching other tents getting blown away by the strong winds. The storm was past in about 15 minutes later and we went to the campsite to see what damage we had. Praise God our tents were still standing strong and nothing got wet. The only thing we lost was the canopy which wasn’t a huge loss. We picked up the canopy then headed back to main stage and saw the last two bands of the night TFK (thousand foot krutch) and Skillet play. Neither band disappointed though I would have liked to seen TFK play longer. I video taped some of both the final two bands. Sunday we made the trip home and arrived about 11:30. We got our swim suits on and jumped in the pool cuz we were all very dirty since we didn’t hadn’t taken a shower since Wednesday. The pool felt great, then we unloaded the car and sat down to unwind for a while. We all had a great time but we were so glad to be home. This past weekend my nieces, Breanna and Rebecca, and my nephew Jordon came to our place for the weekend. I picked them up Friday night, we had dinner then played bowling and super mario brothers on the wii. After the kids got tired of that then we went downstairs and watched a movie before going to bed. I got up Saturday morning, started laundry and got the kids some breakfast. Then the did some coloring before Carey got up. We went upstairs and did some crafts for a while before making dinner and heading down to Minneapolis for the big aquatennial fireworks show sponsored by Target. We waited at the Nicollet Island park from 5:30 till the fireworks started at 10. The kids had fun playing with the bubble wands and paddle ball we got them. The fireworks lasted about 20 minutes and it was the best 20 minutes I have spent watching fireworks. We got home about midnight, I went to bed but Carey and the kids stayed up for a while and watched a movie. Sunday morning I got up at 9 again but the kids were still sleeping. I got them up at 10:30 and we watched a movie. Carey got up about 11:30 and watched the end of the movie with us. Once that finished we went upstairs and did another craft before going out in the pool for a while. Got out of the pool about 3, packed up the car and headed to St Croix Falls to meet Chad, Melissa and my parents at the KFC. We had a nice dinner and visited for a while before going our separate ways. Yesterday I had to buy a new pool at Menards because the pump on ours died. The new pool cost $60 so we did that instead of a new pump which would have cost $20. We put the new pump on last night and this morning the pool was a little less green. We’ll see what happens, hopefully it will clear up otherwise we’ll have to drain it and re-fill it.

This weekend will be a quieter weekend, just have church and a church business meeting Sunday. Next weekend on the 7th we are having a birthday party for my mom cuz she turns 70 on August 10th. I can’t believe July is almost over. The summers just go by way to fast. That is about all from us for now. We will try to keep posting on here regularly…

God Bless
Michael and Carey Granica

Here are a few pictures from Sonshine and the fireworks… Hope you enjoy them!!!!