midwest trip::anatomy of a picture with Nana

I really dropped the bomb of getting pictures of the kids with all their grandparents. I did remember with Ardyce, though...

we moved the couch so it would get more natural light...draped a blanket for better background...

it was kind of a flop.

The middle picture is the best of the 3...

the sun was in Luke's eyes, Ella was like "what the...", and Mason wanted nothing to do with it and crawled to the other side of the couch and started bouncing up and down shouting "jump! jump!"

*sigh*

we tried...

cheers...

one more attempt....Mason just doesn't want anything to do with it ;)

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midwest trip::more minnesota fun

dress up at Nanas::

Ardyce pulled out some of her old college and high school clothes for Adelyn. Can you guess which dress was her favorite? ;)

She loved it.

 donuts at the Roberts's::

(and a picture of Mason's crazy post-nap hair)

 hanging out at Papa and Ellens::

and a cute random picture of Lukester

 Ben and Jerry's and a walk along Lake Minnetonka with Papa the day before we left.

Someone LOVED getting to try a little bit of everyone's ice cream ;)

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midwest trip::joy ride and a movie

 Adelyn is a thrill seeker and loves all things fast and furious.

oh dear...

anyway....Nick and Ray took her and Mason for a joy ride.

You could hear her yelling "WAHOO!!!" all down the road while they were driving away.

Mason liked it okay, I think....he wasn't as gung-ho about it as Adelyn was :)

check out their faces when Papa gunned it.

Ardyce, Sara, and I took Addy to see the new movie, Brave, while we were there....first we made a pit stop at Trader Joe's :)

 The movie itself was okay. A little "dark" for my liking, but cute...Adelyn had fun...

...she was conked out before we even got halfway home :)

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midwest trip::meeting baby Luke and beach play

little Lukester

xoxo

we met Sara and Ella one morning at the beach in Wayzata. It was hot....and humid...blagh....I do not miss that nastiness.

The kids had a ball and the water felt great :)

{please ignore the goose poo in every picture ;) }

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midwest 2012

Last week we got home from spending 16 days back in the great midwest with our families :)
We always have a blast and spend everyday with family and visiting friends.
What could be better?? :)
I have so many pictures, so I'll share them in mini installments ;)
SO, here is what we did while away::
Our flight out there was a bust :) due to maintenance delays, our whole flight set up was changed. We were delayed in Fresno for 2 hours, spent the night in PHX, then left for MN the next morning. Not a great way to start, but we were expecting the worst, so..... ;)
Spent the first week with Nick's family in MN. Saw Nana, and Papa Ray and Ellen. Saw Uncle Kyle, Aunt Sara, Ella and met baby Luke. Mason chased Auggie the doggie :) Walked to the lake for some Caribou (California is missing out on that awesomeness...). Took quite a few walks. Went to the park. Played in Nana's Playland (aka: the basement). Played. Did I mention we played?? ;) SO fun!
We met my mom at the lakehouse in Southern MN while Nick had to head to SD for work. The kids and I spent time with her there for a few days...we swam at the beach, visited a kiddie pool, rode dirt bikes (hands down Adelyn's FAVE. Mason would have it they weren't so loud :) ), played, visited the outlet mall ( I mean, how could we not?), and just hung out.
We headed down to Des Moines over that weekend and spent all day Sunday with my Dad and stepmom and 2 of my brothers (Josh is in VA for some training or class or something...but he is still stationed in Hawaii). That night, I met up with some former coworkers and friends ;) for dinner. I haven't seen them since we moved and I had a BLAST! Great ladies :) I miss them!
Monday, we met up with Nick and his mom in Boone, IA to see Great Grandma Jane. We had lunch there and headed back down to DSM with Dad in tow :) Tuesday morning we met up with Nana again with Great Uncle Terry and Aunt Kathy at Krispy Kreme. More awesomeness that CA is missing, but I'm not so bummed about that one ;)
We also got to see Zeb and Bekah, and their THREE girls :) Olivia Joy joined the world a little over a month ago now. SO cute :)
My Grandma came down for the day as well and it was so good to see her :) Big Cousin Noah spent time with us (Adelyn ADORES him). We spent some time at Valley Junction. The playplace at the mall, swimming, went to the park a few times, and just played outside in the yard. We had dinner with my dad and stepmom a few times too and Caleb graced us with his presence :) when he wasn't busy. Jake got a job at Wells Fargo, so he was putting his nose to the grindstone during the day. But we saw him afterwards :)
We didn't get to see everyone we wanted to, that is always a MAJOR bummer. There are so many people we love and miss!
Time always flies by and there never seems to be enough. We love and miss everyone! :)
xoxo

killing time at the airport...

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my husband rocks...

...enough said :)

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arizona, may 2012

 We went to Phoenix in May to see Alan, Steph and the girls. Nick had to be there for work, so we all went out the weekend before for Elsie's, Alan's and Nick's birthdays...

We had a great time spending time with the AZ Flies' and Steph's parents, who were also in town!

The Saturday that we were there was Elsie's birthday party. I was so excited that we were able to be there for that! :)

We got plenty of pool time in too :)

Mason wore girl-y jammies :)

this was the best picture I could get of the 4 of them ;)

and just to show that Mason can get an attitude....check out the following sequence of pictures::

Adelyn had something Mason wanted....and he let her know it :)

We had so much fun in AZ and the time went by way too fast.

Thank you, Alan and Steph, for everything.

We love you and miss you!

xoxo

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