Catch up

The boys enjoying a ride in the 'chivy' that grandma and grandpa bought them.

The boys after their backyard haircuts. We got a new pool for them... now the don't have to yell 'get outta my way' in the water.
making cookies

"I'm wearing a purple hat."

I've been really behind in posts...I've taken the pictures but haven't gotten them posted. I've been sick and just feel blah...is it just me????

new toy

Ben counting the pieces of track.



Jason (always the kid at heart) decided that the boys should have an electric train set. They worked hard last night to get it set up.

Flowers...for me??

After dropping off Ben and Alex (a friend) at day camp, Sam and I headed downtown to the farmers market. We got kettle corn, peas, cheese curds and flowers. Sam had a great time chasing the pigeons that were hanging around the park. We also bought a Christmas present.

Playing with cousins

I can't explain this picture. I think you need to be be a sausage loving McCoy male for it to make sense.

Erin and the 1st present she wrapped. Nice job isn't it?

Relaxing by the pool~ L to R Connor, Sam, Chris, Ben, Emmett

Sam LOVED sitting in this bucket full of water! Chris and Emmett wanted to move it and they had to carry it with Sam and water in it. Must have been mighty heavy.

Yesterday we went to Elmhurst to visit with Jeff, Maureen and the kids. All the kids (Ben, Sam, Erin, Emmett, Christopher and Connor) had a super time together. They splashed and played in the pool for a couple hours.
I got to see Jeff and Maureen's new house for the 1st time. It's very nice...maybe they'll let me move in;)

And the Winner is....

DRUMROLL PLEASE....
The number of Wall Drug signs--from the Minnesota/South Dakota border (along the interstate) is 91.
The winner is Grandma June!
Second place goes to Gabe and ??? Someone who forgot to leave their name.
There might be a second place prize also.
Grandma June is going to take a picture of her prize and we will put it on the blog!
Congrats to all!!!
**ok so maybe I'm a dork--but I thought this was kind of fun! Who's going to do the next contest?!!!

CONTEST REMINDER

Just a reminder about our Wall Drug contest. We are encouraging you to enter your guess NOW!!! We'll just say that the number of signs might amaze you. We'll stop taking guesses on Monday (whatever date that is...7/11?)

The boys had a good time 'pumping' water.



Ben and I had a fun time touring the Ingalls site. Thank goodness at least one person in my family thinks that history is important:) We left De Smet today...due to the wind/dust storms. We are at a hotel in Minnesota tonight...it's never felt so good to be dust free.
Tomorrow we're heading home...and stopping the Spam museum on the way. I'd also like to stop at an Amish place--if Jason will stop the car long enough.

In DeSmet

De Smet is a very small town- that is also very dusty. We arrived yesterday (a day late- we like the Black Hills so much we stayed an extra day) we stayed on what what once the Ingalls land. It was very wide open and VERY windy. We were afraid the camper was going to break (seriously) due to the wind. We decided to leave a day early, stay the night in a hotel, and get a good shower. We can't believe how dusty we are. Everything in the camper is covered in dust!


This is the sunset from our night in De Smet.

New campground

At Storybook Island....

This is from Custer State Park...cool huh?


At Storybook Island
The 1880 train

At Custer State Park...this was a one lane tunnel we drove through
After being awoken at 5:55 am... we decided to go to a new campground. We LOVED it and highly recommend it to anyone.
On Tuesday we rode the 1880 train...AWESOME.
On Wednesday we went to Storybook Island. It was a really cool playground that had different scenes from stories for the kids to play on and in.

pictures??? Keep your fingers crossed!!!

Waiting for the rain to stop...so we can go to the fireworks! The boys at the fireworks.

At the dinosaur museum. It was AWESOME...and free:)
Fireworks!!!

