Summer 2011 Part II

In an attempt to get caught up on the blog I lumped the end of the summer together. Here's some of the highlights from the beginning of August.

The girls and I met two of my best friends from college in Rochester. The original plan was to meet at Oxbo Zoo, hang out there, have a picnic, and head home at nap time. Well, of course, it rained the day we planned on meeting. We decided since it took all summer for us to get together we better not postpone it. We ended up going to the House of Bounce then out to lunch. Although it wasn't exactly what we had in mind we sure had a great time watching the kids play and catching up.

The two "newest" members, Prailey and Samuel.

Holdyn, Brynn, and Cara sure loved every part of the House of Bounce!

The slides were a big hit!!

Oh, boy that Samuel is adorable and such a good little boy.

Cara was even in a good mood much of the day.

The adorable Prailey was also a very good girl!

Brynn and Holdyn became good buds at the "arcade." Holdyn showed Brynn the ropes with all the gun games. I can honestly say I never thought I would see Brynn with a gun in her hands. And no, Holdyn didn't pump her...she woke up with a swollen eye for some reason that morning.

We can always attempt, right?

We also got to take a trip to Chetek, WI to see where Grandma and Grandpa Minnick spend much of there time. We felt pretty special because not just anybody gets invited to the lake.

We even got to spend some time on there pontoon drinking beverages.

A big shock to us all, but Grandpa even let Brynn drive his boat! She enjoyed every bit of it...and even got to practice her left and rights a bit. Or as Grandpa kept saying, "Your other left" or, "Your other right." He must have made her a little nervous because she is usually much more accurate than she was this day.

The girls even got to play (or so they thought) some slot machines while we stopped at one of their favorite bars.

Another highlight was taking the golf cart down to the lake and to the parking lot. Who knew golf carts were so exciting?

Right down the road from their park model was a little park that the girls spent plenty of time at.

Helping Grandma get lunch ready.

I blogged last year about our neighbors amazingly awesome pool that John built completely on his own. From digging out the hill with a bobcat he later sold, to building retaining walls, and laying every single tile in the pool. The project took an entire 5 years, but was well worth the wait. I am in awe of his work.

Once Cara found the bowl of cheese ball she parked herself and didn't not move for quite some time. Brynn must have smelled them when she was swimming because she eventually got out and joined Cara in polishing off the bowl.

The older neighborhood kids were so good with Brynn and Cara after it got dark. They played limbo, tag, and few other games. A very fun day/evening spent with our neighbors.

Right before school started I convinced Darren that we should go to Wabasha and check out the National Eagle Observatory. I have heard great things from a few people who have visited. Darren did not think it was nearly worth the drive, the girls thought it was pretty cool though.

Our eaglets!

The best part for the girls was playing outside in the water before we left.

Henry Dennis got to spend some time with us when he became a BIG BROTHER to Charles Paul Parks (who will be debuted in a later blog). We planned on having Jenny Paul and Claire Bear over and our neighbor Chloe joined us as well. It was busy, but a fun night with all the kids.

After Tommy picked up Henry Dennis to bring him home the girls spent some time up in our bedroom watching a movie. We still had the T.V. in our bedroom from when Brynn had her tonsils out. Jen and I just needed a little quiet time (uninterrupted conversation) before they headed back to Cottage Grove.