On the road again...

We (Jack and I) are heading out today with most of the Boland family (Steve on Monday) for our annual 4th of July trip to the lake! We've had a busy couple weeks at home...most of which has consisted of heading to the pool everyday between Jack's naps. Oh, how I love summer vacation! We'll be back in 10 days....have a great 4th everyone!

back home

We got back home last Thursday and Jack has been following Steve around everywhere. He sure missed his daddy. We had a good weekend catching up on laundry, cleaning water out of the basement and all those good things that happen here in Iowa. We had an early start to Father's Day when the tornado siren went off at 3:00am and we had to scoop Jack out of his crib and take him to the basement. He thought it was heaven since he was able to play the Wii...so yes, Guitar Hero at 3:00 in the morning with his dad not a bad start to the day! :)

Jack started to come down with this random rash that I thought was from his new medication (Singular) but it kept getting worse so I took him in today and turns out he has Fifth Disease. Weird...nothing you can do about it but let it run it's course. I guess you only get it once so there's another thing for Jack to check off his list of illnesses. Here are some pictures to capture what this terrible thing looks like.

a neat visit

One of the highlights while in Duluth was that Jack and I met up with my mom's dear friend Laurie. It just so happens that she works at Scholastica (where my sister went). It was a real healing time for me because the last time I was on that campus was for my sister's memorial service back almost 3 years ago. The neat thing was that we took Jack to the gym, which is right where my sister played both volleyball and basketball. There was Jack trying to shot the ball and dribble left-handed, just like Lindi. Gosh, I wish Jack was able to meet her.

Thank you, Laurie!

Minnesota trip Part 2---Duluth!

After the wedding Jack and I headed to Duluth to visit Steve's family and meet out 2 new nieces! They are both adorable! Jack was totally fascinated with the babies. He was so cute, when Ashley (Seth & Sarah's) would cry Jack would take Seth by the hand to go to the baby. He was too cute. Here's a picture of him holding her, check out his cute smile!

Here's the other new baby, Ashera (Sharon & John's). She came home from the hospital a couple days before we got to see her, too cute!

We were also lucky enough to be able to celebrate John's birthday while we were there so we were all together for the evening, which is so different than it use to be with all the new babies and Jada and Jack running around like crazies!


Jack and I also were able to visit with Jo and Katie and finally meet Kylie, one more cute baby for the trip! Too fun! It was great to catch up, especially since Jack napped the entire time we were there. A nice break for me! We also got the news that Aaron and Katie's adoption went through in Africa so they'll head over sometime later this summer to bring home Matea! We can't wait to meet her!

beautiful wedding!

Jack and I made it back to Cook with the help from my dad, who drove the entire way! My job was to take care of Jack....he was such a trooper we made it from our house to North Branch without getting out of the car. That's about 5 hours! Then we made it from North Branch home without getting out of the car, another 3 hours. We did bribe him with a shake from McDonalds in Virginia.

It was great to be home and see friends and hang out at my dad's house. Jack of course loved all the basketballs and everything around the house.

It was yucky weather everyday we were there except the wedding! It was a perfect day for a wedding, not too hot and not too cold. It was so much fun! April was a beautiful bride! Here are some pictures of the event, sorry I don't have too many fun ones.



Of course the trip to Cook wouldn't be complete without a little Moosebirds ice cream! YUM! It was Jack's first ice cream cone from Moosebirds (yes, it's blog worthy!)

summer?

Okay, it's been way too long since I've last posted. As any of you school teachers know May is the craziest month ever! Between having enough energy and patience to deal with 5th graders that don't want to do anything and the paperwork trail that seems never ending. I thought today (the last day with kids) would never come! Tomorrow I head back in for a teacher work day. I hope to get my stuff done early so I can head up to Cook all the sooner! The big wedding (april and jesse) is this weekend! I sure hope my bridesmaid dress will still fit.

My dad came down last weekend...Nels and I met 1/2 way in Clear Lake, IA and so he's going to be riding with Jack and I up north which will be such a blessing. I was thinking for a long time that Jack and I were going to travel 8 hours alone. We'll be in Cook for a few days and then Jack and I are going to head to Duluth to spend some time with friends and family. So those of you from Duluth, I'll call you when I know more so we can get together! I'll also get to meet a new niece, Ashera. Sharon (Steve's sister) is going to have a C-section tomorrow.

Here are some pictures to re-cap our last few weeks since I've posted!


Jack always wanting to go outside!

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Anyone for a bike ride? Jack's ready!


We love playgrounds! No fear going down the biggest slide all by himself.

Sorry about the random link in the middle of the page...I have no idea what I did and I don't want to start over!