All dressed up!

Dane was pretty happy to see Mommy after spending his first night away with Grampy and Grammy. He did a great job!

Resident stair climber

This was Ed's nickname for Dane since all he wanted to do was climb stairs wherever we were.

He heard me say "Don't fall!" so many times that he started repeating it. Only it sounds like "Doh paul" when he says it.

Family

Dane with Grammy and Grampy. He was so tired here, but he really likes having somebody to ride with him in the back seat.

Having lunch with my cousin Chad and his wife Sasha who are currently living in New Jersey while they both finish up their doctorate degrees at Princeton.

And in just a few weeks, Brandon and Lydia will be married in Maryland.

Also met up with Mike's buddy Jamie and his clan who were passing through Dallas on their way home to Houston.

Dallas

Main Street, downtown Dallas.

A couple of views of the Hotel Indigo. Pretty cool old building and very nicely updated inside.

The Texas School Book Depository building from which Lee Harvey Oswald supposedly assassinated JFK. The alleged window is on the 6th floor, all the way to the right on this photo. We toured the Sixth Floor Museum on Tuesday morning, what would have been JFK's 90th birthday.

Baby Treadmill

Dane was infatuated with the moving sidewalks at the airport. Mike turned him so that he could stay busy but not get too far away!!

The end of a busy day...

After work this evening, we all walked down to the park where Dane played and ran. He's getting pretty brave, almost able to climb up the jungle gym steps and go down the spiral slide himself. One small problem, we have to sit him down at the top or he'd just try to walk down it, or slide face-first! We spent almost 2 hours at the park. When we got home, Dane fell asleep before we finished eating.

Some other pictures from this weekend.

An afternoon "swimming" in our backyard. This big hat sort of hides his face from pictures, but it also does a great job protecting him from the brutal sun, and that's its main purpose!

Running around...

...and mowing the lawn.

Mike put down some new turf in Teddy's side yard on Saturday. It looks great! Getting a little close to the camera!

Next weekend we head to Dallas for my cousin Carissa's wedding. Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Welcome, Avery!!

Congratulations to Tyler and Kim on the arrival of Avery Lynn! Isn't she absolutely beautiful?!?

Happy Mother's Day!

I had the perfect Mother's Day weekend, spending lots of time with my two favorite boys. I got off work early Friday afternoon, so Dane and I beat the heat by going swimming with Renee, Carter, and Carter's Auntie Erin. Friday night, Mike had a baseball game, so Dane and I tagged along.

Dane made a new little friend.

We set up Dane's little wading pool in our backyard Saturday afternoon. Dane has been very enthralled with airplanes lately, often pointing them out while he's playing outside or while riding in the car.

Saturday evening, we went to a Bat Mitzvah party for Leah, the oldest daughter of one of the doctors I work with. It was quite an event! They even brought in this little monkey who was dressed in a full suit and very well-behaved. Dane was very enthralled with him, even though it doesn't really show in this picture. He thought he was a little boy to be played with and kept saying, "Hi!" So tired after a long day!

This afternoon we went swimming again, then we came home and relaxed!

Too busy playing!

It's hard to find time to update when all Dane wants to do is play! Here are some pictures from this weekend.

Playing in our backyard with Teddy.

So happy!

He loves his puppy!

Dane takes the mound.

A ride in the air from Daddy.

Running through the spray park. Next time we'll bring his swim trunks with us!

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!!