The End of August...

...was been filled with fun, family, and friends!

The fun began Wednesday, August 25 when our nephew, Mekhi, came to stay with us. After a nice long nap, the boys we ready to go. We had dinner outside at Five Guys (new to Rochester), headed to the park, made cookies, and the boys watched Scooby Doo all before bed.

Even when they're sleeping, they are drawn to each other:)

Thursday, we headed to the MOPS park date and ended up spending two hours at Soldiers Field. It was a perfect day, but I finally had to remind myself that the boys could use a nap and we should get going. We made a quick stop at the store and the boys picked out a snack: Mekhi picked gummy worms and Luke picked pistachios (he said he wanted something crunchy:)). After naps, we made homemade chicken fingers for dinner. I don't make them often because they are messy, but they're worth it every time, especially when I make extras for left overs! The boys hung out with Brent most of the night while I got out for a run/walk. Mekhi thought he wanted to come with me, but we weren't sure if he was up for being in the stroller for an hour. So, the Brent brought the boys for a walk, which turned into a "run" for Luke and Mekhi by their own choosing:)

Friday, headed to the Stewartville pool after an early lunch to meet Audra, Annie, and Ethan. Troy even got to join us a little later after he was done with work. This was my first time getting to the Stewartville pool and I loved it! Brent and I went down the water slides a couple times each and I got to try out my new suit. All in all, a very nice afternoon at the pool. Apparently we wore everyone out because I was the only one awake on the way home...Brent, Luke, and Mekhi were all out cold on the ride home:) We made it home with time to empty the wet suits and towels into the wash and get ready to head to the MOPS Family Night!

A couple lovely ladies on our steering team, Sabrina and Krista, planned a great night at the Cradic farm. The boys enjoyed face painting, chasing chickens and kittens, playing yard games, and eating hotdogs, cotton candy, and popcorn. This was all before they settled into the barn for the magic show and movie, Charlotte's Web. So much fun! Thankfully the boys stayed awake on the ride home so they could have baths after their day of swimming and playing on the farm.

Mekhi, Luke, and Ethan pretending to be tigers at the zoo on the rocks at Cradic's.

Saturday...whew...are you getting tired yet? I admit, I was toast by 9:30pm on Friday night:) On to Saturday, we spent the day in Faribault watching daddies (Brent, Troy, and Greg) and papa play softball in the annual church softball state tournament. We enjoyed yet another day outside picnicking, playing at the park, playing soccer, chatting, and lounging (guess which activities I did more of;)). We left the tournament before it was done today because Audra had two extra tickets for the Sesame Street Live Show at the Mayo Civic Center. After the show, Luke and I walked to Dos Amigos for a dinner date together on the patio. The perfect ending to a fun-filled day.

From left: Troy, Ethan, Brent, Luke, and Papa at the tournament.

Sunday we were off to more fun -- a ride on my uncle's houseboat on the Mississippi! Luke was really looking forward to the day and we had nice warm weather for a day on the water. Luke and I drove to Wabasha with my mom since Brent was busy with his fantasy football draft for the day. We met up with Jeff and Julie, Great Grandma and Grandpa, and my other uncle, Larry. We had a nice ride from Wabasha to Lake Pepin and back, during which Luke got to drive the boat with Jeff:)

Once we were back to the marina, Luke, mom, and I explored the Parkside beach and park and the fountain behind the National Eagle Center. We ended the day with Chinese for dinner and dessert in honor of Julie and Larry's birthdays.

Luke and Grandma behind the National Eagle Center.

Check out the more pics from August by clicking the link on the left.

Cold Stone Creamery Outing

We don't really need a reason to head to Cold Stone, but you'll like this one...it was a celebration for meeting my weight loss goal:) Umm, yeah...probably not very sensible right? Well, we had fun and enjoyed every bite!

Luke's face is proof:

What was his ice cream choice tonight you ask? Blueberry ice cream with peanuts of course! Luke said it was like a treasure hunt trying to find the peanuts:)

August Happenings

We've had some fun times so far in August:

Luke and I explored the Olmsted County Fair animal barns on the free admission night. We even got to see part of a horse show with young kids doing "egg and spoon". I have no experience with horse shows, but egg and spoon is when the kids ride their horse holding an egg in a spoon. I guess it tests their control of the horse while they are told to move at different speeds in the arena. Interesting event:) I think horses are such magnificent animals, so I enjoyed every minute of watching them with the young kids.

We were able to have dinner with my grandparents, parents, Bridget, and my aunt while my grandparents were in town for my grandma's two year check after her kidney transplant. It was great to see them. We plan to make a trip to Albert Lea later this month to spend some time with them again.

We saw my immediate family only days later to celebrate my sister's birthday and got a wonderful surprise....BRIDGET AND ROSS ARE GETTING MARRIED!!! Ross is a great guy and we're excited to make him an official part of the family:) They are planning on a September 2011 wedding and all three of us will be in the wedding. I'm looking forward to helping with planning however Bridge needs!

After Bridget's birthday dinner, we took in a free outdoor movie at the Olmsted County Historical Society. We went to one last year and Luke thought it was great so I was excited to learn they were doing more this year!

