Greetings from Minnesota

We took a minor detour on our way out of Wisconsin, to visit Adam, Shannon, and Alex, at their beautiful new home in Eagan. It was a great start to our road trip!! Alex was very kind in sharing all of his toys with our boys, even if he didn't really know what hit him with these crazy monkeys taking over his space!

Some outdoor fun with the water table

I guess 1.5 kids looking at the camera is better than none!

Good times with the Geerdinks

Summers in Wisconsin have taken on a whole new meaning.  We've lucked out for a few summers over the past years, and managed to time trips to WI at the same time as our friends, the Geerdinks, who we used to call our friends from San Francisco.  Well, last year, they up and moved themselves to none other than Wisconsin!  So now, we get to see them every summer from here on out!  

They made the first trip from Madison to Elkhart Lake to visit us for a weekend.  Arjen was so excited the whole week leading up that he kept asking "is it Friday?  My friends are coming on Friday!"

Frits, Gus, and Nina strolling along

We had plenty of fun boating, swimming, and playing at the beach! 

This picture is to show the four towel bumps sleeping on the boat, not the 3 adults staring off at something else!

Watching the vintage car parade

All of the kids were sad to say goodbye to each other in Elkhart Lake.  What they didn't know, was that we'd be reversing the trip a few weeks later to go visit them in Madison!  We had fun seeing their new home and neighborhood, and of course spending our first evening at the Terrace for brats and beer, then wandering down State street!  Our big outing the next day, was to the Madison Zoo.  The boys were sufficiently worn out, that they both fell asleep in the car on the way to the zoo, and stayed asleep while we put them into the stroller!

My tired babies

Arjen woke up in time to see the sleeping Tiger, then Gus magically awoke to see his beloved Giraff-es (he pronounces it with two syllables, kinda cute).  

Of course, nothing was quite as exciting for all the kids as watching the bulldozer in action on a new section of the zoo!  

my silly monkey

I couldn't help but let this pillow fight happen.  The kids were having too much fun!

We rounded out our stay with a delicious backyard bbq at the Geerdink's, before heading back to Elkhart Lake.  We look forward to spending many more summer days and nights with our friends here in WI!

Catching up on lake fun

Now with Andrew mostly on vacation and not having to go back to CA for a couple of weeks, we've been enjoying quite a few more days out on the lake with the Pontoon boat.  The boys are definitely big fans! 

Captain Gus!

I had to include this one just for showing the sheer size of this boys' hand (and the hand genes he inherited).  

I exist! In pictures!  I've realized lately that I rarely make an appearance on this blog, so I'm happy to say I partook in a little lake paddling with Arjen…

…and with Gus! 

In addition to the boating and kayaking fun, there's been plenty of jumping off the boat and swimming too!  Glad we spent those 2 weeks on swim lessons earlier this summer…Arjen shocked us with this a) jump off the boat, and b) swim back!

The entertainment really never gets old.  Here's another:

And then here's Gus's version:

And then, when the swimming is done, there's usually enough time to find the best fishing hole and have fun practicing your cast:

Swim lessons!

I signed Arjen up for his first swimm lesson this summer. He seemed to have a blast, aside from the hints of gymnastics from earlier in the year, where he didn't want to go to the start of the lesson by himself and would latch on to me. It's like he magically forgets by the next morning, just how much fun he has!

Day one: getting comfy with the water

Big kicks!

Using a kick board all by himself!

And Gus: the cool lounger keeping himself occupied during big bro's lesson. Tough life not being three yet (and therefore not old enough for solo lessons at this pool).

The lessons definitely seemed to be doing the trick. During the second week of lessons, we stuck around after lessons for open swim at the pool. Arjen was a fish "swimming" all over the place and even jumping off the wall by himself! I was impressed.  After that, he had no problem walking over to his group at the start of lessons, and no problem telling his teacher she didn't need to catch him when he jumped in!