This last weekend we had the pleasure of hosting Chris, Minelle, & Jackson in the great state of Missoura. They got here on Thursday, and we didn't slow down the entire time they were here. We went on several walks with the dogs & Jackson, worked out, ran, golfed, played racquetball, visited a well known butcher shop, checked out our farmers market, got some coffee (go figure), hit a school-wide garage sale and hiked at 1000 Hills. All in ~48 hours! That's why we love having them visit!
Jackson was an absolute blast (95% of the time). He has really grown up a lot, using words, and running NON STOP. He loved to play with Linus, and even got close enough to tackle him a couple of times. Michelle has a great picture of that one on her blog. Linus really put up with a lot, yet wouldn't leave Jackson's side; or maybe it was just all the food he dropped...:)
On Saturday we headed to Cedar Rapids to celebrate my cousin Teri & Jim's wedding a month earlier. It was great to see most of Mom's side of the family, as well as Mom & Dad. I think they were all surprised when we showed up with Chris & Shell at the Legion. We did end up driving back Saturday night, and got home around 1:00am. Sunday I went golfing with a couple of professors (in a 35 mph wind), then ran into work for the rest of the evening.
All in all a very busy weekend (as usual), but we enjoyed EVERY minute of it!
Sunday, Lucy was barking at the back door and Mara went to check it out. Turns out a bunny came within a few feet of the back door and Lucy was almost breaking it down to get to it. She got a great picture of Lucy just staring at the bunny. For those who know Lucy's bunny habit, we're lucky she didn't go right through the door to get to it! Good thing we had the full door closed, because she would have wrecked the screen door!
I should explain the ET joke that Michelle mentioned on her blog. We were at Wal-Mart when we saw a lady pushing a cart with a kind covered in a blanket. This wasn't a toddler, but more of a ~5-6 year old I was guessing. I said "Look it's ET", from when he was riding in the basket in the movie. I thought it was hilarious. Turns out the kid was "special" and I ended up looking like a complete @$$. Par for the course...:)
Monday, June 30, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Wonderful, Busy, & Relaxing
That about sums up our weekend, funny how busy and relaxing make it in the same sentence...we're crazy like that:)
On Friday Mike played in a best ball golf tournament with a professor and another graduate student. They had a great round and finished 2nd! While Mike was busy in the hot sun, I enjoyed reading an entire book (for pleasure) while sipping iced coffee at the coffee shop, it was terrific. In the evening, we headed over to our friends Deana & Jim's to grill out and hangout with them and their 3 girls. The girls are 5, 7, & 9 and were a ton of fun, I think I was more tired at the end of the night than them!
Saturday we got up and hit some rummage sales, very interesting what constitutes a rummage sale to some people...but I don't doubt that someone would buy it. We drove all over Kirksville in just over an hour and then headed to the farmer's market. We were really looking for some corn on the cob but due the rain practically drowning everything there hasn't been any yet, but the peas, zucchini, and tomatoes were excellent! We came home, grabbed a quick snack then headed out to Thousand Hills State Park for a couple hours of kayaking fun. It was beautiful out on the lake and we even beached the kayaks and went for a swim. By the time we made it back to the docks our arms and abs were tired. We came home, grilled up some supper and proceeded to pass out for 2 hours, I think the sun caught up to us. The rest of the evening was pretty relaxing and we capped it off with a 5 mile walk with the dogs at 10pm once the humidity/heat had gone down.
Sunday Mike got up early and went into work for a few hours, but after that we went to the driving range (our shoulders were still sore from kayaking), then we headed to Josh & Debora's for dinner while Grandma/Grandpa Hansen were there. We had a great dinner (as always) with Josh manning the grill. Thomas amazes us every time with his growth & personality. He's such a flirt!
Overall, a pretty great weekend! We have rain forecasted for the next few days so it was good we could enjoy the outdoors while we could. Thursday the Stokes' are coming to visit, so we'll get to see Chris & Shell and marvel at how big Jackson is since the last time we saw him. We've already started to baby proof the house in preparation for his arrival.
On Friday Mike played in a best ball golf tournament with a professor and another graduate student. They had a great round and finished 2nd! While Mike was busy in the hot sun, I enjoyed reading an entire book (for pleasure) while sipping iced coffee at the coffee shop, it was terrific. In the evening, we headed over to our friends Deana & Jim's to grill out and hangout with them and their 3 girls. The girls are 5, 7, & 9 and were a ton of fun, I think I was more tired at the end of the night than them!
Saturday we got up and hit some rummage sales, very interesting what constitutes a rummage sale to some people...but I don't doubt that someone would buy it. We drove all over Kirksville in just over an hour and then headed to the farmer's market. We were really looking for some corn on the cob but due the rain practically drowning everything there hasn't been any yet, but the peas, zucchini, and tomatoes were excellent! We came home, grabbed a quick snack then headed out to Thousand Hills State Park for a couple hours of kayaking fun. It was beautiful out on the lake and we even beached the kayaks and went for a swim. By the time we made it back to the docks our arms and abs were tired. We came home, grilled up some supper and proceeded to pass out for 2 hours, I think the sun caught up to us. The rest of the evening was pretty relaxing and we capped it off with a 5 mile walk with the dogs at 10pm once the humidity/heat had gone down.
Sunday Mike got up early and went into work for a few hours, but after that we went to the driving range (our shoulders were still sore from kayaking), then we headed to Josh & Debora's for dinner while Grandma/Grandpa Hansen were there. We had a great dinner (as always) with Josh manning the grill. Thomas amazes us every time with his growth & personality. He's such a flirt!
Overall, a pretty great weekend! We have rain forecasted for the next few days so it was good we could enjoy the outdoors while we could. Thursday the Stokes' are coming to visit, so we'll get to see Chris & Shell and marvel at how big Jackson is since the last time we saw him. We've already started to baby proof the house in preparation for his arrival.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Never Felt So Good To Be Poor!
After 26 LONG months on the market we FINALLY sold our house in Milwaukee! What a frickin' time it's been! If you remember last year we thought we had it sold (BLOG POST), but the couple ended up living at our house for 3 weeks, stiffing us on the rent, and then we had to take them to court. Good Times! There have been several offers over the last few months, but the last one was good enough for us to say "We'd love to lose $28,511.47 to get rid of the house!"
It was fun to have the house, but with our schedule the next 5 years or so, we probably won't buy again for a while. We'll miss the painting projects and upgrades we could do, but renting for now will be quite a relief!
Let's look back on one of our favorite moments at the house...CSI Milwaukee. If we didn't have fun with it, we may have killed our dogs that night...
Puppy Friends
Since we were already watching our friend John's dog Camilla we figured, why not add a couple more!?!?
Last Friday we went on a walk with the 3 dogs (Camilla, Linus & Lucy) and came across our neighbor walking his 3 Pomeranian, when a Jack Russel Terrier came running towards us. He said this dog had been following him for over an hour. Since he headed home, the Terrier (Jack) came with us. We walked to the police station, but animal control doesn't work after hours (this is Kirksville remember). They suggested letting the dog go and hope it gets back home, but judging by Jack's fearlessness when it came to cars, we opted to take him home and drop him off at the Humane Society the next day. Jack spent the night in the garage, but we let him play with our dogs for a few hours. When we took him to the Humane Society the owners had already called and would be there to pick him up later that morning.
THEN...on Monday we went for a jog with the dogs, and came across someone who had found ~9 month old German Shepard (Olga). She was SUCH a fun dog; huge, but fun. The lady wasn't sure what to do with her, so we took her back with us (again) and she stayed the night in the garage, but we let her play with our dogs for a while too...:) Mara took her to the Humane Society the next morning and the owners had also called about her, so she should be back home too! Maybe we should start a dog rescue....:)
The Humane Society did have a newer litter of 12 labs, another with 8 Australian Shepards, and some other mixed breeds that were SO CUTE! But since we just had 3 different dogs, we realized another would be one too many for us. We are happy with our little neurotic puppies...:)
Enjoy the pictures!
Last Friday we went on a walk with the 3 dogs (Camilla, Linus & Lucy) and came across our neighbor walking his 3 Pomeranian, when a Jack Russel Terrier came running towards us. He said this dog had been following him for over an hour. Since he headed home, the Terrier (Jack) came with us. We walked to the police station, but animal control doesn't work after hours (this is Kirksville remember). They suggested letting the dog go and hope it gets back home, but judging by Jack's fearlessness when it came to cars, we opted to take him home and drop him off at the Humane Society the next day. Jack spent the night in the garage, but we let him play with our dogs for a few hours. When we took him to the Humane Society the owners had already called and would be there to pick him up later that morning.
THEN...on Monday we went for a jog with the dogs, and came across someone who had found ~9 month old German Shepard (Olga). She was SUCH a fun dog; huge, but fun. The lady wasn't sure what to do with her, so we took her back with us (again) and she stayed the night in the garage, but we let her play with our dogs for a while too...:) Mara took her to the Humane Society the next morning and the owners had also called about her, so she should be back home too! Maybe we should start a dog rescue....:)
The Humane Society did have a newer litter of 12 labs, another with 8 Australian Shepards, and some other mixed breeds that were SO CUTE! But since we just had 3 different dogs, we realized another would be one too many for us. We are happy with our little neurotic puppies...:)
Enjoy the pictures!
