Jonny Boy's Visit from AZ

Last week our nephew Jonathan (who will be 13 next month!) came out to visit us from AZ - on his first ever plane ride on his own! He made it to us safe and sound, and we hit the ground running with a trip for pizza to Joey Nova's & then a walk around Lake Excelsior. Nate got to take a lot of time off, so we seriously had something going every day - which was really nice because the "bored" moments were very few for Jon :). The list of things included: backyard bonfire, Mall of America (lego land & rode the Sponge Bob roller coaster), darts & ladder ball, playing with a buddy he met last time he was here, going to work with Nate, Valleyfair (amusement park), his 1st pro-baseball game seeing the Twins, making chicken wings & fries from scratch with Nate (Jonny tore up the kitchen!), catching his 1st fish, swimming at our friends pool, dinner at Burger Jones (ate his 1st cheese curds there) & breakfast at donuts at Yo-yo Donuts ... phew! We couldn't believe it when the Saturday for him to leave had come, the week really flew by. But I think 1 week was perfect. I'm happy he didn't leave bored out of his gourd or looney because of all the questions Sophie & Chason would ask him every 2 minutes "hey Jonny...", "Jonny look at this...", "whatchya doin' Jonny??" haha! They really had fun with their cousin. And the crazy thing is the week he was here we had a couple days with like 106 degree weather & it was in the 70's in Mesa - go figure :). Thanks Mom & Dad for sending him out to be with us, it was great - we sure love you Jon and miss you already! (Here are some pics in random order - still haven't figured out how to move pics around without deleting others & it's been almost 2 years i've been blogging, lol!).

Dad's wonderful 2 week visit

We really did have such a wonderful time with my dad when he came to visit us from CA the end of May. You would think 2 weeks is a long time, but my dad is seriously the most fabulous, hands-on, helpful "Grampy" there is. (For those who don't know, he was in MD when Cal was born 2 and a half weeks early, and he kept Sophie & Chason for the entire 2 days we were in the hospital. Seriously AMAZING!).

We certainly stayed busy while he was here. We had 3 birthday celebrations, including his own the day he arrived, of course we did Mall of America, Church picnic, lots of walks to the lake near our house, bonfire's out back. The kids LOVED to "jog" with him - when he's here he runs 7-9 miles every other day - Sophie actually went 2 miles with him! We went fishing, went shopping, played in the pool out back, went to the Zoo, went to a local baseball game and he even watched the kids over night so Nate & I could have a little 24 hour get-away! I am so grateful to the Lord for how he has grown and deepened our relationship with dad over the years. Fun times, great conversations and sweet memories made - thanks to his new bride Stephanie for giving him up for 2 weeks! We love you dad & thank God for the gift that you are to us! Here are some pictures from our adventures: