Happy 80th Reuben!

Here is Ellie and Gavin all excited for our "cruise" home from Morristown!

and then here and Ellie and Gavin about 5 minutes into that cruise! They slept the whole way home!


We had a great time with the Krause family on Sunday to celebrate Grandpa Krause's 80th birthday!

The MN Zoo!!!!

getting ready to go to the zoo - gavin insisted on wearing his hat and sunglasses!

that's me and Gav, (I'm wearing pink) right up front as the shark goes by!

Bryan and I love going to the zoo every year (well at least I do!) and it's even more fun now with Gavin. He loved looking at all of the animals - I think his favorites were the monkeys, the shark and the dolphin! I thought the new grizzley bear exhibit was very cool too! He also had fun at the farm, where he fed goats and got to see some more familiar animals. The day was pretty hot - so we were all pretty tired by the end of the afternoon. Gavin slept through most of supper, but woke up in a really good mood and excited to go swimming at the hotel. We spent the night in bloomington and then headed to Morristown on Sunday - it was such a fun weekend!

Fair Day!

We took Gavin to the Kandiyohi County Fair on Friday evening. It turned out to be a really nice night! We had fun trying different foods (G especially liked the chocolate ice cream cone!) He even played a carnival game of pick the duck... not too complicated, but it did wind up in a little turtle prize. We even got to watch the sunset on our walk back to the car!

Happy 1st Birthday Owen!

What a cool pool!

Gavin just loves his cousin!!!

Happy Birthday little Owie!!! We had so much fun at your birthday party - I can't believe you are a year old - we love spending time with you and watching you grow and learn so much so fast! Can't wait to see you Saturday! Love you little buddy!

Our week at Lake Florida!

We had so much time with our family at the cabin last week! Gavin and I spent a lot of time in the water, but he also enjoyed going in the boat, throwing rocks at the shoreline, roasting marshmallows and eating smores! He was spoiled with popsicles, orange floats and suckers too! He had fun playing with Owen and staying up late every night. We were lucky to have Krista and Shane there for the weekend, and Lauren and Ellie and Nick came up to swim too. We got to spend the whole week with laurie, Eric and Owen - what a treat for us to see so much of our Owie! The weather was perfect, except for the morning Bryan called early to inform me we were in a tornado warning! when I looked outside, the entire sky was very green! I woke everyone up and we got the crawl space all ready, but luckily didn't have to go down there (yuck!), we kept the boys happy with milk and cherrios while we hung out in the bathroom until the storm blew over - that made for an interesting morning. Overall we had a great week, and it just reiterated how much Bryan and I love the water!!!!

Happy 4th of July!!!

I can't believe that the 4th of July has come and gone already! We had such a fun long weekend. Lauren and Ellie had a sleepover at our house on Thursday night - we went to the park and ate dairy queen ice cream in the car... which was interesting with Gavin, but Lauren was such a good helper, he hardly made a mess! We spent a lot of time outside that night which tired them all out! Friday morning we went to the parade in Spicer, which got a little long and a little too hot for everyone - but it didn't take G very long to figure out that what they are throwing is candy - and boy does it taste good! We had so much fun evne though we were sitting right in the sun! We also got Gavin a very cool priate pool, so after lunch at applebees the kids all cooled off in that - G love its - he's gone swimming a lot since then!!! We didn't make it to the fireworks again this year - too much excitement during the day, Gavin just couldn't stay awake.

He has been so much fun lately, he's figured out how to be silly and goofy - which is so fun for Bryan and I to watch. Although, he's also learned he can be naughty too. Yesterday, I was trying to have a conversation with him on what happens when we are naughty - and he has been in time out before, so he knows what corner that is. Well, after his bath, he wanted to brush his teeth, but ended up dumping a cup full of water all over the counter top - so I nicely told him -
"no Gavin, that is naughty" he smiled at me, said "oh oh - I naughty" and ran naked to the time out corner........ and peed. so much for that - it was like he was saying - I'll show you naughty!!!

that's just a little glimpse into my everyday....

Anyway, I hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th of July weekend. Before I know we're going to be celebrating G's 2nd birthday!

Summertime fun!

We have been having such a fun summer - I want it to slow down!!! Gavin loves to be outside - some of his favorite things to do are water mom's plants, go to the park, eat ice cream cones and play in the water. He was being such a ham the other day climbing in that bucket!