Here’s a journal of pictures from Aug 15 – Aug 31.
Jeremy was on a family history binge for a couple weeks. He found some really neat information with the help of a friend.
We went camping by the Mississippi River with Riley and Kristen. We had a ton of fun.
The boys ran around with Kristen’s little guy for hours. Tanner was the ring leader. We roasted marshmallows, sang songs while I played guitar and then finally went to sleep.
In the morning, Jeremy and Riley tried fishing. The children stayed back with Kristen and me. They liked throwing rocks into the lake. The lillipads were so pretty!
We got to do archery. Turns out I’m pretty good at it. In a dress, no less (Dresses are a must in the MN humidity)! I was pretty flattered to be nick-named Pocahontas!
Kristen’s Aunt lives on Lake Peppin and she let us ride in their pontoon! It was our first time actually on the water of the Mississippi River and so beautiful. Like for real, it was gorgeous. A special treat was that we saw about a dozen or so bald eagles, some of them were trying to do their court dance in the sky!
Those blue eyes!
After the boat ride, the boys played in the lake.
Then we found this yummy place to eat.
Here’s proof that I’m good at archery. All these bows in the target are mine.
Dallin at church.
Bedtime
We love our free school lunches in the summer.
I took the boys on a Park Marathon. This means that we attempted to go to every single park (with a playground) in our town before the summer was over. We wanted to see which parks have the best things to offer. The boys told me all the things they want in a park or things they think are important to know about the park. We went to about 3 every day for a week or so and filled in the following spreadsheet as we went. While marathoning, I set a timer for ten minutes at each park. This seems short, but we had to do that in order to get to enough parks amid work, summer camps, and nap times!
The solar eclipse happened during one of our park days. It was overcast in our area at the time of most coverage, and we could see the moon’s silouette through the clouds.
Dallin wrote in his journal at the doctor’s office. He was whispering while he carefully made writing zig zags. “I love my family very much, and, I love them very much, and I love Tanner very much and I play with him and my family. Cuz I love them, my family, I love my family very much.” I was trying really hard not to giggle at his cuteness for fear he would stop.
More lego creations!
I was not happy to see the trees beginning to change in August!
Every day that we could, we took advantage of our free lunch! We developed a great daily routine at school lunch. Walk in. Bathroom and wash hands. Get food. Eat. Run around the gym and play with friends. Walk outside. Play in courtyard and on the retaining walls. Jump off of the walls. Get in car. We are so grateful this program is for everyone in our town, regardless of income.
These “knights” worked really hard to fight off the enemy army on their horse. Then they came to my tower to console me because I thought they had been killed.
Fun gift from Gramz.
It must be Murphy’s law that all children look cuter in bathrobes. He likes to run around in it and say “I’m a ninja! I’m a ninja” in the most masculine voice he can muster!
I found Dallin breaking up pieces of paper and experimenting with what happens to the numbers of papers when you add one each time.
Artworks Festival!! This year was really neat for us because one of the artists at the fest was also our Air B&B guest at our home. He was a unique jeweler from MN. I don’t have pictures of his work, but here is some beadwork of my friend that she had at the festival.
We were able to see this cool music and visual arts show as part of the Festival.
The phlebotomist busted my blood vessel. I actually passed out while getting my blood drawn. My boys were there and thought I died. So yep, it wasn’t that great of an experience.
It took me awhile to figure out where this picture was taken. It’s our front porch step!
Waiting for Tanner’s therapist. The appointment was too early in the morning for us.
Quick trip to the nature center. Just to enjoy nature.
The Park Marathon continues! At this park, we got organized to bring a picnic lunch. Dallin chose to eat in the car because he was too annoyed by the bugs.
Back to School night for Tanner. He got to do a summer school program to help with his anxiety levels so he felt cool already knowing where everything in the building was.
We got to this park via family bike ride. Dallin decided he needed to climb this fence and didn’t quite know what to do when he got to the top! We all played basketball as a family, sorta. After a few minutes, Tanner decided it was best to whine about all the things we were doing wrong and Dallin decided it was best to shoot the ball into the trash can instead of the basketball hoop.
