Summer With Family

Man am I behind on the blogging.  Summer has just flown by and I have really neglected posting.  So....I have a little catching up to do.  I'm going to do it with pictures and minimal words.  It's the only chance I have people.

In July most of my family was here at one time or another.  We had so much fun visiting, and the kids had great times with their cousins.



Calvin taking a phone call mid-swim.



Jillian and Greyson....two peas in a pod.  Couldn't they pass for brother and sister?



Jilly and Auntie Sara



Nana and Jilly




Miss Tate



Jilly became very attached to my cousin Megan.  She is seven and Jillian thought she was one of the coolest people she knows.  You could often find them together.

We spent many hours in the pool!



Nathan and my Uncle Dave



Monica strutting her stuff!



Lucien is a fish!



Nathan after an ice cream cone. Does he have the life or what?



Greyson tried to convince me that his goggles help him breathe under water.  I gotta tell ya....I watched him use them and I'm not buyin it.





Calvin and Ben



These four (Calvin, my nephew Will, and my cousins Kayla and Megan) spent every waking moment together.  They had SO much fun!



This is Nathan riding Patty's scooter.  Patty is a guest at the resort and she just let him take this thing and go.  It was absolutely hilarious watching him drive and beep the horn like it was his job!  Jillian got pretty excited too.

A Weekend Away

This weekend we took a little mini family vacation.  The highlights were the zoo and the Twins game.  I think our favorite part of the zoo was the Grizzly Bears.  When we've seen them in the past they have been pretty low key.  That was not the case this time.  One was swimming past the window where we were standing when the other bear entered the water.  They began to wrestle and fight like crazy.  It was so cool....the kids just loved it!

Jillian enjoyed watching the fish that were swimming with the bears too.

One of Nathan's favorite parts was the tractor ride down to the farm.  He was extremely excited about this!



It was a great day at the zoo.  The next day we left the younger kids behind and headed to the Twins game.  It was an absolutely beautiful day and oddly enough we saw a great game!  The Twins haven't been playing so well lately, but this day they won 11-4!  There was lots of excitement with these two!



Here they are trying to get autographs before the game.  Unfortunately we didn't get any this time.

T.C. was hanging out behind our seats so we got a quick shot...

We had a great time, but mostly it was just nice to get away as a family and spend some quality time together.  A fantastic way to spend one of our last weekends of summer.







Is Fall on the Way?

Because it sure looked like it around here today!

Calvin thought it was awesome that I drew the black on his eyes with a marker.  Jilly had to join in too.  Sadly, I forgot to put the marker away.  When I came into the room later I found this...

We decided to make tonight a bath night.



A Great Day!

Today we had the best day!  We made a last minute decision this morning to go visit our dear friends who moved away earlier this summer.  We were anxious to see each other so even though we wouldn't have a lot of time together we decided to go just for lunch.  I'm SO glad we did.  The kids played and played and played without any problems.  And Kristin and I talked like we have never talked before!  It was just the perfect three hours.

The kids were so happy to see each other......





We attempted to get a good photo of everyone.  That's always entertaining!

Sophie was not the only one feeling this way when we had to leave....



Thanks for an awesome day guys!  We love your new house and it feels good to know you're not THAT far away.  Can't wait till next time!

What a Relief!

Marc is out of town this weekend and the kids and I are finding our own fun.  Otherwise known as...ways to fill  our days so we don't sit around the house and get crabby with each other.  We've actually had a lot of fun.  We went to Target today and bought all of our school supplies!  Nothing says fun like buying school supplies!  But we started the day today walking around downtown for Crazy Days and the Dragon Boat Festival.  We didn't buy anything....just enjoyed the beautiful weather and got a little exercise.  One thing the kids DID do was get their faces painted.  For some reason I've never been one for face painting.  I don't know why.....I've just always avoided it.  Today they wanted it done, and I thought, "Why not!" 

They loved it.  But the best part was after they were done we still had a lot of walking to do.

I was holding Jillian and the boys were trailing behind me.

After a few minutes I realized that whenever people passed us Nathan was growling at them.  Some people pretended not to notice, but a few people laughed or played along.  When we passed two women sitting on a bench he gave a low growl and they quickly said, "Oh no!  Monsters!"  Nathan hurried right over to them and put his hands out saying, "It's okay....we're not really monsters.  It's just us!"

A Walk in the Park

Marc and Calvin are gone over night to Roseau.  Marc for work....Calvin rode along to play with his cousins.  That leaves Nathan, Jillian and I alone for two days.  Today we decided to visit the playground of the school Nathan will attend this fall.  We had lots of fun, but when we got there they had JUST finished putting down LOTS of new mulch.  It was very soft and very dusty.  We did lots of this...

Also, there was a guy using a blower to clean up the mulch in the parking lot.  It was pretty loud, so Nathan was intrigued and distracted.  He did a lot of this...

Overall they both had a great time on the equipment.  Nathan was excited when I told him he will get to play here EVERY DAY when school starts.  (except of course those days when it's 30 below......but why think about that now?)

Nathan and I both got a pretty big kick out of Jilly on this piece of equipment.  Guess these things are easier when you only weigh 23 pounds huh?!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

The last day of 5 year old t-ball and 7 year old baseball.

Good News...

Good-bye to the crib that the little girl won't go to bed in....

Hello groggy little girl who just woke up from a LONG nap in her new bed!