Pictures---FINALLY:)

no pictures yet..what is up with this site?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Yesterday was an exciting day. We went to a local dinosaur fossil museum. The kids loved it. Since Sam thinks he's a dinosaur he felt right at home:)
We had HUGE rainstorms--and were fearing the worst of the fireworks. Luckily the rain stopped and we were able to go.
We boarded the bus to Mount Rushmore at 7pm. Traffic was really light and we got there in about 10 minutes. We found a place to sit- where we could see the faces and the fireworks. The fireworks started about 9pm. They were just AMAZING. I'm going to add pictures but I know they won't due them justice. After the fireworks we went back to our bus and unfortunetly sat on it for about 1 hour before moving about 1/2 mile. We sat at the next spot for about 45 minutes and FINALLY we were on our to the camper. We got into bed about 1 am. Because of our yucky campsite I was awoken at 5:55 am (an RV driving by)!! We packed up and got the heck out of the KOA. We are now camping at the Horsethief Campground. I HIGHLY recommend it. It is amazingly beautiful, quiet, and I can't say enough. Aside from the fact we got a chance to ride the KOA bus to the fireworks, we wish we would have stayed at Horsethief the whole time. Tonight we are riding the 1880 steam train. Tomorrow probably going to Custer State? Park--hopefully to see wildlife (other than what is in our car:)
Hope everyone is having a fun and safe 4th. It's funny...without the parades, news channels talking about it etc. it doesn't really feel like the 4th.
***I CAN'T GET THE PICTURES TO DOWNLOAD...I'LL TRY VERY HARD TO GET IT DONE TOMORROW- so check back!!!***

At Mount Rushmore

Yesterday we stopped at Wall Drug. An AMAZING amount of people were there---crazy!!
We made it to Mount Rushmore and our campground. We are NOT in love with the campground (a KOA). Our campsite is RIGHT on the the crossroads---so the car noise (think big trucks and campers) is pretty loud. Needless to say we are up bright and early at 7:23 (6:23 here).
We drove by Mount Rushmore--so the pictures here are of Mt. Rushmore as we sped by.
Jason is in line as I type for tickets to get on the bus and ride it to see the fireworks. He's been there since 4:30 am!!! I'm guessing since we haven't seen him that he got a good spot in line!

Contest

One of the ways we passed the time through South Dakota was to count the number of Wall Drug signs we saw. We each picked a number and the prize was $20. Ben won!!!!!
So...we would like to challenge you---how many Wall Drug signs do you think there are from the Minnesota border to Wall, SD?
The person with the closest guest will win a prize (not $20 but a prize none the less)
Leave your guess in the comment section.

Good Luck!!!

ON THE ROAD

I got a little bored in the car!!

Sam sleeping with his new pillow from Grandma Jan.

So we're a little corny:)

The boys at the first South Dakota rest area.

Way too early this morning! As we were leaving town.

We got up early this morning (even though Jason and I were EXHAUSTED) and got ready to head to South Dakota.
We stopped about a million times to use the bathroom. The good news is that Sam stayed dry the whole way here!
We are staying the night in Mitchell, South Dakota home of the Corn Palace (or the castle as Sam calls it).
We are getting up early tomorrow am to head to Wall Drug and then on to Mt. Rushmore.
Hopefully the boys will go to sleep so Jason and I can rest!!!

Aelia and Beth come to visit

On Friday, Aelia and Beth Russell came to visit. They are in town, from Maine, visiting Beth's parents. Aelia is just ADORABLE!!! It was so good to sit and talk to Beth and compare mothering stories:) For some reason, I don't have a picture of Beth but here is one of Sam and Aelia.

potty news

Sam went poopy in the toliet today!! He walked into the bathroom, went, and then came to tell me---of course he tells me all the time that he goes--but this time he actually did it. He also went to potty in the bathroom at Wal-mart tonight---another 1st! I can't WAIT to be done with diapers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

swimming

I am late on getting these pictures here but these are from last week. The kids enjoyed their first day of summer vacation by swimming.

Drive In

We went to the drive in to see the movie Cars.
We all enjoyed the family time.





above: Ben playing & Sam dancing





Jason giving the ids water---he said he didn't want floaties in the water.

Engagement Photo

On Sunday we went to Gurnee Mills mall. We ate lunch at the Rain Forest Cafe (my bribe to the kids to behave). Then we went to Archivers- my new FAVORITE place.
One of these pictures is of Ben and Carey, his fiance'. He aked her to marry him- "not now but when I grow up".

