Nate's Back!

Nate spent last week in Arizona for business, and it is soo nice to have him back at home!! We woke up early Sunday morning to enjoy the lake all to ourselves. We took pictures from the mirror in our boat, because it wouldn't be safe to turn around as the driver to take a picture - good thing we were the only ones out:)

This is one of the reasons why we LOVE MINNESOTA!

Freedom Rings!!!

Happy July Everyone!
Here are some photos of our pride and joy!

We had Lexie's one year pictures taken last month. We were disappointed in the way they turned out once we got them back. So disappointed, I whipped out my camera and decided that I could (hopefully) do better. These are now her official one year pics.

Jeremy's annual Royovac picnic was last weekend at Mt. Olympus in Wisconsin Dells. We had a fun time and Lexie enjoyed sliding down the water slides and swinging in the water.
Lexie and I are in the bottom right of the first picture below.

Sleep daddy? Are you kidding? We are at Mt. Olympus!!! Let's PLAY!!!
Weeee! Let's go again!
Catching up on gossip! So Hollywood!

Here we are checking out the empty Lake Delton ourselves. Still hard to believe!
Time to go home. What a fun day!

Two fawns. Time to do some training! Please do not eat our pretty flowers!
June 25th - Lexie learned to stand on her own! She kind of had to because she doesn't like the feel of grass.


July 9th - First Steps! Daddy can be pretty entertaining!


July 12th - Freedom Belongs to Lexie!

We hope you all had a nice weekend!!

Saturday morning Ice Breaker....summer style

Remembering the early morning Ice Breakers of Boy Scout Camp, Todd told P all about it and they made plans to get up at 6 AM Saturday morning and go jump into the pool. As soon as D heard the splashing, she scrambled to get her swimsuit on and go join the fun. She was only a little confused about why "they were swimming so late". She was still half asleep. By the time she got outside, she wasn't so sure this was such a good idea.
Daddy did some convincing and she agreed...

Then she tried to back out of the deal:
But had passed the point of no return:

I don't even know how to appropriately caption this one...

Ideas for blog post titles for this photo:

• Jack's first kill
• A day at work with Daddy....22 rifle training included
• "Look Mommy, a new Webkinz!"
• What I did on my summer vacation
• "Mom may not allow me to play many video games...but I'll figure out how to shoot something anyway"

I know the hunters in the family will appreciate this photo. I'm going to go grill up some veggies now.

Twelve of Twelve Summer weekend edition

Each month, I try to participate in a "12 on 12" challenge. The idea is to take twelve photos on the 12th day of each month. They don't have to be of anything in particular, or artistic, or even necessarily good. At the end of the year (12th month, get it?) you can look back at all of the slice of life photos and see a good mosaic of what you experienced over that year. It is a fun spin on the visual diary concept of documenting life.

Our July 12 on 12 mosaic goes a little something like this (from top left):
(1) P washing Sergent after her lesson, (2) scrubbing the dirt well, (3) the girls selling lemonade at the Brighton Gallery store as a fund raiser do dig wells for clean water in Africa, (4) P enjoying her green tea Pinkberry frozen yogurt after her lemonade shift, (5) a stretch of the bike path along PCH in Huntington Beach where we rode Sunday afternoon, (6, 7, 8 & 9) photos from the beach bike ride with Steve and Gina, (10) carne asada tacos we ate after our beach bike ride (11) Skinny Bitch & Skinny Bitch in the Kitch: funny books I picked up at Borders while browsing Saturday night, (12) T an I had a date night Saturday! Sushi and Borders. It was a very full, very busy, and very fun weekend!

I forgot to add the drive-in movie photos from Friday night or take pictures from the new BMX track Jack will be racing on this week (we stopped by to check it out ofter our bike ride at the beach Sunday).

I think Todd was looking forward to going back to work Monday morning so he could rest after the pace of this weekend...

