Memorial Day weekend 2014

Wow! We had the most beautiful Memorial Day weekend and after our long winter, we deserved it!

We decided to stay home this Memorial Day and enjoy 3 full days with no plans or schedules! We all got to enjoy doing things that we love and all in all it was a GREAT weekend! It was hard to see it end, it was so fun!

We started our weekend out Friday night with the Heller's joining us for dinner. I was so busy with the food that I didn't get a chance to take any pictures! Our neighbors had some people in the neighborhood over for some drinks, so there were a lot of people out and about, which was fun! It was a late night for the kids, but they had a great time and it was so fun seeing the Heller's, relaxing and catching up with them!

Bishop has really been into baseball lately. We'll pitch to him and he's not satisfied unless he hits a home run (over our fence). We're going to have to be careful as we've already lost a ball to the neighbors gutter and many times it goes above the power line and reaches 2 doors down! So any time we were home this weekend Bishop was asking us to pitch to him! It makes me so happy to see him so active and enjoying himself!

Saturday morning Bishop wanted to go fishing--so we all went to the hardware store to get him set up to fish. He had an absolute blast! He caught his first fish and he was so excited!! His expression tells it all! He was pretty proud that he caught a fish on his first day out this year and daddy went for 5 days and came up empty handed! :)

So proud of his first fish!

Nora was very interested!

He had a blast!

Nora even got to help!

Nora got a little bored with fishing, so we went to the park to swing! She absolutely loves swinging and that's all she really wants to do!

Playing at the 'green' park (or the school park)

 Saturday night we went to the Hennum's (or as the kids say "Maia Maia's) for dinner. The kids had an absolute blast running around together and playing together. Their neighbors have an awesome swingset that the kids can use and they also have chickens that were out. The kids kept running back and forth to get crackers to feed the chickens! :)  Both Maia and Siena are great helpers, but Siena especially takes care of Nora and looks after her. It allows us some time to catch up with Tim and Liana too! :)

Nora, Siena, Bishop and Maia

 Sunday morning brought more fishing, more biking, more time at the park and eventually a long bike ride to Minnehaha falls/SeSalt!

Bishop on the tag along!

Nora just LOVES to swing! :)

 Luke pulled the kids in the Chariot and we made it to SeSalt around 1:30 or so. That bikeride is always tough for me, especially the section right before we get to the Falls. It's pretty hilly and it takes a lot out of me. We usually take the long way to the Falls and it's about an 18 mile ride there (and then just 6 more home from there).

Ms. Janelle doesn't live too far from the Falls so she joined us and the kids were really excited to see her!

Nora, Bishop and Ms. Janelle in front of the Falls

Nora, Bishop and I in front of the falls

 On our ride home from the Falls we ran into some flooding.....and there wasn't an easy way "out" or "around", so we went "through"! :) Luke was quite a ways ahead of me and by the time I approached the water he had already gone through--so I went for it too! I'm thinking there was a least a foot of water standing. The people I met up with told me to stay right----which was not a good idea! I got stuck and had to walk my way through part of it.

This is the result of pulling a Chariot through the water.....Bishop thought it was kind of funny--Nora did NOT think it was funny! Their entire clothes were soaked! Thankfully it was warm enough outside so they weren't freezing!

My parents watched Madelyn and Jack on Sunday so they stopped by for dinner on their way home. We hung out for a bit and then it was bedtime!

Monday morning we headed over to the Como Zoo! The kids had a blast there! Bishop was skipping all over the zoo! We visited a lot of animals and it's neat because you can get closer to the animals there! The kids each got Cotton Candy as their treat and we watched Sparky the Seal show!

We stopped for lunch on our way home at a Thai restaurant in St. Paul. Jake gave us a gift certificate to this restaurant (On's) and it was really good! The kids especially liked the cream cheese wontons and the white rice! Thanks Uncle Jake, it was the perfect treat for us!

Watching the Seals

 It turned out to be a HOT day-so after Nora's nap the kids played outside in the water! They had a blast spraying water on each other (and themselves) and splashing around. It's hard to believe it's warm enough for swim suits, as it wasn't that long ago we were still wearing winter coats!

 We took one last bike ride to the bandshell and the park! It was a great way to end such a fun weekend!

Nora got these PJs from Great Grandpa Ray and Great Grandma Darlene and she absolutely LOVES them (especially the skirt)! :) Thanks GGR and GGD! :)

It was such a fun weekend and it was definitely hard to see it end! We're looking forward to spending a lot of time outside this summer!