Friday, July 30, 2010

Since the last time....

Yes, I know it's been a while since the last post. It's been on my to-do list for over a week, but it never gets done. And this time, I can't blame it on Brandon :) Of course we've been busy!

We left 'boji the first time around on July 9....and went to Lake Mills for about 30 hours. Our first stop once we got into town was to stop and visit my best friend's new baby girl, Tatum. Myah and Maysen even got to hold her....she was only 5 days old! Isn't she sweet?


The morning of the 10th, I ran the July Jubilee 5K in Lake Mills. I ran it in 33 minutes and 29 seconds. We went to the parade that day and came home with two HUGE bags of candy. Before heading back to Ames, we visited the carnival rides and had a few corn dogs and cheese balls.

The evening of July 11, Brandon and I were very fortunate to get to go to the "Jersey Boys" musical in Des Moines. We went with my parents, sister and brother-in-law, and brother. It was great....if you ever have the chance to see it, definitely do! The music was fabulous....and I'll bet you already know the tune!

The week of the 12th was full of laundry and pool days to get ready to head back toward Okoboji on Thursday (the 15th). Once back in 'boji (on Friday), we (the girls and I) took Grandma Smith out to supper for her birthday, which was actually on Saturday. We ate at Tweeter's and then had ice cream at Goodies. The night ended by joining my dad, brother, sister and brother-in-law on a golf outing. They did the golfing(4-person best shot), we did the driving of the carts. The girls do surprisingly well on the golf course.


Saturday was a work day at the cabin. We spent about three hours cleaning the inside and outside of the entire property. With 26ish people, you can accomplish those tasks in that amount of time. However, that night there was a big storm (probably a tornado) that came through and a lot of the outside work had to be redone Sunday morning. We were blessed with beautiful weather each day and spent several hours Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday on the boat. It was glorious! I love that my girls are at the age where they enjoy being on the lake :)

Wednesday was our last night there and Brandon came up to join us. We met his parents, brother and wife and child at Arnold's park. These Three Muskateers had a great time!



Thursday, we were back in Lake Mills. Myah and Maysen have always loved to play hide and seek. They hid under the plastic pool from Uncle C.

Friday, July 23 we went to Waseca for the Annual Relay for Life. We participate in this event every year since 2006 when we lost my Aunt Barb to pancreatic cancer.
Saturday morning, I went to a bridal shower for my friend Kim She's going to make a beautiful bride on September 18th.

We've been home for almost a week now, and we've spent most of our time at the pool. We've had beautiful weather....until today. Thankfully we haven't had too many rainy days this summer because my girls tend to get cabin fever (and frankly, so do i!). Here are some pictures of M&M being creative and going swimming even though we weren't able to do to the pool today.
They each had on a pair of goggles and the wrapping paper was used like a swim noodle. It was too cute!


We've also been to the park...check out these three cool dudes in their sunglasses! We haven't been able to get to the park too many times this summer. The first reason being that we are almost always at the pool. The second reason is that it's been too hot to go to the park and the girls get burned by the slides. We had a great day to go on Sunday!


Check out these big girls! You may not notice something in this picture, but look closely.....they are wearing regular seat belts! We purchased Booster Car Seats for the girls that use regular seat belts to hold them in. This has provided them with more leg room and they feel really big now!


Lastly for today.....here it is.....the incentive. Maysen is still not potty trained. For the last two weeks Maysen has been asking for some flip-flops like mommy has. Last night, we found some at Old Navy (most other places aren't selling flip-flops at this point in the summer). She can't have them until she stays dry for at least half a day. Today was day one of using the incentive and she didn't stay dry, so we will try again tomorrow. We'll keep you posted.


Sorry for the length of this post, but now you're filled in on what we've been up to! Hope you're doing great!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Boji...part 1.

A week ago, we were making the final preparations to head to boji and now we're getting ready to head back home in the morning. A week from today, we will be making the trek back up here so it's all good!! Here's a look into our last week....

Last Thursday, the girls went to the dentist to get their teeth all Princess Sparkly Clean! Both girls were given a clean bill of health and their first fluoride treatment.

A last minute trip to the mall ended up with some coin rides (of course!) Daddy warned me as we walked out the door shouting "You better take a few dollars in quarters!" We also snagged some adorable Red, White, and Blue dresses for the 4th (see below) at an outstanding price, so of course I couldn't say no to another pretty dress!

Friday morning before we left, we went to the Fire Station for story time and learned about Fire Safety. We got to tour the fire house and see where the firemen eat, sleep and workout. Fireman Jess put on his fire gear for kids to see that firemen are still the same people in their outfits and they are not scary.

Saturday was our first day on the boat. It was a bit rough, but worth it since we didn't know what the weather was going to be like the rest of the weekend. Brandon joined us on the boat which doesn't always happen since he's not really a water person. Apparently he's not a sunscreen person either ;) The rest of us applied it more than once....guess he never got the hint. Dont' you dare blame it on me....I already had two kids to worry about :) Here's the lobster's before and after.

Of course the girls loved driving Papa's boat! And blowing the horn...

I had a craft for us to do. We dipped pipecleaners in glue and glitter and made our own fireworks. (Thank you, Family Fun magazine!)

It's always too busy on the lake on the 4th so we played with big bouncy balls on the deck and hung out around the house. The big kids went to The Nadas at Arnold's Park before the fireworks that night. These are the adorable dresses I couldn't turn down.

One of the "Must Stops" on our trip is always Goodies. It's homemade chocolates, and always delicious. Here's a picture of the girls enjoying their white chocolate flower suckers.

Wednesday was our trip to Arnold's Park. The girls had a blast and it was so much fun watching the girls enjoy attractions that I enjoyed all of my childhood.






Our last stop today was to Mrs. Lady's where the four or us shared an Insane Taco. This thing is huge!

I've already got a list of "musts" for when we come back in a week, but this week was pretty great! We just love boji!