Birthday Bashes

Birthdays are such a treat when you have little angels sitting anxiously who thrive on singing "Happy Birthday" and blowing out your candles for you. In reality, they truly enjoy licking the frosting off the candles and devouring the cake (with the Sugar Police standing guard)!! Lindsey, Taylor and Dylan got the opportunity to help me and their cousin Anna celebrate our July birthdays in the last week (Anna turned 4; I'm not telling). Poor Anna didn't even get to blow out her own candles since they swarmed around and moved in. We had a really nice time having Aunt Heidi and Anna & Faith over for time in the pool and a BBQ.

Dave took me out for sushi and a movie on my birthday and he was such a trooper!! He doesn't care much for sushi and he sat in a movie theatre full of women for a chick flick I had been wanting to see (we rarely go to movies since we rent them at home). He didn't complain even once - what a babe!! Although, I believe I am done with sushi and theatre movies for quite a while. Just can't see paying so much for so little and not being able to enjoy a great movie in the comfort of your own home and laughing as loud as I want without getting "the look". I think my brother Bruce and friend Annie are the only two that may be on the same volume level as me. Oh well, laughter is the key to happiness, especially really loud laughter, right?

Splash & Play

LTD outgrew their kiddie pool from last summer and with hopes of moving in the next year or so, an inground pool was not an option (not to mention, WAY out of our budget). SO, we decided to get a new "easy set-up" pool that cost us about $60 (what a bargain for 12' x 30" with a filter). Or so we thought. Quite a fiasco for a pool!! First, it was not on completely level ground so it pretty much took out the garden while we were out for dinner (basically rolled down the SLIGHT decline - did I mention it took a day to fill with warm water?). SO, Dave levelled out the backyard as best as can be the next day and we tried it again. Thankfully, it worked but we found out that it is much more "involved" than we anticipated. We initally thought, "hey, a filtered pool would be great so we don't have to empty the water every day". Well, that filtering system also entailed: purchasing non-chemical disinfecting agents/testing kit since we did not want to use chlorine as they recommended (cost $50 and a trip to Chanhassen); purchasing a pool cleaning kit with vacuum and debris skimmer ($20); rigging our own ladder since a new one was way overpriced (would have cost $50+); and rigging our slide so it could be high enough to slide into the pool - Whew! Now we just have to stay on top of all this and we'll be good.

Anyway, the kiddos LOVE it!! So we captured a few moments of them on their first day in the pool along with a day at their favorite park with mom and dad. We have so much enjoyed the summer and have spent a great deal of time outdoors with lots more fun times ahead. Stay tuned for a posting on some July birthday bashes.

Swimming & Birthday Celebration

We just got back from North Dakota after an awesome visit!! We truly enjoyed sharing time with our dear parents, genuine friends and taking time to just relax and celebrate Independence Day (also Grandma Ione's birthday). We went swimming, boating on the river, shared time with friends on Lake Isabel and saw an incredible fireworks display, took in the zoo and the amusement park - twice, shared cold beverages with friends on hot summer nights, shared more cold beverages with friends at the park while our kids played together, Dave got to golf, we slept in and spent lots of time outdoors. Bismarck is just such a fantastic place and the fact that it takes 5-10 min. to get anywhere in town is so amazing. No metro traffic and lots of friendly people that actually speak English - how refreshing!! The sad part is we did a horrible job of taking time to get out the camera & video camera, not only in ND but the entire month of June and into July.

We did mangage to capture the grand finale of their very first swimming lessons (without mom and dad in the water with them) which Grandma & Papa Good got to see firsthand the day LTD left for ND for 9 days without us!! They never cried even once for us while they were there!! They had so much fun and got a chance to share quality time with Papa & Grandma Clark and Papa & Grandma Kemmet too. They had absolutely no problem moving around from place to place. I think Dave and I missed them WAY more than they even had time to think about us. Mama Bear cried ALOT more than her cubs did. We also got a chance to capture on film the 4th of July birthday celebration of Grandma Ione. LTD had a blast singing, blowing out candles and eating ice cream cake and frosting.

We are back to MN and the kiddos have been formally introduced to their new bedrooms. Stay tuned for video and photos of the big transition!! Check out our KodakGallery link on this page (right hand column) for photo memories from June to mid-July. We vow to do a much better job the rest of the summer taking videos and photos.