Uncle Alex! Uncle Alex!

Another visitor! We love visitors around here!

Andy's youngest brother, Alex, is here visiting. He got in on Friday and will stay until Friday the 31st. He then gets the wonderful privilege of flying back to Phoenix with me and the boys! He's so lucky ;)

In two short days we've managed to accomplish a lot. We are ALL tired! I can't imagine how the rest of the week pans out. Oh, and Friday morning we have a 7am flight...that means me trying to get all these knuckleheads out the door by 5am. Hhhmmmm....

Friday night stop: Buffalo Wild Wings-one of Alex's favorites
Saturday morning stop: Minnehaha falls. Very pretty, very neat, very GREEN! There is normally a giant water fall flowing here, but they closed it off or something (I wasn't paying attention to the explanation)

We rented bikes to ride around the whole "park" and even rode down (up) the Mississippi River.

Saturday night: Aquatennial Fireworks. A fireworks show shot off over the Mississippi River. It is supposed to be the largest fireworks display WEST of the Mississippi. It was long, 20 minutes or so, done to music, and really good. It doesn't get dark here until super late, so the fireworks didn't start until 10pm. I had some sleepy kids on my hands...

Sunday: Day down by Lake Minnetonka. So far this is our favorite place in Minnesota. All the areas by this lake are really nice. We ate lunch on the lake and then played down by the beach. Beautiful day, 85 and sunny!

Lake Minnetonka at it's finest

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

We got another pet! Just Kidding!

We found this small creature in our backyard the other day while cutting the grass. The boys were thrilled to have a new playmate! I picked the frog up first, and then Charlie did-with gloves on of course. Charlie and Cooper played with this frog outside for well over an hour. At one point I came over to check on everyone and I saw Mr. Toad going for a ride DOWN THE SLIDE! Poor old frog, he probably wanted to escape so bad!

Blog about the blog

TOTALLY COOL!

I just googled "Nickelodeon Adventure" because Andy's little brother is coming this weekend, and I wanted to refresh my memory on some of their ticket packages. After I googled it, the FIFTH item on the first google page was one of my blog posts!!! Totally Awesome! The Cab Four is gonna blow up one day-just you wait and see! ;)

One of the World's greats

Today was another unbelievable day. There was a golf tournament here in Minnesota that was free, so we decided to take the kids. They were excited and know the basics about golf, and know who Tiger is. (This was a seniors tournament though) When we got there I stood in line to wait for Arnold Palmer's autograph. The boys both had on their Masters hats and we thought it would be neat if they could get those signed. We didn't get in. Bummer. But I did schlep the boys inside to at least get a peek at The Great One. As Mr. Palmer was leaving his signing station, he caught sight of Charlie and his hat. He took a double take and came right over to us. He shook Charlie's hand, talked to him, played a little game with him, and laughed. It was one of the most amazing things in the world to watch! Andy and I were in disbelief, and well Charlie, he just thought some nice man was coming up to play with him! We have tried to stress to Charlie just how awesome this man is (was) and how special he is. (Andy and I even joked that hopefully that handshake sent some magical golf powers into Charlie!) Someday. Someday Charlie will understand how cool of an opportunity it was and he'll be able to look back on it. And no, I DID NOT have my camera! Double bummer. Golf tourneys are usually pretty strict about that, so I didn't even try :( Pretty neat, awfully lucky.

Fourth of July 2009

Duncan was our 4th of July mascot! Isn't he so handsome? He was thrilled to have my mom and dad here by the way!
In keeping with tradition, we decorated the kids bikes again. They rode them around the neighborhood and had a blast. They even got red, white, and blue bells to put on the handle bars!

Towards lunch time we headed down to Excelsior Minnesota for a parade and afternoon filled with "festival" events. The kids sat and collected candy as it was thrown to them from people in the parade.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at Andy's boss' house. The kids had a blast playing baseball over there and lighting sparklers. They were exhausted by the time we left.

Date night

Andy and I totally took advantage having our "babysitters" in town. My mom and dad put the kids to bed one night and we went to see hands down the craziest movie of the year! Andy and I laughed so hard we were in tears, and we continue to quote lines from the movie. Seriously, so so so funny. Great summer flick. When we did have the kiddos we saw Ice Age 3 and that was cute as well.

By the way, after seeing The Hangover, my crush on Bradley Cooper is bigger than ever. What a hottie!

best day EVER!

Even though my mom and dad left yesterday, today may be the GREATEST! Let me explain:

*Thanks to a Southwest Airlines sale, we were able to book a trip (all FOUR of us) to Phoenix in October. 10th-17th

*Thanks to Southwest again, my mom and dad booked their tickets to come out to Minnesota on Christmas Day this year.

*We booked our room at the Phoenician for our stay in August. (If you know Andy and I well, you will recall we stay here every year for our Anniversary. We will miss it by a few months this year, but that's ok! This year the boys will be coming with, and I'm sure they'll love it. Just one night and two days at the pool-plenty for all of us.)

It was kind of a busy "travel" day. But all so exciting. Posts from the 4th and my parents visit will be up soon.

p.s. New blog song for MJ. Tragic.