Lake Waconia

So, I had been anxious to get Victoria to a beach to splash in the water, play in the sand and build sandcastles. So, one night in July, after work, we decided to have a picnic on the beach at Lake Waconia. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Well, it was somewhat of a train wreck, but in the end I just had to laugh :) 1. We didn’t have cash with and you had to pay to park. There was only an hour left until that park closed, so Ted dropped us off and then headed to the nearest gas station to get some cash. 2. I forgot our picnic dinner in the fridge, so, you guessed it, Ted picked up gourmet gas station food to compose a “dinner”. 3. Victoria threw a 2 year old tantrum and refused to do anything. I had to force her swimsuit on and she would only put on half of it. She was fine after she dipped her toes in the water (she LOVES the water) and her Daddy brought her some healthy Cheetos from the gas station, but the initial 30 minutes were NOT fun 4. Lake Waconia’s beach and grass field are COVERED in goose turds. It made it very hard to let the girls play anywhere let alone sit anywhere. 5. Last but not least, sand gets in EVERY crevice of babies bodies and it is VERY hard to get them clean after rolling in the sand….As well, it’s hard to have a picnic on the beach without getting sand all over your food.


All in all, it was still fun and the girls loved it. But, I don’t think I will be rushing to do it again anytime soon :)



Yeah Mon!

On the 4^th of July, Ted and I did probably one of the most unpatriotic things you can think of.  We left the county!  That Sunday, before the sun rose, we met our dear friends Anna and Mike at the airport and headed south to the island of Jamaica to get those two hitched.  We stayed for a total of 5 nights and had a blast!  What’s to complain about? Sit by the ocean with a frozen umbrella drink, eat great food, sleep in a comfortable king bed (with no alarm clock or babies waking us up), sit by the pool with a frozen umbrella drink, eat great food, and sleep in a comfortable king size bed… The group of people that came to celebrate Anna and Mike’s wedding were SO much fun.  Everyone was so energetic, friendly, and ready to have a great time.  The wedding ceremony was ocean side and amazingly beautiful.  I couldn’t imagine a better day for those two.  Thank you again for letting us celebrate in your special day! Can we all go back again for your 1 year anniversary?!??!

 

Aunt Mary and Uncle Denny’s House

Ted’s Aunt Mary lives has a tradition of having all of her kids and grandbabies down to her house every summer for a camping retreat and pool party.  We are lucky enough to be invited to these fun filled festivities.  In August, we had our annual gathering.  Victoria LOVED playing with her cousins and getting doted on the entire time.  McKenna and Ellie were a great help and played with Victoria and Marlee all day.  I don’t think Victoria got out of the pool for 4 hours and was a shriveled up prune when she finally did.  For almost a week after this Victoria kept asking “Where are my cousins? I want to play with my cousins”.  We all had so much fun and are ready to play with our cousins again.

Babies, Babies, EVERYWHERE!

In the middle of July, we had a fun little baby play date at my house.  More and more of my girlfriends are starting to have babies, and I just love that we can now get the kiddos together to play.  What made this one even more special, is that our dear friend Jenni and her daughter Rylee were in town from Arizona. It's rare that we get to see them and we were SO excited...especially after we found out Rylee was going to be a big sister :)

My mission was to get a picture of all the kids.

Lessons Learned:
1. Take the picture at the beginning of the play date, not the end when all are ready for naps
2. Realize that you will never get a picture with all kids a) looking at the camera and b) smiling
3. Mom's are always going to have an arm, leg or back of the head in the picture as they try to keep their babies in place

Either way it was so fun to have the Mommies together to chit chat and the babies together to smile, coo and grab at each others toys.  I can't wait for the next one :)

Sadly, yes this was the best one of the day.  The two below were little baby models and smiled the entire time...so their pictures all turned out :)

beautiful day for a walk...

We have been blessed with some beautiful weather lately and tonight we were FINALLY able to get out and enjoy it as a family.  We took our usual walk route and made our usual stop at the park.  Victoria knows exactly where the park is, and never lets us forget that we HAVE to stop.  Here are some pictures from our evening. Check out more family pictures from October here