Good times with the Nienasts

We had a fantastic time hanging out with family! We played hard at home, at the pool, and headed to the Children's Museum and Springs water park. (Mika has "surgeon" glasses on above at the museum.)
Of course Jadon and Mika bonded with their Brett Favre love... The only one missing from the picture is Jack! (KC needs a good quarterback... LET HIM GO WISCONSIN!!!)
Maya and Shantel did such an awesome job facing their fears, visualizing, then JUMPING OFF THE HIGH DIVE!! YOU GO GIRLS!!!  Maya is above and Shantel below in pink.
Who's your mama because you are looking a lot like Auntie Amy!!!

Lots of hugs!! 
3 peas in a pod
Hangin' on the hammock after ordering pizza at our neighborhood pool. 
We always have to visit T-Rex and eat and roar with the dinosaurs!!!
Maya, Shantel and their American Girl dolls whom became members of the family.
Oh the memories! Have a wonderful day everyone! Mika is just getting up and saying "Where Shantel doh?".... I'd better go remind her it's library day to ease the pain of goodbyes.... 

Independence Day - 2008

Happy 4th of July weekend!

Lexie saw her first parade this year in Pardeeville. The surrounding small towns all go in together and put on one big parade. We went to the parade with our friends Jason and Karissa and their daughter, Elizabeth. Elizabeth is two weeks younger than Lexie. Lexie thought the fire trucks were the best part!!! Very loud and flashy!

By the looks of this photo, you wouldn't know that Lexie didn't eat much this weekend. She was feeling under the weather from Thursday morning to Sunday. She had a very high fever - 104 degrees! Urgent care told us she had Roseola - that would be the third time. (You are only supposed to get Roseola once in a lifetime?!?!) We later found out that she started to cut two upper molars over the weekend. Poor thing. She seems to be feeling a little better this evening.

This afternoon was spent cooling off poolside. It was a very nice day today! (93 degrees)

Dad worked on a project in the basement this afternoon. Lexie insisted on wearing Daddy's safety glasses. She would cry when we tried to take them off of her. Safety first when riding her Jeep!

Daddy's helping Lexie make her Jeep go. She just loves riding it around in the basement where it is nice and cool.

It's wonderful reading and seeing photos from the weekend on the blog. : )

Happy Fourth of July!

We spent the 4th of July weekend at my grandparents' house in Wisconsin. This is where my most favorite memories of the 4th have been.

We spent our days rafting the Wolf River, golfing, canoeing, skiing, and volunteering at the cheese curd stand but only remembered to take pictures during the traditional football game on the front lawn - it reminds me of the scene from the movie, Wedding Crashers:) Nate is in the red shirt.

It looks like many of us enjoyed 4th of July traditions this weekend, have a great week! We've enjoyed looking at all the pictures!

Happy 4th!

I updated my personal blog with photos from our neighborhood block party.  We all had a blast.   Here are a few family photos from yesterday:

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th to Everyone.. Or 5th I should say!

Just bloggin' our Fourth Fun from our little Parkville town we love and adore which was just named one of the top ten "coolest smallest towns in America". We learned this at our town parade where the highlights we saw were the Falcon sky jumpers jump from the airplane and my favorite state representative Jason Grill. Ryan insists I only like him because he is handsome.. to which he is completely wrong. I always enjoy seeing him because he is extremely hot and an Andy Garcia look alike.... :), he lives in my town, goes to my church and wrote a handwritten note asking how "my baby was" 6 months after he was elected (He came to my door campaigning). Hee hee...  

We went to our little carnival enjoying our wonderul 80 humid free weather.. We've been having an absolutely rockin' summer with great weather. 

We had our 3rd annual street July 4th celebration.. Boy are we lucky living by the BBQ king who owns the Smokehouse as he caters our fiesta and we all just bring a dish to share.. YUMMMY!!! We brought the good ol' Wisconsin Snicker Salad which was a hit.. Thanks for the recipe girls! 

As we were walking down the hill approaching the fiesta, kids and the big bouncy, Mika jumped up and down and exclaimed "I so esited!!!!".  (excited). We followed up the excitement by heading over to our dam with neighbor friends to watch the fireworks display.. Mika's first year! She loved them!  Every  night after family prayers we say one thing we are thankful for that day..Mika loves crackerfires and Maya said that she is thankful Jadon and Shantel are coming in one week... : )