Sioux Falls Weekend and Heading Home

On Saturday, we headed to Sioux Falls for an evening at Lifelight - a HUGE, free Christian music festival. We were mainly interested in seeing Sanctus Real and hearing Francis Chan speak. It was a BEAUTIFUL evening. The festival is held at a farm site. It was packed, like over 100,000 people packed.

We really enjoyed Sanctus Real in concert. They are a group that I have always liked their songs on the radio but have never purchased any of their music...until then. Their latest album, Pieces of a Real Heart, has really spoken to me as I have been listening to it recently. It is very honest and hopeful.

Sunday morning, we went to Falls Park in Sioux Falls. Despite living most of my life less than 2 hours from Sioux Falls, I had never been to this park. It was great! I wish we would have had more time to walk around.

Sunday afternoon, we met my parents in Worthington and let the boys play for a little while at a park by a lake. The boys LOVED playing at the little beach by the lake. I think Silas would have crawled right into the water if we would have let him!

We headed home after our short time in Worthington. The boys traveled the last leg of our trip very well. They were tired out from a busy week, but I think they came back feeling refreshed as well. We are thankful to have such wonderful friends and family who we can visit and have our hearts filled. God is good!

Visiting Great Grandma

Continuing on with our vacation from two weeks ago...

Friday morning we packed up our van and headed to visit my Grandma. We went out to lunch with her before heading to Mountain Lake. The boys had a wonderful time at her house and at the restaurant.

Eating some berry French toast with Mommy

The boys LOVE Grandma's carousel!

The boys got special trucks from Grandma.

They became favorites very quickly!

The Great Minnesota Get-Together 2011

We left Illinois Wednesday morning and headed for Mike's parents house in Apple Valley. We made it in time for supper and then tried to get the boys in bed at a normal time as we planned to head to the state fair on Thursday morning. Jonah has been asking to go to the state fair all summer. He remembered it from last summer and decided he wanted to go again! We parked at the UofM this year and rode a bus to the fairgrounds. Jonah was thrilled to ride the bus as it was his first time experiencing a ride on one of his favorite vehicles. It was a HOT day at the fair, but we had a great time. We went to the livestock barns first. They are Jonah's favorite part of the fair. And, they get really stuffy and really stinky as the day goes on! After the animals, we just wandered around and tried to check out our favorite booths. We aren't big fair food eaters so we didn't indulge in any of the famous on-a-stick offerings, but we did find some Minnesota apple cider freezes that were a fantastic help in cooling us down. We also got to watch the first half of Kare 11's 11:00 morning show. If you were watching that day, you may have just barely seen us in the background! Jonah picked one ride to go on. Not surprisingly, he picked the kiddie ferris wheel. His face was the best as he went around. He was so happy! By the time we decided to leave in the early afternoon, the boys were exhausted. We were so excited to get back into the air conditioned comfort of our mini van and picked up some Caribou coffee coolers at the first chance we got. It was another great year at the fair!

The first building we went into was the Miracle of Life barn which was for mommy animals and their babies who had been born at the State Fair.

Jonah got a cow tattoo, but sadly it came off quickly because of all the sunscreen he had on.

Watching the Kare 11 show - it was hot in there!

Cooling off with an apple cider freeze 

 After our day at the fair, we enjoyed a meal at Applebee's with some dear friends of ours from our time at seminary who are originally from Minnesota and who are now pastoring in MN. It was such a sweet time! Jonah enjoyed talking with two of their children (maybe 7 & 10?). In fact, yesterday afternoon out of the blue Jonah asked to go to Applebee's. We asked him why he wanted to go to Applebee's and he said, "I want to talk to my friends!"

Another Illinois Friend

So not only do I have one friend living in the Peoria, IL, area - I have two! :) A dear friend and roommate from MSU moved to Peoria with her husband just over a month ago. I hadn't seen Melissa in about two years and even had to miss her wedding because of our move to Nebraska. :( Thankfully, we were able to catch up a bit and enjoy a meal together in Ben and Melissa's new home while we were on our vacation.

So Good For My Heart (too!)

Last week, we went on a little family vacation. We put close to 2,000 miles on our new van and spent countless hours driving those miles, but every moment of our time away was completely worth it. Our vacation started with a few days in Illinois with our friends the Drurys. Brittany and I are both SLPs and worked together in Louisville while our husbands were in seminary. We had all of our babies around the same times. I could go on and on about how dear of a friend she is to me! Although we live 7 1/2 hours away from each other now, the Lord has allowed us to continue in our friendship. Brittany has been such an encouragement to me over the past year. I am soooo thankful that the opportunity came up for us to visit the Drurys. There were two things that just ministered to my heart over and over again while we were there. 1) Seeing our children, especially their Silas and our Jonah, playing together. 2) Hours spent chatting about life, the Lord, babies/toddlers, our ministries, and so much more!

Here are a few pictures from our time with the Drurys:

Jonah and Silas D shared a room. It was the first time Jonah had ever had a sleep over with a friend. It didn't go so smooth the first night, but the second night went great! It was so fun to hear the boys wake up and have a little conversation. 

All the babes watching a movie together

We went to a nice park Tuesday morning. The boys played together so well!

 

I was so sad to leave on Wednesday morning. Our time together was so refreshing and encouraging. Hopefully we will be able to see each other again soon!

Click here to read Brittany's blog of the same title.

One More Room

Another room is completed! Silas' room has been waiting on its finishing touches for a number of months now. I finally took some time to do the little projects I wanted to do for his room. His room ended up with an Eric Carle/animals theme.

We found the Brown Bear, Brown Bear wall stickers at Target. They are what started the room's theme. My mom made the quilt hanging over the rocking chair, which I bought off of Craigslist.

The picture on the left was something my mom made for my sister's and my room when we were babies. I recovered the lampshade with brown dotted fabric. It previously was blue with little white hearts. I made the two framed animals on the wall. They were super simple just two different fabrics and some heat 'n bond. The frames I purchased for $1 total at the thrift store in town.

Mike's mom had found these Eric Carle number flashcards at a garage sale not knowing that Silas' room had Eric Carle wall stickers. The set of cards is now missing three! I used the matching fabric from the lampshade and animal pictures to make little ribbon hangers.

And, one last picture. I had posted previously about our finished living room, but the flooring was still carpet. This is the living room now that the new floor is in. We LOVE it!

Our Poor Kitty

Gloria has had a sad week. She had to go to the vet to be groomed. We don't know what caused it, but Gloria had an area of fur matted together on her lower back that we had tried to clean and have cut out in the past. Nothing has worked to take care of it. So, we moved on to the last option - having her shaved. It was a rough experience for Gloria. She didn't like being at the vet and had to be sedated to be groomed. She was not a happy kitty. Gloria is finally becoming herself again now two days later. I think she may be a little self-conscious about her new 'do. She is our little lion!