Church

This is the church we've been attending.

Da Plane, Da Plane

This past weekend Jason went to Wisconsin Rapids to a electric fun fly. Here is a picture of his Ultimate Bi-Plane that he converted from gas to electric. The guys there were MIGHTY impressed with the power it had--especially for the plane's size. It was one of 4 planes that was picked out for size and uniqueness!!!
Jason's plane is the one in front.

Dancing Queen

Sunday afternoon we went to see Jenna's dance recital in Illinois. She did an awesome job as the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. Then she and her mom did a beautiful dance to "In My Daughter's Eyes". It was unbelievably great and I was crying through the whole thing. Unfortunately my camera only got blurry pictures:( But I do have a picture of Michelle and Jenna.

June

Can't believe it's June already. We are looking forward to school being out. I started my masters program last week. I'm not sure I'm ready for this!
We went to Mt. Morris this weekend to see my friend Nick. He and I had a good time supporting the town through our 'donations' to the bars:) Here's a picture of Nick and I--early in the evening.

Fishing trip

One of the highlights of Memorial Day weekend was that my parents came up to visit us at the campground. Jason, Dad, and Ben went out on my dad's boat "fishing"---which really was more for Ben's sake than anyone elses.
"We went out in boat. Ben went fishing. very windy and whitecaps. came back w/o fish. boat didn't sink" This is a direct quote from my dad when asked about the fishing trip.
While they were fishing, Mom, Sam and I headed to Walmart to pick up some forgotten items. We also cruised the Dells noticing how much things change in such a short time. When we got back to the campsite, I started the fire. I am proud to say that all my years in Girl Scouts were NOT wasted! We had a tasty supper--which took a LONG time to cook and we were about ready to eat pinecones because we were so hungry.
Mom and Dad left once the kids were down for the night. There might be pictures of the fishing trip to follow--if my dad can figure out how to get them off his camera;)

Memorial Day Weekend

We spent the weekend camping near the Wisconsin Dells--which I might add is a HUGE tourist trap set up to rip you off:) We had a good time camping- minus the 5,000,000,000,000,000 (don't ask me say this number because I can't) mosquitos. I think we might all have either: West Nile, Bird Flu, or Malaria (also know by Laura Ingalls Wilder's family as fever 'n auge). I wonder where our friend the little brown bat was?
This morning we rode the 'Orignal Wisconsin Ducks' $20 for adults---crazy! The boys enjoyed it. The driver said to keep hands in the boat on the road and Ben took this to mean all the time. I wanted to write a social story for him...."When I go on the Ducks with my family the driver might say...." Sorry...just got back from a 2 day Autism conference.
I'll add pictures later....I need to go attend to my bites!

Shades

The boys looked so cute with thier sunglasses on:)

Ann and Gabe's Blog
http://www.19498northwood.blogspot.com/

CAMPING

We had a great time on our maiden voyage with our new camper. The kids had a lot of fun collecting sticks for the fire, making smores, and going for walks. We also had a great family Candy Land game:) We're looking forward to going camping more often.

MAY!!

First of all...I can't believe with the weather we are having that it is May. It's rainy and cold (and I have to have the heat on---which I hate because I'm cheap---oh my gosh I'm turning into my dad!!!!!) The good news is that the rain is making the grass very green and our tulips should bloom any day now.
Exciting news--
#1 Lucy (the dog) went to live with another family. I was sitting in the living room one day with Ben spinning around in circles (his meds. wore off) the dog running around him and me going nuts. I decided that either me, the dog or the kids needed to leave. Lucy is now living in Cudahy (about a mile from our house) with a very nice family. They have 2 teenagers and a stay at home mom.
#2 We bought a pop-up camper!!! It's HUGE and barely fits in the driveway. If it would EVER STOP RAINING, we could open it so I could see it--Jason already got to see it open. We're trying to decide where to go for our first camping adventure--you can be sure that there will be photos of that.
#3 Jason and I are going to Vegas. The in-laws (his parents) will be in town and we are going to take advantage of the free babysitting!!!!