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Elk Rock State Park
Last weekend we joined our camping buddies (Allison, Nate, & Rob) for a relaxing weekend filled with storms, heats, and of course, dogs. Timmy Pizza couldn't come because he was living it up for a friend's 30th birthday so we don't have any video of Tim being a spectacle.
The weather was SO unpredictable. On our way there we passed a small town called Attica which must have been hit by a tornado the week before. ALL of main street was littered with pieces of houses, sheds, etc. We saw a HUGE grain bin that had been carried right next to the road, and somehow missed cutting the power lines a few feet above it! Crazy!
The weather called for sporadic storms, but we never really got anything until it dumped on us Sunday morning. It did clear up long enough to pack though, so it worked out nicely.
We spent most of the time playing the bag toss game, bocce ball, hiking, and trying to find a place to swim. With everything flooded in IA, it was hard to even find a boat ramp that was open. We ended up taking Rob's boat out with Lucy & Jake (Rob's 10 month old Lab). We had them swimming all over, even in the open water. Nate tossed Lucy in, but I think it felt pretty good since it was so muggy & hot. We found a nice place to dock the boat and get in the water. It was a road that had been flooded out! The depth finder on the boat said the road was 9 feet below us! Pretty crazy flooding in IA.
Rob hooked us up with breakfast Saturday morning. It was an all star skillet with sausage, egg, potatoes, and secret hobo spices. It was awesome! We supplied meat for the grill, Allison made pudgy pies, and Nate brought the booze. Good times!
We went on one hike since the trails were so muddy and it was so hot. Lucy (of course) found a mud hole to lay in, but she topped it off by taking her and Jake over the edge of a steep bank into the lake! They couldn't get out so Rob and I tried to find a way down, but Nate and Mara ended up getting them close enough to the top they could drag them up. Typical Lucy...
It was great to get outdoor and Allison was such a trooper (5 months pregnant) and it's always great to see Nate & Rob. We capped the weekend off with a greasy spoon diner like we always do. We even saw a couple celebrating their 50th anniversary...at a greasy spoon? Not my idea of a celebration breakfast...
Sorry it took so long to post these pictures!
The weather was SO unpredictable. On our way there we passed a small town called Attica which must have been hit by a tornado the week before. ALL of main street was littered with pieces of houses, sheds, etc. We saw a HUGE grain bin that had been carried right next to the road, and somehow missed cutting the power lines a few feet above it! Crazy!
The weather called for sporadic storms, but we never really got anything until it dumped on us Sunday morning. It did clear up long enough to pack though, so it worked out nicely.
We spent most of the time playing the bag toss game, bocce ball, hiking, and trying to find a place to swim. With everything flooded in IA, it was hard to even find a boat ramp that was open. We ended up taking Rob's boat out with Lucy & Jake (Rob's 10 month old Lab). We had them swimming all over, even in the open water. Nate tossed Lucy in, but I think it felt pretty good since it was so muggy & hot. We found a nice place to dock the boat and get in the water. It was a road that had been flooded out! The depth finder on the boat said the road was 9 feet below us! Pretty crazy flooding in IA.
Rob hooked us up with breakfast Saturday morning. It was an all star skillet with sausage, egg, potatoes, and secret hobo spices. It was awesome! We supplied meat for the grill, Allison made pudgy pies, and Nate brought the booze. Good times!
We went on one hike since the trails were so muddy and it was so hot. Lucy (of course) found a mud hole to lay in, but she topped it off by taking her and Jake over the edge of a steep bank into the lake! They couldn't get out so Rob and I tried to find a way down, but Nate and Mara ended up getting them close enough to the top they could drag them up. Typical Lucy...
It was great to get outdoor and Allison was such a trooper (5 months pregnant) and it's always great to see Nate & Rob. We capped the weekend off with a greasy spoon diner like we always do. We even saw a couple celebrating their 50th anniversary...at a greasy spoon? Not my idea of a celebration breakfast...
Sorry it took so long to post these pictures!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Mudslide Hiking
We took some time in between rain showers to hike out at Thousand Hills last weekend. It has been very wet here, and with the clay soil, most of it was runoff, but some stayed on the trails to make a slippery, wet, mud trail. But it was nice to be out of the house, and definitely good for the dogs to get cooled of in Forest Lake!
