Mini Vacation

Saturday afternoon our family, along with my sister and her husband, traveled to the Radisson and Water park of America in Bloomington.  We enjoyed floating down the lazy river, playing in the kids area and then the well bodied adults tried the bigger tube waterslides.

Highlights and funny memories...
* Kids fell asleep 1 mile before hotel and our room wasn't ready so the adults went for blizzards and even eat in the new van (mommy says "no eating")  Shhh!  Don't tell the kids!!
* Mommy forgot to pack swimmy diapers and wipes - 2 essentials.  Got to love paying $2.50 for 1 diaper!
* Cameras don't like humid conditions or families with young quick moving kids.  As you can see we didn't get a decent family pick.
* "Bear" is Eli's new favorite word - the water park is decorated with wildlife of which many were bears.
* Lydia slept in the lower bunk of the room we rented which even had a nightlight she showed all of us in the morning.
* Only Minnesotans bring a cooler packed with supper and breakfast items.
* Eli threw all the peanuts on the floor from his trail mix
* Having fun with family!!!

Oh, My Sciatica!

Not uncommon, during pregnancy once sciatic nerve can be painful as baby positions it's self on those nerves, but really can't a mama get a break.  My sciatic has bothered by for about a month, but nothing I couldn't live with.  This week it took a turn for the worst and I could barely get up from the floor after changing Eli's diaper.  Finally got to the point where I don't want to be in pain so this morning I enjoyed a wonderful massage!  If you have never had a massage, you should treat yourself!  So nice!!  Only downfall is that I had to go back to work and clean up after a group that has been on site at the Education Center all week.  Folding laundry isn't my ideal activity to do after a massage, but at least my sciatic and back are feeling better. :)

News around our house...

- Lydia has been working at staying dry during the night!  Won't it by nice to not have two kids in diapers? Oh wait, we are having another one that will be in diapers. :)
- Elijah has been a hungry boy these days, eating non-stop!  Must be a growth spurt.
- Charlie and the cows survived the heat this week.  Luckier than many who lost cattle.  Thank the Lord!
- Jess worked 103 hours the last two weeks hosting 2 groups at the Education Center.  I think it is time for a vacation!!

We are off to a water park and hotel tomorrow evening!!  YEAH!  Only one sleep left in Lydia's world. :) 

Parade #2

Yesterday we enjoyed a family outing to N. Mankato Fun Days Parade.  We joined a friend and her family who had a spot all reserved on the parade route.  Thanks Heather!! 

Wow did we get candy or what!!  I brought along the sand bucket that Gma Linda had given Lydia for the 4th of July parade and thought that would be plenty of space.  Boy was I wrong!  We filled the bucket and then some.  We now have plenty of "potty" candy as Lydia called it.  Whenever she does all of her jobs - go, wipe, flush and sanitize on her own then she gets a piece of candy. Our Easter supply just ran out and now we are restocked.  Or would it be a better idea to just cut the candy and avoid a bill from the dentist? :)

Eli even got into the swing of things - waving to the people in the parade and then collecting candy.  They both love eating candy so they were on a sugar high for the afternoon as we took sometime to test drive a van.  Oh, my!!  I said, like most, that I wouldn't buy a van, but now with #3 on the way it is a must.  We thought about an SUV, but with my bum knee the van with a removable seat or stow-n-go seat will be nice when buckling two kids in the back seat.  Lydia just couldn't understand why we weren't taking the van home yesterday.  Even today after church she wanted to go get the van.  I told her that it isn't like buying ice cream just because you want it, we have to think about it and find one that we really like.  I also convinced Lydia that the empty dvd holder is for books and not movies.  Good idea, don't you think!!

Well, that is all for now.  Check back soon and maybe I will have a picture of the kids in a new van.

Parade Fun

Do you think two kids could look at the camera at the same time?  Not Mine!  Too much to look at as people find spots for the parade.  So sweet to already have a spot, but the trick is keeping it. :)

Cousins

 Friends

Is that really our front lawn?

 Lydia wasn't too sure about the clown with the bird.

Eli loved eating, eating, and eating during the parade.

We had a great year celebrating our country's freedom!! 
Hope you did too!

Two More Sleeps

I started talking about the 4th of July about 2 weeks ago when picking up a book at the library about Independance Day.  Obviously the teacher in me still comes out as I try to think of fun projects for us to do and absolutly love looking at all the fun 4th of July craft projects that people post on their blogs.  So since reading the book from the library, Lydia has been talking about going to the parade and watching fireworks.  She asks throughout the day if today is the parade.  I always responde with how many sleeps till the fun event, so when she just asked me now, I responded "2 more sleeps then the parade".  She already has her outfit picked out and is so excited to get candy.  I'm sure it doesn't help that yesterday morning I staked off the front lawn for the parade,  We are all getting excited!  Some may be thinking isn't that a bit early to get your spot and my response would be definately not!  Yesterday morning when Charlie headed to the farm someone had staked out a spot on our lawn. [gasp!]  We kindly moved it to the neighbors who aren't around and got to work stacking off our area. 

Another exciting thing for me was a trip to Mankato this morning without kids. Doesn't happen often!!  Thanks mom and dad!  We have been thinking about getting a new camera so we took the plung and I picked one up this morning.  I have always loved photography and have wanted an SRL camera.  With #3 on the way and lots of missed photos with our not so impressive camera we figure that this is the perfect time for an investment.  I also know that plenty of photos will be taken on Monday so we can see if we really like our choice.  If not it is going back because I am not spending another 3 years hating our camera!!  Take a peek at a few pics. I just took of our July 4th decorations...

Oh, and an update on the golf...  So it turns out that to a 3 year old going to play miniture golfmeans getting out the plastic clubs from the garage and playing in the yard as a family.  It was fun, but I forgot to bring out the camera oops!

Here is another couple picutures.  One is my favorite summer treat - strawberry shortcake.  I just had to put a picture up for my friend Amy :)  and the next one was Lydia requesting me to take her picture.