Family Vacation {08.2012}

We went on vacation the last part of July/beginning of August, it was the first time Kevin we've ever gone on vacation for an entire week, actually we were gone for 9 days. So a little over a week. I think I did a pretty good job packing for 6 people for 9 days.

We started out our vacation by spending two nights at my mom and Tim's. While we were there we went to see my step-sister Alison's house and the kids thought it was pretty cool that their cousin Emma has pigs.

The kids checking out Emma's pigs.

                           

We spent an entire week at my Grandparent's cabin this summer. It was the best family vacation we've had yet. I forgot my camera at home, so I didn't get it until Friday morning when our friends Ryan and Katie came up, so some of these pictures are from my cell phone. 

The week was pure bliss, the weather was gorgeous up until Friday night, we had heavy rain and thunderstorms and then Saturday was cool and gloomy until the afternoon. We were able to spend a lot of quality time as a family. It was a much needed vacation!

I over packed our bags, as we mostly wore swimsuits all day long. The exception was one day when the girls and my cousin Courtney and myself went and met my Grandma Gregg for lunch, so we had to put real clothes on, that day Kevin and Paul had a picnic on the pontoon while they went out fishing.

The first morning at the cabin the kids enjoyed "Vacation Hot Chocolate"

When Kevin and I grocery shopped we bought "special hot coco" it had colored mini marshmallows with the packets and we told them you could only have it on vacation. It worked for now...at least until they notice it at the grocery store.

First pontoon ride of vacation...thanks dad for letting us use your pontoon! 

A trip up north isn't complete without a visit to Granny's Pantry!

This was a childhood favorite of mine and when we lived in Battle Lake,

my friends and I would frequent it at least 1x a week. Love, love Heath Bar Crunch Frozen Yogurt in a Granny Cone (homeade waffle cone). Yum! Amelia, Courtney and I had ice cream, the little ladies opted for a less messy item and chose a few gummy dinosaurs and even brought a small bag of candy back for Paul!

One of our most favorite things from the week was the time we spent cruising on my dad's pontoon! Still miss my Grandparents old pontoon, but we sure love the upgraded model! 

Early on in the week we worked on cleaning out some of the weeds to make the swimming area  a little bigger as well as to help the weed roller move a little more smoothly. All of the kids sure loved the swimming area and spent plenty of time in it!

My Grandpa turned 70 on August 8th, so Saturday night before that we had a fish fry at the cabin to celebrate. Kevin and Paul caught sunnies all week long, Kevin cleaned them every night and froze them to save for the end of the week. My grandma had picked up some extra fish just in case and we used a small amount of that. I think Kevin had almost 100 sunnies from the entire week. Paul loved catching the fish, but not eating them! I'm not a fish person, but it sure tasted good!

Paul and Clare

Celebrating August Birthdays

Kevin (30), Papa Dave (70), Uncle Ronnie (49)

Going worm hunting!

My Grandparents. Neither look a day over 60. 

I hope I look that good when I'm 70 or almost 70!

Uncle Ronnie is one of Amelia's most favorite people! 

He's always had a special place in his heart for her too and calls her "Blue Eyes".

We had a GREAT  vacation, not sure how we'll ever top it! Someday I hope we can own a cabin of our own for our children and grandchildren to use. What a special place to make memories! The kids love going to the cabin and I'm thankful that my Grandparents (and my cousin Luke) are willing to share it with us!

Girls Night!

I have a couple of dear friends that I use to work with, we try and get together every so often to catch up. Back in January when the community education booklet came out, I saw that there was a cake decorating class in it, so I immediately e-mailed both Naomi and Nichole asking if they'd want to go with me for our April get together. I've always wanted to take a cake decorating class and I knew these two ladies would probably enjoy it too. We had a great time at the class, we each got to decorate our own cake, the person giving the class owns her own cake business Everyday O'Cake'sions. She did a great job teaching all of us different techniques, showing us all the different tips to use, how to level a cake and fill it. It was a lot of fun! Here are a few pictures from the night and the next day when the kids ate the cake!

Nichole, Naomi and me showing off our cakes!

My creation.

Inside my cake...mocha mousse filling...delish!

Little Girlfriends...

This is Addie and her little girlfriends Kaelyn and Rylee. All three girls were born within 9 days of each other. We recently were able to get an updated picture of all three girls together, it's fun to see how much they have changed in the last two and a half years.

Zoo Playdate!

A few weeks ago we had an impromptu playdate at the zoo with friends. I must say, I am terrible with my camera these days, I hardly have taken any pictures this summer, I'm kind of disappointed in myself. These are the very few pictures I took.

Jameson and Adeline checking out the turtles.

Apparently Addie was the feature child that day! haha We had a picnic lunch before going into the zoo, which all of the kids thought was great. Spent like 4 hours at the zoo and had an early dinner at Red Robin. The kids had a ball, and from what I can remember it was a pretty warm day too, it was crowded, I don't ever remember having to wait inline in the Members Only Lane, all in all it was a good day!

Cabin Vacation

It's pretty obvious that I haven't been good about blogging this summer, but I want to get better about that, we've just been very busy. These pictures are form when we took a vacation with our friends Ryan, Katie, Taylor and Clare at the beginning of August. We spent 5 days at my Grandparents cabin. We all had a blast, not sure who had more fun the kids or the parents. The kids all got along great, 6 kids, ages 11 months-8 years, 4 girls and 2 boys. The kids spent their days fishing and swimming, it was very rare for them to be out of their swimsuits and sometimes we had to coax them out of them at the end of the day. The weather was perfect, we only had rain once and it was first thing in the morning and by noon it was cleared off. Surprisingly I didn't take very many pictures, but these are a few of what I did get. I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture of all six kids together.

Taylor enjoying the water.

Paul came up for a break.

Stella played in her pack n play on the deck and watched the other kids in the water.

She loved standing on the kid chairs.

Ryan and Clare

So tired, poor girl couldn't stay awake!

Lunch at Zorbaz on Ottertail Lake

Chicken Foot

Sunday morning fishing

Fishing in their pj's!

Clarabelle

Amelia's fish!

Taylor's catch