Week with Christopher and Tyler

We had the privilege of spending almost a week with twin boys (who I nannied during college) while their parents were on vacation in August. We made lots of fun plans to take all three kids places, so it was busy, but a blast! We got to visit the church we attended during college, have supper with Joel's aunt, visit with Joel's former roommate and wife (Hi Cindy!), and go to some really fun places:

Monday morning we headed to Como Zoo. Caleb had never been to a zoo before, so it was precious watching his amazement! He loved all the animals, and could've watched the monkeys for hours!

This ostrich got pretty close!

Watching the giraffes.
Unfortunately we lost several zoo pictures, so these are the only animal ones we have.

We walked through the butterfly garden.
It's kinda hard to see, but there is a butterfly on Caleb's hat!

It's almost impossible to get three kids under the age of six to all look at the camera at once!

They wanted to hold a butterfly, and tried to be patient, but sadly no success.

Aww...

We had a little time for some rides before we went home for nap time. Christopher was nice enough to accompany Caleb on this Magic Carpet Ride! Caleb loved it!

Christopher and Tyler driving their cars at the driving school at Como Park.

After nap time we packed a picnic and headed to the Shoreview Community Center for some pool time!

This is a great center!

On Tuesday morning we went to the Children's Museum, which was awesome! All three kids just loved all the different areas to explore!

We got to meet Clifford!

Caleb just loved these water tables - he spent lots of time there!

Christopher and Tyler loved this "factory" where they could pretend to be workers.

The grocery store was also a big hit.

Tyler delivering the mail!

Caleb put on a concert for us.

On Wednesday we drove a few hours with the kids to meet their parents at Boyd's Lodge. We spent the night with them in a beautiful cabin and enjoy some boating and swimming!

Caleb just loved "driving" the boat!

We even fit in a little fishing!

The lakes were gorgeous!

Thursday we finally headed home after a packed fun week!

Visit with Friends

We had an opportunity in early August to visit our friends Matt and Becky. It was so fun to get the kids together and see them play. Their daughter Miriam is just four months older than Caleb. Unfortunately Caleb was teething pretty bad while we were there, so he was pretty crabby at times, but we still had lots of fun.

Heading out for a walk!

Duet?!

Cute family! Thanks for the fun visit!

Camping

We tried taking Caleb camping for the first time in July. We got a brand new awesome tent for our birthdays, so we wanted to try it out. We just went to Father Hennepin State Park - less than a mile from our house - just in case we needed to head home in the middle of the night or something! So the evening was really fun:

This was Caleb's idea of helping set up the tent.

He thought the tent was a blast!

He just loves to help in any way he can!

Admiring the hard work!

Yummy supper!

We took a walk, played at the park, and enjoyed the beautiful sunset.

And then of course had smores when we got back to the site!

Bedtime, on the other hand, didn't go so well. We wanted to give it a try without the pack-n-play, so Caleb was just on a sleeping bag. We got scared if I tried to put him down and leave the tent, so Joel and I decided to go to bed early. Well, Caleb didn't fall asleep until around 11pm. But he was SO cute. He just climbed all over us and laughed and played. Even though we got very little sleep, it was a very fun memory!

Announcing...

Caleb is going to be a big brother sometime in early March!!!

Melted

Tonight Caleb said "I love you" for the first time. Melted. Into a puddle.

Camp Evergreen

Last week we all headed to camp for the week. My parents are directors of this AMF camp each summer. They have two weeks - a teen week and a younger week. We headed out to join about 50 teens. Joel was the evening speaker and I mostly chased Caleb around, but also found a little time to assist the program director with some of the games and share about sexual purity during a couple of morning chapel sessions. We had a blast and were very blessed to be a part of the amazing work the Holy Spirit did in campers' hearts. Caleb had a wonderful time playing outside most of the week, and actually there was one other mom with two small children who all spent the week at camp too, so the kids became good buddies. Here are some of my pictures, but I know my mom has more cute pictures of Caleb, so I might have to add those later.

Caleb loved the carpet ball tables!

Here are his buddies. This was their "kitchen counter" where they did lots of serious cooking!

Conferring about the most superior recipe.

We took Caleb out on a paddle boat ride.

I believe some scrumptious soup is simmering on this stove.

Love!

Now let's all play!

This stump makes a good chair!

So cute! So much fun!

Family Visit

The weekend after the 4th of July, we had the opportunity to drive up to Grand Forks and visit some of Joel's cousins. We don't get to see them very often, so it's always fun to get together. The two cousins that we visited are married and each have one child. Riah is one year older than Caleb and Cadie is six months younger, so it was great fun to get them all together! Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures, but at least I got a few! It's not easy getting a picture of three toddlers! This first one is of Caleb enjoying some cheese dippers on the drive up - he did incredibly well on this five hour trip!