What a weekend!

I think we got a little sensory overload this past weekend!  We were able to go with Woodcrest's first and second grade classes to the Works Museum in Bloomington on Friday.  So that meant we got to see Mom and Heidi since she helps out. It is a hands on museum where the kids get to run around and try a whole lot of experiments.  Jack loved reuniting with his old buddies and I loved seeing them and their moms too!  Just like old times.  Ava even got to join in the fun and at the end they made glow in the dark goo.  After it was over, Jack said, "Do you know why I'm so silly?  I'm so happy I got to see my friends."  Aww!  I think I was a little silly too!  You will notice that a lot of them are making faces in the pictures.  It must be a first grade silly thing!

Then we met the families at Famous Dave's to celebrate Matt's birthday and to my parents for a huge carrot cake.  Saturday we went to the Sportsman's Show in Minneapolis and that was fun.  Brent is famous!  At one of the booths, they had a huge picture of him up and his antelope head on display.  So he got to take that home and that was pretty cool to see that.  His is on the right in the picture.  We even saw Godwin from Duck Dynasty. The kids had fun painting ducks and getting prizes and shooting guns and climbing on everything and pretending to drive or sail.  Then home and church yesterday with a great afternoon service with our missionary Rose Pyles to the Philippines.  We enjoyed her so much, and it was a blessing!  Today we plan to relax and hopefully get out to enjoy this nice weather a little bit!  Here's pictures.  

Happy Birthday, Matt!

We celebrated this past weekend two events.  They will always be linked since we got married the day after Matt's birthday.  Why do people do that?  Ha -well, we did!  Matt is 39!  Much younger than I as he likes to remind me.  We went bowling Thursday with the kids and had a special meal and gave him lots of treats and then Friday we left them with Grandma and Grandpa Cushman and got out of town!  We hadn't been to Sioux Falls before and we had a great time at the Brazilian Carnaval steakhouse.  They were playing old music and had lots of food!  They even sang happy birthday to him in Portugese.  Then we stayed overnight and went shopping the next day.  It was so relaxing and restful especially after the last couple of busy weeks we had.  So happy to celebrate 11 years with Matt and to quote an old couple who'd been married 60+ years, "We're thinking about making it permanent!"  We look forward to the next 11+++++++!

Catching Up

We must have needed the relaxation in the last post because all of a sudden it got busy!  So there's lots to catch up on!

First of all, happy birthday, Dad!  Here's the kids helping blow out candles.  That's their job at our family parties.  And then Ava climbed on top of my dad and started playing with his hair just like Nancy used to do when she was little.  That was cute.  So they had matching bows in their hair.  It was a quick trip but good quality family time together.  

When we got back, we went right into our missions conference which we really enjoyed.  We loved meeting all of the missionaries and especially the ones with kids since our kids loved playing with them.  It was very busy and a little crazy with different ones staying at our house, but I'm really glad it worked out that way. Now that I've had a chance to rest!  It really gives you a chance to get to know people better when they stay in your home.  I wish I had taken pictures, and I didn't.  It was a whirlwind of a week, and that's one thing that didn't get done.  

This past Sunday we were able to have an open house for our church to be able to see our house, so as soon as the missionaries left, I went to work cleaning and tweaking some more.  Thanks, Bek, for coming down and taking the kids for the day so we could focus on the house! They needed that time away too!  What a blessing!!!  The open house went well and we had around 40 that came through.  It was a blast, and we loved having everyone there.  We are coming up on being here a year, and it feels good!  Now that the housing thing is out of the way completely, we can move forward.  It's also been nice to be out in some spring-like weather recently.  It feels like Fairmont is waking up!  And we are looking forward to the future here.  It looks bright!

Relaxing a bit

It's been nice to be home relaxing from our trip and just enjoying our house.  We will be having an open house in two weeks for our church to see the house so there will probably be a few small things to do, but it's been so nice not to HAVE to do anything.  I almost have to remind myself "oh yeah we can relax now".  I was so used to having lots of projects to finish.  And with the weather being so crazy, it's nice to have a comfortable home to enjoy.  I told Matt he has made me a homebody finally!  Not sure if he believed me or not.  

