90th year celebration

On July 12th we all celebrated Ryan's Grandma Rose's 90th Birthday. It was great to see so many family and friends there to celebrate Grandma, and it was nice to get to visit with loved ones that we don't get to see very often as well. I hope that I can look that good when I turn 90! Grace & Lauren (Ryan's cousin)
Ryan, Anna & cousin Ella

Happy 4th of July!

We all went camping at Sibley State Park over the weekend of the 4th. Over all it was a good time. Although, Ryan and I have decided that we probably will wait until the kids are a little bit older to do it again. The kids had a lot of fun playing at the beach, swimming, playing in the dirt at the campsite, going for walks and just exploring. Sleeping 'outside' in the pop-up camper (all of us together) was a novelty that left the kids pretty excited and left Mom & Dad pretty exhausted! Here's a pic of the very awake children roasting marshmellows for their sugar-laden 'bedtime' snack before watching fireworks on the 4th. Oh well, it's all part of the experience - right?!

Parade Day

The annual Willmar Fests parade - the kids look forward to this all year! This year we went to the pancake breakfast at the firehouse first. The kids loved being able to get up close and sit in actual fire trucks, one of the highlights of the day!

Jeremy, Alysa & cousin Alayna came to watch the parade with us. In stark contrast to last year's parade, this year the weather was chilly, windy and, eventually, rainy. But, whatever the weather we had a fun time just being together!

Sail Away with me

All Dressed up...

May 31st we went to my cousin Jesse's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and we all had a great time - minus a close call with some bad weather! There were several friends and family members that came from out-of-state and it was nice to see all of them too. Since we left the children with a sitter, we actually had at least 4 solid hours of purely adult conversation! I know! It was such a rare high that I didn't even care that it was open bar! ;)

'The Girls' Jeanne, Deanna, Kate & Jessica