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!

Pool time!

After much pleading and lots of puppy dog eyes, Aidyn convinced Jeff to join her in the pool tonight. Don't they look so cute!? He's such a good daddy!

The Brenne Family

We had a great visit from our friends the Brennes while they were here from Seattle. Aidyn & Nolan had so much fun playing with Campbelle and Christian and Jeff and I really enjoyed catching up with Jill & Leif. We wish we got to see them more often!

Playdate

We had a playdate last Friday with our friends the Mau's. Eli and Saylor have a new playset in their backyard and had the pool set up at the end of the slide. The kids loved it and had a great time with their friends!

Busted!

He looks like he's up to something, doesn't he?

July 4th...

On the 4th of July we just hung out at home. We played outside quite a bit with sidewalk chalk and a vast array of basketballs.

We watched the neighbors drive by on their way to the parade. It was our own little lazy day parade...

Here's Aidyn sporting her homemade 4th of July hat. Pretty fancy!
That night we grilled some good old American steaks, put the kids to bed and sat on our lawn and watched the fireworks. A pretty realxing day.

July 3rd...

On July 3rd we took in the events at the City Center Park. They had pony rides (which were a HUGE hit)...

And Kaptain Kirby train rides.
See what an attentive and cautious driver Aidyn is? Just like her mother, that one is!

Storytime

We read and read and read...Nolan will finally sit through about 1/2 of a book. We're making progress!

Where's Nolan?

Hovlands

Our friends, the Hovlands, came to visit for a couple days. It was really fun having them here. The kids definitely enjoyed each other!

Dan and Elijah

Nolan(16 mon.), Aidyn(3 1/2), Samuel(6 mon.), Jayda(3) & Elijah(2)

The zoo...

We went to the zoo on Saturday to check out the African Savanna exhibit. They have giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, gazelles and ostrich there for the summer. Very cool!




We also checked out the sharks as they were swimming around.

And of course, we took in the dolphin show. It wouldn't be a trip to the zoo without it!

One of the really cool things we did was to go into the butterfly garden. There were hundreds of butterflies flying around us. They were so pretty and so neat to watch. Why no pictures of these beautiful butterflies you ask? The batteries in my camera were dead. AURGHHH!!!