The Cheerleader and Sonic the Hedgehog...and Mom too.

Kaelen gets her Bible!

The first graders got their Bibles in church a few weeks ago and she is so excited to have hers.

We took a quick trip one Saturday to Maplewood State park. We had a fun time walking along trails though the trees and enjoying the fall leaves. Jeff and the kids also got to try out a climbing wall out there. After enjoying the park, we went into Pelican Rapids for a bit of lunch and an ice cream cone. It was a great day!

Chalk Drawings and Olson's "Bean" Plant

This spring, Olson brought home a plant and then a few sprouted beans from school. He told us they were all bean plants so we took them outside and planted them by the house. One of them grew very tall and the other ones didn't. The kids were quite amazed at how this "bean" plant was growing. Finally when it developed a large head with yellow petals, they realized it was no bean plant at all but a sunflower.

Itasca State Park

First day of School

Blogging Trouble

I was all ready to create a new post or two this morning. It has been forever I realize. Almost all of my summer pictures are on Jeff's work computer which just happens to be in Waterloo, Iowa right now with him. Every time I think about blogging, it is when he is at work and the kids are in school and then of course, his computer is at work with him. So I was going to skip past the rest of the summer, especially because Julene and Sharon, you guys had such wonderful posts from our trip up there. I was going to start with recent things but it seems that I am having an equipment malfunction this morning so I can't put any pictures on. I always prefer to put pictures on because I am not much of a writer. I will have to wait until Jeff is back so he can help me out with it. Never fear, however, he is coming back today! I will do my best to post within the next few days if we can get things working.

I can give you a quick written update on how things are going. We are well into school now and we have our routine going pretty well. Church activities and Bible Studies have started so everything is in full swing. I am involved in a couple of Bible Studies, BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) and then also the morning Women's Bible Study at our church. I also help out at school. One of my favorite things is that I get to go in on some Fridays and listen to the kids recite their Bible verses. I love doing that! It is so wonderful to hear them! I like being one of the "Bible Verse Moms". The kids are involved in the midweek kids program at church and also the kids choir. Jeff is teaching the 4th & 5th grade at the kids program and also helping out in Sunday School with 4th grade. He is an assistant to the teacher that taught him in Sunday School when he was that age, isn't that cool.

That is just a quick summary of our life at this point. I will try post again soon but...no promises!

Camping at Jay Cooke State Park

We got to go camping up near Duluth and had a great time. This is just a couple of pictures of it. The one is of the kids by the river when we went for a walk and then the other two are of a rock wall that we climbed. I think the kids must be part mountain goat the way they scampered up the wall. They had no problem at all finding hand and toe-holds. The wall is probably about 40 feet high and actually quite steep. There is a picture of us at the top that Jeff took from the bottom and then a picture taken from the top looking down. You can see the kids' bikes under the tree at the bottom. I wish that I would have gotten a picture of them as they climbed up but they were too fast. They rode their bikes to the wall and I was walking so they got to it first. By the time I got there they were already at least halfway up the wall. Jeff and I climbed it too and I was a little nervous because it was so steep and I didn't find hand and toe-holds as well as they seemed to but they didn't hesitate for a second. I think they made Grandma's heart skip a beat or two as they went up, she had a hard time watching. Every time Kaelen sees a mountain or a big rock, she wants to climb it, she is quite adventurous, so this was a great chance for her and fun for the rest of us too.

4th of July at the Lake

Birthday Boy!

I can't believe that we have an 8-year old. These are a few pictures from his two celebrations. One party was before his birthday with friends and a Star Wars cake and then we celebrated as a family on his actual birthday. He is such a great little guy and we are so proud of him!

WHO IS THIS GUY?!!!!

We went away to Colorado for 12 days and this is who met us at the door when we got home!

Colorado