Wyatt is 7!

Wyatt is 7! He was super excited to have his birthday on a school day and be the birthday kid.

Annual collage from Auntie Drea.

Wyatt opening his present in the morning - XBox Gold Live, just what he asked for.

Wyatt asked that I come to school to eat with him and read to his class. 

Wyatt handing out yo-yos to his class. They had tags on them that said "Yo-Yo its my birthday!" I thought it was a fun idea. The teacher may have thought otherwise once 20 kids were trying to yo-yo.

At Josie's Wyatt got a birthday cookie cake and fun presents.

After pizza and bingo night at Clover Ridge Elementary, we celebrated with cake at home.

On Saturday we celebrated with Wyatt's friends Charlie & Andrew. We checked out the new ninja warrior park in Golden Valley, went to Skyzone for some jump time, and ate  at Solo's pizza.

Gopher Football Fun

In September, Gavin and I got to join Adrea and Tim at a Gopher football game. It was perfect weather and the team won. I did have a little trouble finding parking and got a little stressed about it as we were already late for the game (since Gavin had a football game right before), but Gavin was super sweet about telling me that it was OK.

Gav, Drea & Tim

Visor Twinsies!

Touchdown!

Back to School

Boys are in 7th, 4th and 1st grade this year. Jacob is still at Pioneer Ridge Middle School and since Gavin & Wyatt's elementary school was converted to a Spanish Immersion school, they moved to Clover Ridge Elementary.

Cool dudes & we caught the bus in the background. We get to wait for the bus with our neighbor Elson.

The boys are going to Josie's afterschool and she rocks the Super Mom roll, so she got these pictures of the boys their first day of school.

Jacob's start time has shifted over an hour later than last year, so he is in charge of getting himself on the bus. I haven't had a call yet that he hasn't made it to school and I haven't gotten home with any doors wide open yet either. Seems to be working out...

State Fair

Our annual outing to the State Fair on the first day of the fair. We had a gorgeous day and took in a lot of food and fun.

We start by waiting for our crew to show up and pass the time with some karaoke.

The boys enjoy the Boy Scouts obstacle course.

We always take a few rides down the Giant Slide. That's Gavin catching come air.

Fred took Wyatt and Gavin home earlier to get Gavin to football practice, so Jacob and Isaac were the only kids with us at the end of the day. Which meant they got to do some rides they don't usually get to do - the river raft and go carts.

We waited in line at Twins Territory to get these hooded t-shirts. Here we are watching the X-treme skateboard show at the end of the day.

Food we ate (with Lys' commentary):deep fried licorice on a stick, wild rice cheeseburger, smoked Gouda nachos, egg rolls, Indian Samosa, beer, Sweet Martha Cookies, bacon fluffer nutter sandwich, Deep fried avocado bites (a little mushy), Rueben bites, corn fritters (Lys' fav), blueberry lemon and salted Carmel apple pies, blueberry sweet corn eclair (yuck), onion rings (delicious), cheese curds (everybody's fav), maple bacon chili donut, sweet corn corn dog (yum) and salmon on a stick (really greasy), foot long hot dog, Kiwanis malts, Carmel rolls, giant gyro, apple dumplings, walleye cakes, duck wontons, pizza and Carmel apples.

Summer Fun

I was home with the boys again this summer and besides running them to all their camps and such, we did some fun outings too.

We had our annual day at Valleyfair with the Middendorfs. Here are Fred and the boys after completing the roller coaster circuit.

The boys and I made it to the newly remodeled Sculpture Garden in Minneapolis. Our new favorite - the big blue chicken.

After the sculpture garden we tried "Milkjam Creamery" for fun ice cream. Yum!

Gavin and Wyatt got to work their ninja skills at Obstacle Academy in Edina. Hunter - an american ninja warrior who made it to Stage 3 on the show, was their instructor. They loved it!

Jacob and Wyatt and I made it to a ski show in Shakopee. Gavin had already started football practice, so he couldn't come with us.

Fred got tickets to a Twins game last minute - maybe due to the threat of rain. We went to the stadium, but they ended up postponing the game. At least it was $1 dog night and we enjoyed a baseball park meal before heading back home.

We upgraded from camping to "glamping" this year with the Blommels and Michaels. We rented an awesome house by Annadale for the long weekend. The kids had a great time playing games, fishing, swimming, and watching movies. The adults had a great time playing a little tippy cup and catchphrase and just hanging out.

Vegas Baby!

