Celebrity look-a-likes

OK, so I stole the idea from Shari's blog...but it was fun to do. Check out the celebs that AJ and I look like. I also did the pics of the kids to see if they looked more like AJ or I, but it was very inconclusive. Ellie was 50/50, and Micah looked 8% more like me. Anyway, it was fun to check out at www.myheritage.com.

AJ's celebrity look-a-likes

Celebrity look-a -likes

Summer vacation

What a relaxing week! We had a family vacation last week at a rented cabin near Cumberland, WI. All of Amy's family (mom, dad, sisters & their families) were there for most of the week. The cabin was beautiful, spacious, and accommodated all 16 of us very well. It was the Pipe Lake Lodge on Pipe Lake and we spent most of the week just relaxing. We all enjoyed doing lots of swimming, playing in the sand, doing puzzles, hiking, reading, playing games, and a little bit of eating....OK, LOTS of eating. Sitting on the porch and reading while listening to the sounds of the lake was the best part. We heard loons several times and watched thunderstorms come in over the lake a couple of evenings. It was a great time and we would have loved to stay another week. We hope to go back and do it again soon.

Ellie at 9mths

So here's Ellie at nine months old. We were at the doctor last week and she was declared "a healthy and beautiful baby". We agreed! Here are her stats: 20lbs even (60 percentile), 27 1/4 inches tall (50 percentile), and head circumference of 17 inches (40 percentile). So even though she has unlimited rolls on her legs, she 's still just about average. She loves to eat "real" food, although she does tend to play with it a bit (hence the noodles on her head)! She has just two bottom teeth, but the top two should be appearing any day now. You parents out there know that we could be saying that for weeks. I guess they'll come when they are ready! She is not crawling, but can make her way around by spinning, scooting, & stretching. She a good sleeper but an early riser. She takes two good naps a day and has become quite predictable. Her arms and legs go wild when dad, Micah or Cooper come around and she loves playing with any of those three. She is a joy to us all and we are so blessed to have her!

Fenway, Shea and Yankee Stadium Baseball Tour

This year our baseball tour took us to the East coast. We took an early morning flight (5:30 AM) to Boston. We went to Cheers and then to Fenway Park to see the Red Sox play Toronto. Fenway was very very cool. From the outside it does not look much like a stadium. Here is a picture of the park.
Randy and I both got a Monster Dog. It was the largest hot dog I have ever seen and to tell you the truth if I did not have another hot dog until next Summer that would be OK. Here is Randy with his Monster Dog.
On Sunday we saw the Mets play Cincinnati Reds. Shea stadium was much nicer than I thought it would be. In the background you can see the construction of the Mets new stadium.
We spent some time in New York City and then Monday night we saw the Yankees play Toronto.

Long Time No Post

Has it been a month since our last post? Shame on us! We've had lots going on and the blog has gotten pushed to the bottom of the list. Here are some updated pictures of the kids. Ellie is almost 9 mths old and is such a doll. She is a great little girl. She spends lots of time wiggling and spinning around, but is not crawling yet. That will come soon enough...right now I am grateful that she is quite content to sit and play.

The picture of Micah is from his first visit to Chuck E. Cheese (or as Micah calls it Chunk E. Cheese) for his friend Amara's birthday. They had a great time playing the games and running around. Micah is having a great summer and is enjoying every minute he can be outside.

Kids at home

A couple of funny shots from home. The first is of Ellie eating an animal cracker, which Cooper just happens to love. You can tell he was just hoping to steal some from her.

The other day Micah came running out from his bedroom saying, "Mom, come quick. Get the camera and come quick." I thought, "Oh, boy, what is this child up to now?" It turns out that this is what I found and he thought we just had to have a picture of it. Like the Little People may never stand all together on the stool again. I captured the moment to humor him and he was happy about it!