Looking forward this week to having people over who have helped us so much with the house and then heading home for Dad's birthday!  So it should be a fun week along with hitting school hard.  Jack and I both love that!  Homeschooling can be nice in that you can adapt it to your schedule, but time off has to be made up just the same as regular school. We are in week 19 this week and try to do 5 days of work each week even if we take a day off.  It helps me stay organized.  

On an excited note, we have bought our last diaper!!!!!!!!  Yes, Ava is completely potty trained!!!!  She did pretty well on the trip, and we will just do a diaper at night until we run out.  Once we got over the hump with her - and it was a HUGE hump - she actually was much easier than Jack.  She is always dry in the mornings and can hold it much longer.  So it is a huge blessing and hurdle for me.  One of my resolutions is actually done!  In having both of our kids, I always thought ahead to potty training as the end of babyhood. Of course, I loved them as babies, but we are now in my favorite phase!  All of our problems are over, and all our dreams will come true!  Ha!

Happy 40th Anniversary!

To the Cushmans, the best church parents and grandparents ever!  They have treated us like family from the first time we came just like they do to everyone which makes them pretty extraordinary and very special to us.  

Maranatha!

Usually I update the blog based on what pictures I have, and I don't have too many this time but here goes anyway.  Last week we had a great service with the Maranatha Madrigal Choir at our church.  Besides the choir, we had around 100 people, and it was exciting to see the church full of people and to hear the beautiful music.  We had 4 girls stay with us and had a blast.  They were a delight to us, and we were excited to have our guest area ready to use.  Of course, the kids loved it all too.  Jack got to blow a trumpet and now he wants to play the trumpet.  We were able to meet a lot of visitors too so are hoping we will see them again.  

Home!

We are back in Minnesota and not sure if that's good or not!  Came back to the end of a blizzard and were not sure we would even make it back to Fairmont.  But we did!  And it was so good to be back in our own church on Sunday.  Some asked why I didn't update the blog this past week.  Well we were busy!  And I finally switched to vacation mode.  The weather was perfect this past week - 80s - just how I like it!  

This is what we did:

1.  Monday was the Titanic exhibition which we all loved.  I am fascinated by all things Titanic, and it was a great exhibit.  We went on a guided tour and were given tickets with a person's name and history on it.  At the end, we got to see if we made it or not.  Ava and I both made it, and Matt and Jack did not since they were both 3rd class.  I was a 1st class actress and although Ava was in 3rd class, being a female probably helped her survive.  Anyway it was very fascinating and became very personal.  After Titanic, we went mini golfing and then had Baskin Robbins ice cream which we don't have here.  

2.  Tuesday we divided and conquered.  Matt took Ava to Legoland, and I took Jack to Hollywood Studios along with my uncle Larry and aunt Linda. This was probably my favorite day weather wise and it was not too busy at the parks.  Well I guess we did stand in one 95 minute line since Jack really wanted to ride Toy Story, but otherwise, it seemed to fall into place.  

3.  Wednesday another beautiful day while Matt took Jack to Legoland and I took Ava to the Magic Kingdom by myself.  I was a little nervous to do that, and it seemed much busier than normal. We did have a great time though, and Ava got to meet Rapunzel who is her favorite princess.  I don't think Ava remembered coming before, so it was fun seeing it through her eyes.  

4.  Thursday we ran some last minute errands and cleaned up since we thought we were leaving.  We also hit Downtown Disney one more time and got a Mickey ice cream bar.  

5.  Friday we went to the airport, found out our flight was pushed back and we would miss our connecting flight to Atlanta.  So we opted to stay one more day in Florida as opposed to being stuck in Atlanta, but by then we had returned our rental car and so got a hotel with a shuttle and they shuttled us to Cracker Barrel in addition to the hotel.  The kids also got to swim before the storms hit.  Yep, it was time to leave!

6.  Saturday very early we finally left Orlando.  Got to Minneapolis, had lunch with the family and were on our way not being sure if we would make it too far on the roads.  We did finally make it although two days later than we planned.  It was a great vacation!  Hopefully it will get us through the next four months of winter.  Matt thinks I'm exaggerating just a little but I'm not too sure!

We have a few exciting things for our church to look forward to with Matt's alma mater Maranatha bringing their very large choir to our church this week.  And then a missions conference in two weeks!   And then Matt's birthday and our anniversary are both coming up, so that's always exciting!  Well here are pictures!

A man in Carol and Larry's development saw us outside and lent us his remote control boat for while we were there.  So nice and fun!

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