Just Kruz'n

We did it. We took the plunge and became boat owners a couple of weeks ago.  It's an 18' Larson.

We took the boat out on Fish Lake for our first outing on July 3rd.  The girls had a blast and love the boat.  Emmy loves to go for rides in the tube.  She keeps saying, "I want to go on another bumpy ride."
Erin loves to play in the boat.  Both girls do very well!

We met Scott & Rachel out on Games Lake near Spicer for the 4th of July.  We all had such a blast! 
We came up with a bunch of names for the boat...Kruz'n Around, Kruz'n Style, Kruze Control, but settled on Scott's choice..."Just Kruz'n."  I love it!

We spent our 6th Anniversary out on Elk Lake near Hoffman with Grandma Bev, Bob & Edna, Lorri, Deb & Jerry, Tony & Christy and all the kids.  We all had fun tubing!  I haven't laughed that hard in a long time!

We are all getting nice tans!  It's going to be a fun summer!  Come join us and let's go for a Kruz!

Erin's 1st Hair Cut

Erin received her 1st hair cut at the salon from Colie a few weeks ago.  She got three inches cut off the back.  I was sad to see it get cut, but Brad said she could no longer have a "mullet."  Her new cut is as cute as can be.  Colie always does a good job! 

I miss Erin's cute little ringlet pigtails, but it looks like her hair is going to have a lot of natural curl so we'll be able to grow it out again and do pigtails soon.

We saved a lock of her hair for her baby book.  It's a perfect little pigtail.  :)

Brown Swiss

The girls and I attended the Hennepin County Fair last month.  I was expecting a pretty good fair.  But, what I found was a crappy fair that was set up in a field on the outskirts of town.  The rides were cheesy old style rattle trap rides from the 70s.  I went broke putting them on the rides.  The kids enjoyed it though and that's all that matters. 

We then walked over by the "old fashioned" town that was set up.  People were dressed in character and playing their "part."  I will use the word cheesy again.  I was told by one of the performers to step aside (in her lovely accent).  They were getting ready to do a reenactment of a bank robbery.  Oh Lord...all of a sudden they were shooting at each other and then a bunch of them dropped dead on the ground.  I quickly turned the kids around and started walking the other way.  Emmy was questioning me on what happened. 

We then went over to all the "booths/tents/vendors."  The girls got their face painted (cost $3/each).  Emmy got her face painted like a kitty.  (dot on the nose & three lines across the cheek.)  Yep...3 bucks for that.  Erin got a heart on her cheek.  The face painting lady told me that you could go two booths down and get your picture taken with Cinderella & Toy Story characters.  I was excited because the girls LOVE Cinderella & Toy Story.  We got to the booth and discovered it was a cardboard cut out.  SERIOUSLY!!!

The "barn" was more like a petting zoo.  No barn existed.  They had a bunch of different kinds of goats, sheep, cows, etc that you could walk through and pet.  We fed some of the animals. 

The best part was seeing the brown swiss cow.  This reminded me so much of my grandma's farm.  Even though I wasn't even born when they had cattle on the farm...I still remember all the stories and remember seeing pictures growing up. My mom always told stories of milking cows and grandpa Fred's love for the barn/cattle. 

Emmy didn't want to get close to the cows.  Erin was a little more brave.

On a separate trip to the Mall of America, I stumbled upon this awesome millinery shoppe!!!  My grandma Hazel would have loved this store.  She always told the story..."When I was 15, I lied my age so that I could get a job at Dayton's.  I worked in the Millinery Department...They wore hats back in those days." 

Oh My!!...grandma, you would have loved this store!  Memories...

Summer Fun!

We have been busy bees this summer.  We've been blessed with wonderful weather to enjoy all of our summer activities.  The past month and a half we have gone to the zoo with grandma Debbie & great grandma Bev in Whapteon, ND, we've went to a few carnivals (they are not like they used to be), spent time on the lake with Scott & Rachel, and then Brad and I also went to a Roger Waters: Pink Floyd The Wall concert at the Xcel Center.   I love Pink Floyd and The Roger Waters concert was hands down the best concert I have ever been to.  Very good performance!  Wow!


The kids had so much fun taking in the zoo!  We all went for a ride on the carousel...twice, saw lots of animals, and had a picnic in the park. 

Here's a few pictures of the carnival in Willmar.  The kids had fun, but I probably won't take them to a carnival ever again.  

Emmy's Activities

Emmy's season of activities are coming to an end.  We were extremely busy from last fall until this spring with gymnastics, dance and swimming lessons.  She enjoyed them all but says that swimming is her favorite.  She says that she doesn't want to take dance lessons next year.

Her dance recital was May 19th at the Osseo Sr. High.  It was absolutely adorable watching her up on stage.  Emmy did really well during her routines.  We are so proud of her!  She danced to "Fun To Be A Bee" for her tap song and "I Love Colors" for her ballet song.  The entire company all participated in a routine during the finale.  Emmy was right in front.

Dancin' on Broadway wouldn't allow any cameras inside the auditorium during the recital.  MAJOR BUMMER!!   It forces you to go buy the $40 DVD. Below are some of our snapshots that my brother Scott took with his camra. 

  
Gymnastics ended last Tuesday.  She received a medal and an award!  She loved the trampoline, swing & monkey bars the best. 

She has two more weeks of swimming lessons and then we will be all done with activities for the summer.  Emmy has to work on her flips in the pool.  She's had to repeat the same class two times and her teacher recommended she retake the class a third time to get better at flipping over in the pool.  I don't like how they do evaluations at her lessons.  They evaluate the kids about four weeks into the 12 week session.  I don't think it gives the kids enough time to learn each step in the pool.  I personally would rather see evals closer to the end of the session.  That's just my own two cents.
We can work on flips this summer when we go to the local beach. 

Next fall we will be starting Erin in swimming lessons! 

Erin's ABCs

Erin has just started singing the entire alphabet.  Although her version goes a little something like this...
ABCDEF Cheese HIJKLMNOP etc...

Mother's Day

We spent part of the afternoon/evening attending a baptism for our niece Annie (Scott & Missy's youngest). 
On our way home we stopped for treats at Dairy Queen and headed to a nearby park.  We ate our treats and fed the fishies that were in the pond.  The girls want to go back to feed the fish some more food!
I had a nice relaxing day.  Brad and the girls gave me a family tree that you hang pictures on. 

 Erin was not cooperating for picture time.  She wanted to be by daddy and eat her ice cream treat!  I thought that this was a cute picture of Emmy & I.

Grandpa Harley's Birthday

The girls and I drove out to Willmar to visit Grandpa Harley for his birthday.  He is now at a new nursing home in Willmar.  It's a nice facility but he doesn't like change.  He was in good spirits and seemed to have a good memory that day.  He was asking all about my brother Bob.  He remembered that Bob lives in Dallas and was curious about how Bob was doing. 
Emmy and Erin brought their Great Grandpa Harley some treats for his birthday.  He loves Snickers and Hot Tamales.  The girls were glued to him the whole time just waiting for him to share his treats!  It was pretty cute. 
My cousin Cloey and her adorable baby Aubrey stopped by to visit with us too!  It was so nice to see them both.  We don't get to see each other enough!