Luke waiting for the movie to start

My parents joined us too

The movie, Hoodwinked, was cute, and my dad and Brent got a nice nap in their camping chairs:)

This week we've been blessed with a family pass to the Rochester Athletic Club from our friends, Corey and Angie. It couldn't have come at a better time with this horrible heat. Brent has played basketball, we've played in The Neighborhood when it was too hot to play outside, Luke and I have swam in the outdoor pool, and I was able to run on a treadmill in the air conditioning instead of running outside in the heat. So much fun:)

Brent continues to work in his starter garden and pulled all of the carrots today. Some of the fruits of his labor:

Some of them were very big with about 2 inch diameters!

And, finally, this was just too sweet to pass up:

Brent and Luke reading The Jungle Book before bed:)

We have more fun-filled weeks of August yet to come. Hope you're all enjoying your summer!

Theology for Four Year Olds

Luke is a pretty inquisitive kid, so we're used to quite a few questions...but, he still manages to surprise us sometimes. Recently he's been asking a lot of questions about God and Jesus.

One night at bed time, I think he was praying for someone to be safe while traveling, then he stopped and asked "How can God be with two people, when one goes one way and the other goes another way?" We tried to explain that God isn't like us in that he can only see what is around him, but that he can see the entire world and is with each person always. After our unprepared explanation, we asked, "Does that make sense?" Apparently we didn't bring it to a four year old level because he repeated his question again only slightly different this time. Sigh...these are big things to explain for all of us, much less trying to make sense to a literal four year old.

Today in the car, he asked how Jesus died on the cross. I explained that people did not believe he was God's son and wanted to kill him and that he was nailed on a cross and hurt until he died. Then I ventured into the why he died, so we could be forgiven and that Jesus was now in heaven. He made the connection himself of Jesus dying on the cross to communion and that "the juice is like Jesus' blood and the bread is like his body". He seems to understand that Jesus is in heaven, but he then asked why Jesus was still on the cross. (I'm wondering if this question comes from pictures he's seen of him on the cross???) I explained that Jesus was taken off the cross after he died, that he was buried, and came alive again after three days. I told him we could read about it again from his Bible book since he didn't really remember the part about Jesus being buried.

Whew...I may have two years of Bible college education under my belt, but it's still difficult to know how to answer Luke's questions and to explain who God is so he understands. I know we have years ahead of continued learning and more, and more, and more questions.

Luke seems to ebb and flow with his "theological" thoughts. Last month he had a lot of questions after watching his first baptism service at church and last fall he had a lot of questions after we lost our baby. He always gets sad when we talk about heaven. He usually says something like "I don't want to leave you guys and our house" when we tell him about going to heaven after we die. I reassure him that it will be a wonderful place and that we will know people there that died before us. (Though I don't know how much he remembers anyone we know that has died.)

So, these are some of the deep thoughts at our house and our attempts at explaining many things that we do not completely understand to our little man. I just like that he's comfortable asking us questions and wants to learn and understand.

Recent Luke-isms

I told myself that I would blog more with our new blog, but I'm realizing I can't keep up in documenting all of the funny things Luke says. He's been especially funny recently trying to use phrases he hears, like these:


"Daddy, what took you so fast?" - He said this on the car ride home from Duck Lake when he realized we were close to home. He had kept himself busy the entire ride home doing his workbook. And, I thought he would sleep on the ride home...yeah right;)

"There's no sense of humid in here." - He said this when he got into the car on a day that finally wasn't so hot and humid. I think he liked the temperature change:)

"I'm something else with my coloring." - He randomly told Brent and I this while coloring at the kitchen counter the other day. He picked up the "You're something else..." phrase from my mom who says it to him a lot.

And, then there are just the brutally honest comments that come out with no filter or context, like:

"Daddy, you don't look very good with your shirt off." - This one came out nice and loud while he was in a Kohl's dressing room with Brent. We're thinking what he was trying to get at was that Brent looked funny while between outfits wearing dress pants and no shirt:) Luke thinks that guys only go shirtless when they wear shorts and he calls this look being dressed like a "wrestle guy".

In a store, once again, Luke announced loudly today that Grandma, my mom, was too big to sit on a stool in the store and that she would break it. Now, if any of you know my mom, you know that she could probably sit on doll furniture without breaking it:)

It's always fun hearing the comments of those around us when he comes out with these lines:) He can certainly bring a smile to even the most mundane outing!

One for One Making Crepes

I'm typically a bit gun shy when it comes to trying to make completely new foods, but tonight I gave crepes a shot. Mixing them up was not a problem at all (3 ingredients), but I was a little concerned about cooking them since I know they are so thin. But, I made the entire batch without burning a single one!

Don't these look delicious?

Luke's quote of the night came as I was putting the chocolate syrup on top of his crepe: "Oh yeah, that's the good stuff" That boy can always make me laugh:)

He and I had a nice night making our crepe dinner while Brent was out for a run. Luke helped me mix up the crepes, then got out his work book from Grandma Ruth while I cooked them. We did his very first crossword puzzle together. I read him the clues, he told me the answer, then we sounded out the words together and he wrote the letters. A nice, relaxing Sunday evening:)

If only I didn't still have a run ahead of me before bed...I better get going!