How could I forget?

My Dad had a birthday on Monday.

He is Grandpa and Father extraordinaire.

He also won the annual Jordison poker game.

Very talented man.

Love you and thanks for everything.

a few more trip pics

We spent a few days at my parents house. Aidan loved playing with Charlie, I don't know that the feeling is mutual. However, for the first time ever Charlie slept in the same room as Aidan. Usually Aidan tries to force Charlie to sleep in his room and Charlie endures for a few minutes and then whines at the door until we set him free. This year they must have come to some kind of understanding, or maybe Charlie is just getting too old and tired to put up a fuss. Regardless, Aidan was thrilled to wake up one morning and find Charlie was still on the foot of his bed. And yes, these photos make me want to buy Aidan a dog.

My Mom and Dad put us to work. Aidan hauled about 25 bags of mulch and apparently acquired some huge muscles while doing so.

Enjoying a well-deserved break from Aidan.

On a jet plane

That's right. This morning Aidan and I caught the red-eye out of Minneapolis, (thanks for the 4 am ride James!) and before lunch time we will be here.

Well, maybe not here, but very close.

We are going to see Jacob and Kate, (my brother and his wife) for a week. We have many plans of places we want to go and see if the heat wave breaks, otherwise we will just be here. We have had a lot going on of late and I have to admit I am fine if we never leave the ocean . But if we do, we are going to take Aidan to see NYC and the Statue of Liberty. He has been learning about her at school and can tell you all about her in Chinese.

So stay tuned! I did put a few blogposts on "autopublish" and maybe I will even find a chance to blog from CT.

Now, where was I..................?

Father's Day

I have a great one.

So does James.

and Aidan is a pretty lucky little boy too.

Thank you.

Late again

Two weeks ago Aidan had some time off school and my Dad was scheduled to be in Iowa so we met in Fort Dodge and spent some time with the Grandma's. I failed to take very many pictures.... but the ones I did take are priceless.

Here we are playing a fast paced game of tic-tac-toe.

Yep- that's how my Dad was dressed.

We had some "craft time" too.

And as you can see, I get my creativity from both sides of the family. (To be fair the only reason my Dad is weaving a bracelet is because we bet him he couldn't) Apparently my competitiveness runs in the family too.

And here is Aidan with a bracelet he made for his teacher. He is learning fast that women respond to jewelry, because upon receiving the bracelet, she offered to take him out on a date and get some ice cream.

Smart kid!

For Honey Bear

Here is a little message for Grandma Jordison, a.k.a Honey Bear. She is in a hospital out in Colorado right now and unlike previous years when we could just pack up and go, someone has school, so instead we are sending her a little message.

We love you Grandma, hope you are able to come home soon.






XOXO

And yes, I know it is sideways. Just tilt your head and watch it, and when it is finished tilt to the other side for a few seconds so you can have some balanced stretching.

Catching up

I have had "write new blog post" on my to-do list for the past few weeks.

The problem is I am so behind on my blogging I don't know which stories to skip or which stories to tell so I just freeze.

(here is a picture of Charlie, who came with my folks for a visit a few weeks ago. This is one of his new favorite spots in the house! Isn't he such a pretty dog? Even though my parents were here for 4 days I only have about 5 pictures of the entire weekend!)

The good news is, for those of you who care, my mom and Christa have been taking up the slack. Christa posted yet another time about what we did a few weekends before. Thanks to her I am getting caught up. Hee Hee. Thanks Christa.

(No- we don't look alike!)

My mom did a great lefse post as well, but she forgot a few photos that I just happened to find on my camera. I kindly uploaded them for your viewing pleasure.

I also have only one photo of our day with Kahls. You can see what Jane, (a.k.a Kitty Grandma was thankful for this year!



Stay tuned for more!

A sneak pic

A few weeks ago Kim, a friend and photographer, took some family photos of us.

And I must admit after all the dramatics I ended up wearing a black dress I have had in my closet for years.

Anyway - the point of this post is to tell you you can see a sneak peak of the pictures on her blog. I have to admit, while I love the photos of Aidan, I am not too enamoured with the photos of myself and James - I guess the truth is painful sometimes. Wrinkles? Big white bare arms? Eeww. I guess in my mind I had imagined we would be transformed into models, but alas all we have is a picture of ourselves.

She shot tons of photos, so hopefully we will be getting a disc with all the photos sometime next month and then my apologies to all of you blog-reading relatives out there, but our family photos might be under your tree in a few weeks!

Another dilemma???

So we are having family photos taken next weekend by this talented lady.

They will be our first official photos since Aidan was a baby. (No one even saw the other ones as they were really U-G-L-Y and I was in the hideous stage of dying my hair dark brown. Why didn't anyone tell me how awful that hair color looked?!?!)

Anyway, I am trying to decide what on earth we should wear! It probably sounds self centered, but as James and Aidan look great no matter what they wear, I feel like I need to pick my clothes first, and then coordinate them to me. Although I hate being overly matchy-matchy......... But since this is probably the last photo we will do for a few years, (and since it will be a Christmas gift for all our relatives) I want us to look nice. We are going to be shooting at an old abandoned barn, so I am thinking (for me) dress, boots and a denim jacket. But finding

the perfect dress is much harder than I thought it would be! (And no James, it is not already hanging in my closet, because I asked you what you like the most on me and you came up with nothing.

Has anyone seen any cute dresses lately? I was thinking maybe something like this.

or this

Or maybe I should ask her to only take head shots..... that would eliminate all our problems.

No wonder we can only do this once every five years.

One last hike.......

..........one last vacation post.

James, my dad and I took a little hike while my mom and Aidan played endless games of UNO. Aidan fell ill while were traveling, so not only did she watch the sick boy, she also missed out on a beautiful hike.

Maybe next time.

Val's Visit

Hmmmm...... already a week has past and I have barely had time to sit at the computer. This week all the blueberries and cherries I ordered from a local orchard arrived, so I have been been busy canning jams and freezing berries for use this winter! We also are getting ready to leave for a week, so I am trying to keep up with laundry/yardwork etc, while I am packing and shopping for the trip. I could really use a few more hours in my day.

Anyway, we had a delightful visit with Val and friends, and we spent a few days wandering aimlessly around the Cities. You would be proud - for all the great shops we visited none of us really spent any money. We tried, but there was always someone around to talk you out of your purchase.

We enjoyed a lovely lunch here. Our table spent most of the meal "oohing and aahhing" over each other's food and its presentation, all of which was amazing! Definitely a "must eat!" And for sure a place I plan to revisit.

I took lots of pictures, but thanks to some glitch with our Microsoft upgrade I can't rearrange them without major headache. So they are out of order and that is how they are going to stay.

He really is a good little shopper.

He wanted to buy these for James but I told him "Daddy would think the picture was just as funny!"

We did buy a bag of marbles at the Essence of Nonsense. It is one of the all-time greatest toy stores ever. Although I may regret my decision to buy the marbles. We have played nonstop all week, and I keep stepping on stray marbles on my way through the living room.

One of my favorite little shops. Again - we walked away empty-handed! Pretty amazing!

Eating lunch at Blondies.

Fun in the fabric store

Val talking Barb out of some fabric... that I had just tried to talk Barb into buying!