Dressing herself

Sometimes the outfits that Jenna picks out, work, other times, not so much. Here's one of her recent outfit choices....and yes, according to Jenna it all matches because everything has pink in it!

Not one, but two shirts....

She even added stickers to her 'look':

And she did her own hair:

Eventually, we convinced her that she only needed 1 of the shirts, and just left the hair ;) Any one with kids, or grandkids will know she dressed herself, and most are sure to tell her she did a fantastic job.

1st Nephew/Cousin

My sister & her husband welcomed Franklin Luverne into the world very early in the morning on August 19th. He's an adorable little guy, and we were all excited to meet him.

Beth, Travis & Franklin:

Andrew & Jenna w/ their cousin Franklin:

Jenna making sure baby Frank is okay:

The kids were excited to meet their only cousin, and are looking forward to the arrival of their 2nd cousin in February.

Slip, slide and splash

We had some rain the other day....lots of rain, in a short amount of time, after days of rain, so our ditch flooded. The kids LOVED it!

They started out just running around:

Then decided to see if a boat would make it thru the culvert that goes under the driveway:

Back to more splashing, which at this point also started to include running and sliding (think slip-n-slide):

The neighbors even decided to join us :)

They were all soaked by the time they came in, but you could tell they were having fun!

Training Camp

Bruce, Andrew, and Grandpa Russ headed down to Vikings training camp on the last day of camp. It was supposed to be the day before so Andrew could participate in the kids day activities, but he was running a temp & had swollen glands that day. Luckily with a little rest he was good to go for the last day, and everyone could switch their schedules around for the impromptu decision to head to Mankato.

He loved seeing the players up close, and was happy to 'show' Jenna and I what the coaches and players were doing at camp. He was also able to do a bunch of fun stuff like a practice agility course, throwing a football at a target, and jump in a bounce house.

Here are some pictures:

After all that football they boys took some time to head to the park with Grandma to feed the ducks (and this was only some of them!):

Here's some video of Andrew throwing the football at the target:

travel bag

The kids enjoyed going thru the bag that the airline gave Bruce during his over sea's travel. Jenna loved the 'tights' (socks) that they had, and thought the eye mask was extra cool.

Here's a picture from the day after Bruce got back:

The kids were loving having their daddy back, can you tell?

Daddy!

We went to the airport to pick up Bruce on Friday (8/6)....here's how it went:

1st we checked out the luggage carousels, I had to convince them that they were not merry-go-rounds since both kids wanted to go for rides. I didn't think that security would appreciate 2 kids going round and round with the luggage.

The we found some open seats, and did some more waiting and people watching. Pretty sure that anyone and everyone was told 'Hi'. Andrew also pointed out everyone that was really tall, had a wheelchair, walker, cane, or that he thought needed to be pointed out. We're working on that....I'm guessing it's a little bit of payback from the fat guy at the auction incident I put my parents thru when I younger.

Then we saw on the screens that the plane arrived so the kids moved onto watching everyone thru the glass.

Unfortunately the plane landed at a very busy time so there wasn't a portable walkway available for a bit, which meant there was no way to get people off the plane...which meant we went back to walking around the baggage area....then it happened....we turned around and Jenna spotted Bruce. Both kids did an all out run down the walkway to him- it was adorable.

Andrew, our little helper, loved pulling the suitcase along:

There were lots of hugs from Jenna, she barely let Bruce put her down (I think she missed her Daddy):

Once out in the ramp, the questions started; what kind of plane, did you get to watch movies, and of course - did you bring us anything?

Both kids got some adorable panda bears:

Jenna got a China doll (made out of wood):

Andrew got a Twins jersey (he's been asking for one):

Vacation

We spent the last week of July at Belle Shores Resort in northern MN. We had a great time, and are looking forward to spending a week up there again next year. We had awesome weather this year, and were able to spend a lot of time in to boat, and on the beach enjoying the water.

Here's the week in pictures:

Seeing how far the squirt gun will squirt:

Out in the tube:

Bruce and Andrew with their bounty:

Superman & Wonder Woman even made appearances:

Fishing:The kids that participated in the fishing contest (there were more kids than this @ the resort):

One of our traditions is going to the Dorset House for Ice Cream, here we are ordering:

The kids & I with my big sunfish:

Wednesday night, the moon was really cool. It was orange. We've never seen anything like it. It was beautiful:

Thursday morning the kids participated in the minnow races:

Both kids loved riding on the fun bugs:

Andrew still loves to Kayak, and went out whenever he could. He's really good at steering and paddling this year, so we went out quite a bit. Jenna liked to go out too, but isn't big enough to got by herself so she would ride with Bruce or I.

Bruce with one of his fish. The kids got a kick out of this one because he jumped right out of the live well!All rested up after a great week!

Another highlight for the week was being stopped by the water patrol. He stopped us while we were out kayaking and paddle boating to give the kids a certificate for a free ice cream cone or burger at DQ (they each got one), just because they were wearing their life jackets. We thought it was a great way to reinforce that they need to wear their life jackets.

For Daddy

This is post for Bruce.....he's been in China this week.

Here's a picture of the kiddos:

And here's a family shot from vacation last week.....

Up next - a vacation post from our week at Belle Shores resort, but that will wait until I find some time.....I have no idea how single parents manage. They must be exhausted all the time!