VBS is tiring

We have Vacation Bible School in the mornings this week. I think today wore Sadie out.....



She fell asleep while she was eating her lunch. Poor sweet girl. Memorizing all those Bible verses will do it to ya!

Fishing with Grampi

Wow – what a trip! A couple of cousins (Tim and Jim) and I had the opportunity to go fishing in North Central Saskatchewan with our granddad, Grampi, and several of his buddies last week. The fishing was great and the scenery was awesome, but it was the company that was the best. Grampi will be turning 90 in September and he isn't slowing down - especially when it comes to fishing (this was his 28th year to go fishing at Sportsman's Lodge along with the many other fishing trips he takes!). I am so thankful that he not only invited us along, but took special care of us during the trip. You see, if it weren't for him, we wouldn't have had any rods and reels, tackle, and we (mostly myself!) definitely didn't have any know-how when it came to fishing.

I had never done anything like this before and can’t wait until I have a chance to do it again. If I can do other fishing trips with Grampi, count me in!

Here is a quick overview:

Our Transportation

Our Cabin


Our Equipment (and the Experience)

The Landscape

The Wildlife

With Jim, Tim and Grampi

This trip was one of those that I don't think that I will ever forget both for the scenery and the fishing, but mostly because it was a neat thing to get to do with Grampi. He is a great man that I have the utmost love and respect for! I'm already looking forward to the next one!

You can see more pictures in our Foley Picture Album.

Front porch picnic

Here are some pictures from a few weeks ago (the Saturday before our cross-country trek) of Sadie having a picnic on the front porch. I took the pictures mainly for Daniel to see, but thought they were cute enough to share.

We started out like this....

and ended up like this.....

She is becoming more and more independent. She seemed to enjoy the picnic. It gave her some freedom with her food, which I think she liked.

A Texas Holiday

As I mentioned in my last post, we then headed south to Texas last Tuesday to warm up (it was really quite cold in Minneapolis before we left there).....

It was a quick trip. So we mainly just hung out at my parents. My niece, Livy, hung out with us the whole time, and for Sadie, that was a vacation in and of itself. Sadie LOVES Livy! They played the whole time, and Livy was so considerate and kind to Sadie.

They played the piano together.....





Livy let Sadie play with her hair.....

(look at Sadie's face while she is "playing" with Livy's hair...she knows what she's doing!)

Sadie SAT on Livy....

She loved on Livy......

(She got alot of positive reinforcement when she did this...lots of ooohs and aaahs....so she loved on Livy more than she has EVER hugged or kissed Daniel or I....it's not right!)



They splashed together.....

They rode in the backseat together....

Livy even cut up tons of cherries for Sadie......

If that isn't love, I don't know what is! (If you blow up this picture, check out Livy's left hand.....definitely a labor of love to cut up all those cherries, huh?!)

They're two of a kind.....

We really wish Sadie lived closer to all her cousins. She would have so much fun with them all.

We flew back north on Saturday to meet Daniel at the Minneapolis airport. Then we drove the 9 hours home that night. Wooo! What a trip. I don't think it really qualifies as a vacation, but it was alot of fun, and we were able to see lots of people and lots of scenery and check off 5 more states that Sadie has now been to! Now that's something to get excited about! :) I think our next trip away from home for more than a weekend will consist of one destination that contains a beach! That sounds a little more relaxing and like a vacation! Yep, I'll keep dreaming about that one.

More trip details

After our weekend in Nebraska (two weekends ago now), we went back to Iowa for a night. Sadie played in the pool again, this time Daddy got to play as well. She surprisingly really likes "swimming". I am just waiting for her to decide she doesn't like it because she decided three weeks ago that she didn't like baths anymore. We cannot figure out what happened for such a sudden change, but anyway, I digress. Here are some pictures of Sadie's pool escapades. Please ignore my bathing suit clad body...I happened to be holding her most of the time the camera was out...so just focus on Sadie!

Swimming....

Backstroke.....

Her favorite things to do in the pool though are:

Splashing.....



and playing with a ball....


After leaving Iowa for the second time, not to return this time, we headed to Minneapolis for a night. Unfortunately we forgot our camera on our visit to the Mall of America. That was the only really exciting thing we did in Minnesota. So I don't have any pictures for our efforts. It was a neat mall. Sadie was in awe of the theme park in the mall and enjoyed looking at all the fun stuff that Mommy wouldn't let her touch in the American Girl Place.

We headed to the airport the next morning where Sadie and I caught a flight to Texas. More on that when I get the pictures downloaded, hopefully tomorrow. Daniel met up with his grandfather, cousins, and a few others at the airport and flew to Canada for the week to do some fishing. I'm really hoping he will post about his week with some pictures, because he had such a good time. I'm sure if I bug him enough, he'll sit down and do it! :) Oh, the luxuries of having a loving wife! ha!

Back from vacation

We're back from a two week tour of six states. Really we just spent time in 4 states and drove through the other two. :)

We first went to Iowa with Daniel for the World Pork Expo. Yes, quite the exciting vacation destination! Here's a picture of Sadie playing with a pig at the expo....




A little more exciting....she got to pet a "green" pig that was part of an all natural pork company's exhibit. I'm not sure how green spray paint qualifies as "natural", but Sadie wasn't a snob.....she's an equal opportunity pig petter. :)

Then we drove on to Nebraska to visit the Hoelschers, and more importantly Holt! He is REALLY cute! And Sadie thought he was great. We'll have to keep an eye on him in a few years! :)

We had a great time visiting, eating some good food, playing a little Wii, and staring at sweet Holt! Did I already say how cute he is....well he's really cute! :)

I'm still working on downloading all the pictures from our trip. So I'll post more later. On another note, I just saw that Nesting Place is hosting a giveaway day today. Check it out....there are some really cute things over there. I think I want all of it! Fun, huh? I'm looking forward to checking more of it out. For now, I'm off to unpacking while Sadie naps. :)