happenings

Over Labor Day weekend Chris and I ventured out to the annual Lifelight Christian music festival here in town.  A friend gave us some backstage passes and although I was ready to call it a day at 4pm, we decided to try and act "not like parents" and stay out past our bedtime.  Crazy, I know.  So we found a sitter, dropped off the boy and went back for the John Rueben concert.  Woot woot!  And I have to say, it was sooooo worth it!

It helped that John Rueben was cool when I was a teenager so I actually knew some of the songs.  And of course the show was great!  Did I mention that he came on stage wrapped in tinfoil?

Or that he started his own encore? 

It was awesome.  We did eventually get kicked out because apparently our passes were't good for much.  But hey, one security guard's mistake was our gain.  And how cool is it to be kicked out anyway?  It's like we snuck in .... but we didn't.  It was fun.

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I mentioned earlier that we were in the twin cities last weekend for a friend's wedding.  We stayed with family, saw lots of friends and had a great time.  And of course we made a little trip here.

We didn't actually need anything, but that has never stopped me from shopping before :)  We found a few treasures, but mostly just enjoyed the experience.  Brooks was quite enamored as well.

Ok ok, it wasn't really the reasonably priced furniture that caught his eye.  It was the largest, most awesomely huge ceiling fan he'd ever seen.

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I think this is the last of our travels for a while.  At least until the holidays.  Besides that we've just been having fun around here!  There's lots of exploring to be done ...

...and chocolate chip granola bars to be eaten ...

...and new rooms to be played in.

Brooks even helped wash the couch cushions.

It's hard work as you can see.

Good thing Charlie helpd too.

Oh, and we've done a little shopping too.

We've been busy around here.  But we're having a blast!!

settled

well between unpacking boxes, finding my clothes and turning a house into a home, I really haven't had much time to write about it.  But the boys are occupied with their new "library" toys and and I have a few free moments to myself.

I'm happy to say that my panic has lessened and my moving anxieties have calmed.  This place really is starting to feel like home.  We drove to the twin cities this weekend for a friend's wedding and for the first time in all of our travels this summer, I was anxious to go home.  Perhaps it's because I absolutely abhor city traffic ... but perhaps it's because Sioux Falls isn't simply a place where we live.  This is home.

Through all of our recent transitions I'm learning, more than anything else, to be content.  It's easy to think life would be better somewhere else.  The grass is always greener in your neighbor's yard, right?  But then I look in my yard and find this! 

A tree!  And proof that God cares about the little things in our lives.  The one thing I've missed the most about Minnesota and Wisconsin are the trees.  South Dakota is flat.  Flat flat flat.  Few trees.  No water.  And did I mention that it's flat?  But we moved to this cute litte house in the center part of town, in an established neighborhood with mature trees.  And every morning I look out our window and find this wonderful reminder of my most favorite season ... fall!  And I remember that life is good.  Life was good without my tree mind you, but it's better now.  I'm thankful for my family.  I'm thankful for my house.  And I'm thankful for my tree.

moved

Well we did it.  We moved.  Chris and I had been looking for a new place to live for the past 6 months.  We discovered that living in an apartment wasn't the ideal place for us with a dog and a baby.  So after a long search, we finally found a little house to rent in Sioux Falls.  So we gathered boxes, packed them up and moved. 

And in all my naivity I thought "this won't be so bad.  We've done this plenty of times."  Which in fact we have.  This is the sixth place we've lived in our little over 5 years of marriage.  I'm really good at moving.  But to my suprise, this was a really hard move.  I mean really hard.  It was hard packing, trying to decide what to leave out until the very end and what could go in a box.  It was hard moving the stuff.  We acquired a lot of heavy furniture over the last few years.  And unpacking has been the worst.  Finding a new home for every cookie sheet, mixing bowl, bath towel... and where do you put your coats when there's isn't a front door closet?

Chris kept asking "Are you okay?"  And I said yes.  I really wanted everything to be ok.  But for part of me it wasn't ok.  I don't know if it's getting older or being a mama or something else ... but I want so bad just to be settled.  To have a place to call home .... permanently.  Where I can paint rooms and fix up the basement and mark my child's growth on the wall.  Where I can settle down for 15+ years like my parents did, and their parents did.  And probably the hardest part of this move was knowing that we will move again.  We're only renting this house, and although it is a wonderful blessing to our family, it is not the home I want to buy.  And so I'm sad knowing this will have to happen all over again.

(sigh) But it's getting better day by day.  The upstairs is mostly unpacked, leaving only the basement to be organized.  And we are allowed to paint, so once we're a bit more settled I'll tackle re-painting the kitchen (because that seafoam green just will not do).  Soon it will be "home" instead of just a house with our stuff in it.  I can't wait.

boys and summer

Tonight we went to watch Chris play his first league kickball game - it wasn't the first game of the season, just the first for him.  The game was supposed to go until 8:15, so I planned ahead.  I fed the boy, bathed the boy and outfitted him in fresh pajamas.  That way he could go right to bed when we got home.

