Camping at Lake Benton

The week of July 18-25, we camped at Lake Benton with 3 other couples and their families.
Darin, Amy and kids, Brian, Doni and kids, and Dan, Dana and kids.
We had a great time. The weather was great. High 70's to 80's all week during the day. On Monday, it was cloudy and a little cooler, but no rain during the day. The evenings were cool, but nice.
The kids loved tubing, riding the wave runner, and playing on the beach during the day.















































Jace, Eli and Allyson going for a tube ride. They started off from the dock, and as the boat was starting to get going, the tube started plowing water, and all 3 kids got tipped off the tube. The kids didn't let go of the tube after it flipped over. They were a little scared, but thanks to Doni jumping in to help out, they were fine. Allyson and Eli got back on for a ride, but Jace didn't want to try that again!














Caden only wanted to ride in the tube with a "big hole in the middle". He did great. He rode in the tube all by himself and loved it.














Eli, Emily, and Allyson rode the tube together.














Even I skiid!



















Caden and Daddy on the wave runner. Way to go boys!



















Ally also rode with daddy on the wave runner. During her ride, it ran out of gas, and dumped both daddy and Ally in the water. Luckily they were on thier way back to the beach, and we could see them, so Darin went to help. Ally did very well. When she got back to the beach, she told me that daddy told her "don't freak out, but I did freak out a little bit". She was so brave!

Doni brought her snow cone maker along. That was a fun treat while camping. All the kids and even the adults liked them.




























"Mom, quit taking pictures and making us look into the bright sun!"



















More water fun...














After showers and supper, the kids would go to the beach (about 75 feet from our campers) and build sand castles.














Searching for crawdads. (most of this was done after dark)
Tyler K, Tyler D, Nick, and Cody caught most of them!














Then we cooked them up for breakfast. One morning, there were 16 crawdads to cook. All the boys got to try them and liked them so much they caught more the next night and cooked them again in the morning.

































We also celebrated my birthday while we were on vacation. Broc and the kids went to town in the morning and bought mini cupcakes, my favorite candy bar (Twin Bing) and cards.
Here's me and my blue mouth princess on my birthday.

Happy 10 year Anniversary!

Broc and I celebrated 10 years of marriage on July 17.
We spent the day working and getting ready to leave for vacation/camping the next morning. We are planning to go out to celebrate very soon!



















Wow - it is hard to believe that 10 years ago, we were that young! So much has changed in our lives in 10 years. We have celebrated the birth of our 2 wonderful kids.
We have seen some good times and some not so great times, but I am proud to say that I love you more today that on the day we were married! Thanks for being a great husband and father!

Work

For work, I belong to a group of Infection Control and Prevention Practitioners. Every month, they hold a meeting. I try to attend the ones that are close (within 1 to 1 1/2 hours) from work.
This month the hostess for the meeting was our IDPH district rep. She is super nice, and invited us all to her home and served us lunch. She has a pool in her yard, so after our meeting, we took a couple minutes to pose by the pool for a group photo!

Happy 4 1/2 Birthday

July 11 was also Caden and Ally's 1/2 birthday.
Grandpa Rick and Grandma Kay gave us a gift.














It was a tent, sleeping bag, flashlight and backpack. Just in time for us to go on vacation.
After the kids went to bed, I went to check on the kids (like I do every night before I go to bed) and this is what I found in Allyson's room.














She had been "packing for camping". She had her backpack with a couple toys and some underwear and then her sleeping bag. She was all set to go!

Then the next day, daddy brought home another 1/2 birthday present for the kids.

Happy Birthday Eli

On July 11, Eli turned 5.














He got his own set of golf clubs!

Hail!

On July 7 and 9, we were hit with hail.
This picture is of a cornfield just 3 miles from our house. They had golf ball size hail for over 30 minutes straight. We had some hail by our house, but not as bad as this.














This picture is of a piece of hail that I grabbed from outside (yes - I did go out in the hail just to get it! LOL!) while I was working. Luckily it only hailed for about 10 minutes this time.

Cherry Picking

My parents have a cherry tree on their acreage. It was full of cherries, and we had fun picking some. The kids loved to climb the ladder and help pick.




















































The cherries were so yummy!

Dentist (again)

Early this month, Caden had a dentist appt at a pediatric dentist. We found out he needed quite a bit of work done. He had 1 tooth pulled already and we are going back the beginning of August for some more work.
Caden did a great job at the dentist. He was a little nervous to go back (by himself - without mom) but less than 1/2 hour later, he came walking out holding a little cloth bag with his pulled tooth in it.
The tooth fairy visited our house after Caden went to sleep that night, and left $2.50 in place of the tooth. Caden woke up the next morning so excited. He wanted to go and buy a Wii game with the money. I explained to him that wasn't enough money, so he is saving. We have a little bit to save, but he is working on it!

More 4th of July pics (as promised)

Well, I have been neglecting this blog! I admit it.
I have however been updating my scrapping blog (you can find the link on the side) and have some more recent layouts with newer photos there.
Anyway - here is a layout I made with some of our 4th of July pics this year.

















Does this count as a quick way to "catch up"?
Hope so! If you want to see any photos larger - just let me know and I will add them separately!

4th of July Preview

Here is a photo from our 4th of July weekend. (don't worry - I will post more later!)
I have started taking a photoshop class from Jessica Sprague. This is day 2, and I am loving it!