Maiden Voyage

Our first trip out in the new pop-up was Father's Day weekend. It was such a fun time! Everyone did better than expected (kids and dog included!). We camped at Bent Trout Lake Campground near Barnum, MN. It is a private campground on a small but beautiful lake. We were joined by AJ's aunts, uncles, cousins (& boyfriends), grandma, and mom. There was a good storm that came through on Friday night, but Saturday was picture perfect. We were able to spend some time on the beach and in the water swimming and canoing. Sunday morning threatened rain, so we quickly took the trailer down, which is why our family picture is with it down. It ended up not raining, but we didn't want to take that risk. If we take down the pop-up in the rain, we would have to set it up at home to let it dry out to avoid yucky mold growing where we do not want it. It was such a great time and we cannot wait to make another trip out again soon.

Summer is here....

Yesterday we headed to Spooner, WI to visit my sister and brother-in-law and their kids. We had a great time at their church and then having lunch at their house. They happen to have a lot of dirt in their backyard, which the kids LOVED to play in! His is a pic of Micah and his cousin Caleb hiding beneath layers of dirt!

My Golf Trip (Adventure)

There is an annual tradition that a couple of college buddies and I have. We try and find a couple nice golf courses and take a couple of days and go golfing. This year we went to Giants Ridge Golf and Ski Resort. We stayed at the Villas at Giants Ridge which were very nice.

The first day, Sunday, we golfed the Legend. It was OK. It was scenic but the greens were in pretty bad shape. Here is a picture of hole #3 it is a par 5 476 yard hole from the blues.


But the fun did not happen until... between hole 12 and 13. You know what it is like when you get 4 college friends together. We were having fun trying to pass each other in the golf carts when Aaron almost pushed Brent and I into a tree... at that point it was on. We were back and forth while driving and then came the big hill... with a very sharp corner the bottom of it and a very steep hill or wooded embankment of impending doom. Can you see where this is going? Unfortunately Aaron could not, he was busy looking back at us making sure we were not going to pass him or try something. Then he turned around and look forward (a novel idea when driving a cart towards the wooded embankment of impending doom) once he turned around it was too late. He tried to make the corner and hit a good sized rock, which put the cart up on two wheels. Amazingly he gained control long enough to get it back on all fours just in time to hit some loose rock and put him back up on two wheels and into the embankment (it was about 35-40 degrees steep). We saw Aaron bail and thought the cart landed right on top of him but thankfully it had hit a rock and skipped over him. Scott, the passenger (who, according to Aaron may have deserved this, was also in the cart. Scott had rolled a vehicle in our college days with Aaron in the car so Aaron just called this even) Both people were safe. They hit a 8-10ft dead tree stump which shattered when they hit it and they also killed about 30-40 little saplings. Here is a picture of where the cart landed (we did not take a picture of the cart down there because we wanted to get it out of there as fast as possible so we would not get in trouble). Amazingly we got it out. It was about 25 feet into the woods on a steep hill. The cart had landed on it's side and we righted it up and actually got it out. There was only one scratch on the entire cart and it ran... until the next hole then it promptly died and started to rain. HARD



One last picture of the Legend. This is their signature hole, #17



On Monday we played the Quarry twice. We are all glad we chose to play that course twice... It was one of the nicest courses any of us had ever played. The first time through we played for individual score. Ouch is all I am going to say. When you start with a 9 on a par 5 you know it is going to be rough. Then the second time through we played two man best ball. Brent and I won last year by seven strokes. This year Brent and I only hit 5-6 fairways. We were horrible but kept it close and only lost by 3 or 4 strokes... Aaron feel free to correct me, but be accurate. When we played best ball we played from the tips (for those not familiar with golf that is the farthest tee box back) the course played 7,201 yards that way. All in all it was fun. Here are a couple of pictures of the Quarry.

Just a couple of new pics of the kids at the park the other day. We head there quite often when it is nice out. Many times we have it all to ourselves and Micah runs all over everything. He is much braver this year and sometimes even a little daring! I have to keep an eye on him. Ellie just goes along for the ride and is content to sit in the stroller and watch Micah run around.

