Blue Mounds

This past week we went on our first camping trip with my parent's old pop-up camper trailer. The girls were so excited and had a great time. We went to Blue Mounds State Park in Southwestern MN. Grace in the tepee she helped set up at the Jeffers Petroglyphs.

Grace getting her junior ranger award at the Pipestone National Monument.

Pipestone National Monument.

Gracie trying to get Faith to keep up on a hike. Faith wanted to walk on her own, but she would walk for a little, then play with the grass, then stop and look at the ground. We were always trying to get her to keep walking:)

messy Nick

messy Faith

messy Grace

Little Church we stopped at by the campground.

One of many rests on our hike.

Nick and the girls by the old quary.

Faith getting a ride on the hike.

Nick taking some time to relax.

Grace enjoyed sweeping out the camper with the little broom. She thought we should get a little broom like for at home:)

Watching Nick do all the work setting up the camper.

The students at Grace's school.

The teacher

Grace's new bike.

Sprinkler fun.

Faith went through once and then she just wanted to watch. Not a big fan of the sprinkler.

More water fun.

Spring Fun

Memorial day at a playground.

Faith of course liked the slide the best.

For Nick's birthday I got him a basketball hoop. We are finally getting around to installing it. Grace's hand print in the cement.

Faith had fun playing in the mud while Nick was working.

The other night Grace fell asleep while looking at books. This is how I found her when I tucked in her in.

Enjoying a beautiful day outside.

Smelling the flowers.

Faith going for a ride.

Gracie likes the Fancy Nancy books so we did Fancy Nancy hair the other day (that meant trying to put as many hair ties and barrettes in their hair as I could:)

Grace holding cousin Benjiman.

Meeting Benjiman for the first time. Faith loves babies so she enjoyed hanging out with her cousin.

The girls playing 'baby'. As you can see Faith was the baby.

Easter and other random pictures

For Easter this year we went to Chuck and Jo Ann's house for dinner. That morning we had Easter breakfast at church and Gracie sang during the service with her Sunday School class.

Nick took some of his old toys home for the girls to play with. This was his old pig barn with all the pigs. I think he had about as much fun playing with it as the girls did:)

Grandpa and Grandma with two of their grandchildren on Easter.

Faith and her Easter basket from Grandpa and Grandma.

The girls checking out their Easter baskets.

The girls looking through their basket from mom and dad.

The girls and I all got colds and strep throat. It took us a few weeks, but we are finally all healthy! Nick was trying so hard to not get sick before planting. One day he came home from work with a mask and gloves on as a joke!

The farm got a ranger this spring. We've taken advantage of having it around and have also used it some for our yard work:)

The girls usually like to help me unload and put away groceries when we get home from shopping. I try to keep a good eye on what they are doing, but some things have gotten past me (like fridge biscuits exploded in the cupboard). This day I asked Faith to put things away in the bathroom. I went to check on her and found that she had put everything on or by the toilet.

The girls thought Nissa needed a blanket. She puts up with a lot from the girls even though she is not the nicest to other people.

All Better

Stories with dad before bed.

Nick's birthday.

Grace trying to push Faith around in the doll stroller with a broken collarbone.

Grace with her with her broken collarbone

For anyone that doesn't know; Gracie broke her collarbone on February 11th. We went in for our final doctor appointment for it on Wednesday. She had an x-ray taken and got the final news that it is healed! It was completely broken and overlapping so it was interesting to see how it had grown back together. Glad to be done with appointments for that! Hopefully we won't have an ER visit and broken bone in our home for a long time!

Nick is starting to finish up his city league basketball season. He has a tournament this weekend and will be done. We celebrated Nick's birthday on the 6th. Just cake after supper. When I was getting supper ready Gracie asked "when is everyone else coming to the party." I had to explain to her that we were the party. Apparently she assumes everyone should get a big birthday party like she does!

Other then that not too much exciting going on here. Just waiting for all the snow to melt and warmer weather to arrive (and stay)!

Here are some pictures from Arizona. The post about Arizona is below because for some reason I couldn't get pictures posted on that blog.

Not in Arizona. Just a cute picture of the girls at home They were both dressed up for a tea party.

The whole group in Sedona.

Skipping rocks in Sedona. Okay, so Faith and Grace's rocks didn't skip much. Faith would get as close to the water as she could without falling in or steppin in and then set her rock into the water.

The girls in Sedona. Cute picture except for Gracie's crazy colors. I guess when I got her dressed that morning I didn't think that her coat and pants together would be too much color.

Nick on top of Silly Mountain.

The Silly Mountain hikers plus one (Faith). Nick's uncle is in his seventies. I couldn't believe how in shape he was. He made it almost all the way to the top!

Petting the goats at the Phoenix Zoo.

With Grandma and Grandpa at the zoo.

So they aren't looking at the camera, but I had to include a picture with their hats on. They insisted on wearing their hats for most of the trip.

Looking at the monkeys.

Nick trying to get some sun at his aunt and uncle's place.

The girls playing with blocks outside. This was our second day their and one of the warmest we had.

Sunny Arizona

This past week we were able to go to sunny Arizona. We enjoyed the warm weather even though it was a little cooler the last two days. We traveled with Nick's parents. I think they enjoyed the extra time with the grand kids. The girls traveled fairly well. Of course they were totally off on their naps and bedtime. It took me about an hour every night to get them both to sleep. I think we are finally back to their regular schedule again! The only meltdown was going through security at the airport on the way home. Grace had her Elmo and starting throwing a fit when Elmo had to go through security with her shoes and coat. We saw lots of family and did a bunch of sight seeing.