Last Week in Moments

Our lives pretty much are soccer nowadays. Soccer practices. Soccer games. Soccer tournaments. Last weekend, both boys had a game each day. H was selected as one of the captains for his team for the weekend. Pretty exciting.


Found the memory box my parents saved, and decided to glance in it. Found these air mail letters from when I spent the year in Germany. So glad my mom saved (and numbered) them. I'll have to read through them. I've read two, and so far they were pretty funny // One thing is for sure ... walking my neighbors dogs is quite the different experience from walking my own

Last Week in Moments

A morning serenade at the top of his lungs // Brian and H were in Madison for a soccer tournament, while C and I stayed behind for his games. We decided to go to Oktoberfest for dinner.


H had his first middle school soccer game. It was against University School Milwaukee and ended in a tie at the last second


C had his first cross country meet. He came in 48th place, 6th in his school // C had soccer practice, and it was the club ice cream social so we ended up at Oktoberfest again. Rainy, but always fun

Last Week in Moments

On the hike on Day 2 of camping. Have been thinking about how fun this weekend was all week.


#1 Troublemaker -- surrounded by the sofa she completely attacked and her very favorite ... decapitated duck toys. She loves those stuffed toys, but within two minutes of getting one, she rips out the squeaker and pulls the head off. We have decapitated duck bodies and heads all around the house.


Brian and I celebrated S I X T E E N years of wedded bliss on Thursday. We aren't big anniversary celebrators, but this year might just go down as the the least romantic ever. Between cross country practice, soccer practices, and parent information night at the boy's school, where we had to divide and conquer 5th and 8th grade for two hours, we didn't even sit down for our crockpot dinner until 8:45pm. Oh well. Sixteen years. I think that's pretty impressive. I honestly cannot imagine my life without this guy. I'm so lucky.

Camping :: Day 4

As soon as we went to bed last night, the rain started. I honestly don't mind it though. And this year, we have a new tent which kept us nice and dry. We had been having a raccoon friend visit us at night -- all of us did, as a matter of fact -- but it left our site alone last night. (It did have a field day with juice boxes at Chris & Penny's site, and on sausages, hot sauce and grapes and Graham & Amy's site though). We woke up, packed up, and gathered for photos. A couple years back, I had taken family photos of the campers. I forgot to do it last year, and almost forgot again this year! Thankfully, we made it happen. It's so fun seeing these kids (and us, I suppose) change over the years. We decided to drive through Mt. Horeb. The kids were kind of freaked out -- turns out, Mt. Horeb is the "Troll Capital of the World." The main street is referee to as the "Trollway." It was settled by the Norwegians, who thought the trolls were lucky guardians. Trolls, by the way, have long noses, four fingers and four toes, which makes them different from gnomes. I know you were curious. A lot of the businesses were closed, but we were able to stop by Sjolinds chocolate shop, Open House Imports, Duluth Trading Company and grab some breakfast. Sad to see the weekend come to an end. I'm already looking forward to next year.

Camping :: Day 3

Day three happened to be my birthday. I've got to be honest, waking up in the woods surrounded by my family and friends was the perfect was to celebrate it. After breakfast burritos, we drove to New Glarus for our annual pilgrimage. Chris & Graham rode their bikes. The surroundings are absolutely gorgeous there. But it's at least 40 miles from the site to New Glarus. It was hot, sunny, and very hilly. I honestly have no idea how they made it. We started at the brewery, then went into town for sausages, desserts and lunch. When we came back to the site, we headed straight for the beach where we spent the rest of the afternoon. We met up again for dinner, and as I walked into the camp site, was greeted by singing and the kids lining the way with sparklers. It was the absolute best. Such a great way to spend a birthday. Lucky me.

Camping :: Days 1 & 2

All summer long, we look forward to our annual friends camping trip. You might recall that last year, we had a bit of bad luck with sickies. This year, I'm happy to report that we all survived and were all in attendance, except for one of the E4 who has headed off to college! Crazy. We stayed at Governor Dodge State Park again. We've been going here longer than I even remembered, but it's really a great place -- beautiful, good swimming, and tons to do. This year, we stayed in different sites after driving around last year and thinking they were really gorgeous. Really, you can't go wrong anywhere here. The first night, we all arrived at different times, so just made our own meals. But the next morning, we met up for Leif's famous bloody mary's and breakfast. The kids discovered a path right behind our sites that led to some rock formations that morning. It was pretty incredible, and they ended up spending a ton of time back there. So cute. Amy and G were joining us later that day, so went on a hike to the falls, then went swimming in the afternoon. We didn't get a break from the heat this camping trip, so it was perfect. In the evening, we had chili in frito bags -- a favorite amongst our group -- then hit the sack relatively early after our day in the fresh air.

Last Week in Moments

Last weekend C's soccer team was in a tournament -- including the day of his birthday. There's no place he'd rather be, so he was thrilled. His only request was to go to Kopps for ice cream (the flavors of the day were tiramisu and Mr. Fudgie, and mint ice cream with fudge in it). Before dinner, we stopped by one of H's soccer teammates house who was having a pool party. Needless to say, we ended up staying there for most of the night. We did make it to Kopps for birthday ice cream, but only for dessert. Anyhow, our friends just got this new Great Dane puppy. He's 13 weeks old in this photo. Isn't he amazing? // First day of school. So happy to have them together. It was an overwhelming, busy, great first week.

First Day of School

And just like that, summer break has ended. All of us were woken up by the annoying sound of alarm clocks this morning ... yet, excited for the new school year. H is in 8th grade, and C is in 5th. For H, it's his last year in middle school. For C, it's his first. It was pretty cute watching them hop on the bus together after three years of being on different schedules. H headed towards the back, while C sat in the very front. Hilarious. Here they go!