Summer 2011

Sooooooo...

hmmmm...


where to start.

This was supposed to be a 8 July 2011 post with pics from the lake on the 4th of July.  There's lots of reasons its not.  This summer was harder than I thought it would be for numerous reasons...knee surgery among other things that I won't bore you with.  I did however have lots of fun spending time with my kiddos...they are little nutballs who are growing so fast.

Okay, so did you make sure you went to the bathroom and got yourself a snack?  This is going to be a long one!  I'm talking like 108 pictures, peeps.  Here's the summer overview...the five from the summer. 

1.  The lake...

I know I've had plenty of pics already, but ask any of the kids and the very favorite part of the summer would be running off the end of the dock at the lake.

2.  Baseball...

Tate played Nearball two nights a week again this summer.  Eric enjoyed coaching with Gary again this year.  We were so excited that HE was more excited about it this year.  No more bird watching!

Avery played Teeball two mornings a week.  She had lots of fun and is a great hitter...her least favorite part is that she had to hit off the tee!

Beckett, though not old enough to play organized ball, spent lots of his summer playing.  He is definitely the baseball enthusiast of the house.  After Tate's games we would have a Newman family game til the sun went down.  All he wanted for his birthday this year was real cleats and a Twins jersey.  I see quite a few years at the field for this little fella.

3.  Hair cuts...

After fighting with Avery for months about brushing her hair, I finally had enough of the fight and got her to agree to chop her hair.  We started out slow but have gone shorter since.

Before

After

While we were there, Kasey talked Beckett into a much shorter cut as well.  He seemed to grow up in 15 minutes!

4.  Friends and fam...

The time spent with friends this summer was fabulous.  All five of us are blessed with great people in our lives.

At John and Sara's pool with Paige

At the ballpark with Brielle

Collecting Treasures at Gigi and Grandpa Merle's

At the Corn Chaff Days Parade with Addie and Livi

At the Lake with the Pankakes

At National Night Out with the Culdesac Kids

With Grandma Lois at Kara's Grad Party

At CJ's Cabin with Molly, Leah, and CJ

At the Savage Fountain Park with the Preschool Crew

5. Beckett's birthday party...

The end of summer now means Beckett's birthday party.  Because we celebrate with cousin Jackson whose birthday is August 2nd, we have their birthday right before school starts so that it is the middle of the birthdays.  An added bonus is I get it done before I go back to school!  Rach and I have so much fun planning together.

This year we had a Go Dog. Go! party based on one of our favorite books of all time.  I can still hear my mom reading it to me!

The Birthday Boys

The Decor











Do you like my hat?

























Go, Dogs.  Go!






A Big Dog Party



The Guest Book



Other Random Party Favorites






Did you make it through?  I'm impressed.  Enough for tonight.

1 July 2011

As I mentioned last week, E and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on the 23rd.  For our 5 year anniversary, I planned a surprise trip to New York City.  By surprise I mean that though E knew we were going, he didn't know WHERE we were going.  We decided it was so fun that we would repeat on our 10th anniversary only this time I didn't know where we were going.  After a long 5 months of me begging E not to give it away, I found out at the ticket counter when the lady said "Where are you headed today?" and E replied "San Francisco!"  So here are the five days of our vacation!

1.  Day One:  Twins Game and Anniversary Dinner

For my 30th birthday, one of E's goals for my 30 in my 30s "assignment" was to visit 5 away stadiums to see a Twins game.  I mentioned to him back in January that if they were playing somewhere cool this summer we should probably try to combine seeing a game with our anniversary trip, even if it wasn't exactly on our anniversary.  He checked the Twins schedule and screamed "I know where we are going and we can go ON our anniversary!"   So I spent the next 6 months avoiding a Twins schedule and the last month even avoiding the sports segment on the news.

We decided to walk the mile from our hotel to the stadium and on the way we found my favorite street...so what if they spelled it wrong?!  Nothing one shoe couldn't take care of!

The game was really fun even though we didn't win.  We had plenty of friendly banter going with all the Giants friends around us.  The stadium was nice...we still like Target Field better except that there is no view of the OCEAN like there was there!  So cool to be right on the bay.

That evening we went out for a nice dinner down by the Bay Bridge.  Great food, great service, great company.

