Our Big Adventure...Colorado

After departing South Dakota, we drove (and drove and drove) to Colorado.  We arrived at my good friend Kim and her family's house in the wee hours of the morning.  The girls did a great job, and all went smoothly except for running into a lovely hail storm at about 1am one hour outside of Denver.  That storm slowed us down, woke and spooked the girls, and led us to get a new back windshield a few mornings later.  In spite of that excitement, the girls were up and ready to play first thing the next morning, so we headed out to watch Jacob and Conner's soccer games.  Annie was quite entertained, and wanted to know when she'd get to cross the white lane to play.

With Emma watching the big kids play

After nap time, we all headed outside for water play.

Jacob, Emma, Annie, Siri and Conner

Siri was quite impressed with Conner's silly faces

and Emma and Annie were quite enthralled with each other

For Father's Day, we went for a hike at a nearby creek.

Then, we headed back for a great Father's Day dinner together...

 This was the first big chunk of time the kids had got to spend together, and it was wonderful to watch them connect and play together.  

With a seven, four, three, two and one year old in the house, the parents were kept busy and entertained. It would have had been good to have longer to spend there, but after a great weekend together, it was time to get in the car and head to Arizona. 

Our Big Adventure...South Dakota

We bookended our great western road trip with stops in South Dakota to visit with my sister, Sara, and her family.  On the way to Arizona, it was just a quick stop--enough for a tasty lunch, to get Kate's kick ball stuck (and unstuck) in a tree, and stretch our legs before driving to Colorado.

On the way home, we spent a couple of days there to celebrate the Fourth of July with them.

The Fourth in a small South Dakota town is pretty fun--fireworks going on twenty-four hours a day, trips to the fireworks stand, big potlucks, big mosquitoes and time together...

Our Big Adventure...The Drive

Father's Day Weekend, we headed out for our first big road trip with the girls.  Our final destination was Arizona to visit my family, but we stopped in South Dakota and Colorado for visits on the way there, and in New Mexico and South Dakota on the way back.  The girls did an amazing job, well enough that in our final hours of the drive (which was about four thousand miles) we were talking about what road trips we should do next.

First up?  The drive.

We spent our time in the car reading books, playing "I Spy,"singing songs, telling stories, and taking naps. Annie got quite good at her sewing cards, and tried out her technique on her pacifier.  Siri got quite attached to her nursery rhyme book, and Annie indulged her by singing the rhymes for her as she flipped page by page.

We all enjoyed looking at the scenery change from the plains of Minnesota, South Dakota, and Nebraska, to the Rocky Mountains and Sonoran Desert.  We saw impressive summer storms (Annie kept wishing for a tornado, we were glad NOT to encounter any!), and beautiful sunsets.

More on our adventures to follow soon...

The North Shore

The weekend after Siri's birthday party and our trolley adventure, we took a little road trip up to Lake Superior's North Shore and had a wonderful long weekend with Papa, Nana, Uncles Jeff, Matt, and Luke, Aunt Dee, and Cousin Emily.  It was here that Siri really began experimenting with walking on her own, taking little walks between people and furniture.  Annie loved getting to play with cousin Emily, especially in the loft.

We ate well, played well, skipped rocks, took walks and appreciated the gorgeous scenery.  On the way home, we asked Annie what her favorite part was and she instantly replied visiting the lighthouse.  We went to Split Rock Lighthouse, and on the way we were telling her the story (she loves stories these days, and will ask you to repeat them again and again) of why light houses are needed, she was quite enthralled, and interested to see everything on the tour.

The girls did a great job traveling, and gave us confidence that our next adventure of June would go smoothly.

Trolley Ride

We began our month of adventures close to home, riding on a local trolley with Grandma Barb.  Annie was quite excited, and Siri quite interested, and it was a delightful way to spend a summer afternoon.

Where to begin...

We've had quite a month here...we've traveled all over the country, visited with lots of families and friends, and generally had a lovely start to summer.

Siri's big news for the month is that she has started walking!  In fact, I haven't seen her crawl in weeks.  She still falls down a fair amount, but always gets up and plows ahead.  Each day, she is getting sturdier and more graceful.








Annie hasn't necessarily had any developmental milestone that huge, but some of her favorite new activities are giving concerts (singing, playing piano, playing guitar or dancing) and pretending to be a (turtle, a dog, a pilot, a bus driver).  We hear lots about playing with friends (she missed many of them while we traveled), and about preschool.

I'll do my best to get updates on the rest of our adventures in over the week.  We are happy and well and full of mosquito bites.

Sweet Siri Bird

We had a sweet time celebrating Siri's actual birthday just the four of us, and then this afternoon celebrated Siri's birthday with a bit more pizazz.

As it did for Annie's birthday, the rain kept us indoors until the very end, but we had a great time visiting with friends.  Annie said it well as I was saying goodnight to her tonight and thanking her for helping make a nice party, "I had fun playing with Siri's friends, and Annie's friends, and Daddy's friends, and Mommy's friends."  Many of us were recounting the birthdays we've all celebrated together in the past three years, and how much our lives have all changed, and how wonderful it's been to share it together.

Our Siri girl loves birds, so we had a celebrated with bluebirds.  The kids painted birdhouses, and our good friend Emily decorated an amazing bird nest cake.  Eric grilled in the rain, and the kids played all over the house.

Siri loved the cake, diving in with absolutely no hesitation.  It took just a moment for the bird's head to be grabbed off and stuffed in her mouth, and she did her best to figure out how to get the whole nest into her mouth.

As everyone was getting ready to leave, the sun came out and it was a beautiful evening.  We played outside for just a bit before heading in to get our girls ready for bed.