Well, that didn't go so well.  Here's why ...

About two seconds after we arrived he looked like this.  So much for those clean pj's huh?  And of course he had to taste it too ....

So much for that bath.  (sigh)  Oh well.  I should have known better.  It's not like this is the first time he's done this. 

Boys are drawn to dirt like bugs are to the light.  It's just a force of nature I guess.  But that's what's great about boys in the summer!!  And like any mama with boys, I just brushed him off, wiped him down and put him to bed ... dirty pj's and all. 

Just Brooks

We've been teaching Brooks where his nose is. I think he found it :)

He's climbing onto and into everything these days.  And he always wants to be a part of what we're doing.  What a good little helper.

We visited the zoo on Thursday last week and this particular goat kept trying to eat Brooks' toes.  See his nose sticking through the fence??  That was after he actually nibbled on his fingers.

Saturday night was the first Viking preseason game and Chris was giddy with excitement.  Footbal is a BIG deal in our house!  Brooks and Daddy were ready to cheer on the purple and gold!

Montana

Whew, we've done a lot of traveling this summer!  First to the twin cities for our anniversary/4th of July weekend, then Brooks and I went to Green Bay for a week (oops, still need to post pictures from that).  Now we just came back from a weekend in Montana.  And in a few weeks we'll be headed back to the cities for a friend's wedding.  Since we were rarely able to get away on the weekends while working at the church, we didn't travel much - so I am LOVING this!

We were able to fly to Montana thanks to Chris' incredibly generous boss who gave us his airline miles ... we flew for practically FREE.  Can't beat that.  We decided to make a trip out to see Chris' parents since they're moving at the end of the month and childhood treasures needed to be claimed.  That and I've never seen Montana in the summer.  And oh, is it beautiful out there.  There is absolutely no humidity which is amazing!!  And at night time the temps drop down to 50 degrees - perfect!!  And the mountains ... well, they're mountains ... which we definitely don't have in South Dakota.  I'm sure folks who live there get used to the view, but they were gorgeous!  On our flight back home we saw the sun rise over the mountains.  Simply breathtaking!  I know my in-laws are moving to eastern Montana (the land with no mountains) but I do hope we get back to Belgrade some day.

This was also Brooks' first time flying and he did GREAT!  Since our flight left Sioux Falls at 8pm, he slept the whole way there, on both flights!  And we boarded the plane at 6am coming home, so he slept most of those flights too.  What a good baby.

Our first day there (Friday), we hiked up to this beautiful waterfall.  The windy, bendy mountain roads we had to take almost made me lose my lunch, but it was worth it once we arrived.  After we parked it was about a 1 mile hike to get to here.

Pretty amazing isn't it?  The water was so clear and so COLD.

On Saturday we pretty much just hung around the house.  After living in their home for almost 30 years, Les and Lue had collected a few things.  Ok, a LOT of things.  All three boys rummaged through boxes in the garage to find treasures they wanted to keep.

That evening we enjoyed a delicious roast beef dinner that Grandma Katy made for us.  She lives right in Belgrade too, so we loved seeing her every day too.  After supper we headed over to Tim's house (Chris' youngest brother) for a bonfire.  Brooks went to bed, so Grandma & Grandpa stayed behind with him while the rest of us went to Tim's.  What I really enjoyed about the weekend was getting to know Chris' brothers better.  His middle brother JD and his wife Pamela were there from Minneapolis.  They've only been married a few months so I was able to get to know Pamela better.  And Tim lives in Belgrade along with his girlfriend Katie.  We had a great time just sitting and talking around the HUGE fire that Tim built.

Sunday was church then the six of us floated down the Missouri river.  (Grandma & Grandpa stayed behind with Brooks again - I loved all the "child-free" times we had)  What a beautiful day.  I would love show you pictures, but our camera wouldn't have fared well on the water.  And the timing was perfect!  Just as we got out on shore (three hours later) storm clouds rolled in and it began to rain!  So glad we weren't the folks still on the river because it was COLD without the sun shining. 

That evening we went to dinner at a local pizza place in town and enjoyed each other's company before we had leave early the next morning.  I'm so glad we had the chance to visit Les & Lue and Brooks had a chance to spend time with his grandparents.

Here's some other pictures from the weekend.

Brooks went swimming in the "hot" tub.  It wasn't actually hot since they cooled it down to about 75 degrees for the summer - it was perfect for him and he loved it!

Grandma and Granpa had fun new toys to play with.

Brooks loved playing with Uncle Tim's puppies!

Playing with Grandpa Les. Notice the lovely drool?  Brooks cut a new tooth while we were there.  Fortunately he didn't fuss at all about it.

And this just made me laugh :)  At the Minneapolis airport there is a kids play area and daddy insisted upon this picture.

My Declaration!

I hereby declare that from this day forward, no one in this house shall, under any circumstance, clothe the child in any white shirts ..... ever again!!

Thank goodness for bleach!