Professional Pictures

Just got the disc from the kids' photo session in the mail. L.O.V.E. how the pictures turned out!

[Images by www.honeybeeandpeony.com]

Drawing and a House Decision

Campbell has been into drawing people lately. The library had an activity where you pick your favorite book and then draw a picture about it and then tell what you liked about it. Love how Campbell was studying the cover and copied it.

So fun to watch her develop her drawing skills. 

Blake isn't into art at all. But he has attached himself to Roly, GG's dog from when he was a kid.

House update: We've looked at a ba-zillion houses. We've been going back and forth between buying/building/remodeling. We look online of every new house that comes onto the market.  We go out a few times a week with our realtor. We've met with 3 builders and a contractor for a remodel, made offers on 2 pieces of land that didn't end up working out....drum roll please....and now.....we finally decided on a house. Farther out than we wanted to be, but it's exactly the house we want and it was built by our favorite builder. We got a really good deal. As our realtor said, 'a screaming deal' and the 'best deal he's seen this year'. We close October 15. A house and a car decision within a week - I'm done thinking for a while!

Cute thing Campbell said: She held up a drawing for me to look at and said: "I made this picture for you because you are such a great mom."

Another Car

After weeks of looking and changing our minds, we finally decided on a 2010 Nissan Rogue. 

[image from netcarshow.com]

We've been all over the board....from new to used and from car to truck to van to small SUV. We both loved our Altima, so hopefully this Nissan will be as good to us as well.

One major purchase down. Now to find a house. Gabe says this is the week....we'll see!

Lola's

We ventured out to Lola's on Lake Waconia to celebrate Dede's Birthday & GG's going away to college. What a great dinner with great company. With the discovery of the Blue Pom-tini, we'll for sure be back!

We sure will miss our GG, but excited for him to start a new adventure out east.

Grand XVI

The 16 year tradition continues.

You know it...we're high rollers! (See the $0.12 voucher from the Casio?)

I snuck out for a night to join the party.

We weathered a big storm in the good 'ole chalets. You know....mini trailers. Good thing there wasn't a tornado.

The group. Big plans discussed during the weekend....a Florida trip to celebrate a few of our 10 year wedding anniversaries & signing up for the Warrior Dash. Not sure if those will pan out, but one thing is for certain, there will be Grand XVII!

GG & Angie at Cabin

GG & Angie piled in the car with us and we headed to the cabin on a mission to catch the muskie before GG heads out East to college. 

After dropping off Blake at Nana & Papa's for the night, we got to the cabin just before midnight. I put Campbell right to bed, but she came out shortly after she smelled the pizza. Hard to go to sleep when there's a Dave's cooking! This is the last picture I have of Campbell from the weekend because she took off for Grammy's for the rest of the weekend. She had been asking to have a sleepover at Grammy's for 2 weeks. She was so happy to play with her cousins and the dogs and get spoiled by Grammy.

Blake comes to help GG fish. Blake is so enamored with GG that he can't take his eyes off him.

What a day! We took a cruise to visit our friends, Nancy & Jessica who were staying at a friend's cabin near Fortune Bay. Such a neat cabin on its own island - it even had a huge bald eagle's nest with baby eagles in it right above the fire pit. Then we took a cruise to have lunch at Bayview. 

Crayfish boil. And junk food feast.

Goo-ey fish! Blake "caught" the red goo-ey fish a million times. GG and Angie however had trouble catching the elusive muskie. Although we did catch sight of the muskie's little brother, aka Baby Shark. And thanks to Blake's super long nap, Angie & I also caught good sunburns.

Zip Line

The kids love to take stuffed animals on the zip line. Yes, our temporary housing has a zip line.

Happy Birthday to Me

We started out my birthday by going to get the kids' professional pictures taken. We made it to the session on time and with no stains on their outfits - phew. Then the next challenge was getting Blake to cooperate, he wouldn't sit still and kept trying to leave to find the sucker that we were bribing him with. Campbell was hamming it up to the point where the photographer had to tell her to not smile so big and show her real smile. Campbell got Blake rolling laughing by kissing him, which just made my heart melt. Can't wait to see them & hopefully some turn out!

Boy with truck on big hill.

Campbell "hiding" the birthday cake that Daddy brought home. She wanted to make sure that Gabe remembered to buy a cake for me so she had me call Daddy at work to tell him. But, it was a BIG SURPRISE when he brought it home. Love it.

A steamy hot night for a tball game.

These tball games could be made into a comedy series. This picture sums up several common occurrences. Campbell dodging kid on way to base. Kid playing in dirt as ball rolls by. Kids yelling at each other. Kid fallen on ground. Kid strolling to second base. Not shown are kid crying, kid putting dirt in his hat, and kid hugging kid from other team instead of running to base.

Mariah & Mike came to cheer on Campbell and gave her an early birthday present. Mike is having trouble keeping his eye off the awesome sock puppet and the Very Fair Princess book. Perfect presents!

The look on Campbell's face is priceless. She's very concerned that Blake is going to stick his finger in the cake.

Couldn't believe how fast Gabe whipped up a gourmet meal for me after the tball game. Steak, shrimp & asiago potato salad. SO DELICIOUS.

Campbell putting on a puppet show for our dinner time entertainment.

Nothing like some soothing gong for dinner music. And look at his face, he's like "Oh? I'm not supposed to have my paci out of my crib?!?"

Music in the Park

We've discovered the summer Music in the Park concerts in our new (temporary) 'hood. The kids have had a blast running up and down the huge hill with all the other kids and it's worked great to get them very worn out and ready for bedtime.