Tag Archives: summer

Summer Retrospective

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I’ve been absent. I realize this.  And there is wayyyy too much to try and catch up on all of it.  But here’s a summary of our busy summer!

June

  • Packed up and moved out of Burnsville.
  • Into our new house in New Brighton
  • There was some soccer and birthday parties too.

July

  • Home Repairs & Upkeep – leaky water main, smoke detectors, brick repair, toilet seats, shower heads, more leaky pipes, catching mice
  • Meeting Neighbors – This was the highlight of our summer.  All the wonderful neighbors that we have met.  Lots of kids.  Lots of baths required after nights of riding bikes, scooters, and ziggles.
  • New preschool for Charlie and summer care program for Maria – new friends & new teachers.

August

  • A week at Family Camp – super fun – bikes (no training wheels for my kids), scooters, worship, music & friends
  • A sleepover for Maria at Grandpa & Grandma’s
  • Charlie’s first Twins game
  • Daddy golfed and went white water rafting.
  • Discovered a new water park in the area.
  • Labor Day weekend at Uncle Mike’s cabin

It was a little stressful for the first half, but once we were settled in we had lots of fun.  All good stuff!  Ready for fall… more changes coming…

Surprise! It’s July!

Posted in Moments by

Did anyone see where June went? Wow that was fast. But as they say, time flies when you’re having fun. And mostly June was fun!

When I say mostly, that implies that parts of it weren’t. Those parts would be weekends #1 and #2 and the week between. Why do you ask? Well if you remember May, the last weekend Maria had a stomach bug. Which Charlie didn’t pick up until the following weekend. There was a lot of sheets changed and rugs washed that weekend. Which I’m fairly certain was why I got the bug that following Monday night. Then the weekend came again, and it was Maria’s turn again. Chad drank grape juice and remained safe!

We pulled it together and stayed healthy for a week. We had a fun barbecue at Karin’s while learning a good lesson about setting boundaries for a 3 year old boy.

And the following weekend we had a family reunion with Chad’s family and cousins. Good times! And the following weekend, we had Chad’s 20 year class reunion while his parents hung out with the kids.

In between all of that:

  • Maria graduated from Kindergarten
  • I cleaned up the landscaping and spread a LOT of mulch!
  • Both kids started swimming lessons
  • We’ve played a lot of Thomas the Train Uno and Spot It.
  • Charlie also spends considerable amount of time pushing a dump truck
  • Maria learned to ride her bike!
  • I upgraded to an iPhone5… which is probably the only reason there are pictures for me to post below…
  • Chad and I also worked. yeah, those jobs sure get in the way of summer.

So yeah, my things to do for June did not get done, except for the landscaping things…

A Few Pictures
Outside Uno
Outside Uno!

“Helping” with the Mulch
Mulch Riding!

4-wheeling with cousin Owen
Riding with Owen

Green Bay – The Weekend

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We spent this past weekend in Green Bay with Chad’s extended family.  It was such a nice weekend once I got past the hassle of planning and coordinating!

The men left very early Friday morning, so they could golf in the afternoon.  (although a storm interrupted that).  And I left with the kids a few hours later.  We met my sister-in-law, niece/nephew, and mother-in-law so we could caravan together.  A quick lunch and a little play time outside of Wausau before arriving in Green Bay early afternoon.  The kids did not need much time to warm up and just started playing. Everyone arrived by dinner and we had a nice evening together, before heading back to the hotel.

The night was long, but oh so short! We had decided to not use the pack-n-play as Charlie is much too long for it and can climb out. We instead ordered some bumpers to put under the sheets and hoped he would be tired and konk out.  NOPE… this kid managed to stay awake until 10:15 both nights. AND got up before 7 both days.  YIKES!

Saturday was a fun-filled day as well. Even on so little sleep. I think we spent about 3 hours at the pool.  Charlie was not a fan of the Puddle-Jumper life jacket I had for him, but soon realized it was better than not going in the pool.  He also learned pretty fast that he could be a “boat” and float with it! 🙂  Maria was a little fish too.  Both had quite the adventure of going down the big waterslide. Maria even went by herself once she got over the initial fear of the size of the slide.  (unfortunately I didn’t take a picture of the whole slide, so you can’t see the size of it, but I bet it was about 2 stories?)

Saturday afternoon/night, was more time together as family at Chad’s cousin’s house, including a campfire and including smores!

Sunday was a quick stop to get Maria’s nails painted by Tami and say good-bye and thank you to everyone.  We stopped in Eau Claire to visit my aunt in the hospital and had a quick visit with my parents.  Maria resisted sleep the WHOLE way home!  5+ hours.  Charlie napped twice.  I was not surprised last night at 5:50 when Maria decided it was time to go to bed! And Chad still had to wake her up this morning.

Teeter Totter with Jana
 Maria & Jana

Luke & Maria
Luke & Maria

Water Slide
Ellie & Charlie

Water Slide
Annie & Maria

Charlie's first S'more
Charlie’s First Smore

More Green Bay 2012 Pictures