Dinner at Aunt Amy's House

My Aunt Amy was nice enough to have our whole family (on my mom's side) over for dinner on Father's Day. They all live in Minnesota so we don't get to see each other very often. We had a great time!

This is my Uncle Ross (my mom's brother) and my cousin Evan (Amy's son). They live on a lake so the boys spent lots of time digging in the sand and throwing rocks in the water.

A little fun fact about my family. My uncle Ross and aunt Amy are twins. They were born on July 29th. 13 years later my sister and I (twins, of course) were also born on July 29th. Pretty cool, huh?

Elizabeth digging sand out of her shoes.

This picture Elizabeth took. She kept stealing my camera, I think I need to get that girl her own camera!

This is my Uncle Scott, wearing Jackson's hat. Looks good on him!

When we got there Ben was asleep so my dad sat and held him for probably 2 hours while he watched golf. They both were sweaty by the end of it!

Jackson's hat made the rounds I guess.

The kids had yummy cupcakes that Amy made. I loved how Evan ate his!

He enjoyed it!

Dance party!! I'm not sure what that move is :)

Photo shoot time. We tried to get all 6 of our kids. We weren't too successful!

These are my only ones with all 6 - Evan was very freaked out by all of us yelling "smile - look here" - etc... He hasn't attended a photo shoot with us before! :)

I mean did we get any with all of them even sort of looking?

A fairly good one of our four.

I think this is the best we got. It's pretty good I think.

Oh my gosh is he not the cutest!?!

Like I said, the boys spent lots of time at the lake throwing rocks.

It was a great evening. The kids have so much fun with each other. We were sad the evening had to end!

To the cabin tomorrow!

Our Trip to Minnesota/Wisconsin

Last weekend we took a road trip to Minnesota. We made it up their fairly quickly - in about 16 hours. The kids were great in the car, besides the fact that they slept only about 1 hour the entire trip! (I on the other hand slept about 8 hours :) We arrived late on Saturday night at Tom's brother Jim's house. We put the kids to bed and woke up bright and early the next day to play in the lake! Jim and his family live right on the lake and have a speed boat and jet skis so we were in heaven.
Yes, I let the kids ride on the jet skis! I thought I wouldn't let them, but they were big and really couldn't tip over unless you were trying. I won't lie, I was still pretty nervous when they were out on the water! The kids are posing with their cousin Brittney, one of Jim's kids.

They are all ready for the lake. I wasn't sure how they would do with lake water. Last year neither of the kids would swim in the lake. This year Elizabeth LOVED the lake and never wanted to get out. Ben would go in the water, but didn't love it.

Brittney and Elizabeth are on their way back from a ride.

This is Ben's first time in the lake, he looks a little nervous, doesn't he?

Tom, Ben, and Steve (one of Jim's sons) leaving for a ride.

Jim and his wife Mary were nice enough to have all of Tom's siblings over for lunch. Tom has 5 siblings that live in Minnesota so we all had a great time visiting and playing in the lake.

Elizabeth is trying on cousin Pat's wake board.

Some of the big boys, and my kids, off on a boat ride to do some wake boarding.

My kids (and Tom) are loving lake life.

Cousin Jim, I finally was able to snap his picture. He did everything he could to not be in the pictures.

Cousins John and Dan.

Some of the younger kids had a great time swimming in the hot tub. Around the circle is Elizabeth, Maddie, Claire, Lexi, and Jim (the kid with his back turned).

The adults hanging out while the kids are off playing.

My kids loved all the big boys. They could run and jump all over them.

Elizabeth taking a ride on Pat.

There's Elizabeth in the back of the group heading out in the lake.

This was just the first half of our first real day in MN. The second half of the day we were at my Aunt Amy's house. I'll post that tomorrow - this is getting to be long! We had such a great time with all of Tom's family, we wished we lived closer so we could see them more often!

Busy Busy!

We are going out of town in about 6 hours (getting up at 4 am!!) so this is going to be a post with few words and lots of pictures - I need to get to bed!Ben at his t-ball game. He's being coached on what to do. (the coach is our friend Suzanne's husband!)

Oops - hit the tee.

Now he got the ball!

There he is - number 1.

We also completed swimming lessons.

Scoping out the place I guess.

Elizabeth became a little fish during her lessons!

She's about to dive off the diving board - her favorite part.

We joined some friends at the splash pad. The kids loved it and spent most of the time running around.
Except Jackson - he mostly sat. :)

Ben, Jane and Elizabeth.

Sweet Jill.

More tag.

Then we came home to say goodbye to Jake who is going to be at the vet for the next 10 days :(

Elizabeth was walking around with my camera and got this picture of Ben - she did a great job!

We'll have no internet while we are gone but I'll have a lot to post when we get home!