Sunday, July 24, 2011

O Canada and other travels


This past week I went up to Sault Ste Marie, Ontario to celebrate my grandparent's 65th wedding anniversary. I drove up with my parents (Steve stayed behind with the kids) and honestly, it was so fun to be with family without having to worry about the kids. We stayed with my grandparents the first couple of days (at this point, they didn't know about their surprise celebration) and afterwards we stayed at my Aunt Mary and Uncle John's cabin. It was so good to see everyone. I was sad that Laura and my cousin Jackie weren't there, but glad I could see my aunts and uncles and cousins. This picture is the beach off my Aunt and Uncle's cabin. Gorgeous eh? Honestly, I've never seen Lake Superior so peaceful and calm ever. Thank you everyone for the nice break! Congrats Grandma and Grandpa!



Unfortunately, I have no pics of family because I was assigned by my parents to take pictures of family with their family. Hopefully I'll be able to get copies and post them soon :)

Less than a week after I got back from Canada, Steve and the kids and I went to Minneapolis to hang out with Steve for a little bit, while he attended a conference for work. We went to IKEA (of course) and also to the sculpture gardens. Sometimes I miss living in a big city (though I love Fargo) and I think the thing I miss the most about big cities is culture! I miss museums, I miss ART museums, symphonies, and all that good stuff. Here are some pictures of us at the sculpture gardens:








My kids LOVE staying in hotels :)

Wallflowers


For mother's day, Steve bought me some hanging wall vases which I've had my eye on for the past 6 months. They're from CB2, and I love them, and we finally hung them up. In this picture I put fresh cut peonies from our yard in them. Thanks Steve!

My new ride!




No, we didn't get a new car (we're still a one car family), but I did get a bike! In fact, it's my first bike since the summer of 1997 when my bike was stolen out of our garage in Nebraska. I LOVE this bike. It's a Schwinn, it's retro, and I bought it for $10 at a garage sale. Not bad eh?

Baseball




Joshua is playing in his first baseball league this summer. Steve is co-coaching his team, The Rockies. (Steve is a man who wears many hats). We are so please that Joshua loves it. He hates it when he strikes, out and he loves fielding. We love his team because the kids are so patient with him, and everyone is so supportive with each other. I love Fargo Parks and Recreation!

Ma soeur!


My sister Laura came and stayed with us for almost two weeks while her husband went off to Vietnam on some top secret oil rig excursion. It was so fun to have her around! It was a little weird too, because we sorta look alike, we definitely sound alike, and we have the same body mannerisms. Even the man at the art gallery did a double take and said, "wow, you two must be sisters." We also got to celebrate Laura's birthday while she was here. So fun! I love you Laura!

Summer, Summer, Summertime!



Last month one Sunday morning, I woke up and really wanted to wear a light knee length skirt to church. Except I didn't own one. I did however have a cordory beige skirt that hit my ankles that I had since Whitney was born, and never wear because I hate the lenght of it. So I got out of bed, cut it to knee-length, and hemmed it up before church, and VOILA! I have a skirt I want to wear again. Thanks to my sister in law Heidi for the inspiration to try new things with my clothes (http://heidiluxe.blogspot.com) The big G on the fridge is the breakdown of Gallons, Pints, Quarts, etc. Joshua is learning them. I'm learning them, and since I'm a metric girl, I have no idea what all this Imperial method is all about, so I have to learn it to help Joshua learn it.

It was also Steve's birthday at the end of May. I think we're getting to the age where we don't mention numbers anymore :)



This summer we've had some pretty powerful storms. Not typical for this weather, but typical for Kansas, so it's not like we've seen it before. But I'd be lying to say that I didn't miss it. We got some roof damage and lost our trampoline during the Memorial Day storm. The Fourth of July fireworks got cancelled because of a tornado warning. This past week, we've had tornado sirens go off twice at 4 am. Like I said, I'm not a fan.

Some pieces of our roof



The trampoline



Don't worry we got a new trampoline. (And the roof fixed of course). We invested in some trampoline stakes the second time round, and let's just say after last week, we're glad we did.