SUMMERTIME!!!

Thought I better catch up quick...before summer is over!

We are busy EVERYDAY!  It doesn't even seem possible but when Rick and I sit down on Sunday evenings to go over the weekly schedule of events it always brings us to the next weekend.  I am not gonna lie...I LOVE it!!   : ) 

This is what we have been up to...

Drew is still enjoying Bam Bam ball.  Rick, Raegan & I love to cheer him on from the sidelines.  He is doing great and loves to go.  They are pretty young to learn much about technical aspect of the game but they are definitely getting a grip on what its all about.  Rick takes time before we go to work on technical skills : )  I love watching those moments.

theres my stud, in the baseball cap

big swing!

Fathers Day...that seems so long ago already.  We celebrated Fathers Day with Ricks family on Saturday and my family on Sunday.  Being able to grill both days was great and catching up with everyone was nice.

giving dad the gifts they made for him at school

having races at my mom and dads house...this is a big event : )

And then we ran into a bit of poison ivy!!  Drew was on a "nature hunt" looking for "cool" leaves and may have collected a few poison ivy/poison oak leaves.  I received a picture mail text from D's school asking if we noticed a small patch of red on his face and we didn't so the day went on and the red patches got worse!  I ended up leaving work to take him to the doctor.  Dr Schrup confirmed our suspicions immediately and put him on an oral steroid saying it's gonna get much worse before it gets better.  Did it ever!  I would say 60% of his body was covered in the stuff.  The good news is, it has completely cleared up.

everything itched! 

COVERED in calamine lotion

My mom, the kids and I went to pick Strawberries one morning.  They had a lot of fun doing it and enjoyed eating them many different ways.  We picked three pails of strawberries in about 20 minutes...can't wait to do it again next year!  The kids liked the rule about getting to eat as many as they wanted while picking.  At one point my mom and I looked at up to see both of them in a daze eating giant strawberries : )

on ice cream

with angel food cake and cool whip



& in jelly...YUM!



D cutting meadows with papa

Raegans turn

We made a day trip to Como Park.  That place is awesome!  The animals are great to see and ComoTown is a great way to end the day.  I personally like the flowers but all I hear while there is, "it's too hot in here" & "are we done yet?"  So, we make a quick trip in and out in about 15 min.  This trip was unique however, there was a corpse flower that happened to be blooming on the day we were there.  It had been growing for 18 years to get there.  It was cool to witness and smell.  The name of the flower pretty much sums up how it smelt!

Como Town!

Raegans friend Laura

Drews friend Lindsey

staying as cool as possible

and lovin it!

We have been enjoying the heat at the pool.  It's great seeing how much the kids have become more comfortable in the water since last year.  Drew goes down the slide without me having to be near him compared to last year when I had to tell him 10 times to go and I had to catch him at the end of the slide.  He also surprised us and can swim under water.  He pushed off the side of the wall and figured it out pretty quickly..YAY!!  He is pretty excited about this accomplishment.  Raegan is a little dare devil.  She goes down the slide and thinks we catch her but she really does it on her own.  I guess seeing us at the end is a reassurance for her.  We love running into people we know there.  It must be a popular place on hot days : )

the bear slide..all by himself!

Raegan and her friend Chole from her dance class

On July 1st a scary storm ripped through St Cloud. It was the first of two times this summer we took cover in the basement with the sirens going off.  When it passed we wanted to go check on PX to make sure there wasn't any damage...which thankfully there wasn't but we did see this...

Annandale had there town festival, we enjoyed it there last year so we decided to hit it up again this year.  The kids had so much fun.  We did a lot of laughing, enjoying rides and taste testing yummy foods. 

I love this picture!

Over the 4th of July old friends that now live in Connecticut were here to visit.  They stayed at a lake home near Park Rapids so we went up to visit.  It is great catching up with old friends and amazing how we all change yet stay the same.  We also spent a day at the lake with our friends Stacy & Ryan.  The kids were in heaven when they got to drive the boat.  What a great weekend it was!

Matt, Timmy & Mason, Rick & Drew in the water

bombs away!

ou la la

Haley & Raegan sunning themselves

Angie and Linette pointing out the fish on a boat ride

Tom, Matt & Rick waiting for Timmy to go out on the boat

Drew got the hang of jumping in on his own

Mason and Drew

SMORES!!

Tom and Angie

Linette took the girls on the boat to paint their nails

Me & Dawn..and little Brody

Drew driving the boat

Raegan got to drive the boat too

Summertime by George!!!!  What an awesome thing for the city of St Cloud to do!  I seriously can't say enough good things about it.  Last week Johnny Holms played.  I felt like I was 15 again.  So many good memories..  This event is great, it consists of outdoor music, food and activities....and its free!  I tried a gyro from the 9th Ave Express stand...YUM!  Highly recommend trying one! 

SO many people!

I googled him and found out he is 72 years old...is that right!??  Still puts on a great show!

One morning, I was listening to the radio and heard, "call for a 4 pack of Riverbats tickets."  I happened to have my phone by me and called...low and behold I was the correct caller and HAD TO PLAY A GAME!  Ahh, I didn't hear that part.  I ended up getting two out of the three questions correct but got the tickets anyway..super!  They were just general admission tickets but good enough for us.  On our way into the game a lady asks if she can give us her tickets.  She couldn't use them and wanted to give them to someone with kids.  We told her we already had some but she insisted we take them wanting us to take the kids to the best seats in the house...first row right behind home plate.  I, in return gave two people in line at the ticket booth two of our tickets for free and gave the other two to the lady in the ticket booth and told her to give them to the next people to buy tickets : )  We then randomly ran into Ricks parents which we didn't know were going to be there AND I won 5 free car washes!  What a weird evening.  I thought about buying a lottery ticket but realized I couldn't because of the stupid government shut down.

Drew spotted Earl as soon as we got there

Watching closely...hoping the crazy inflatable guy wasn't coming to us.

he was hilarious

Check out the "ZUMBA!!" link below... It is my zumba instructor doing one of our dances!!  I watch her and start to sweat!  After an hour of this I don't know anyone who wouldn't be soaked of sweat.  I am still liking it but its hard to go during the summer.  I am hopefully going to stick it out and get more into it in the fall.

ZUMBA!!!

here is another fun one ZUMBA!!

Thats it for now....Happy Summer Everyone!!