Segment 2

On Monday the 27th we made a day trip over to visit my Grandpa and Grandma Stockwell in Wisconsin.
Nora and Grandpa.

Dane and Grandpa.
Nora and Grandma.

Dane feeds Uncle Freddy's lamb Princess.

That evening, we headed to Minneapolis to meet Ben and Jen for Twins game. This is their last season at the Metrodome. Fond memories for Mike who played a few high school and college baseball games here.

Cheering with Daddy.

Ben and Jen.

Uncle Benny's shades.

After the game, we drove to Grandpa Paul and Grandma Sharla's farm to spend a few days. Lots more pictures to follow!

Our Travels- Segment 1

On Friday, July 24th we flew in to Rochester, MN to visit Mike's sister and family who recently moved to an old 10-acre farm near Redwing. Their kids, Zachary and Ellie, are loving the country life. Here is Zach with a baby mouse they were nursing to health with an eye dropper!

Wagon ride courtesy of big cousin!
Zach and Dane check out a caterpillar.

Their actual address is the little town of Welch. This is an old mill that now serves as a launch point for tubing the Cannon River.

The tiny little post office of Welch, MN.

The lobby of the post office in its entirety. I took this from the door, no zoom.

In the beautiful town of Redwing, near the boat houses on the Mississippi River.

My favorite part of Redwing is the beautiful flowers that hang from the street lights throughout the town. As a teenager, I always told my parents that I would one day live in this town. It probably won't ever happen, but I'm glad that I have a good excuse to visit frequently!!

Melodee invited some of our nearby friends and family for a potluck while we were there. It was wonderful to see everybody without having to travel even more! Here, Dane was playing badminton with my cousin Sabrina and her daughter Jaina.

The beautiful old barn as the sun sets.

Bad(minton) boys.

Jenny and her beautiful family. I love the boots and pajamas combo her sweet boys are sporting!

The amazing playground at a park in Redwing. I had never seen anything quite this big, and we have some amazing parks in our area.

Zach holding Nora, Olivia (neighbor girl), Ellie, and Dane. What a bunch of blondies!

Home again

24 hours ago, we landed back in Las Vegas after 12 amazing days back visiting our families in Minnesota and North Dakota. We took so many pictures that I need to sort through before posting, so these will have to suffice for now.

Dane caught his first little fish.

Nora went for her first tractor ride.

A girl and her chair.

Years ago, I had a special little rocking chair. I loved to rock my babies and pretend I was a little Mommy!

A few years ago while we were still living in Idaho, I came across a chair just like it in a second-hand shop. Of course, I had to buy it! Until now, we had been using it as Dane's "time-out" chair. This weekend, our very mobile little girl made a discovery! This chair is just her size, and she spent a lot of time just getting up into the chair, then getting back down, walking away, turning around, walking back to the chair, getting back up.... you get the picture!

Guess we'll have to find something else for time-outs! Or maybe our children will now always be perfectly well-behaved and never need another time-out! (Ok, now I'll pick myself back up off the floor after laughing myself silly!)

Mad Science

A couple of weeks ago, Dane had the privelege of attending Junior Mad Science camp for a week. It was a half-day program for 4 and 5 year-olds, but Mike knew the directors who gladly accepted our little scientist! They did fun things like making rockets, learning about their bodies, sprouting bean seeds, and many other things I just can't remember right now. On the day they learned about their bodies, they used markers to trace themselves on large pieces of paper and then drew in their hearts, brains, etc. A certain someone got rather carried away with the markers!

This is Dane and one of his camp instructors.
The group of kids watches a rocket launch. This picture makes me realize how tall Dane already is. He is wearing the black outfit, but he's almost as tall as all of the 4 and 5 year-olds!

This fall, Dane will start preschool. If this camp was any indication, he will do very well!
(Pardon the quality of the last two photos which were taken on Mike's phone.)

There goes our baby!

Nora decided to finally let go today and walk. Just look at her go! Until today, she would put up a big fuss if we tried to let go of her hand. Today, she started pulling away herself. Just a small taste of her upcoming quest for independence, I'm sure!

I'm sorry that this one is sideways. I was so excited that wasn't thinking clearly. Just turn your heads- too cute not to post!

Pigtails!

Finally- Nora has just enough hair to put into tiny little pigtails! It certainly took a bit of chasing her around, but here they are. Aren't they just too cute?

Recent days

Uncle Benny came to visit for a few days. Dane roped him into many bedtime stories while he was here. I'm not sure who enjoyed them more!

Nora likes her furry brother!

Hi there!

Dane and Ben had water wars in the backyard.

Nora loves to drink anything out of a straw.

Shucking corn.

Momma's girl.

Playground at Joe's Crab Shack. Quite the headlock Dane has on Nora.

Showcase

Back on May 7th, Mike was the MC for the After-School All Stars Showcase to present all the talented kids in their programs. The professional photographer for the evening captured these shots. Please don't mind Mike's wild and crazy orange fur-collared jacket!

She captured a few shots of Dane playing with his big balloon during the show. Poor Miss Nora is hidden behind Momma in her Kokopax carrier.