Happy Fourth of July from my girlie and my guy!

We hope everyone's 4th of July celebrations were happy and safe. Ours was super.

Reason #1: Daddy was able to join us. Oh the happy babies in this house. Wes just wouldn't leave Daddy's arms. Greta kept whispering in his ear...Daddy, I'm so glad we're all together again as a family. Tender, wonderful stuff. Happily we'll all be re-united once again this Friday when he returns from his schoolwork in Chicago.

Reason #2: Granny & Gramps are still all sorts of fun. G&Granny (Nanny in Wessyspeak) with Greta in a dress Granny made for me when I was a girl. G with the turtle "Sarah" we found eating Granny's tomatoes. Greta learning to shuck corn. The grands on Gramps' belly post breakfast.

Reason #3: There is a lot of good food around this joint. And mommy doesn't have to cook it. Hey-O! HOMEMADE PEACH ICE CREAM. Oh peaches...

Reason #4: We've been able to connect with some more friends...who will even dress up with us or help us pick out a yummy scoop of ice cream. We went to the splashpad with the Potts girlies & then out to ice cream...Greta appears lost in ice cream world. We played dress up & went out on the boat with the Griggs' twosome. They participated in Greta's "ladybug play" and were quite the winning sports about it all.

Reason #5: Even when the grown-ups are talking, the little people seem to entertain each other. Wes discovers the swinging kitchen door. Wes & Greta play "walk the unicorn" (doesn't everyone love that game?).

Does it get any better than this?

Probably not. It is hard to top perfection.

Tomorrow we are packing up and heading back north. We'll have a really wonderfully busy week next week with VBS & Tyler's return to church and then we're taking off for just a few days with Ty's mom. Hang on friends, there will be more posts. But don't hold your breath for one in the next 2 weeks! ;)

We will miss our Granny & Gramps but are excited to see them again in August with the cousins to boot! If we missed you this time around Florence folks, we'll be back for the holidays!

Well hellooooo Summer in Alabama.

After waiting patiently for summer to arrive in Minnesota, we flew south to experience REAL summer. Yay for sun and warm weather. Yay for fresh peaches and berries. Yay for grandparents to love on little people. Yay. We are halfway through our time here with Granny & Gramps and so far we have:

Visited with friends from college (mine, not G & W's):

Swam

Boated

Eaten fresh fruit- alot- enough to warrant a special mention and "special" diapers

Played at the Splash Pad (well...some of us "opted out")

Played dress up & kitty/doggie too many times to count

And Greta boo caught her first fish...appropriately....a catfish (she adores cats).

Visited Gramps at the Endo Unit (mom was remiss not to take THE NURSES picture...duh)

And just plain had some fun and good food!

We have had a great week. The extra-good news....we get to see our daddy tomorrow. He's been in class in Chicago for the last 2 weeks and gets to come for a quick visit for the holiday weekend. SQUEEEE! There will also be more of the above- fun in the water, fun with Granny and Gramps, good food & good times. Greta thinks we should set down our "yanker" and stay awhile (that's anchor for those that don't speak Gretalese). We'll have more pictures to share in a few more days!

PS. Wes' words since we arrived in AL: (had Mama, Dada, & Geeta before we arrived), doggie, tree, ball, boat, NeeNee (Granny), and more (with sign). He is adding a new word a day!

Mom! June rhymes with Baboon!

Greta's favorite game is finding rhymes for everything these days. That, and playing pink panther. Who knew the pink panther would find a second life in the imagination of my 4 year old? It is true and weird.

Our Memorial weekend, was....almost fun. The kids ended the week before with a stomach virus. Yes, both of them. But we thought the storm had passed and that we could sneak away to see our friends the Schensted's down in SW MN on Sunday night. Well. Wes dropped the ultimate vom bomb when we were 45 min away from their house. EPIC I tell you (It reminded me of this...Warning- not for the faint of heart. This is disgusting: http://thisisphotobomb.memebase.com/2009/05/26/epic-vom-bom/ Forgive me for sharing that image, but the truth is, I still laugh every time I see that picture. However, I was NOT laughing when I was cleaning up the backseat on the side of the highway). We continued on, hoping it was just a little car sickness. Well after a fun night of board games (the Schen's have a monster game collection and they are our source for all good games...) Greta's vomiting returned with a vengeance. Oiye.

The good news...once they felt better (5 days later with 1 more self-imposed quarantine day for the sake of all Minnesotans) the weather became Minnesota Niiiiiice. Sunny & warm. Light breeze. Eat your hearts out Southern peeps. So there have been:

several days in the kiddie pool (big pools aren't open yet...),

bike rides, enjoying our new neighborhood farmers' market,

picnics with friends,

and general lounging about.

And yesterday for Magical Mystery Monday (our family day, which we are trying to make extra adventurous this summer) we went to the Science Museum and took in the dinosaurs. She was a big fan. Wesser even seemed intrigued by the big bone-a-sauruses.

We're getting ready for our adventures in June. We'll have lots of pictures and stories to share from the coming weeks. We hope your summer has gotten off to a great start!

Ballerina...or at least a born performer!

Greta's ballet recital was this morning so I couldn't resist putting up a few pics. Recital is kind of a strong word for what transpired this morning. She walked across the floor, did a little jumping, a little twirling...that about sums it up. I'm not sure she's a natural...but she did enjoy being on stage (no surprises here). The pictures give it some expression, but when we can get the video posted you will see that the majority of our "show" was really thumbs ups and blowing kisses to our adoring crowd. Seriously. They did do one brief scarf dance. Greta kept her scarf wadded in a ball pretty much the whole time. When it was time to bow, Greta busied herself with tying the scarf around her neck in a stylish fashion. Oh. My. Have a giggle...and enjoy the live show here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EumSh84yL2E

You're welcome....

May Days

The warm weather finally came! It has, of course, disappeared in true MN fashion. But hopefully next week we will be returning to the 60s and 70s (that's normal for this time of year, folks). We celebrated Tyler's 33rd birthday and Mother's Day in one big shebang on the 8th. Greta had her LAST day of her first year of preschool (the reality will grab her next week...). She had an amazing class and an amazing teacher...she has always bounded right into class without looking back. I hope we'll run into her classmates at the park this summer! Wes appears to have his umpteenth ear infection- which if confirmed this afternoon- means tubes for our handsome boy. After what feels like our standard weekly Friday afternoon doctors visits this spring, we are now ready for tubes if that is what it takes to rid Wesser of these ear infections. You wouldn't believe how pleasant he is even when he has a raging infection. What a love. He's choosing to walk over crawling almost all the time now. We're still waiting for more words, but he is chatty in his own way too. Tyler has been uber busy at work. All good things but he is tired. He is starting a DMin in preaching this summer and is excited to have time in the classroom again. I hope it will be revitalizing rather than one more thing on his already busy plate. I have been busy getting summer programming ready to go and figuring out what I'm going to be doing with my beautiful babes this summer. Summer freedom is both exciting and overwhelming with 2 busy kiddos. I know it will be great. Here are a few pics of us out and about in the sun. HOPEFULLY there will be more to come soon!

xo,

e & the clan