Sunday and Liam's Birthday party

It was raining Sunday morning when we woke up, so we took our time, relaxing at home. When the rain cleared off, we walked (and Bishop biked) to the bandshell for a bite to eat and then we walked to the Linden Hills Farmer's Market.

Eating yogurt and oatmeal at Lake Harriet

The Girls

To get to Linden Hills we have to walk through some neighborhoods. There is a house that decorates their tree with lots of "things". Bishop LOVED it....and we had a really hard time getting him to keep walking.

When we got home, Luke dug up the remaining fence posts and the pavers (we just put the pavers in last year, so it was kind of hard to have to dig them up, but we'll keep them to hopefully re-use them someplace).

Bishop was having a blast helping Luke "dig" and it was hard to get him to lay down for a nap.

Bishop woke up just in time for Liam's birthday party! Liam loves to wear hats, so we were asked to wear hats to the party! Here are the kids in their hats!

Here are all the kids at the party! Bishop had so much fun running around with them all and his favorite was playing with Grandpa Gregg!

Grant, Blake, Liam, Bishop, Emma, Ella, Bennett, Violet, Nolan and Nora, Gavin and Josie!

Michelle, Melissa and I.....friends from HS!

Our boys playing with Grandpa Gregg!! Bennett, Bishop and Liam

Bishop, Bennett and Liam

 It was such a fun party and a great weekend! Bishop was ready for bed Sunday night!!

Sullivan Family Reunion

Saturday morning Madelyn and Shelly came over to play! Unfortunately, neither of our kids slept well Friday night, so it was kind of a disaster of a morning.....but they still had fun! 

We played inside for awhile and then we walked to the Farmers Market. Bishop and Madelyn got to ride in the double stroller together and they both thought that was pretty neat!

We had the annual Sullivan Family Reunion at Mike and Christine's in Lakeville. It was a beautiful day for it and they have the perfect house and set-up for it, with a pool and trampoline! Bishop thoroughly enjoyed both! Thanks Mike and Christine for hosting again this year!

 Bishop was on his best behavior, especially considering he hardly napped (he fell asleep in the car on the way there, so we drove around for a few minutes, but he definitely would have slept longer, if we would have been home)...so I agreed to take him out for icecream! It was a fun outing, just the two of us!

He put his boots on himself and insisted on wearing them (on the wrong feet). Everyone thought it was cute and it wasn't a fight I was willing to fight! :)

Bishop giving Blue a treat, our next door neighbors dog.

Icecream at Sebastian Joe's

Playing on the turtle at Sebastian Joe's!

Friday night with the Moore's

Friday night Dan, Michelle and Danny came over for dinner. The boys always have so much fun together.

Michelle brought angel food cake with whipped cream for dessert......and the boys loved it!

Thanks, Moore's!

Trees

I was in Minot, ND for a couple of days last week for work. When I got home...we had two less tress in our yard! We are going to put up a two car garage, well, we're not putting it up, but we're hiring people to build us a two car garage. Because of that we had to cut down one of our trees, so sad. The other tree was dead (sad too).

Before

After

The one good thing that has come from the trees coming down is Bishop absolutely LOVES playing in the dirt. He's in the second picture, digging away! :)

A weekend at home

We spent last weekend at home and it felt SO good to be home, doing whatever we wanted....around our neighborhood. We haven't been home for an entire weekend since May!

It felt like we did nothing, but we were still busy and enjoyed our time together as a family!

On Friday night we walked to Lake Harriet Bandshell. Bishop biked and we had dinner down there and Bishop played at the brand new park. It's an awesome park! It's a bit old for him, as there are lots of things for older kids, but there were some slides he could maneuver on his own and there was a younger section he could enjoy.

Saturday we walked to the Farmer's Market in our neighborhood. We got some vegetables, corn and ate some delicious food. We spent the afternoon at Pershing Park, playing in the pool to stay cool! Saturday night our friends, The Nathan's came over for dinner. Livi had recently turned 2. Her and Bishop played very well together, so that was fun.

Throwing the football in the pool

He loves the water!

