Feels like summer!

With temps in the 90's, we (and most other residents of Las Vegas!) decided to head to the lake. The water levels have been rather low, so launching areas are limited. We waited in line for about an hour to launch the boat. Dane got a little bit flushed in the heat but didn't seem to mind. Finally on the water, and Loren catches some air to show us how it's done!

Dane tries out the board.

We beached the boat for a while and just hung out. Dane took off in the mud/sand.

Pretty soon, the clothes came off since they were getting too dirty!

Nice, calm water. Beautiful skies.

Dane catches a nap on the way back to the marina.

The adventure was only partly over. We had to wait about 2 hours in line to load the boat. It wasn't all bad as it gave us time to catch up a bit with Loren and Shanda. Despite living in the same town, we hadn't seen them in about 2 months! Here's hoping the rest of the boating season isn't quite so crazy!

Some pictures...finally!

It took a few days, but here are some pictures from last weekend's visit home. Dane meets his 2nd cousins Rebecca, Clayton, and Joel.

Joel pulls Dane and Clayton for a wagon ride. Shortly after this picture, Dane dove out of the wagon headfirst and wound up with a nice bruise that you may notice in the other pictures!

Me and my dear cousin, Jenny and her littlest, Clayton. Notice the cinnamon roll in his hand. Jenny made awesome homemade cinnamon rolls just for us that morning- Mmmm!

Playing the piano with Grandma!

Saying goodnight to Grandpa.

Playing outside on the farm.

Meeting 2nd cousin Levi and giving him some love.

The family. (Note: I think Benny has an appointment for a haircut this weekend!)

There are links in the previous post to other pictures from the weekend. I was too lazy to add any more!

Whirlwind weekend!

We made a mad dash home this weekend to visit family. We flew out Thursday evening, arriving in Minneapolis around midnight. We drove to my cousin Jenny's house to spend what was left of the night and enjoyed visiting and catching up a bit the next morning while our boys ran around like only little boys can. We left around noon and headed to Mike's parents, stopping for lunch with Mike's cousin Janna along the way. We arrived at the farm later Friday afternoon, and my parents showed up to join us for supper and watching a beautiful DVD that Mike's dad had compiled of old 8mm video taken from the late 60's through the early 80's. We spent the next morning enjoying the outdoors at the farm (i.e. Dane getting very dirty!) and then left shortly after lunch to visit my parents. My brother Benny also made the drive to Dad and Mom's to join us for the rest of the weekend. We had a turkey supper (my favorite- thanks, Mom!) with Grandpa and Grandma joining as well as Dick Peterson. After meeting Sunday morning, we headed up to Casselton to see Dad's brother Brian and all his family. My cousins have little ones that I hadn't met yet, nor had they met Dane. It was pretty lively with 4 kiddos under 20 months old! We then hit the road back to Minneapolis and crashed for a few hours at cousin Janna and Keith's place before rising early to return the rental car and catch our flight home. We flew in around 8:30 am, then headed to work after taking Dane to daycare. Last night we slept very well!! I don't have my pictures to post yet, but you can check out Grampy and Grammy's blog or Uncle Benny's site. I'll try to get some of ours posted before too long!

Special visitors!

Grandpa and Grandma Anderson came to visit for the week. We've done some fun things with them. We checked out the Titanic exhibit at a local resort- Dane was much more entertained by the video games in the arcade outside the exhibit!

Dane mowed the lawn with his new mower...


and took Daddy for a walk.

Grandpa and Grandma gave us a fuzzy new alpaca fur pillow...

...Aww!!

Happy Easter!!

Dane and his new blue bunny ridin' in the car.

Little Aaron thinks this egg might be tasty.

Anchorman Dane- "So Carter, tell us about your first Easter..."

Three boys, green grass, and Easter eggs!

Las Vegas Grand Prix

Yesterday Mike and I had the opportunity to take in some of the Las Vegas Grand Prix events. Mike's organization took some of their students to the race course, pit areas and other attractions. I was able to catch a few of the practice rounds before and after my work day. The course was set up on the regular Las Vegas downtown streets. They put up protective fences along the entire course. We had a pretty good vantage point from the grandstand on an overpass. The cars were moving right along a good straightaway toward us, but they slowed them down with a chicane just before they went under us. The pit entrance was to the right hand lane just below us. This first picture was the Atlantic series practice round in the morning.

This shot was from the Historic Grand Prix practice round in the late afternoon. These cars were each a little different as they were from the 1960's to the present. However, at their fast speeds, they all looked pretty similar to me!

A little video- mostly to demonstrate the noise!

Happy Birthday!

My handsome hubby celebrated another year today! Here are some pictures of my two boys from this evening. Thanks to Jeff and Renee for having us over!

Sneaking a book in before bedtime.

Little Mr. Sunshine

Dane can't get enough of playing outside these days. He may change his mind when temps reach the 100s before long, but for now he's just content to be outdoors. His new favorite toy is the garden hose. He drags it around the yard and just about wears himself out in the process.

Today he found a pine cone under a tree at the park. Of course it didn't take long until he had to give it a "taste test"!