Camping

We love living close to cousins! We went camping with Matt and Alisa's families - By the way it was on our anniversary that we all snuggled up in the tent. Romantic huh?!?!? We had lots of fun!

If you couldn't find Jane or Wyatt this is where they were. They were fascinated with the water that happened to be right by our camp site.

We went on a nice hike and ended up at this waterfall. We hiked in the water up to the fall and then were able to climb behind the fall. It was so fun!

Jane was going to town on the marshmallows!!

Breakfast time! Ryan, Alisa, and Owen

The next morning we enjoyed a great breakfast and no sooner than we were done these dark clouds came rolling in. We started packing up quick and as the trunks were being closed to the cars and all was loaded it down poured like CRAZY! We made it just in the nick of time!!

11 Years!!

With our move and most of us being sick, our anniversary snuck up on me this year. I woke up in the morning to find chocolate spelling out 11 years and found 11 roses on the kitchen table.

Look who came to visit!!

Have I mentioned how much we miss our friends?!?!!?!?! Well, I miss them terribly and was MORE than HAPPY when Sara decided to bring her girls and visit! What a friend. She is lucky I let her leave. I could have had them stay for much much longer! Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate much for us and thwarted any plans for swimming but that didn't matter. It's not hard to have fun with friends around.

Ethan, Jane, Libby, Lucy, Jenna, and Lucas

The kids were really excited to eat cupcakes for Libby's birthday which we missed by just a couple of days! Happy 8th birthday Libby!
Sara painted all the girls' toenails....including Janes! It was her first pedicure. She quite liked it.

Jane's piggy feet!

Jane was of course so happy to be reunited with Sara!

And speaking of pedicures.....sara and I treated ourselves to pedicures. It was so wonderful!
We went down town to visit the sculpture garden (i think that's what it's called). It started to rain as we left but sure it would clear by the time we got there we went anyway. Well, no luck! It rained for the rest of the day. So we snapped a quick picture and headed to the Science museum.




Llibby and Lucy were fascinated with being on tv at the museum

Libby and Ethan

Love this picture because on several occasions in Bloomington sara and I would end up driving somewhere in her van with ALL the kids.


Thanks for coming!!

4th of July

Our 4th of July didn't quite go as planned. I woke up REALLY sick on Friday morning....so sick that Andy stayed home ( and he has never had to do this for me since we got married). Alisa and Ryan were planning to come over Sunday night and stay the weekend but that didn't end up happening because I was so sick. Andy ended up taking the kids to see fire works on the 4th. They loved it!
p.s. I ended up being sick for 9 days....it was awful!

Sweet Cereal Day

Growing up, it was tradition to go during the summer and pick out our own box of sweet cereal. We never had it during the year but each summer we got our very own box. My kids have enjoyed carrying on this tradition. Last week I took the kids to get their sweet cereal. They came home and ate some for lunch. As you can see, Lucky Charms was a big hit this year!

It's jam time!!

It's fun being close to family and I was really looking forward to making jam with Camie and Alisa this summer. I haven't made jam for 2 years because we were in school so it was fun to do it again. We made a giant mess in Camie's kitchen but by mid afternoon we were done. It was lots of fun!

Don't be fooled!! Matt had no part in helping but he arrived home in time to taste!!

Thanks mom!

I can't thank my mom enough!! She is a wonderful wonderful woman! She came to town to help me get unpacked and organized. She worked for 3 solid days - up late and up early. By the time she left I felt like I could function like a normal person - although I still have a lot to do. I couldn't have done it without her!! Thanks mom for everything!!

Fun with grandma, grandpa, and cousins!

4 days after getting into our home my parents made a visit to the twin cities! We were, of course, in the middle of chaos so I didn't take as many pictures as normal. We had a fun filled weekend with them and I think my camera came out only once. However we had lots of fun having them here.

We went to a great farm where the kids could see how life was in the olden days. It was fun because the kids were allowed to join in on the work that had to be done. They had fun gardening, picking bugs off lettuce and washing it for lunch, fetching water from the well (that was Lucas'favorite thing to do!!). It was a fun day! And we had a great weekend with everyone. It was nice to put all the packing on hold for the weekend. We ended up staying the entire weekend at Matt and Camie's house. It wasn't the plan but we were having too much fun!! Thanks guys!!




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Look at our yard!

Our yard has yet to be put in and as much as I can't wait for grass to be laid, the dirt has provided endless amounts of entertainment for the kids! It's quite a mess to clean after they are done but there is something about kids playing in the dirt that I LOVE!

We have all been fascinated with the trucks in our yard. They get so close to the house the kids think it's going to bust through the glass door.

Jane has not been a fan of these giant trucks in our yard! She gets very nervous every time they are near! Here she is checking one out followed by a face of uncertainty!

Ethan got stuck in the mud! It was funny!