Sunday morning we walked to the Bandshell again. We stopped for church at the bandshell and then played at the new park again. We walked through Linden Hills and stopped at their farmers market on our way home.  In the afternoon we rode the Trolley at Lake Harriet! Bishop thought it was so fun to ride the "choo choo"!

All Aboard!!!

I love this picture--I just put the camera out to take a picture without seeing what he looked like...and it made me laugh!

Checking things out from the choo choo

Nora enjoyed her ride too! :)

We went to the Hennum's for dinner Sunday night. Liana always has such delicious food! They had to put their dog down earlier in the week, so it was a tough week for them. We had talked to Bishop about it, but it was still hard for him to understand, as he kept looking for Porter and when we went upstairs he asked "is Porter upstairs".  So sweet, he loved that dog. Porter was such a good dog and we will miss him. We were able to travel with him and although I've never been a dog "lover", Porter was my first favorite. That says a lot since we traveled for 7 hours in the car with him and I sat in the backseat with Porter drooling and panting in my ear!! Our other favorite memory of Porter was when we went XC skiing with him up North. We stayed in a cabin with bunk beds and since the top bunk was so hot, Luke ended sleeping on the floor. I woke up to find Luke and Porter spooning on the floor together!

Bishop and Maia enjoying their icecream!

Pomme de Terre Lake......and the flu

We spent the weekend at the Sweetman's cabin near Elbow Lake on Pomme de Terre Lake. It was 6 adults, 8 kids, no AC, HOT HOT heat, kids who didn't want to nap.....and the flu for the Froehle's! We definitely need a vacation after that vacation! :)

We arrived on Friday evening and Bishop was all excited to get in the water! The beachfront was a rockwall, so we had to be careful....he climbed up and down the ladder in and out of the water a ton of times. He was all fired up to be at the lake!

The Steffen's joined us later that night and it got to be a late night for the kids. Nora was the first one asleep at 9 and I think Bishop was up til 10:30 or maybe even later. We camped, which Bishop loved, but it made it hard to get him to go down. 

Saturday we woke up, had breakfast and hung around the cabin for a bit. Bishop had some diarrhea and didn't want to eat or drink anything. He wasn't acting himself and I was worried about dehydration because it was so hot. Come to find out...he had the stomach flu and wasn't feeling well!! Poor guy!

 We rented a pontoon and took a ride to the beach, which was a little less stressful. Bishop loved playing in the sand and just hanging out in the water. Nora enjoyed cooling off a bit too! We packed sandwiches for lunch and had them on the beach. We went back to the cabin to attempt some naps...with no luck!! Now we have 8 kids who are extremely tired and hot on our hands! Yikes! :)

Bishop turned the corner later in the afternoon and started drinking and eating and acting more like himself. Thankgoodness!

We were all committed to having our kids in bed earlier and I think Bishop was asleep by 9 this night and Nora was the one who was up til almost 10! 

Around 1:30 in the morning I woke up with stomach pains and I did not feel good at all! We were sleeping in the tent and Luke told me to go inside.....I just barely made it....just in time for the stomach flu to keep me up for the rest of the night! Thankfully there was a bed open next to the bathroom, so I had Nora with me, in the event she woke up to eat (of course, she slept til 5). I was miserable!!! I HATE the stomach flu and not being at home makes it that much worse.

We packed up on Sunday morning and were on the road by 8:30. My mom came to help us out that afternoon and by Monday night Luke had gotten the bug, along with Molly, Matt and Margaret (Matt's 18 month old). I haven't heard of anyone else who we've infected, except my mom is now struggling with it! I feel horrible! I'm sorry everyone!

The bug came from Bishop's school, as a bunch of teachers were sick over the weekend too! So far Nora hasn't gotten it and hopefully she doesn't!

Bishop and Daddy on the dock

Logan is a serious fisherman!

Bishop loved this innertube! He insisted on having it in the water!

Margaret, Jeannie, Ramona, Amelia, Bishop and Logan eating dinner Sat night

Amelia and Bishop--CHEESE!

Nora hanging out by the cabin...trying to stay cool

Thank you so much Sweetman's for inviting us to your cabin!! I'm so sorry we brought the flu with us!!

