Final round of MN pictures!

A few more pictures from our trip to MN! (When I added captions, they all got out of order. Ugh, Blogger!) 

Kemper and Charlie, playin' outside.

Sweet potato love!!

Their shirts said 'Little Sister' and 'Big Brother'. Do you suppose I could get a good picture of my children in their shirts? Debatable.

Story time with Daddy! Alanna happens to be blinking, not sleeping.

Charlie and Drew put some serious miles on this race track! They laughed and had so much fun playing with it together.

Wheee!!

Playing with my little sugar bear.

These two crack each other up sometimes!!

Well, hello, gorgeous girl!!

Mom bought some matching outfits for the grandkids, but when we tried to do a group photo... we decided maybe sibling shots might be a better way to go. There IS one pic of all the grandkids where everyone's at least looking at the camera. With Bergen making escapes faster than her mommy could catch her, and Charlie wanting to get up and go, plus 4 other children.... oh, brother!!



Enjoying the fresh air at Grandma's.

Alanna and Sophia are 4 days apart (Sophia's older). They're enjoying the shade together!

This strapping young gent was most of the reason for our trip! Justin's officially done with high school and headed to NDSU in the fall. Nice choice, Justin! GO BISON!!

LOVE that these two were caught mid-splash with their eyes closed!! No one told us that the swimming pool would be set up, and since it was just a few hours before we were headed back to CO, all of the suitcases had been packed in the van already. Poor Charlie went swimming in his crazy-bloated Luvs diaper. :( He still had fun!

Meals on the picnic table are the very essence of summer.



Matt and I have recently taught ourselves to play guitar, and somehow our guitars snuck in the back of the van... Matt played his a lot more than I played mine, but we had a few practice sessions together, and Matt played a few times for his family. Hannah was a good sport and quickly learned one of the songs Matt knows how to play. She's a really good singer (and I know singing!).

No trip is complete without time spent at the lake. Rocks, meet Hoot Lake. Charlie could have done this for days upon days.

Ten Mile Lake

Grandma and Alanna

These three are so funny. Bella (will be 3 in August) is the boss, Joe (3 1/2) stands his ground as best he can, and Charlie just runs away when things get crazy. I'm not sure who is the tallest; it looks like Charlie is, but I think it's because he's a bit farther forward than the other two in the picture.

On the dock at the lake.

I think Grandpa was still cleaning up after the fish fry, which explains his absence in the picture. The fish fry was AMAZING, as usual. My father-in-law is the best fish fry-er in the whole state. And that's saying a lot, considering how many lakes are in MN, and consequently, how many fishermen are there, too. Super yummy!

I'm pretty sure it's (left to right) Uncle Steve, Grace, JP, Hannah, Charlie, and Matt. Pretty sunset, huh?

Great-Grandparents

May 27, 2012

My grandparents

Great-Grandma Faye and Alanna Faye. Matt's aunt Julie Faye also contributed to Alanna's middle name choice.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture with my other grandma, but we saw her, too!

TV Faces

4 TV faces, all in a row. They're watching kideos at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Kideos.com is a collection of fun videos for kids of all ages. I think most of the videos they watch involve trucks, trains, tractors, or construction equipment. It's a special thing to do at Grandma's!! Notice that Drew and Charlie are wearing the same shirt? Pure coincidence, too!

I think ALL of their mouths are slightly open!

4:3. Butts:chairs.

Charlie and Kemper playing beans!

Alanna's a Good Sport

Tanna wanted to hold Alanna so bad! "When is that baby gonna wake up?" she asked me, the morning after we arrived in FF. She just couldn't wait to get her hands on her newest baby cousin!! Tanna and Alanna were being so sweet on the couch, and then in comes Charlie! He wanted in on the sweetness, too!

If you look closely, Tanna's biceps are flexed and have some great definition. :) Charlie thought he could just pile on top of Alanna and that Tanna would hold him, too. Uh...

Ahhh!! Attack Alanna!!

MUCH better!!

Giggles and smiles, but not at the camera.

Finally - a cute picture of the girls!

South Dakota

We went camping in the black hills for a few days towards the end of May on our way to MN. Neither Matt nor I had been to South Dakota for such a long time; well, the western part of the state, anyway. :) We planned to camp for three nights and spend some time checking out the area, seeing Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park, and other SD attractions. It was hardly out of our way at all, and added on very minimal miles to our trip to MN. It was so worth it to  break up the drive and do something with just our little family! We'll definitely be doing this again! Especially since we got rained out and left early... :( We did make it to Mt. Rushmore, saw the faces, and did a short half-mile walk. We also (technically) made it to Custer State Park, but we just drove the Needles highway while the kids napped and it poured (POURED!) outside. Next time, we'll try to get out and enjoy the state park a bit more! We had a picnic by Horse Thief Lake before it rained, too. It was a fun trip, even if it was cut short.

Alanna's first camping trip - May 22, 2012 (6 1/2 months)

Horse Thief Campground, Hill City, SD
It was so quiet at the campground since we were there during the off season!

Enjoying our typical first-night meal; veggie foil packets over the fire. Super yum!

Breakfast of choice? Homemade monkey bread! Isn't Charlie's camp chair so cute?

Our portable home. This will be the last summer that we'll fit in this tent. Charlie slept in the pack and play, and Alanna slept between Matt and me. Snug as a bug in a rug!

We don't usually get showers when we're camping, but since we stayed at a fancy campground, we took advantage of their great bath house! They even had a bath tub for the kids!! I've NEVER seen that before! It was wonderful.

The day we left home, Alanna's second tooth popped through. Here she is, modeling her new tooth (her bottom right).

Great faces, great places... SOUTH DAKOTA!! They have the catchiest tourism tune! I don't know about you, but these sure are MY 4 favorite faces... and I'm not talking about Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln... :)

I give it a B+ on the family picture grading scale!

Back at the campground. It rained all afternoon, but managed to clear up in time for us to make supper over the fire. Since the forecast wasn't looking good (rain for that night, the next day and night, and the following morning - bummer!!), we decided to spend the evening at the campsite, call it a trip, and head to MN. Next time, we'll plan to stay in a cabin so we can still enjoy ourselves no matter what the weather!!

S'mores, baby!! The Luvs box is full of firewood.

Alanna stayed nice and cozy throughout the night. I felt her nose and cheeks whenever I woke up, and she never got cold. Probably because the temps only bottomed out in the 50's, as opposed to the low 40's when we camp in Colorado.

Big gloves, little hands. :)