First Day of Kindergarten

We just sent Sophia off to her first day of Kindergarten! She woke up at 6:30 asking if it was time to get up yet. When I told her it wasn't and that she should go back to sleep for 20 more minutes she just laid there and asked every 5 minutes if it was time to get up yet, until I finally said yes! She was VERY excited!

A Day at Gooeseberry Falls

We spent the day at Gooseberry Falls State Park yesterday and had a great time. The weather was absolutely perfect for taking lots of pictures!

Sophia took this one. She's our photographer in training.

Caleb and his new leash...er....harness. We bought this before we left town yesterday because he's just wild enough to run to the edge of a cliff and then decide to jump off! It's very cute, with a little monkey on the back, and he did really well with it. And no, we didn't ever yank on it to make him go where we wanted. It just meant that we had to actually run with him everywhere. You can see the tail hanging off the monkey; that's the strap we hang on to.

See? He really liked it!

Our little model, posing for the picture.

For some reason Sophia decided she didn't want to be in the picture of the whole family so she's hiding in Ben's arms.

Mmmm...Mom's Camelbak. For some reason that water seems to taste better to her than the water in her own water bottle.

Caleb the explorer.

There's the monkey on his back.

Searching for agates...or pretty much any rock they like.

Summer Fun

We've had all sorts of adventures this summer so I am finally updating my blog. These are just a few fun pictures from the summer so far.

My nieces and Sophia in all my bridesmaid dresses from my brothers and sisters weddings. Gotta love those poofy sleeves!


Sophia's last day of preschool! She was so excited.

Ben and the kids at the lake for Father's Day.


Cheering for Uncle Tom who was running Grandma's Marathon.

Sophia and Caleb saying "Goodbye" to their friend Gwyneth. She's moving to Belfast with her mom and dad, our good friends Wes and Lesley, any day now. We will miss her dearly. Of course we have a plan in place for how to get her back to America when she's older so she and Caleb can fall in love and get married.

My parents at one of the stops along Seven Bridges Road in Duluth.

The boys going on a boat ride. Doesn't Caleb look just like Ben in this picture?? Except the hair color of course!
We went up to a camp called Luther Dell for the 4th of July. A bunch of people from church were there for a family camp weekend but we were just there for the day. Caleb pretty much jumped off this end of the dock all day, yelling for us to watch each time!

Our 6 year anniversary. We borrowed a couple of kayaks a friend of ours made and took them along the lake for an hour or two. It was absolutely perfect weather and tons of fun!

All dressed up at Enger Tower for a wedding rehearsal Ben was doing.

This was before the wedding. Aren't they cute?

All the 3 to 5 year-olds (plus Caleb) at a day camp we did at church last week. They all got to have a turn sitting in the driver's seat. Caleb and Sophia couldn't stop talking about it.

This week

I got some great photos of the kids this week. I think they capture each of their personalities very well.

My favorite picture. Sophia is all princess at heart.



I don't even remember what was happening here!


Caleb sporting his new shades!

A kiss from Caleb!

The Past Few Weeks

I thought I'd post a few photos that I finally downloaded tonight. We've had some fun adventures. The only thing we don't have pictures from was one of the most fun things we've done recently. Ben surprised me last night and got a babysitter overnight so we could go stay at the Edge, the waterpark hotel in Duluth. We had an absolute blast playing in the water with no kids! This morning, Ben picked up the kids so they could play there for a couple hours too and they had a great time, well Caleb was terrified but he says it was fun! Unfortunately, we forgot the camera. Oh well. Next time.

A couple weeks ago we stayed with Ben's brother Micah and his family for a night while his mom was visiting from Texas. These are Micah and Nichole's kids. I think Caleb almost looks more like these two than he does Sophia!

Sophia's new talent.

Caleb's look of pure joy in his new toddler bed he got from his cousins.

Caleb and Grandma Jane.

A bunch of people from church helped clean up some parks last week for Earth Day. We ended up going to Brighton Beach to do it. Sophia loved it and Caleb mostly threw rocks in the lake, which is just fine. I think this photo is probably one of the only pieces of garbage he picked up.


This is another picture from the beach clean-up. As you can see, that's Caleb's new smile. He is quite the comedian.

Sophia practiced jump-roping tonight while Ben installed a stereo in our new car. It was very cute.

Caleb's Turn

Caleb got his turn at a haircut on Monday. I was trying to give him just a little shorter trim than normal and it turned out really bad . Apparently, I can only do one style of haircut. So I finally gave in and asked Ben to take the clippers to the top of Caleb's head and all his blonde hair. I was a little sad at first but then when Ben was rinsing his hair he discovered that it looks really cute spiked up so he now uses "product" in his hair! He really enjoyed the photo shoot after and has been telling everyone about his haircut all week. Oh, and yes, I know he's wearing his Mater and Lightning McQueen shirt again. He would wear it every day if he could!

Science Museum

We took a little trip to the the Science Museum in St. Paul on Monday morning after spending a relaxing night at my brother Matt and his wife Karna's house. We hadn't brought the kids there before and we all had a great time. Here are a few photos from the day.

Sophia and her skunk friend doing the news.

Who knew that a fan facing upward could be so exciting? The kids could tape together all sorts of different stuff and then stick it in this thing and watch it float up in the air. Caleb loved it!

Dinosaur bones. Also Caleb's favorite part.

Sophia, Ben and a woolly mammoth.

We caught Caleb right in the middle of yelling, "DINOSAUR!!!!"