Face Plant

Jack Henderson (11 months) - Looking good Nick!
Far right Amy Lembcke and Brant Paulson catch up.
Whack a ball with a stick!

Last night we had a nice gathering with friends. Three families (Paulson/Hovden Lembcke/Henderson and the Dockertys) got together for a nice summer dinner. Ryan Paulson and Darla Hovden had us over to Dwight and Donna Paulson's home in Mendota Heights, MN. When I first lived in Minnesota I lived at the Paulson home while I was working as an intern for KPMG. Visiting their home again brought back all sorts of good memories of living with the Paulson family. They were so wonderful to me that summer, took me in just like their own daughter. I drove past the tennis courts that Ryan, Brant and I would often play at. To think that was 10 years ago! Oh the memories... Ryan and Brant are good friends of mine from college. Brant is pretty much the reason I ended up doing a semester abroad in London. THANKS BRANT! As sad as it is to admit, it is true that interest in a boy, or was it the boys interest in me?? is what got me to look into a semester in Europe! Both Brant and Ryan were majoring in accounting at the University of Wisconsin with me. Ryan has stayed in the public accounting role and is currently working to be partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers and he and his family are living in Tokyo! They have been there for a year now and were just back here visiting for a few weeks. Mike and I would really like to take a trip to visit them in the next year or two. They seem to be having a fantastic time and are really taking in a lot of the culture. Darla posts a wonderful blog about their adventures the things her and Ryder have discovered and eaten are amazing! It was really nice to see them again. Ben and Ryder had a good time playing together. It is always so fun to see how they interact as these two boys have been getting together since they were babies. Ryder is just one month older than Ben. There was a lot of discussion on who was going to beat who at the game of whack the ball with a stick. There was not much of a game per say just a lot of trash talk on who was going to win the game. Emily wanted to play too but she was not a very dependable team mate. And after she took the face plant (literally) off the deck into a bush she was pretty much a wreck. She is fine just a few scratches on her face, enough that this morning the first thing her Nanny said was, "Who did she get into a fight with?" I replied, "Oh she took a face plant into a bush". And then Paulette said, "Oh she got bush whacked".