What We've Been Up To This Summer: Run For Fun!

Eli did run for fun again this year. Sadie only got to go once because gymnastics is at the exact same time. Eli was one of the oldest this year in the 5-6 year olds so he ended up placing in most races. Sadie did good too, but the day she ran all of the other gymnasts were there too so there was some tough competition!

Eli (on the right in the blue shirt) had his work cut out for him! Ryan (in orange) and Ethan (in blue on the right) were his biggest competition. 

Long jump.

Sadie's long jump.

Sadie before the race! She's on the far left in the purplish shirt.

What We've Been Up To This Summer: Gymnastics

Sadie continued gymnastics this summer. She is still going 4 hours a week and she loves every minute (well, almost every minute. See below.).

Backward rolls.

Working on that hand stand. Constantly.

The last 5 minutes of class are reserved for splits. The whining during splits is pretty funny, but they're all getting much lower! Sadie is the one with braids.

What We've Been Up To This Summer: T-Ball

Eli played t-ball again this summer. It's his last year of t-ball as next year he will be in pony league. His team was sponsored by Qdoba and his two besties just happened to be put on the same team! It was a fun season.

Eli at bat.

Eli hits!

Ummm.... Eli is one of those kids in blue. I think he's on first.

After a hot morning on the field, icecream is often requested with Jack and Ryan.

A Trip To The Cities: Day 4, Swimming with Cousins!

Sunday proved to be another scorcher so we hung out in the best place to cool off: the lake! This is all the kids really wanted to do all weekend anyway. Nothing is better than cousin time.

Ahhhh!

Boy time: Eli, Sam. Jake and Gabe

Sam and Maddy

Grace and Sadie

Floaties!



A whole mess of kids!

We had an awesome trip. Thanks Mick and Mel for your hospitality. In less than a week the big annual family reunion will be taking place. It's time for the 2nd Sperlympics (the last one taking place 4 years ago!). I can't wait to share pictures of that!

What We've Been Up To This Summer: Piano

The kids continued with piano this summer. It was hard getting them to practice, but the rule was piano before playing. We practiced in our jammies most days! Towards the end of July the whining was getting pretty rediculous. It's a good thing we're on a break now until mid-September, I think we all need it!

A Trip To The Cities: Day 3, Part 2, The Twins Game

After our delicious dinner at Wendy's, Cole, Teresa, Duane, Greg, Dennis, Elizabeth, Maddy, Grace, Eli, Sadie and I went to the Twins game at Target Field. The Twins stunk it up and lost to the A's 3-9, but it was fun anyways as it was the kids' first MLB game and they got icecream in a twins helmet and cotton candy. I didn't get any pictures because there was a miscommunication about the camera and it was left in the car. Instead I stole Teresa's.

Cole showing off his new shirt with Teresa.

Target Field

A Trip To The Cities: Day 3, Part 1, The MN Zoo

On Thursday night, we were joined by other aunts, uncles, and cousins: Terri, Duane, Teresa, and Cole, Greg, Lisa, Elizabeth, Maddy, Grace, Gabe, Sam, and Jake! We decided to spend Saturday at the Minnesota Zoo. It was fun, but it was HOT. In fact, it was miserably hot and there were a lot of people so it might have been more miserable than fun, but we all survived the trek. There was a lot of whining (even by the parents!) but icecream got us through!

Sadie was in charge of the camera so here are a few of her shots. I think I deleted about 200 pictures that either came out blurry, were redundant or there wasn't an animal to be seen. It would have been fun to get a big family shot but with 16 people it was sort of like herding chickens... everyone was going every which way!

The dolphin show was great and as an extra bonus there was air conditioning AND you got splashed if you sat in the front rows!

Most of the animals were not moving and were sleeping in the shade, which is what we should have been doing!

Here's a cousin: Jake! Sadie must have liked the goats because there were about 25 photos of them.

Another cousin: Caveman Gabe!

After the zoo, we drove around aimlessly looking for somewhere to eat and eventually found a Wendy's. I'm only telling you this because Eli is still raving about how good the cheeseburger was. We don't have a Wendy's in Bemidji.

A Trip To The Cities: Day 2, Valley Fair

We got up on Friday morning and headed to Valley Fair, which is an amusement park much like Six Flags. The kids had never been and were very, very excited to spend the day there. Eli was looking forward to going on his first big roller coaster. Sadie spent a lot of the day being told that she was too short to ride. Luckily, there were a lot of rides that she could ride and that we could all enjoy.

The lines were short or non-existent on most of the rides. We did manage to get on two rides that broke down on us. One was the antique cars, and the other was the "Linus launcher" in which you lie on your belly and twirl around like you're flying. Dennis and the kids weren't stuck on there for long, but long enough to get uncomfortable!

It was a hot and steamy day so we had planned to eat a picnic lunch at our car and change into our swimsuits to spend the afternoon at Soak City, the waterpark that is inside Valley Fair. It was a perfect break from the heat. There was a splash park, lazy river, wave pool and waterslides (that they were too small to ride). I, however, did not get pictures of any of this because it was wet and I was wearing a swimsuit and my camera was locked up in the lockers.

After we were sufficiently cooled off we rode a few more rides, including "Mad Mouse", Eli's first big roller-coaster. Then the rain clouds were starting to roll in and there was thunder and lightening so they closed down most of the rides. It didn't matter it was 6:00 and we were ready to leave.

By the way, even when you're 40 it's tough being on the small side. Dennis wanted to ride a water ride, but the kids were too small  and I couldn't go because someone had to stay with the kids. He ended up going by himself only to be turned away because he didn't weigh 150 pounds! Now he knows how Sadie felt all day!!

Valley Fair was a blast! The best part? Almost no whining!!! We might have to make it an annual trip.

A Trip To The Cities: Day 1, Fishing!

We spent a long weekend just west of Minneapolis at Dennis' sister and brother-in-law, Mick and Mel's, lovely lake home. We got there a little late on Thursday afternoon, so the kids enjoyed the lake a bit.

And practiced their fishing skills...

The 4th

We celebrated our Nation's birthday starting on Sunday at the parade. Here are the kids with our neighbors. We've seen a lot of them this summer. In fact, I've kind of become a mom of 5 kids.

Sadie, Chase, Spenser, Eli, and Quinn

 On the actual 4th we went to a friends cabin just in time for it to start raining so we sat in the cabin and watched a hotdog eating contest, which is sort of nauseating. Then we went to a pig roast. We finished the night with fireworks of our own...

...and fireworks in the community.

What did you do to celebrate?

Lake La Salle / Itasca

We did our first camping trip of the summer a couple of weeks ago at Lake La Salle recreation area. The area is currently closed after 80mph winds went through that area and all of Bemidji last week destroying property and ripping up trees. It was a quick camping trip, but we filled it with lots of swimming, bikeriding, fishing and canoeing and snorkeling....

I have to admit that my kids are not big lake swimmers because they hate the muck and the weeds. I don't blame them, I hate that too. They usually swim with their shoes on!

I think we're already on our 8th bag of marshmellows for the summer. Who can resist s'mores?

Lake LaSalle is a hop, skip and a jump to Itasca so we headed there for bit of river crossing, and tower climbing.

We ended our day by going to the locally famous Beceida Bar where the kids ate mini hotdogs and played pool.  It was a fun weekend and the weather was perfect!