Date Weekend!

Josh and I had a wonderful weekend getaway last weekend... Josh found a living socail deal for The Melting Pot in the cities. This is definitely a favorite restaurant of ours even though it is a little too spendy to go to a lot. So we did some shopping, without the kids - gasp!, went for supper and then went to a Twins game the next day before coming home. This was the first time that either of us have been in the new stadium so it was pretty fun!

Spaghetti!

Braxton had a great time with his spaghetti the other night at supper... He loved it but had a hard time eating it! :) He did have a little fun feeding it to his brother though...

Brody being so helpful!

Bible School

The kids had bible school last week and this was the first year that Bella was old enough to attend. Talk about a weird feeling to only be hanging out with Braxton for 2 hours a night... It was pretty quiet! The kids had a blast and came home singing bible school songs and talking about what they learned each day. It was a great experience for them and the program was a lot of fun at the end... Brody

Beau and Bella

Itasca State Park

Josh and I took the kids over to Itasca State Park on Sunday to do a little swimming and fishing. It was a beautiful day for swimming a picnic and some fun at the lake! They had a blast and caught a lot of little fish...

Braxton's New Skill

Look who can use a spoon now! :)

Swimming Lessons

Beau started his first level of swimming lessons this year. He was in a class of only three kids that included him and his cousin Parker... They are both a little high maintenance - i.e. VERY active so his auntie and I were both thinking that this was a good thing. They had a lot of fun and both passed on to level two for next year! Beau and Jessica

T-Ball

T-Ball came to an end last week and our running for the summer has lessened a little bit. The boys both had their last game on Monday night and Josh got to be home to see them both do their thing! Beau and Ellie's Team

Brody, Elyse and Teagen's Team

Peter Pan

Wadena Community Education was having an "acting camp" this summer and Brody decided to join his cousin Gavin in the fun... He ended up not being the only one and Elyse, Eion and Tori all joined them. They practiced for 4 hours a day for a week and then put on two shows on Friday and Saturday... It was so much fun to watch and they all had a blast! Tori got the role of Tinkerbell and the rest of them were baseball players... The whole cast...

The baseball players - Brody, Eion, Gavin and Elyse

The main characters, including Tori as Tinkerbell

Miss Helpful!

Guess who decided to sunscreen themself?? So helpful!!

Camping round 2!

We got to spend our second weekend of camping up at a campground by Nevis a few weekends ago. We spent the weekend with Reg and Laura and their kids and we all had a blast. This campground had a lot of fun activities including a fishing and dance contest and a movie night on Saturday night. We had a lot of fun and as we were leaving the kids were already asking when we got to go camping again... Josh and Braxton

Braxton and Brody

Bella and Brody

The reason mommy didn't get in the water! :)

Brody

Reg and Zoe in the dance contest!

Grandpa Bob, Parker, Bella, Josh, Beau

Beau, Josh, Bella

Zoe and Brody

Braxton

Movie Night!

St. Louis Trip

Mom and I took the kids, left Josh working to make money to pay for our trip, and headed out to St. Louis to visit my brother Rusty for a few days... The trip went WAY better then any of us expected with four kids in the car for 13 hours. We made it there in one day and the fun began... We hit the St. Louis Zoo early on Thursday morning so that we could beat the heat. St. Louis had record breaking temps the entire time we were there so we did our site seeing in blocks! :) 106 and higher and humid is not a lot of fun when you are hauling 4 little ones around everywhere you go... They were troopers though and we had a lot of fun. After the zoo we hit the City Gardens so that the kids could cool down in the water fountains. Friday we went to the Arch and then went on to the Magic House which is a science museum for kids. They had so much fun exploring all the different areas and crawling into all the nooks and crannies... Saturday Rusty had to go in to work for a bit so his girlfriend Lindsay took over tour guide duties and we went to a street festival that was close by. Although it was a little warm for a 2 mile hike (it was supposed to be a health and wellness event) we took our time and made it to most of the events. I think that the bubble machine and the water fun at the end was the best part for the kids... After that we hit Meremac Caverns for an afternoon of staying out of the sun and underground. It was pretty fun and we only had one mishap where the rocks attacked Rusty's head... He was a little bloody but pushed on to finish the tour! :) Sunday morning we headed over to Grant's farm for some fun with the animals and free beer at the end. Then we got a chance to just veg at Rusty's for a while before we started our drive back to MN. It was definitely 4 days of running and spending time with Rusty and Lindsay... We had a great time and I just can't say enough how awesome the kids did. They all had their moments but they did so well and it makes it super easy to say "we can't wait to do it all again!"

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Dower Lake Camping

At least one weekend during each summer all the brothers and sisters that live in Minnesota haul our campers over to Dower and go camping together. We try and get in a few weekends but at least once is our goal! The kids have a great time together and we hardly see them all weekend because they are so busy... This year they busted out the fishing poles and had a blast trying to catch as many fish as they could. Between fishing and swimming the kids had a fabulous time!

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Camp Emmaus

Brody had his first overnight trip to Camp Emmaus this year... He left on Wednesday afternoon and we picked him up on Friday afternoon. I think that he handled it better then mom did! :) He got to bunk with 10 other kids around his age, including 2 of his cousins and he had a fabulous time... He is very excited to go back next year! Guess I better start saving my pennies!

Brody and his counselor Jarod

Gavin, Elyse and Brody

Braxton

He wants to be like the big kids so bad!! Anything that has wheels, he is on! Bikes, motorcycles, 4 wheelers, you name it...

Beau's 1st T-Ball Game

Beau had his first t ball game when Brody was at camp so it worked out really well for me. I could actually watch his whole game and not have to run back and forth. The rest of the season has not been as easy but at least I got to stay for his whole game the first go round!

Rainy Day Fun

Rainy days NEVER get my kids down! :) We have had some fun rain storms this summer and a few of them have flooded out our ditches like crazy. This one was on a pretty warm day so when the kids ran downstairs, changed into the suits and came begging to go play in it I had to agree... When the rain started coming down again - nice and hard - they were forced back inside, reluctantly, by their mother! :)

Brody's 1st Triathalon!

My cousin Heidi runs a triathalon for the kids on Red Eye River Days and this year Brody was eligible to participate. He wasn't too sure about doing the whole thing on his own but she has a team event that he was super excited for. He paired up with his cousin Tori, who did the swimming; his cousin Gavin, who did the biking and Brody got to do the running. They did a great job and had a ton of fun doing it... Brody, Tori, Gavin

Waiting for Gavin to finish the bike leg...

And the hand off...

And he's off...

Bringing it home...

All the participants

The cousins who got to participate!