Birthday Celebration Continues at the Bormann's

Luke was on the road Monday night so we brought dinner to the Bormann's so the kids could play and hang out! They surprised me with birthday cupcakes (frozen icecream cupcakes from Cold Stone Creamery, which were to die for)! ;) It was a fun night and everyone got to blow out their own candle--even better!!

Thank you so much, Shelly, Ryan, Madelyn and Jack! I know sometimes the nights when we come over can get to be a little crazy, so thanks for letting us come and thank you so much for celebrating my birthday with me! I love you all!

The crazy boys!

The sweet girls!

Everyone was happy to get their own candle! Thanks, Auntie!

Birthday Pedis and HH, weekend with friends!

My sister is the absolute best! I am so blessed to have her in my life and to have always had her to look up to! She took a 1/2 day off to celebrate my birthday with me....and she made my day! We started with pedis and then enjoyed some wine at happy hour! Thank you, Shelly for making me feel so loved and special and for your friendship. I don't know what I'd do without you!!! I love you!!!

Friday after HH with Shelly the Kahlert's came over for dinner and a dip in the pool. It was a last minute get together, so we ordered some pizza, hung out and the kids had a blast together! It's so fun having neighbors as friends!

Saturday we divided and conquered. Nora helped me make chocolate lasagna and get ready for friends to come for dinner, while Bishop and Luke went fishing and hung out. We had 7 kids and 6 adults for dinner and everyone had a great time!

My lil baker!

Nora ADORES Declan! She can't get enough of him!

On Sunday we finally met Matthew, Danny's baby brother! He's such a cutie!! Bishop and Danny had so much fun running around and playing with water balloons! Nora even got in on the action!

Track and Field

Bishop and Nora participated in the Minneapolis Open City Track Meet on Wednesday. Ashton and Jack also ran, so it was a fun night at the track. Nora absolutely loved it! She's been running everywhere she can these days so she was definitely ready to run and she took right off down the track!

Bishop was a bit more hesitant and wanted me close by. He wanted me to run with him, and thankfully the race organizer told him he would run with him. It was a 60m dash and he seemed to enjoy it while he was running. Bishop also did the long jump, which he LOVED! He got 3 jumps and improved on every jump!

I'm so thankful for events like these in the community. It's fun for the kids and great exposure to track and field! Way to go Bishop, Nora, Jack and Ashton!

All lined up to run!

Go Nora!

Go Bishop!

Wood Delivery, Birthday party, Date night, Play date for Bishop, Nana visits with trip to Minnehaha Falls

Even though Rich has retired from wood delivery he still has a couple stops a year. On Saturday he came down to deliver to 2 places so we helped out and the kids had a blast!

Riding in the wheelbarrow

Grandpa's little helper

Nora absolutely adores her Uncle Jake!

 In the afternoon Liam had his 5th birthday party at Wood Lake Nature Center in Richfield. It was great and the kids LOVED it! They went on a creature walk, saw some animals, played inside and get got to pet a big snake! Happy birthday, Liam! Thanks for being such a great friend!

On a creature hike for Liam's birthday!

Nora and the birthday boy!

Good buds--celebrating Liam's birthday!

 Since Grandpa and Grandma were in town we asked them to stay so Luke and I could get out for a date night. We started the night at the new Surly Brewery, which was really neat. It's really big...and has a cool outdoor area. We heard the food is absolutely delicious, but it was more of a cafeteria style, so we went to Bar La Grassa for dinner, which was perfect! We ended the night at 112 eatery and then headed home. Thanks for watching the kids, Grandpa and Grandma!

Dinner at Bar La Grassa

Hugs for Grandma!

 On Sunday Bishop had his first play-date with Asa and they went to a movie!! They saw the Minions movie and they were both so happy to be together! It was pretty cute! While Bishop was with Asa I got some great one on one time with Nora. We played at the park and hung out together, which was perfect!

Asa and Bishop heading to the movies!

Girl time at the park!

My mom hadn't seen the kids in a month and was missing them-so she came up for a visit on Sunday afternoon. The kids were so excited to see her! She's always wanted to join us at SeSalt/Minnehaha Falls, so took her there. We hiked down to the Mississippi River and then headed back to SeSalt for dinner. My mom was quite the trooper as part of the hike to the river is a little uneven and rocky! It was a great way to end a fun weekend!

Hiking back up to SeSalt!

Home from Colorado. Bishop's last week at the YMCA Summer Power

We were all happy to be home from CO, but the kids especially seemed happy to be home. Bishop talked his dad into taking him fishing on Sunday morning--he just LOVES catching fish! We enjoyed time at home and in the neighborhood.....and the kids had fun with the pool in our backyard.

Pretty excited to be holding the fish on his own!

Hanging out in the backyard!