Bishop and Casey

Last Monday Bishop and Casey wore the same thing! Bishop absolutely adores Casey! He idolizes him and there's not another young boy I'd rather have him idolize! Casey is 10 or 11 and is the nicest neighbor boy we could ask for.....and he LOVES playing basketball (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE)!!! He is always shooting baskets and Bishop takes any chance he can to go play with him!

I had to get a few pictures of them wearing the same outfit! :)

Auntie Shelly and Uncle Ryan's

Luke was gone last Tuesday night, so the kids and I went to Auntie Shelly and Uncle Ryan's house! My mom watched Nora that Monday and Tuesday, so she joined us and my dad came up to have dinner with us as well! It was a fun night with the Bormann's, as it always is!!

Nora loves to ride the horsey!!

 I love to watch the kids together. Bishop takes care of Madelyn and now Madelyn takes care of Nora. She would put her paci in her mouth, bring her toys and smile at her. She will be SUCH a good big sister!! I couldn't be more excited to be an Auntie again!! Shelly's due in January!

We're home!

Since we didn't have ANY groceries at home, after being gone for over a week, we decided to go out to eat! We met the Heller's at SeSalt at Minnehaha Falls and the boys had a blast together! They danced and played and loved hanging out together! It was a great way to ease back into "real life"! :)

Colorado-our last day!

Fern Lake Hike

We saved our biggest hike for the last day! It was a new hike up to Fern Lake and we got another early start (to try to miss the rain and hail)! It was a 8 mile hike with a 1300 elevation gain, so it was tough, but it was worth it!

1/2 way to Fern Lake

The waterfall

Fern Lake

We did get rained on on the way down, but no hail and it wasn't too bad! Luke and I were exhausted when we got to the car.....just in time for the kids to have energy, after sleeping for part of the hike!

We stopped for icecream in town and went out for pizza for our last night!

Bishop and Daddy in the HOT water! ;)

It was pouring our last night in Colorado.....a good time to head home! We had such a fun trip! It was a lot of work, but definitely worth it. I absolutely love the mountains and it's so fun to have so many neat experiences with the kids. It makes me so happy that they like to do what we enjoy doing (at least so far)! :)

Our drive home went well. We left our place at 8:30am. We had to drive out of the mountains, so we were on some pretty windy roads. Bishop was watching Elmo Potty and was in a daze.........I was sitting in the backseat when all of a sudden he got sick. He threw up all over himself in the carseat. We stopped, changed, cleaned him up and he got a new black bear. He kept asking "What happened?" and saying "I don't like the yucky stuff, mommy". I don't either, Bishop. It wasn't an easy drive, as Nora was fussy for part of it....but we managed to push through to Owatonna and we made it there at 11:45. We spent the night there and it was nice to have some help in the morning and to only have an hour drive home on Sunday!

I can't believe it's over already.....and the summer is 1/2 over. I had so much fun with both kids! Bishop has really turned a corner with me, he lets me do so many more things with him now and it's so fun! 

Colorado-Ouzel Falls

On Thursday we had to move rooms, so we packed everything up in the morning and thankfully the people at the place we stayed at moved our stuff. Needless to say, we didn't get a real early start. We drove to our favorite restaurant about an hour away and ate breakfast on the porch. We stumbled across this place 5 years ago on our way out of town. It has great food and character! :)

Bishop applying his own sunscreen! Everything is I DO IT MYSELF!

We hiked up to Ouzel Falls, which was 1/2 way up to where we got engaged. It was about 3 miles up. We stopped, I fed Nora, Luke and Bishop hiked around the waterfall and then it started to rain. I'm so thankful I was able to feed Nora. We quickly got our rain gear out and headed down the trail.  Unfortunately, this meant we didn't get a lot of pictures, but we have them from the other 2 times we hiked this trail.

It rained almost the entire way down. I wore a poncho, which covered Nora and Luke and Bishop managed to stay pretty dry too. It was thundering and even hailing at times. We did see some lightening, which is what concerned me the most, but there were a lot of people on the trail, so that made me feel better!

It was raining for most of the night when we got back to our place, so we weren't able to swim for long. Luke picked up some steaks for dinner and we enjoyed a nice night in!

Family bath time!