We went to Vegas to celebrate Fred's 40th birthday with the Campbells. We went Saturday - Tuesday and hit Fremont Street, a Brooks and Dunn concert, and spent a day at the pool. The rest of the details "stayed in Vegas".

Our first night in Vegas - having a blast on Fremont Street rocking out with Spandex Nation!

Kate needed a little extra oxygen to recover from our first night out. Brice was nice enough to get revitalized with her.

Fred and I in "Venice" (The Venetian Hotel)

At the Brooks & Dunn concert at Cesar's. Reba was with them too.

Enjoying a day a the pool at the Flamingo (where we stayed). We felt super cool with our cabana and bottle service.

Lake Days

We got to spend a lot of time at the cabin this summer. We were there right away on Memorial Day weekend. We spent a whole week there over the 4th of July and another full week at the beginning of August. We had great weather, low winds for most of our days. The boys did a lot of tubing and knee boarding. There were a few attempts at skiing - resulting in Tim's lost wedding ring, but since none of the "trainers" were skiers, we didn't give the kids advice that helped them ski. Gavin did make it up and around once, but that was about it.

Inaugural tube ride on Memorial Day weekend. 

We love it when the Rosenberger kids can join us at the cabin - such fun cousin time!

Obviously these two are always ready to head out on the tube. Here they are playing cards in their lifejackets - just to be ready...

We taught the kids to play cribbage this summer. Wyatt (Ronald) apparently has my dad's card skills - he was a formidable opponent.

We got a new boat lift (with canopy) for the speed boat late this summer. It came from across the lake and I thought Fred was crazy to suggest floating it over on barrels, but it worked. Thanks to help from Joe, Lee and Jared (and Jacob)we got the new one in place and the old one moved out.

Landing the new (to us) boat lift.

Fred's 40th

Fred celebrated his 40th birthday the weekend of June 2nd-3rd with family and friends. Friday night we went to Canterbury Park for the horse races.

Fred, Chad, Corey, & Jill

We were the "spotlight" group of the night. Though I never found it posted anywhere.

Kim, Jolene, myself, and Becky

Class of '95, exactly 22 years after graduation night. 22 years! After Becky had said, "It wasn't that long ago, we were in high school."

Saturday night we headed to Victoria to check out ENKI Brewing and Floyd's. Steve and Lisa, Nate & Diana, Tim & Adrea, and Kate and Brice joined us at ENKI and all but Steve and Lisa continued on to Floyd's.

Group selfie: Fred, Nate, Diana, Myself, Kate, Brice, Adrea, & Tim

Wyatt loses a tooth

Wyatt pulled his first tooth out at Alyssa and Joe's during Maddie's Confirmation party. 

Mother's Day 2017

The boys and I ran the 5k for race for the cure. Jacob got to run with Tim & Isaac, and then pulled away at the end. Gav got to run with Adrea. Wyatt was stuck with me and was not happy about that. They all did a great job completing the run. Wyatt and I walked a little bit at his request, which I was grateful for.

 

Pre-race photo.

 

Start line selfie - Team Live for Dessert runners.

 

The whole Live for Dessert walking team. We yelled at a lady in a blue shirt to take our picture and while she was taking it we figured out it was Donna from FM107.1.

 

Mother's day brunch at Cheesecake Factory, Yum!

After the Race, we headed to St Paul for Jacob's friendship game of his basketball tournament. They had a tough battle and lost. For the afternoon, I got a nap and a trip to Target while Fred took the boys to the baseball field.

Jacob turns 12

Jacob turned 12 on Saturday. He had baseball practice at noon and a couple basketball games over in St Paul for a tournament. He got a VR headset from us, which his brothers immediately took over. He got to share cupcakes with both his baseball team and basketball team. His basketball team had 2 losses on Saturday, but they were playing tougher competition than in the past, so it was good experience. Grandma Nancy, Adrea, Tim, Alyssa, Isaac, and Maddie all came to cheer him on. 

 

Birthday collage from Adrea.

 

Final cake of the day after basketball tournament.

Gavin's 1st Communion

Gavin got to take 1st Communion on May 6th. He had done the class and made himself a small wine cup. He took his 1st communion at the Saturday night service. Grandma and Grandpa Middendorf, Grandma Nancy, Adrea, & Corey & kids were all in attendance. Rosenbergers joined us for supper & celebration at our house afterwards.

 

Gavin with Granpa and Grandma

Grandma Nancy w Gavin

Godfather Corey w Gavin

Gavin with his giant chocolate cake.