"Paint facing"! ;)

Crazy girl!

 We signed Bishop up for t-ball and Luke is his coach. This session is through the YMCA. We had to miss the first week due to being in CO, but he was pretty excited to play when we got home!

Batter up!

The benefit of being the coach's daughter-Nora got to hit! :)

Bishop has been attending the YMCA Summer Power "camp" this summer. We thought it would be fun for him to have a "fun" summer before kindergarten and since he's been at Kindercare since he was born we figured it wouldn't be a bad idea for him to transition to something new before going off to school. His group consisted of kids going into kindergarten and 1st grade. They went on a field trip every day and got to go swimming a few days a week as well. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out to be as fun for him as we had thought it would be and he really struggled with it. Drop offs were unbearable. He would cling to us, beg us to not leave and cry. It was not like him at all. We also struggled with his behavior at night. He was acting up and not himself at all! It was tough! We tried everything to figure out how to help him. We believe it was a factor of not having structure or a routine, not having a lot of help or guidance (he came to hate swimming as they rushed them to change afterwards and that was hard). Long story short--after some REALLY hard days and nights we decided it wasn't worth it anymore and we sent him back to Kindercare. He was almost immediately back to himself! Whew! On his last day at the YMCA we went to the bandshell to celebrate with icecream (before dinner) ;)!! He was a pretty happy boy!

Celebrating being done at the YMCA

BBQ at Retzer Jack's!

The Drive Home

We had intentions of being on the road by 7, but we had to make a couple stops (donuts and coffee) and so we were heading out of town at 7:45am. The tough part about driving home is we lose an hour, so it was already 8:45 back home. The kids did great on the drive home. The first 2 hours or so were really rough with Bishop. He was hungry (again), but once we overcame that the kids did great! I was really impressed with how well they traveled on the way out and home.

We made some stops and had a little adventure with a mud hole in Des Moines (I think it was Des Moines). Luke was running a red light making a U-turn and jumped the curb.....but RIGHT on the other side of the curb was a big mud hole. Thankfully we didn't lose a tire and it sounded worse than it was.....and we had the mud/dirt on our car to prove it!

We pushed on and made it all the way HOME (to Minneapolis). We were at home, in bed by midnight and it felt really nice waking up in our own beds. The past few years we've stayed at my parents so they can help out if the kids get up early, etc, but we were able to make it all the way home, which was nice. However, the kids did want to stay at Nana and Papa's! ;)

Day 8-Hike to Bierstadt Lake, Icecream, Go Go Fish

Our last full day in Colorado! We started off our day with donuts. I think this was our 3rd donut run for the week. Nora chose a donut with fruit loops on top! :)

We hiked up to Bierstadt Lake and we started at the Park and Ride and made a loop to the Bierstadt Lake trailhead. It was a beautiful morning and a beautiful hike.....and there weren't many people out on our way TO the lake, so that was nice. We even saw a deer just a few feet in front of us, which was pretty cool.

It was cool and windy when we got to the lake--so we didn't spend too much time there--we took a few pictures, had a few treats and started our hike down. We've hiked to Bierstadt lake before (maybe a couple times even), but we entered from a different part of the lake, so it was fun to see a different view.

The kids were kind of tired on the hike. I'm sure it was a combination of a long, fun week with no naps and all the hiking! Luke took turns giving shoulder rides to BOTH kids (Bishop is too big for the backpack and Nora wanted a shoulder ride too)! On the hike down Luke tripped with Nora on his shoulders and took a pretty good fall. I was a few feet behind them and saw them go down. The scariest part was we were on a ledge/cliff and there wasn't much room for either of them to go......thankfully they were both ok. Luke took the brunt of the injuries as he tried to minimize the impact for Nora. Nora's hands got scraped up a bit, but she was scared more than anything. That was the end of the shoulder rides....and thankfully we were almost to the bottom of the mountain!

Hiking up!

Bierstadt Lake

Look at this cool tree/chair!

A tired hiker

Right after their accident

We let the kids dictate the rest of our day.....so we had lunch at Claires, we went swimming and then we went for icecream!! The kids were happy and everyone was in a good mood! I think the sunshine and warm weather really helped! It was by far the nicest day of our trip!

Superman Icecream....for the 3rd time, I think!

Just hangin' out!

We picked up pizza for dinner and spent our last night playing Go Go Fish and packing up to leave.

We had another wonderful week in Coloardo! We loved the place we stayed in and having the extra room. We enjoyed some new things and found some new favorites (The Rock Shop, Claire's, Go Go Fish)! While the weather didn't cooperate with us fully we were still able to get out and enjoy the mountains every day. As the kids get older we realize we may enjoy traveling around a bit more.....but we'll see how we feel next year when we start to plan the trip!