Minnesota Zoo and a Wedding

Last weekend we headed to Minnesota for a family wedding. But first on our trip was a stop at the Minnesota Zoo.

Where I found this silly creature.

It was raining a little so we almost had the place to ourselves.

The big fish tank was a huge hit.

Don't tell me how many germs he's inhaling....I don't want to know.

He's touching me!!!!!!

My little monk.

Then we went to the wedding where we didn't take many pictures. But I'll tell you that the boys danced until.....

they couldn't dance anymore.
Congrats Bill and Kelli! The wedding was fabulous!

Clone Trooper

It's the best...

25 CENTS (yes, cents)

I've ever spent

at a garage sale.

Downtown

We've lived in Sioux Falls for 3 1/2 years. Really? Wow! We've spent very little time downtown. Oh sure we hit the Pavilion every now and again and we've ventured to a few restaurants but actually walking the streets and seeing it, nope never done it. So this week when my parents were in town we took to downtown, something my mom and I have been talking about for at least 3 years. And it was so much fun!

The boys had a blast looking at the sculptures, venturing into the candy store, chasing each other down the streets....

and playing hide and seek.
I see you Declan!

We visited a new toy store.

Where we played with several train tables.

We went to the Cookie Jar and ate cookies bigger then our heads.

We waited in line for the trolley.

And with our shades on

we rode it to Falls Park.

We're we climbed on the rocks.

For over an hour.

We climbed to the top of the tower. Ok. maybe we rode the escalator.

And enjoyed the view. And the sun.

Let Summer Begin

We spent Memorial Day weekend at the farm. We went form splashing in a baby pool to wearing pants and a sweatshirt in the boat....typical Memorial Day. Regardless the boys had an absolute blast.

Cannonball!

Pretty good for only a foot of water.

Declan spent a majority of the afternoon naked. Oh to be so free. However, it meant there were slim pickens of appropriate pictures to post. Carson refused to take his suit off because he's a rule follower and well, when you swim you must wear a suit!

Bennett hung out in the shade, chewing on sunscreen bottles.

Or riding down the ramp in his walker.

And then it was cold. And everyone was having a good time...can you tell?

Armed and probably pretty dangerous.

Too many freckles to count.

Grandpa's police boat

Always prepared...in case the bad guys come.

It was hot

Hot, Humid and Windy.
That describes our day yesterday.

So we broke out our suits, the baby pool and our sprinkler.

There is no better way

to cool off

then by running (or jumping)

through the sprinkler

for hours

and hours.
Then we came in, tried to make dinner, lost power AGAIN, ditched our dinner plans and went out to eat. I think we'll subtract our dinner costs from our Xcel bill.

Summer Vacation

We've survived our first week of summer vacation. Well, the boys survived, I sort of feel like I'm hanging on by a thread. Adjusting to summer vacation is harder then you think. Between a 5 year old who has gained 50 pounds in attitude and a 3 year old who likes to whine and tattle and an almost 8 month old who has mind loss if I leave the room, this could be a long summer! Lucky for us it was a gorgeous, hot, weekend (after a very cold rainy week). Here's a stream of consciousness recap.

We went to our 2nd 9-12 meeting. We bought flowers to plant. I colored my hair for the first time ever. We played and played and played outside. We lost power for 4 hours. It was 84 degrees in our house. We had to eat out (darn).The boys took a bath by candlelight. Power came on just before story time. Trevor reffed his last soccer game (YAY!). We let Emily try out her new shock color, sans a leash. She bolted on me today. She didn't even flinch as she went through the line after a squirrel. She must have been going to fast to feel the shock. She missed the squirrel she was after. She ran into Frenchie (our neighbor's dog) who chased her back into our yard. She must have gotten shocked coming back in. I wanted to beat her. But I didn't. I just tied her up. We had plans for a camp fire but mother nature had other plans. We went to church.

We wrestled with daddy in the front yard.

We played dead in the front yard.

We took pictures of Baby B rolling around in the yard.
(And then had fun editing them in Photoshop...look at those cute eyes. I'm practically a pro.)

Baby B tried out his new swing.

We ran through the sprinkler, with our clothes on.

We were soaking wet. But cool. We ate Popsicle (can you tell Declan had red?).

Some of us chose to eat grass.

We took a ride in the wagon.
And that's just the first weekend of our summer vacation. I'm tired. I'm wore out. But I'm looking forward to a very fun, very busy, summer with my boys.

Sports Galore

Carson had his first baseball game last night. He started asking if we could go to his baseball game around 1:30. The entire afternoon was spent having this conversation.

Carson: Mom, can we go to my baseball game right now?

Me: No honey, its not time yet. We have to have supper first.

Carson: Can we have supper now?

Me: No we have to wait for daddy to get home.

Carson: Can I get my baseball stuff on? (He slept in only a shirt because he wanted to wear his baseball pants. Then after nap he was naked and I convinced him to wear his shorts so he could play outside for awhile)

Me: No let's wait until after supper.

Carson: Can we have supper now?

Here he is hitting the ball.

And running home.

We've also taken up a new sport.

Golf.

Grandma and Papa bought the boys some clubs last week so we were busy practicing while we were there. I'm fairly certain he'll be the next Phil Mikkelson if he's not the next Joe Mauer. We're taking him to the golf course over the 4th of July. Should be fun to watch, if I don't get whacked by a 5 year old swinging a golf club before then.