Embrace the Camera

So I really love this idea that I found on this blog. Such a fun blog-- she's super cute and crafty, and a photographer, and her kids are really important to her and it shows.

Anyway, I have been thinking about this for a while now- my kids will have NO pictures with ME in them! Cause I'm the one who's usually behind the camera. But I think I will be trying this challenge out on a regular basis so as to fix this problem. The challenge is to take pictures of YOU with your kids. So that they will have them forever. And also I like looking at these pictures when I'm so frustrated and impatient with my kids, so I can remember that I still like them, and they're pretty cute sometimes.

This is the best I could do with Leah.
Maybe next time.

Thanks for the well wishes for my dad! We all appreciate it a lot. I'll try to update whenever there is new info to be shared.

What's been going on lately?

So, I have waited to post about this until I knew how big a part of our lives it would be. My dad recently (and thankfully) went in for a routine check-up and found out that he has colon cancer. He had surgery a couple of weeks ago and they removed part of his colon, and they also determined that he will need chemotherapy for the next 6 months. Yuck.

While this is not the easiest for him or us, I feel really blessed to be a part of my family that deals with life's challenges one step at a time and with a sense of humor. Many emails of love and support have been sent, and at the same time emails full of good-natured jokes with my dad being the 'butt' of them. (Get it? Well, my dad will.) Oh, and he's also 'cracking' many of his own jokes too.

Anyway, this is not going to be fun; I feel really bad that my dad will feel crappy for the next few months, but overall we are feeling very positive and moving forward.

p.s. I have a TON of pictures just waiting to be posted, so I'll get on that soon.

It's a race!

We live right across the street from the backside of a High School and its track. Ethan loves to 'run' on the track and we love the awesome Utah-esque grass that makes up the field. I still wouldn't suggest sitting in it too long though- the chiggers'll get ya!

The other day he found a chair. Sorry dad, it's overexposed:

I love this picture. Even though it is also overexposed.
I get so mad at myself when I don't do simple things
like double check settings. Oh well.

Photographing

I've had fun doing a couple of little photo shoots for some friends recently!

My friends have cute kids.

Minneapolis

So we had a REALLY great anniversary this year. My mom and brother came to stay with the kiddos while Ross and I drove up to Minneapolis. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that we planned the whole trip around IKEA. We need furniture! No, that is not the closest one, but we'd never been to Minneapolis before and decided to give it a try. It turns out there is a lot of fun stuff to do there! We were seriously impressed with all of the cool little shops, and of course the many lakes were very picturesque.

Our hotel was very nice, and it was only a 2 minute drive down the road from the Mall of America and IKEA.

And rotate 45 degrees:

The first night we decided to check out the mall. Yep, it's huge! It was just a mall, but it was pretty cool to experience it's massiveness. Also the indoor theme park was pretty cool too.

That first night we went out to eat, then went to Lake Harriet and walked around a bit and happened upon a free outdoor concert.




I found a sweet little bookstore online called The Wild Rumpus that looked fun. And it was. It was AMAZING. I don't have any pictures, but it was the coolest children's bookstore I've ever seen. After that we went to Sebastian Joe's Ice Cream. Delicious.
Mostly it was the ambiance that made the evening so amazing. Twinkle lights, a cool breeze, people mingling on the streets and along the path near Lake Harriet. We also found a fun Trolley Cart that took us up and down part of the lake.

And I saw my dream house.

And then we went to Inception. At 9:45! It was so crazy to be able to do whatever, whenever and not worry about naps and bedtime. Great movie by the way, except that we missed the first 5 minutes. Which I think were pretty pivotal to the whole movie. Oh well, we'll have to see it again.

The next day we went early to the Walker Art Center. Actually we went too early, and the inside wasn't open yet. Oops. But the outdoor sculpture garden was, so we enjoyed 'The Cherry and Spoon' and many other pieces of art, despite the rainy weather.





We then walked across the street where an art festival was going on, and then checked out this cool Basilica.


Apparently it was the first Basilica built in the U.S. It was pretty. And it reminded me of Europe. Then we went to this very fun fabric store, and a vintage shop that was right next door. And then. We had the most DELICIOUS burger ever. It's called a Jucy Lucy, and you can find it at Matt's Bar. This place is a dive. But it has won so many awards, including 'Best Burger' by the Travel Channel. They cook the cheese inside the meat and it comes to you hot and juicy and melty and oh so delicious. There was a line out the door, and we waited, and it was worth the wait. We were a little scared to take any pictures outside.

And last of all, was IKEA! So this couch. We found out at the beginning of our trip that the sectional that we wanted is not carried in stock. I probably should have found that out before we went, but I wasn't 100% sure I wanted it, and needed to sit on it before I could make the final decision. Well, after I decided I wanted it we found out they didn't have it. So we went throughout the store feeling really down and couldn't really enjoy it as much. But we decided to ask down in the loading area for sure if they didn't have it. The guy told us the same story, but to ask if the home shipping could do us a favor and discount the shipping. Well we went down there, and the guy said they have ONE in stock. ONE. And it's only because someone returned it. SWEET! So it took about 2 hours of waiting for them to find it and work it out and everything, but they had it! And we bought it.

Then Ross, the Master of Packing, was able to fit the entire sectional in/on our car.




And there you have it! It was a blast. THE END.

Surprised?

Leah is always ready just in case something really delicious comes anywhere near her mouth.






P.s. Leah is walking! Well, it's more like, step step step, sink (or fall), crawl to her destination, stand up, step step step step step, sink, repeat. But she's getting more adventurous every day!

Summer daze

Yikes it's been a month! My dad said my blog is getting moldy it's been so long since I posted.

Well we have been pretty busy having fun, playing with friends, taking some trips, etc. The last couple weeks though have been so hot I have not wanted to step out the door. We've gone a little stir-crazy as a result. But here are some pictures from a trip to the zoo a while ago. It was way hot that day, we went early in the morning but we were still melting by the time we were done. And the kids were pretty much in a daze the whole time. But we had fun!







Also here is Ethan loving our swing.