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!

A beautiful weekend!

Last weekend was an absolutely beautiful weekend! The weather was perfect Saturday and even better on Sunday! We got out and enjoyed it!

Friday night I went out for girls night with my hs friends. We went out to eat in Uptown. We were missing Anna and Jill. It was great to catch up and have some time to relax. 

 Saturday morning Bishop had football. Nora and I walked over to the park during practice and came back in time to see Bishop score a touchdown!

 Luke's parents came down Saturday afternoon to help with some things around the house. Rich and Luke worked on putting up some peg board in the garage and then they stayed so we could go out for our 6 year anniversary!

Hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma

We celebrated by going to Art A Whirl, which was super busy! We went to Indeed brewery and there was free live music, but the lines were super long and it was pretty loud, so we didn't stay too long. From there we went to Butcher and the Boar and then ended our night at 112 Eatery for dinner. It was a great night out on the town, celebrating 6 years! I can't believe we've been together for 11 years already-we've had some pretty good times in the past 11 years and I'm excited for what's to come!

 Sunday after church we went to the Linden Hills Festival at Linden Hills Park. There was a bike parade that Bishop biked in and then there were carnival games and food to eat. Bishop got a huge kick out of the carnival games. He's been talking about them ever since!

 He started in the jumpy house.....

 he played a water gun game, where the kids shot animals off ledges with their water guns......

 he went fishing....

 and threw bean bags.....

 and he made bracelets with Nora.

 He also went mini golfing. The kids had a blast! There were pony rides, but he wasn't interested in that and the line was pretty long. For each of the activities he'd get a small prize, so he was pretty pumped about those! Nora enjoyed picking out ducks in the pond for prizes-she especially liked the purple ducks!

It was a beautiful day to be out at the carnival! Later that afternoon we biked/walked/ran down to the bandshell for icecream and popcorn. It was a great way to end our weekend!

Mother's Day 2014

Sunday was Mother's Day and it was another jam packed day!  We started off by going out for breakfast (at 7:15am) at the Kernel! After church we went back to Nana and Papa's to play outside.  Then we went to church......the kids lasted about 2 minutes in the pew until Nora announced to the entire congregation that "I HAVE TO GO POTTY!" Needless to say, they saw the "play room" and ended up spending their time playing in there (which worked out well for everyone)! :) We ate donuts after church and then went to visit Great Grandma!

This was the best we could get with all 4 generations!

Then we went back to Nana and Papa's for lunch and a couple more pictures!

We also celebrated my dad's birthday....which meant CAKE! :)

After lunch we went down and fed the ducks......

played at the park.....

went swinging......

and then headed back to Nana and Papa's only to bike to the school park and play some more! :)

It was a fun day.....we took off for home around 3:30 and both kids fell asleep (whew)! The kids were pretty tired that evening and I thought watching an early movie was a good idea. I guess I was wrong.....that resulted in tears from both kids and both of them sitting outside screaming "DADDY.....DADDY.....DADDY!!" I wanted to scream for daddy too! :)  We all rebounded and ended on a good note that night.


Mom, happy Mother's Day! You are absolutely amazing! Thank you for everything you have done and do for me and my family! Your love is unconditional and you are the best teacher on how to be a mother! I am so thankful for you and the relationship we have! Bishop and Nora are so lucky to have you as their "nana" and they ask for you all the time! Thanks for all your treats, hugs, giggles and most importantly LOVE! Luke said it best......"your mom is always happy!" We love you so much!!

Saturday

We started off Saturday with football. It was a little disorganized this week and Bishop's team doesn't really have a coach and Luke wasn't there to help out, so we lost a little focus from the kids.  However, Bishop had fun and scored another touchdown!

Touchdown!

Bishop and Danny

After football we headed down to Owatonna to celebrate Mother's Day.  We had a fun time!

We dug for worms.......

Played basketball.....

Went to the library and went fishing.....just like daddy......

We played puzzles when it was raining and we couldn't play outside......

And we went to Owatonna shoe to look for water shoes for the kids. Nora got a new pair of PURPLE shoes (it's her favorite color). They didn't have any blue shoes in Bishop's size, so he had to wait.

While we were there the kids got to ride the horse....for only a penny........

And then we snuggled with Nana...

It was a great day!