2.  Day Two:  Fisherman's Wharf and Alcatraz

Friday we rode the cable cars down to Fisherman's Wharf and spent the day walking around.

It was fun seeing all the sights on Pier 39 and there was great people watching throughout the day.

At night we took a tour of Alcatraz.  This doesn't SOUND that fun, but it was sooooo interesting.  We both loved it.

3.  Day Three:  Biking the Bridge

This was by far our favorite day of the trip.  We rented bikes on Fisherman's Wharf and biked over the Golden Gate.

We kept biking past the bridge to a cute yuppity little town called Sausalito where we stopped for ice cream.

Then we had to decide whether to bike back or keep going and ride the ferry back over the bay.  We decided to keep going and ended up riding 18 miles total...not too shabby when you factor in the hills and that we were on vacation!  This next pic was taken towards the end of our ride. We had to stop and point to the Golden Gate that we had rode over at the beginning of the afternoon...

Such a fun day.

4.  Day 4:  Muir Woods and Wine Tour

Sunday we had booked a wine tour in Sonoma...AFTER we learned that it was Pride Weekend in San Francisco.  We might have tried to take in the parade just for the experience had we known, but there was plenty of leftover sights to see before and after the parade anyway.  It was cool to see all the downtown stores transform their windows into rainbows using their products.  Anyway, back to the day's events.

Our tour first stopped in Muir Woods to see the giant redwood trees.  I mean GI.ANT.

The biggest redwoods are in Redwood National Forest, but these were mighty big.

Then we were on to wine country.  We went to two actual wineries and then went to the plaza in Sonoma where we could walk around and sample more and eat lunch.  Eric did most of the sampling for the day since I think I am allergic to wine, but I loved seeing the scenery.

We had such a fun group that we were touring with. Our favorites were the most fun couple from Australia who were in their NINTH week of PAID vacation and were returning the next day. I officially want to move to Australia.

5.  Day 5:  I WANT TO SEE MY KIDS.

You know how you wake up on the last day, no matter how long or short of time you've been gone, and just want to be home?  That's what this day was pretty much about.  We didn't even have to leave for the airport until 2 o'clock.  My knee was feeling pretty awful, so I wasn't up for much of a walking tour.  Our cable car passes had run out the day before.  I just wanted to see the kids.  Then we remembered we hadn't really gotten them anything yet, so we went on a search for the thing we'd been looking for.

On every corner there were little stands of beanies being handmade and most were animals.  We thought the kids would love them except they seemed a bit juvenile for Tate.  After lots of searching, we found a Spiderman one for him that we knew he'd love.  After a long day of travel, we finally arrived to Shakopee at about midnight.

The kids were at Rach's and we had intended on picking them up in the morning, but we couldn't wait to see them so we picked them up that night.  I love seeing my kids faces after not seeing them for a few days.  There really is nothing better.  The next morning we gave them their hats and they were more than happy to model for me.

It was such a fun 5 days.  Thank you so much to Grandpa Rog & Grandma Becky, Rach & Brad, and Kara for all the adventures the kids had while we were gone.  You're the best!

24 June 2010

1.  Rach and Brad both turned 30 in May.  Friday they threw themselves a birthday bash...but not just any bash.  It was a creepy denim party.  All guests were to dress head to toe in denim, the creepier the better.  Eric decided to go redneck cowboy and I went 90s school teacher.  Likey??

There was plenty of creepy to go around.  Especially because E and Kasey's boyfriend Brady decided to coerce every girl at the party into a picture with them. If I had time to make a good collage it would be good.  Fortunately for them I don't, so this will have to give you an idea...

It was the first time my sisters and I had all been together since Kara's return from Europe.  Always so fun yet a little dangerous.  =)

2.  Saturday we went to Hector to spend time with Rog for Father's Day.  We spent the afternoon with them and went to supper that night.

Sunday we headed to the lake to spend Father's day with my Dad.

3.  Aside from Father's Day, we were also celebrating Kara's graduation and return from Europe, which means we have a new roommate for the next 7 months!  Yippee!

4.  Thursday was our 10th wedding anniversary. We credit God, humor, and vacations for still being happily married with children.  More on our anniversary next week!

5.  LOVE this.  No explanation needed.