YAY!!! We love summer, especially here in green, green Minnesota. It's weird to think that this will be our 4th summer here! This post is a photo journal of all our daily happenings in most of June.
Dallin got a letter in May, so now he checks the mail every day in hopes of getting another one. It's the cutest thing, and we often tell him that the bills or the ads are for him, and he is thrilled, opens each one carefully and "reads" them.
We finally got around to weeding our garden. We are finding that square foot gardens are a little overrated. We built them because it is supposed to make weeds more manageable and save money, etc. But we don't seem to be seeing those benefits yet. We put up a better fence, and that is keeping the deer out, so at least we have that going for us!
In church as an attempt to keep Tanner quiet during the service, Jeremy made mazes for Tanner.
The time came for our house-mate, Maddie, to move. (She lived with us from Jan-June). She found some great jobs in the cities, closer to family. We were really sad to see her go.
It was wonderful to have her live with us. She is so kind and fun, low key and easy going. The boys love her. Jeremy and I miss having her around to babysit. And now I don't know what to do without my personal chit-chat buddy! Another blessing from her staying with us is that we were able to buy a riding lawn mower and new washer and dryer with her rent money. And she was able to put a good chunk of money in savings since our rent was cheaper than anywhere else. I'm so grateful that God guided us to take the opportunity to have her live with us! It has been weird the past few weeks adjusting to life without her. We love you so much, Maddie. Thank you for your friendship and all you did for our family!
Going out for a little walk and bike ride.
Project time-stringing beads.
Look what they made!
Dallin drew these faces!
We took our first camping trip of the summer! Like last year, we kept it simple by adhering to the following: dinner at home/fast food, drive to our site less than 1 hour away, set up camp, play, roast marshmallows, wrestle in the tent, go to sleep. The next day, we enjoyed some granola bars for breakfast, explored/hiked, packed up and were home by noon. It's the perfect kind of camping trip for our stage in life! It rained a few minutes before we arrived at our campsite, which got me nervous, but after about 30 minutes, the rain stopped and it was actually really hot the rest of the time- even at night.
Dallin really enjoyed opening and closing this chair.
Proud of my camping look.
We found a caterpillar and Dallin loved it, he named it and talked to it and let it crawl all over him! Tanner would barely touch it and was convinced it was going to bite and kill Dallin.
Jeremy worked on getting his car headlight fixed. The stupid thing has to be completely taken apart to replace a lightbulb.
Tanner went to a week of Vacation Bible School and LOVED it! It was his second year going. Dallin is still too little, so he stayed home with me. Most mornings that week I had meetings at the Hormel Home, but one of those days, I got some good one-on-one time with DJ. He helped me decorate the house for 4th of July!
During project time, DJ was very particular about opening all the scissors.
Jeremy went on several business trips end of May and early June, including a sales call in Florida, and the filming for a new Natural Choice commercial in Hollywood. Here is his hotel in Santa Monica.
Meanwhile, our table at home.
I attempted to recreate the Mac&Cheese Pie that we ate a few times in Turks and Caicos, and my efforts turned out to be delicious and really, really close to the real deal!!
Tanner was not happy about the dish because it didn't look like normal Mac&Cheese.
I took the boys to a concert in the park with our friends Riley, Kristen and her little boy. We had a super fun time!
Meanwhile, Jeremy explored the movie sets of Walt Disney Studios.
And got to be a part of all the filming magic!
I guess the director of the commercial was also the director for the shows The Office and Parks and Rec!
Judy Grear is the main actor in the commercial. Can you spot her on the left?
And here's what Jeremy got to see while the filming was taking place.
Here's what I got to see while sitting with my cuties at free school lunch. I love this perk about summer! No food prep or clean-up!!
More filming for Jeremy at this fake house and neighborhood.
With a fake baby even though the cameras were never on it.
I took Tanner to his first t-ball practice. He was very nervous but ended up enjoying it!
He loved his new "jersey"!
Dallin is already too big for these jammies, they are a pair of Jeremy's from when he was little.
Tanner of course needed to show us his jammies, too.
These pajama pictures were taken at bed time, and as you can see, when it's summer here the sun is shining as though it is only 4 in the afternoon, so going to bed has been a bit of challenge for the boys. They also wake up really early because the sun comes up early. It kinda sucks, but I don't care that much because I am just so glad everything outside is beautiful and green and WARM!!! All the warmth and humidity here reminds me of the tropics, so I decided to go Asian with my church clothes one Sunday. My outfit is one that Desha gave me from her travels to India, and Dallin is wearing a Hmong outfit that I bought when I lived in Thailand.
