The Great Minnesota Get-Together

The last hurrah of summer -- the Minnesota State Fair.  Although I know a lot of people who don't care much about it, it's become a fun tradition for us.  Here's what we did (same every year):  baby animal barn, giant slide, kiddie rides, giant pig and piglets, walked around, and ate.  Here's what we ate (same every year):  cheese curds, deep fried Snickers, ice cream, corn, deep fried Twinkie, hot dog, corn dog, Sweet Martha's Cookies, and Mountain Dew.  Sounds like a menu right out of the Weight Watchers book, doesn't it.  Sure was delicious, though. 

I think every year I put a picture on of the girls in an "I visited the oink booth" hat, so I didn't want to bore you with one of those again this year.  Or a picture of them eating a chocolate chip cookie.  You've seen one cookie picture, you've seen them all.

I love sharing pictures from things our family has been doing lately, but sometimes I want to share more of what's really on my heart.  That's why I started a new blog:   http://itsmyheartscry.blogspot.com/


There's a link to this new blog at the top right of this page -- check it out and let me know what you think.  I hope to be adding more little stories and thoughts there as time goes on, time permitting.  In the meantime there will be one more trip to the State Fair which will mean one more deep fried Twinkie for me until next year.  :)

Nearing the end of summer

Although summer is nearing the end, we've enjoyed our busy August so far and still have a couple things left -- namely the State Fair this week!  Wendy has already put her food order in (don't think the cheese curds will keep to send to Las Vegas), but let me know if you have any requests eaten in spirit.  I will be sure to eat a deep fried Twinkie for anyone who'd like one. 

Anyway, we started the month with the girls' first swimming lessons at the YMCA up the road.  They were in Pike 1 and did a great job!  They really got accustomed to the water and even started learning the basics of some strokes.  On the last day of class I found they had been promoted to "Eel", even skipping Pike 2.  Ha ha, gotta love those names.  I am looking forward to "Trout" down the road. 

Here are some cute pictures from the park one day.

This is a typical position for Bella.  Either she is not ready to get up the morning (the girls get up WAY too early), or she is trying to block out all their noise.  Poor dog.

A couple Saturdays ago we took the girls to Lake George, which is about 15 minutes north of us.  They have a great beach and it wasn't crowded at all.  We picked up Subway on the way and had a really fun time there.

Playing dress-up with their friends Molly and Mariah Klippenes the other day.

After dress-up we made "spiders."  Thanks Courtney for reminding me about those!

Grandma and grandma arrived in their RV a few days ago.  Tonight Emily is having a sleepover there and on Tuesday it will be Bri's turn. 

A friend of ours gave us 4 tickets to the Twins game on Friday night and. . .

the seats were amazing!  Thanks Billy!  (Even though he doesn't read this blog I can still thank him!)

The Twins lost -- they have lost all 6 games that Jeremy's been to.  We'll see if they lose on the 31st when Jer returns to Target Field.  Several friends have asked him to stay away.  :)  But even though they lost, at least the girls made it on the Jumbotron!  No, that's not me -- they are on a friend's lap.

The train ride home -- Emily is out cold.  Long but fun day.

More Summer Fun

Ok, I think I'm finally to end of my list of "pictures to put on my blog to catch up."  These are a couple weeks old, but for awhile there I was so behind, it took me awhile to catch up!  Anyway, dad came up a few weeks ago to pick up mom, and he brought along a tee-ball tee.  The girls absolutely loved it and have been playing with it ever since.  They've never played actual tee-ball;  maybe next summer. 

One of Jer's favorite things (and therefore the girls') are slushies from SA.  Usually Jer arrives home with a Mountain Dew slushie, but this was a blue one for the girls.  There's just something about blue foods that I can't quite do.  Anyway, they love them as you can see below:

What is summer without many trips to DQ?

A few weeks ago, we met our friends Mike and Em in Alexandria, a good halfway point between our place and theirs.  We went to a smaller lake outside of town and had a blast catching some pretty big sunnies. 

Here is their daughter Lily with one of her catch.  She was such a good fisher-girl!

Our girls, on the other hand, cared more about eating and asking when we were going swimming.  Luckily we did end up finding a swimming beach for them, though, and they had a great time there. 

It was a fun little day trip -- thanks Olsons!

Giant's Ridge

A couple days after we returned from Boston, we took advantage of mom still being here and did one final getaway -- a little golf trip up north to Giant's Ridge.  Giant's Ridge is a resort 3 hours north of us near Biwabik, MN, and is really beautiful.  Jer had golfed there before but I never had.  This was our second annual golf trip with our friends Molly and Andy -- one of our only "couple friends" who golf. 

This is the signature hole on the Legends Course -- a bear paw shape. 

We saw several deer and a couple foxes, too.

This butterfly landed on Jeremy's head cover and I thought it was neat.

It was a great couple of days together and with friends!

Bunker Beach

Thanks to some "groupons" where we got some half-price tickets, we have taken the girls to Bunker Beach twice this summer.  Here are a few pics from the last time we went (the first time it was raining so I didn't get my camera out!)

Here is the kids' area.  There is also a lazy river, a huge wave pool, water slides (which the girls are too short to do yet), and a sand area to play in. 

Despite all the fun things to do here, we frequented this place -- probably about 6 times (between both girls).  On the one hand, I was glad that they weren't peeing in the pool;  on the other hand, I was like, "Come on, again?"

Aww. . .

Backwards Day

I read an idea in a magazine a few weeks ago that sounded like a fun thing to try with the kids, so we did -- Backwards Day! 

The idea is basically to reverse everything you would normally do in a day.  So we started the day with a campfire. . .

and smores.  :)

Then it was time for breakfast -- pizza!  I didn't think I could do it but it wasn't bad.  (I am not one of those people that like to eat cold pizza for breakfast -- only breakfast foods for me.)

We then went for a walk, since we would normally do that in the evening.  After that we decided to let the girls experience something they'd never experienced -- giving Bella a bath. 

Unfortunately when Jeremy gets a hold of the hose, well, you can guess what happens. 

Don't let the picture fool you, he is not trying to "save me" from Emily and the hose.  I love this picture, though -- this captures our relationship (in a good way!)  Jeremy is the best at adding the fun to my life, in no small amounts.  I love you honey. 

Anyway, back to Backwards Day.  We finished the day off with a breakfast dinner -- Jer makes the best omelettes.  It was a lot of fun and a neat idea for you to try if you want to surprise your kids with something different!