Our new vacation home

Isn't she a beauty?! AJ and I have talked for years about getting a camper and happened to come upon a good deal recently. We love camping, but are not quite adventurous to tent it with the kiddos. Even this might be a stretch when Ellie wakes up half the campground in the middle of the night/early morning. However, we are super-excited about it...almost giddy, actually. It is a pretty basic pop-up with no bathroom or running water, but it will keep us out of the rain/bugs and off the ground. We hope to make many family memories in it!

Mill City Museum

FREE!! I love that word. We got free passes to the Mill City Museum from the Hennepin County Library's Museum Adventure Pass. AJ took the day off and we headed to check it out. We weren't sure what to expect and if it would be over Micah's head, but he had a GREAT time. There were lots of hands-on activities for him to do. The pics show him sending logs down the river and pushing a water turbine. He also ground and sifted wheat to make flour and rolled out dough in the kitchen area. He didn't want to leave even though we were an hour past lunchtime. There was a fun "Flour Tower" ride that gave the history of the flour mills in Minneapolis. AJ and I had a great time as well and found it to be very interesting.

Ellie at 5 mths

Ellie is now 5 mths old! We can hardly believe it. Thanks to her friend Avery for sharing the adorable pink dress for Ellie's dedication. And thanks to Mimi for Ellie's dedication bling. Mimi made a couple of bracelets just for Ellie and they are adorable! Ellie is growing bigger every day and is constantly changing. She is loving her rice cereal and has now tried bananas as well. She gave a few funny faces to that at first, but has grown accustomed to them. Not sure what we'll try next.....maybe pureed peas. Mmmmm good! She also rolled over this week for the first time! She went from her back to her tummy....and then didn't know what to do next! She can't get back to her back yet, so that's the next challenge.

Here is are some pics of the family. Micah loves that Ellie and she loves him right back. Aren't they cute together? The family pic is from the Sunday of Ellie's dedication. It was a great day with lots of aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, and great-grandmas there. Ellie did great and didn't cry in front of the church (which was my fear, of course!).

Ellie update

Here are a couple of new pics of Ellie. She loves her daddy and saves her best smiles for him. She also adores Micah and thinks he is the best big brother around. She is always watching him and he earns quite a few smiles as well. She is really into grabbing things and everything goes into her mouth. We can't believe that she is almost 5mths old! She just recently started rice cereal--what a messy adventure! She is ever so close to rolling over, but can't get everything to cooperate just yet. We are enjoying her more and more every day!

Ellie at 4mths

Here are some pics of Ellie at 4 months of age. It's hard to believe how fast the time has gone! She is growing and changing every day. She is becoming more and more fun and is developing her own personality. She still does not enjoy sleeping much--nights are pretty good, but she has a strong aversion to naps. She has her 4 mth doctor appt this week, so we will get all of her stats there (height, weight, etc).

Hanging out with dad...

Micah is dad's little buddy! Here are a couple of recent shots of them together. Micah loves to do special activities with dad and there are certain things that only he and dad can do together--mom and Ellie not allowed! Their favorite thing to do is "tickle and wrestle" in Micah's bedroom. They also will often run errands together or hang out in the garage or outside together. At bedtime we talk about what Micah's favorite part of the day was. Today he said his favorite part was building a snow fort with dad. He likes to be wherever AJ is and talks about when he gets bigger he can go to work with dad. Most things that we say he can't do now he says he can do "when he gets bigger". He's a bunch of fun!

Children's Museum

We made a trip to the Children's Museum today with Tim, Cathy, and William Fischer (friends from church). It was great because the 3rd Sunday of the month is free admission. However, it was a ZOO! Everybody loves free stuff and the place was packed. Micah had fun and elbowed his way in to play with the exhibits. There was a special exhibit with Bob the Builder, so he enjoyed that. Above are a few pics from the day.