Week 35

We spent the day at the water park!  Last year, the kids got free tickets through the library's summer reading program.  This year they weren't picked in the library drawing- boo.  But Buddy did win State Fair tickets- yeah!  We were so happy when Derek's coworker gave us 4 passes to the water park that he won at a golf tournament.  I guess the moral is wait to get free tickets to the water park!

I took along my phone just so I could have something to blog- hahaha!

Derek and the lifeguard both had to jump in the water to rescue Buddy.  He panicked!  

The wave pool was fun, but filled with ice water!

We prepared the kids that they wouldn't be tall enough for the water slides.  Imagine our surprise when we got there and realized Punky is 48.5" tall.  Buddy was upset that he couldn't do the water slides.  But Punky and Derek only went down three times.  We mostly stuck together and went in the wave pool and lazy river.

Next week we are going to be busy, busy, busy with Buddy's birthday and Back to School!  

Week 34

Summer is coming to an end.  We have had colder weather this week and are preparing to head back-to-school.  This weekend Punky's soccer league hosted their annual Jamboree.  They played three games on Saturday morning and ended the day with a picnic (bees!).  We let Buddy sleep in and decided to met up with Punky and Dad halfway through the second game.  This little soccer star scored a goal in each of her three games!  

(Scanned photo)

Crazy brother in the background

The Lighning Superstars

It was an okay season.  I can't say Punky had a ton of fun.  She never complained, but her enthusiasm (and aggressiveness and effort) definitely decreased throughout the season.  I hope she wants to give soccer another try later on this year because I think she is pretty good at it (when she wants to be).

This fall she chose to start ice skating lessons and she is super excited!  What more can a parent hope for?

Week 33

After being out of town for the last few weekends, it was great to be home for a change.  Our week was our standard busyness with work, daycare, play dates, the swimming pool and soccer two nights.  

One night after soccer, Derek and I were walking through the parking lot lamenting the fact that our new-to-us van had a dent from my deer accident last week.  As we passed by the van to put our gear in the back, I said "the dent is hardly noticeable really."  And we looked down and the dent was gone!  The heat must've popped it out!  Crazy!  And so lucky!

The van has been SO nice!  The kids can get themselves in and out on their own and can shut their own doors.  I don't have to lift anyone in and out anymore.  Buddy still needs help with his buckle but it's saved me so much time and hassle.  I can park closer to stores and don't have to worry about the kids flinging the door open onto someone else's car door.  It's been great!  Thanks Mom and Dad!

Week 32

This weekend we headed to SD to see our family.  Our first stop was to visit Uncle Sean, Aunt Hilary and the NEW BABY! 

Baby B was just about the sweetest, most content little guy I've ever met.  He barely cried the 3 hours we were there.  I could've stayed all day and snuggled up with him, but man our kids are crazy compared to a newborn!  We could tell it was time to get back on the road once the kids started wrestling each other while the baby was sound asleep.  I do miss that squishy newborn stage though!

Our next stop was my parent's house.  I wish we lived closer- I love being on their farm and visiting their house.  The kids and I would be there so often during the week if it were only an hour or so away.  But, I guess I will be grateful that we can get there 3 or 4 times throughout the year too.    

The entire family was there this weekend because we had scheduled to have family pictures taken on my parent's farm.  We obviously haven't seen the photos yet, but I really think we will like them!  It was a fun experience and we developed a few inside jokes that just crack me up.  The photographer was setting us up and placing everyone in the family for the first shot of the whole group.  As he was doing this, Buddy shouted "Are we done yet?"  It had been approximately 3 minutes.  During our last shot, the photographer said "Everyone to the left of Diane step in a little closer" and Leah yells out "Who's DIANE?"  It was just so funny and now my mom's new name is Diane.  I guess you had to be there...

Other than our photos, we spent our time on nature hikes, in the garden and playing games.  The kids tried out Life and Clue this time.  Later the same day, Punky asked to play Clue again and Buddy told her "No, we can't play again we already know who did it!"  I only took my camera out when Punky was picking strawberries but it was a great weekend with the family.

    

We were so lucky and fortunate that my parent's gave us an awesome deal on their old van.  Both of our cars are pretty old and it'll be nice to have a bigger vehicle that gets good gas mileage.  I drove the van home with the kids and Derek followed behind us in the car.  Wouldn't you know 7 miles from my parent's house I hit a deer!  I still can't believe my luck.  7 miles!  It was a baby fawn (sad) so it didn't do much damage and the kids didn't even notice it happened (I remember once when we hit a deer when I was a teenager, it was very traumatizing for me).  We weren't hurt and there are so many ways I can be thankful, but really?  7 miles!  

                               

We stopped by Minnesota's Largest Candy Store on our way home.  Buddy picked out a 3 foot long gummy snake and Punky chose a toilet bowl/plunger candy- classic.

                               

                               

Week 31

We spent 4 days this week up north with Derek's parents at a cabin they rent.  We've been tagging along on their vacation ever since I was pregnant with Punky (we have missed one year since then).  I think Derek's parents having been going for something like 13 years.   However, this was our last year at this resort because the owners decided to sell the cabins individually and stop running the resort.  Of course, we are super sad about it because we have so many good memories of our time at the cabin.

This year the weather wasn't all that great.  It was so windy.  At times, the dock was so rocky, it seemed dangerous to even be on them.  It wasn't really hot enough to go swimming, although the kids gave it a try twice (and stayed in the water for about 10 minutes).  Even reading a book outside was tricky with the wind!

Luckily, the evenings calmed down and we were able do some fishing.  Derek and Grandpa took each kid out one at a time- Buddy one night and Punky the other.  The only photos I took this weekend were of the kids fishing but that was their favorite thing to do and what they were looking forward to most, so oh well!  They didn't catch much but Punky did snag a "big ol' snapping turtle"!

  

                           

We stopped by Itasca State Park on our way home.  We were all really tired and hungry so we were only there for a short hike to the Headwaters of the Mississippi.