Happy Independence Day! (A day late.)

We started the celebration off at the Eckhoff's with a few games of "Football Bean Bag." I stink at beanbags (as I do with most things that require physical skill and coordination) but the guys all had a great time.

Even Payton jumped in on some of the action (and knocked in a beanbag for his dad's team!)

Despite the sun hiding behind the clouds most of the afternoon, the kids all enjoyed a dip in the pool. The slide was a big hit.

Giddy-up!

Brynn eating some blueberries off of Jennie's delicious Jell-O cake - an annual tradition!

We heard we missed a good fireworks show in RW, but I have to say - the show we got to see in Rochester was pretty spectacular! Four of the Eckhoff's neighbors spent hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of dollars on BIG illegal fireworks, and they were awesome! Below is the view we had from the Eckhoff's deck. The show lasted over an hour!

Evan was not thrilled about the "big booms" and preferred to watch the show from the big picture window inside. This photo is a bit blurry because I am leaning waaaay over the railing to snap this shot with the "night vision" setting on the camera. Big thanks to the Eckhoffs for throwing a great shin-dig! We had a blast (no pun intended.)

Today we headed out to the Zimmerman's to check out their HUGE litter of lab puppies! Their yellow lab had 11 (yes - eleven!) pups. One had to be put down, but the other ten are now four weeks old and sooooo cute! No, we didn't come home with one and have no plans to, either. The one below is Barb's favorite. The dark yellow one is Jeremy's "pick of the litter," whom he named "Chopper."
29 seconds of adorable puppies!

Como Zoo

We packed a lunch and headed out of town for the day. We haven't been to Como Zoo in a long time, so we thought it would be a great idea to go today. Unfortunately, about 3,000 other people thought it was a good day to go to the zoo, too. It took us 40 minutes to find a parking spot - but in the end it was all worth it. We had a lot of fun - I forgot how much they have added on to Como! It was a lot more fun than the MN Zoo, and it was only $5 for all of us to get in! (Plus the $1.50 for the train ride.) Fun and cheap entertainment on a muggy July afternoon.

Mommy and Evan on the choo-choo train. When it ended Evan said "More, pweeeeze!?" but the line was waaay too long, so we promised to come back again another day.

Daddy and Evan posing with a zebra. Evan is pointing at the giraffe off in the distance.

Evan smelling a rose in the conservatory. He really enjoyed the butterfly garden too, and even learned how to say "butterfly!" He is so stinkin' cute!

One of the sea lions showing off.

Evan loved the 250 gallon cichlid tank.

What does a zebra eat? Plastic carrots, apparently.

The "Sparky the Sea Lion" show provided some entertainment. Evan squeezed right in between these two boys. When they gave him a funny look he just garbled something "urwatty-oh!" and laughed. I love two-year-olds!

Standing on Daddy's lap to get a better view of the sea lion show.

Playing with the boats at the kiddie weather station.

"Mommy, Daddy - I'm getting tired. I think its time to go home soon."



On Wednesday Lily came to "babysit" Evan for the afternoon. I took off work early and brought them both to three, yes - 3, playgrounds. They had a blast! At the play groud he chased after her the entire time yelling "Lily! Lily" and when she didn't answer him he started calling her "Honey!" (He does the same thing to Jeremy and I - I guess because we call each other Honey! Ha!)

Me, my Mom and my Mu-mu

Who thinks I should go brunette? As the official fundraising events coordinator for my job, I got to spend today emceeing a vintage fashion show for work. It was loads of fun and my mom and mom-in-law both came to watch me make a fool of myself. The worst part was walking into Kwik Trip at 7am this morning with my normal light blond hair and BIG brown eyebrows...the frosty pink lipstick didn't help either.

We celebrated with two new graduates this weekend - Ben in Albertville (congrats Ben!) and Jenna here in the ole' R-dub (congrats Jenna!) It was great to catch up with everyone. As far as I heard, Jeremy and the boys played Rock Band into the wee hours of the morning... (sorry everyone, no photos of that, Evan and I had to go home to get some sleep!)

Noah being silly.

Brooke and Evan played the entire night! He had a lot of fun with her, and she even taught him how to "walk the dog" with a yo-yo! (I can't even do that!)

Axle, Jonas's brother. Seriously. They are from the same litter. Justin and Katie picked him up two days after we took Jonas home. Isn't he cute!? We almost took him home instead of Jonas - almost.

On Wednesday it was HOT out so we headed to the pool with my buddy, Sarah, her sis-in-law Corrie and Corrie's adorable little girl, Annie. She was so cute pouring pool water back and forth from her teacup to the little teapot. Awww!

And here we have a video of Evan being Evan. Last week I came home and the camera was sitting out. There were no pictures on it, just this video. Poor Jeremy.

Well, I certainly have been horrible at remembering to take photos lately. It seems that I either forget it at home, or I bring it and forget to turn it on. Summer is passing us by! I better get my act together and record some of it before its gone. Winter will be back before we know it!

Happy Belateds

I just wanted to take a minute to say Happy (belated) Father's Day to all of the dads we know out there, and Happy (again, belated) Birthday to Jeremy!

We have had a busy and fun week (pool, bike rides, parties) but I have nothing to show for it. I misplaced my camera card a week ago and am too stubborn to go buy a new one. If anyone has any fun birthday photos please pass them on!

Happy 31 Honey! Thanks for being such a great Daddy to Evan. We love you.

What a busy weekend!

We started the weekend off right with some Choo-Choo Pancakes. Yum. We needed to fuel up for all of the fun stuff we had planned...



Like the trip to Gerald's Farm to get some lilac shoots for our backyard. While Jeremy and Gerald manned the shovels, we headed out to look at the cows, play in the backyard and eat some fresh-off-the-vine strawberries (Evan even ate the green ones. Yuck.)

This is Evan's "smelling the flowers" face. We dug up a shoot from this wild rose to take with us, too!

On Saturday afternoon, we drove to Ellsworth to celebrate Jeremy's "Grandpa" Harlan's 94th Birthday! We had a great time visisting with everyone and there was lots of good food to eat.

Evan was "trying" to get Harlan's bottle of aftershave open. This is his "trying" face.


Today it was 90 out, so we went to the beach. It was lots of fun and the weather was perfect.

Of course, after the beach (and the sand) comes the bath.

This evening Evan had a blast tooling around on the 4-wheeler that Grandma Barb bought for him.

Here's a great video of Evan and the four wheeler...and of Jeremy trying it out.

And lastly, because the weather was too beautiful to go inside tonight, we went for a walk and wagon ride around the neighborhood. A perfect ending to a perfect weekend.