Linus did what Linus does best, entertainment. We had come up to a slight runoff area and we were trying to decide the least muddy way to cross. Linus had been distracted back on the trail (as usual) and was running to catch up and pass us. He thought the runoff area was much shallower than it was, and ended up hydroplaning on his face for about 4 feet. We seriously almost pissed ourselves, it was so funny. We didn't even hear him coming so it was completely out of the blue! There are some good "after" pictures of the scene. Note the area at the end of the long puddle, you can almost see where his face stopped on the bank...:)
We capped the nice day/night off with a fire in our fire pit. Mara was playing with the exposure time and got some really cool pictures of the sparks from the fire. If this whole "Dr." thing doesn't work out, she can be a photographer instead!
Linus did what Linus does best, entertainment. We had come up to a slight runoff area and we were trying to decide the least muddy way to cross. Linus had been distracted back on the trail (as usual) and was running to catch up and pass us. He thought the runoff area was much shallower than it was, and ended up hydroplaning on his face for about 4 feet. We seriously almost pissed ourselves, it was so funny. We didn't even hear him coming so it was completely out of the blue! There are some good "after" pictures of the scene. Note the area at the end of the long puddle, you can almost see where his face stopped on the bank...:)
We capped the nice day/night off with a fire in our fire pit. Mara was playing with the exposure time and got some really cool pictures of the sparks from the fire. If this whole "Dr." thing doesn't work out, she can be a photographer instead!
New Addition!
Well, we have another "kid" to add to the chaos; at least temporarily...
Meet Camilla; a feisty 5 pound Pomeranian. A friend of ours left town for his preceptorship last Monday so we offered to watch his dog since the kennel he was supposed to take her to suddenly went MIA and no one could get a hold of them to drop her off.
She'll be with us through Friday, so until then, Linus & Lucy will be more neurotic than usual (why does it seem we say that a lot?)
Meet Camilla; a feisty 5 pound Pomeranian. A friend of ours left town for his preceptorship last Monday so we offered to watch his dog since the kennel he was supposed to take her to suddenly went MIA and no one could get a hold of them to drop her off.
She'll be with us through Friday, so until then, Linus & Lucy will be more neurotic than usual (why does it seem we say that a lot?)
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Happy Birthday Kaylee!
Sorry Kaylee, you're Uncle Mike is an idiot. I accidentally deleted the post Mara had for Kaylee's 7th birthday...:(
Hope you had a great birthday, with lot of presents & cake!
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Happy 27th Birthday Sally!
Happy birthday to you-u!I hope you had a wonderful birthday! I can hardly believe you're 27 (especially since that means I'm older...), seriously wasn't it just yesterday we were kids:)
Baby birds
For few weeks in May, Mike & I enjoyed watching a family of robins. It was pretty fun to peek and see how many feathers appeared each day on the three babies. One day during finals (I know it took me a while to post it) one of the birds fell out of the nest and Linus alerted me to it by pushing it around with his nose. I called and told Mike and he said "Pick it up and put it back", um easier said than done when you despise/fear birds (I blame it on the dive-bombing sparrows as a kid). But I got out some garden gloves and picked the bird up and put it back in the nest. Within a day or two Mike & I were watching as it jumped and attempted to fly, the other two birds lasted another three days before they tried flying.
I took a bunch of pictures of the family, enjoy
These are especially for Shell & Holly as they have a soft spot for animals and birds.
I took a bunch of pictures of the family, enjoy
These are especially for Shell & Holly as they have a soft spot for animals and birds.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Thomas Time
Debora was gracious enough to let me come and spend the day with her and Thomas last week. I had a wonderful time and enjoyed the conversation and of course the snuggle time with one of our super cute nephews. Josh came home for a quick lunch of lemon-y chicken, it was delicious!
Debora & I agreed for my next visit we would plan some fun cooking, I can't wait. Maybe I can get her to teach me a few Portuguese dishes.
Thomas was such a great baby, even took a nap on my shoulder, too cute:)
Here are a few of the pictures of Thomas making faces, can't wait until he can talk and tell us what he's thinking.
Debora & I agreed for my next visit we would plan some fun cooking, I can't wait. Maybe I can get her to teach me a few Portuguese dishes.
Thomas was such a great baby, even took a nap on my shoulder, too cute:)
Here are a few of the pictures of Thomas making faces, can't wait until he can talk and tell us what he's thinking.
Happy 30th Birthday!
Happy birthday supertwins Mike & Michele!Um, sorry about the insanely old picture, I couldn't find a newer one of the two of you together, okay I probably could but it wouldn't have been as funny:) Wasn't this a birthday?
Michele I hope you are having an awesome birthday and that you get to spend some time with your boys & the girls.
Mike will hopefully be done with work by 6 and then we can relax and enjoy some Connecticut Beef (one of Mike's favorites) and maybe some wine.
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