Miss Amy's Field Trip

Today, after a morning meeting, I called my dad to see if today was a good day to do lunch. Since I was already in the heights and knew that Amy's husband was home sick, I called to see if she'd like to get out of her germ-infested house and come along.

Cafeteria food for lunch wasn't the draw (although, it is for my kids!). Amy wanted to come look at the helicopter. After a lunch of "girled cheese" for the kiddos & wrap sandwiches for us, we headed for the helipad.


Without Rhys & Brennen there to compete for seats, Kjersten & Cael were able to crawl around freely! Amy chatted with my dad long enough to decide that this would not be the career of choice for her: something about being bothered by blood...


Kjersten parked in grandpa's spot. Note the shorts. It was supposed to be 71 today. (It wasn't but she couldn't pass up the chance to wear shorts before it snows again on Wednesday.)

No pictures of Amy or my dad. I'm sure that doesn't bother either of them!

Thank God for Minnesota Boys!

They just love the cold! Here's grandpa Paul. He comes up to plow for us and proceeds to plow for the neighbors and the unimproved road that no one uses... just in case! Any excuse to play in the snow! e

With the 8" we got, Rhys was very grateful to not have to shovel the driveway. He only has to shovel the concrete parking pad, not our actual driveway. With grandpa and the 4-wheeler, Rhys just has to tidy up the edges. Lucky kid!


Cael woke from his nap while grandpa was here. It was bitter cold (-10F) so he couldn't go out, but, oh.... how he wanted to!!!!

Grandpa Tom came for lunch...

Since Cael was rather ill this morning, I smartly cancelled our lunch out with Grandpa Tom... He offered to bring lunch to us. Of course, I said 'yes.' I'm no dummy!


Rhys was busy showing off his balancing skills on the Wii Fit. Here's a picture of his cheering section!


Cael wanted to sit by Grandpa until I got the camera. Obviously, Cael had kept the Tylenol down and it had kicked in. He was in a great mood for lunch. We could have gone to town after all...


Emptying the Wii stuff out of the ottoman.

I love my (extended) family too!

Here's my 1st family. My aunt Kati graciously has us over whenever we're in town. I don't know that she has any idea how much I love it!
That's her on the left, sitting next to my uncle Bob (Joann's hubby). Grandpa Ed is at the far end. Aunt Joann (my dad's sister) is sitting between Grandpa and my dad. My dad's brother Ed (Kati's hubby) is on the far right. Cael's off running around. He ended up with a bloody lip, a cut on the tongue, and a bleeding incident involving his gums that night. Three separate owies. Three separate accidents. Perhaps, I should watch him more closely?!

Grandpa's got a road...

Here is the beautiful road that grandpa built on their property. Grandpa hauled up the culvert. Jason and Lou hauled up the skid steer. A neighbor brought his very big tractor and together they moved earth. The culvert is in place, the rocks are in place, and now one can drive across the stream to the other side of the property without a wet ride on the four-wheeler!
Brennen's favorite place in the entire world! On the four-wheeler with grandpa!

Yeah, it rained... Doesn't bother the 10 year old one bit.

As long as he can run the skid steer- all is good. Mom's yelling at dad to yell at Rhys to put that bucket back down before he tips that thing over...

Who do those kiddos get...

their pudgy hands from? All four of them have the same hands. Their hands are pudgy from birth on... I kept thinking they'd outgrow it. Nope. Now, I've identified where they inherited their paws from, seems the hands are here to stay...Why... grandpa Paul, of course!

Grandpa and herbs...

Brennen loves his grandpa!!!

Our herbs are growing very nicely. We've had to raise the light 3 notches already... Time to start looking for recipes that will take advantage of all those fresh herbs. (Ack!!!! That means actually cooking?!)

Cael had his first meal without mama tonight. I pumped a small bottle for him and Jason fed him. You'd think he'd be offended. Milk from a cold plastic nipple. Uhhh... No. He sucked it right down. He doesn't love the mama- he just loves the milk! I've been knocked off my pedestal and he's but a week old...