Monday, September 14, 2009

Twin Cities weekend lots of fun!

Hi,

We had another great weekend...this time we headed up to the cities! We met Jason's mom and dad, his brother Justin, Justin's girlfriend Holli, and their daughter MacKenzie up there for a fun weekend at the MOA and a Twin's game!
We left home at 8 a.m. on Sat. so that we would have time to stop at the Owatonna Outlet mall first. We spent about 1 1/2 hrs. there. We met up with everyone at 1 p.m. at the hotel. It was a great hotel right across from the front entrance of the MOA. We checked in, got situated, and then headed to the MOA around 1:30! We had lunch,
shopped, went on rides, ate supper, and then headed back to the hotel. None of us had any idea we wouldn't walk back until 9:30 p.m. We had been there for 8 hours! We then went swimming...as the kids could swim until 11 p.m. We went back to the rooms a little before 11 p.m. It took Madison a minute to get to sleep. She had only slept a 1/2 hour all day. She was shot! We visited for a little while before all heading to bed by midnight! What a day!

Sun. we got up, had a great breakfast at the hotel, packed our stuff and drove over to the MOA to park. We decided to ride the lite rail to the game. What an inexpensive and fun way to travel + we didn't have to fight the traffic! We got to the game at 11:15...so we had lots of time to walk around outside,
get into the dome, find our seats, and get food (the girls had to have a frozen icee...and boy do they share well!)before the game started at 1 p.m. The game was great - they won 8-0 against the Oakland A's (it was funny...Jason and I didn't even know who they were playing until on our way to the game...that's what big baseball fans we are!)
Madison was so tired from the day before...she slept through 2 hours of the game on my lap.
We left in the top of the 9th inning (to beat the crowd), got back on the lite rail, and made it back to the MOA safely around 4:30. We said our goodbye's and headed home. We met up with my sister in Fairbault for a quick supper on our way home...she was coming from Wgtn, stopped in Owatonna at Target, and then got home at 9:30 p.m.

Whew! What a busy weekend! But, lots of fun! Thanks again to Mary and Darwin!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Presley starts at Sunny Days (again!)

Presley started back to Sunny Days today! She will be going 3 days a week - Mon, Wed., and Fri. this year. Today was her last first day of pre-school! Next year at this time I will be a bawling mess as we send her off to kindergarden. With a late summer birthday, we opted to do pre-school one more year.

I got her up a few minutes early so we would have time for some pictures!
She sure looked cute in her skirt! I dropped her and Madison off at daycare at 7:30 and left work at 8:30 to pick her back up and bring her to pre-school. We were one of the first at school. We took a few more pictures by the Sunny Days sign and headed in. Her class consists of at least 10 kids from her class from last year plus a few extra new friends! Sounds like she had a great morning - they sang songs, read a book, colored, had snacks (cinnamon graham crackers and popsicles) and played! I left work yet again to pick her back up at 11:15.

We are getting back into a routine...I love it!

Here are a few more pictures from her first day...

Monday, September 7, 2009

Labor Day weekend trip was a great time!

Labor Day weekend has come and gone! School starts this week for the area kids!
We ended the summer with a great weekend at a cabin at Village West in Okoboji with mom and Paul, Auntie, Kevin, Uncle Eric, Jackie, and Mersaydes!
Mom and Paul rented this incredible A frame cabin! We went down on Friday morning and stayed until Mon. afternoon! The weather was absolutely beautiful all weekend long! We all had a great time!

Fri. we shopped in Okoboji for bridal gowns until we could check in at 3. Amber managed to find a few more she really liked! Thanks to Kevin for driving around with Madison at the last place so she could nap!

We were so excited to pull up to our cabin and check it out! It had 2 bedrooms (1 room with a king sized bed and 1 room with 2 twin beds), 2 levels, kitchen, 2 bathrooms, washer, dryer, 2 t.v.'s, nice deck, couch with pull out bed, and was fully furnished! It was a perfect place to hang out for 4 days! We managed to get one with a great view of the lake that was close to the beach too!
I had never been to Village West...but it is a great place - 2 outdoor pools, 1 indoor pool, indoor and outdoor mini golf, arcade, beach, water sport rentals, etc. The guys all joined us around 6 on Friday night for supper, lounging, and smores!

Sat., Sun., and Mon. were spent playing,
swimming, biking, walking, shopping, mini golfing, visiting, lounging,


eating, relaxing, sleeping,and just enjoying the time together! The big hit was the cowboy golf game we brought along...we played lots of it all weekend long! I would say the champs are...ok, I won't say! We all know!

We had so much fun...we will definitely be making this a yearly event! Here are some more fun photo's from the weekend...



Thanks again to Mom and Paul for the great weekend in Okoboji!

Presley learns to ride her bike with NO TRAINING WHEELS!!!

Our 2nd camping trip to the campground in Adrian was a lot of fun! We went there on Aug. 28-30. The highlight was Presley learning how to ride her bike in only 15 minutes time!


We got there on Fri. around 6 p.m., got set-up and then welcomed Mary and Darwin and Eric, Jackie, BJ, and Briana for a little R&R around the camp fire (and smores of course!)

Saturday we took Presley's training wheels off around 12:30 and by 12:45 she was riding in the grass all by herself. She needed help getting going but within 2 hours, she was doing that by herself too. It didn't take her long to get up the courage to take her bike on the gravel where she did really well. She only had 2 falls but nothing serious. I took the below pictures when we got home...I was too excited and completely forgot to take any at the campground (lots of video though!)
Our friends, the Meyer's, joined us with their tent around 2.
We had a great time visiting, checking out the campground, playing at the park, and just lounging. We had more guests in the evening - Grandpa and Grandma Dammer, Mom & Paul, and Jason, Wendy, and Bryn Donkersloot. We enjoyed smores around the campfire.

Sun. we had a good breakfast, packed up, and headed home around noon. Our second camping trip was a huge success!