Random Pictures

These are just some pictures I found that didn't find a home in previous posts...

Yep, he's seriously fast asleep!  Summering is hard on a kid!

These two...so many pictures for their wedding day slide show :-)

Kade's birthday celebration at daycare.

More daycare fun!  

Shaving cream on the table--Amanda (daycare mom) is a brave lady!

Grandpa Ranger took Kade to the last training camp in Mankato.

Sounds like it was kind of boring, but they took a cool picture!

Fun with Gpa R in the hammock.

I can't remember if I ever announced Lillian's (the boy's newest cousin) arrival?!?

Erik's sister, Erin, had Lillian at the end of July.  They sure do love to look at her. 

Obviously Erik and I are not regular selfie takers!!

A mini-reunion with my closest friends from school!

We met in Kindergarten, still as close as ever!!

Country living at it's best!

Ballers.

Kade fell and hurt his knees.  Mason gave him a ride back to the house.

That's what little brothers are for!!

Vacation Part 2

For the second part of our vacation we visited Lady A and her family.  We made our annual trip to the giant farm show.  The boys sat on tons of equipment and had fun pretending they were farming partners.  We visited A's grandparent's farm where Kade had a blast driving all over their land on a four wheeler just his size.  And we celebrated Kade's 7th birthday with his birth family.  It was awesome!!  The boys have a blast every time we make this trip (Erik and I do too!  We all get spoiled!!), they are still talking about this part of our vacation and it's been 2 weeks since we've been home!  Can't wait until next year's trip!!

Happy 7th Birthday, Kade!!

7 years old today!  Time is going too fast and you are getting way too big.  No seriously, your feet are as big as mine and you are only 8 inches away from being as tall as me.  Dad was right--he predicted we'd be wearing the same size shoes by the time you are in 1st grade.

You are still as busy as ever.  The only time you sit still is when you are sleeping and that's not an exaggeration.  You've still never seen an entire movie from beginning to end!  I sometimes wonder if you ever will.  "High maintenance" is definitely an appropriate description of you!  You like to have something to do, a project to work on and a list to accomplish.  You don't do well on lazy days with no plans made.

You still love sports.  Whatever sport is in season is your favorite sport.  You went golfing for the first time this summer and (surprise, surprise) you loved it.  You came home and made a 9 hole course in our yard and couldn't contain your excitement when you opened your gift from us and discovered your very own set of clubs.

You're smart, you're funny, you're handsome (seriously, those eyes and eyelashes), you're LOUD (holy cow are you loud), and you're sweet (most of the time).  You definitely have your moments though when you pick on Mason and sneak hits and shoves when you think we aren't looking.  Unlucky for you, your brother is going to be the same size as you soon and that kid can hold his own!  But I can tell that you genuinely care for him because whenever he is sad or hurt you run to find his favorite blanket for him and make sure he's taken care of.  I love watching you take care of Mason.  And he LOVES you!  You are most definitely his favorite person!

We love you Kade William!  I can't believe its been 7 years since we first laid eyes on you!!  I am one lucky lady to have such a special little man that I get to call my son.

Vacation Part 1

Last week we took our first vacation of the summer!  We spent Friday-Tuesday at a campground with our friends the Z's.  The weather was perfect (80's and sunny every day), the kids were perfect (most of the time anyway) and we had a blast!  We fished, we celebrated Paityn's 9th birthday, we biked (almost 13 miles!), we swam, we enjoyed a dance party at the campground (seriously, best kids DJ's I've ever seen!), we ate and we ate and we ate, we even found time to relax!!!  

Before we left, Melissa and I did some meal planning and decided we needed a Dip Day.  We made an assortment of dips before hand so we had less to do at the campground when it came to feeding our families.  Dip Day also happened to coincide with Mom's Tequila Day (wink, wink).  That might've been the highlight of the trip, the kids and the dads are still raving about Dip Day!  Might have to make that an annual occurrence.

We had a great time and can't wait to do it again next year!!