Our trip to Iowa

We were in Iowa over this past weekend to attend a wedding. It was in Lake Okoboji which was a really neat area. We went to the local children's theatre which put on a production of Princess & The Pea. The show was very cute and other than the "naughty" witch, the kids enjoyed it.




After the show, we took in some mini-golfing. Both kids did pretty well. Aidyn is getting better at hitting the ball. Nolan is getting better at not hitting people.



We had a fun extended weekend and enjoyed our family time very much!

My little terror

Nolan has energy. Nolan is full of mischief. When you combine those 2 things much can happen. Here he is the other day when he crawled on top of the table and threw all of Aidyn's puzzles and games on the floor. All of this happened in less than 1 minute. Did I mention he's quick too?

Aidyn's kids

We were sitting at the table having lunch today and Aidyn started telling me about what's going to happen when she grows up. She said she going to have 10 kids and she already knows what she's going to name them. So I ask her the names. She starts listing them off...Gara, Kara, Bara, Mara...(multiple more "ara" names)...Lara, Tara and ......(long pause)......Elaine. I guess we know who the black sheep is going to be.

Summer Reading

We went to the library this morning and turned in the kids summer reading journals. They reached their goal of 20 hours over the summer (I would venture to guess we have greatly surpassed that.) They got all sorts of rewards like certificates for free ice cream, free kids meals, etc. But the highlight is the new book bag they each got. Here they are showing them off. Notice that they are jammed packed with more books we checked out from the library. Nolan even got to pick out his own this time since he has his own book bag. (Aidyn wouldn't let him put any books in her bag before.)
Good job guys!

Twins Game - Round 2

We took the kids to another Twins game yesterday. They were so good, we made it through the whole game! They ate hot dogs and cotton candy and entertained the people sitting by us. The best part about making it through the whole game is that on Sundays after the game kids can go onto the field and run the bases.


Nolan was ready to go for it, but just needed a little "directional adjustment". Here he is running from 2nd base to 1st base.
Aidyn was pretty hesitant at first so I ran with her. As soon as she realized I was coming with, she took off running.
It was really fun to do that with the kids. They may not remember it, but I will.

Ramdom acts of cuteness

The boy loves corn on the cob!

What a nice big sister. She loves to read to Nolan.

When it's time to swim, just jump on in. Who needs a swimsuit? Obviously not Nolan, he went in with his clothes and diaper on and had a grand time!
We did eventually get him changed.

Remember how much fun it was to wear your mothers shoes? They were strappy, they had heels, they were just plain more fun than your own shoes.

Kya's visit

Kya stayed with us for a few hours last Wednesday. The kids had so much fun playing together. Nolan only sat on her a few times!

Our Family

Kimberly took this picture for us before she left. Pretty good photographer I'd say! Of course she had some top-notch subjects. :)

My little gypsy girl...

Kimberly's visit

My niece Kimberly came to visit us for a few days this past week. We had an action packed week which included mini-golfing, some guitar lessons from Jeff...
A trip to Como zoo...
Which included a bus trip (I go all out when the relatives are in town!)
We also went out for Chinese and went to see the move Barnyard which was very cute. It was lots of fun having Kimberly here, we all enjoyed it!

RAIN!!!

It's raining today, finally!!! The kids went out to play in the rain and I literally had to drag them back inside once they were completely soaked. That warm summer rain sure is fun!

Golfing

Jeff had the day off last Friday so he took Aidyn golfing. She had a great time spending the morning with Daddy. She was in charge of making sure Jeff had new golf balls, she helped drive the cart, she got to hit a few balls and she learned "that there are rules to golf, like you can't talk while someone is swinging!" Here they are getting ready to go.

Camping

Jeff and I went camping for a couple days at Sakatah State Park www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/sakatah_lake/index.html . It was a beautiful park covered with trees (thank God for shade!) and had great bike trails in the area. We were only a mile or so from the closest town which worked out well since we discovered my bike tire had a hole in it when we got there. We got it fixed in town so we were able to enjoy the trails the next day. FYI...one of the trails led us back into town where we stopped to enjoy a shake at the local ice cream shop. Talk about roughing it!!

A visit to Grandma & Grandpa's house

We spent a week at Grandma & Grandpa's house in ND.
The kids got to see their cousins.
There was lots of wrestling with Grandpa and Justin.

And a little cuddling too!

Twins Game

We recently took both kids to a Twins game. It was Nolan's 1st time there and both kids were very excited.
Aidyn was mostly excited about the cotton candy.
And the popcorn...
We lasted until the 7th inning stretch, which is much longer than Jeff and I anticipated. We all had a fun time!