More of visiting with G&G

Here are some more pictures of what we did with G&G. One of the highlights that we didn't take pictures of was a trip to Armadillos Ice Cream Shop downtown. It is a little 'mom & pop' type place complete with 'flavor of the day' and 75 cent kid cones. We love it and visit it very often from March to November while it is open.

1: Kids at the Stav Kirke

2: Hans and Grandma walking on the path at Canyon Lake Park looking for more ducks and geese to feed.

3: Evan trying to get the duck to come just a little bit closer while he was feeding them.

4: The kids and G&G on the bridge at Canyon Lake Park. We were one of the only groups of people feeding the birds that day after a summer of them being continually fed. As a result they were thrilled to see us and followed us all around the lake begging for more.

We loved having Grandma and Grandpa here and hope that they enjoyed the rest of their trip. :)

My Grandma & Grandpa

This past Saturday my grandparents came for a visit. It had been awhile since they have made it out here. We all enjoyed having them around from Saturday afternoon until they took off to keep visiting family in Colorado on Tuesday morning. As usual with visitors at our house, the kids were certain that they were here for their entertainment.

Picture 1: The kids playing on the swing set with Grandma. Another fun back yard activity was catching bugs to show Grandma. Crickets, rolly-poleys, and grasshoppers are favorites.

Picture 2: Hans cuddling with Grandma for stories at bedtime.

Picture 3: Grandpa reading to Lydia who demanded this over and over and over and over....

Picture 4: G&G with the kids at the museum at the Stav Kirke Chapel along with statues of Ole and Lena, the Norwegian caretakers.

Cheese

Lydia has a lot of personality. I'm not exactly sure where that comes from though. :)

Picture 1: When we've had a messy meal so that both the table and kids are messy they are allowed to do a little suds painting. (It's like pre-washing them.) That is funny by itself but Lydia has recently decided that whenever she knows she is in a picture she must plaster a hilariously huge grin across her face and squeal "cheese."

Picture 2: During bedtime stories tonight Lydia needed to be wearing a necklace we got at the Fourth of July parade and Evan's winter hat. I have no idea why. Notice that she is also sporting the "cheese face."

15 Minutes? Ha!

For the summer reading program at the library the kids needed to read or be read to for 15 minutes a day. When I saw that I laughed out loud. Seriously, 15 minutes got us a prize? Ha! There are days when I feel like that's all I do. Since we do read a lot around here it seems like I'm often snapping a picture of someone reading with the kids. Here are a couple of recent pictures that are just cute and fun to share.

1. Lydia demanding some Daddy time after church on Sunday.

2. Hans and Lydia getting Dad in the chair with a pile of books before he even got dressed on Saturday.

3. The kids and I reading before bed tonight in "blanket nests". No it isn't really cold enough to need footie pajamas and an entire pile of blankets but it does make reading time more fun. :)

Now go cuddle up with a good book. We recommend a minimum of 15 minutes. :)

Run, Dad, Run

On the beautiful Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend Nathan ran in the Southern Hills Triathlon. That said, he actually ran the duathlon, one of the many options in the whole event. (Earlier in the summer he had planned on participating in the triathlon but when he started working for the general contractor of the building project at our church his swim time was cut out of his schedule.) This particular duathlon was a 5K run, a 20K bike, and a 5K run. Nathan came in 1st in his age group (he may have been the only one :) and his times placed him third overall. He though the whole thing was great and plans to keep competing in events similar to this in the future.

The kids and I had fun cheering him on from the sidelines. The time we spent in the water at the beach following the race was also a big hit with the kids along with staying at a hotel, throwing several hundred rocks into the lake, geocaching, and the dilly bars we had to celebrate on the way home.

It wasn't camping in the mountains (our usual Labor Day plans) but it was a nice weekend as a family. That's always our goal. Hopefully you had a great final weekend of "summer" and are beginning to enjoy autumn.

Miss JoElyn

Last week we had the pleasure of opening up our home to new visitors. While in MN earlier this summer we had run into a high school friend and extended the invitation to come visit anytime. Sometime in early August JoElyn called and took us up on our offer. She and her mom, Ellen, made a whirlwind tour of SD and a piece of WY to visit various family members. We loved having them for the evening. The kids think all visitors are here to read and play with them so when this happened with both JoElyn and Ellen, they were a huge hit. Nathan and I both enjoyed catching up with Jo which resulted in a worthwhile late night. We might be seeing more of JoElyn as she is currently job hunting and was liking what we had to say about Rapid City. It is a really nice place to live or, at the very least, to visit. :)