dance moves

I can't say that I like the seeds that fall from our elm trees. The are everywhere. Park in the driveway for an hour and they cover the car. They are all over the deck. All over the table. All over the chairs. Ava and Zoe have a different outlook though...

They also wanted to show off some dance moves. Zoe loves to hulahula (in character with her shirt). Ava showed off some of her moves from her recital routine.

bike polo, a big cherry, and mud puddles

Before Memorial weekend, we went to Minneapolis to watch my brother Jer's bike polo tournament. We got there right before lunch and since he said he wouldn't be playing for 30 minutes, we decided to pick up some lunch and bring it to the meet, while we were gone, he texted me that they'd be up sooner than he thought, in 15 minutes, and as it turned out they were up even sooner and we missed it! We got back just as they finished :( It was still cool to watch the other people play. If you've never seen or heard of bike polo (I hadn't until Jer started playing) its pretty cool! Its kinda like street hockey on bikes. Jer sent me a link to a video one of the other minneapolis players made if you want to check it out. http://www.vimeo.com/5765080

Being that the tournament was across the street from the sculpture garden, we just had to walk over. The highlight was a big mud puddle in front of the cherry. :) I think they ran back and forth at least 50 times. Everything else was cool, but when I asked Ava what her favorite part was "The mud puddle!" was the obvious response. Below are some pics and a video of the fun.

cousins at the park

We met Aunt Kristen and cousins Gavin and Jaxon (and uncle Nathan too) at the park when they were in town for a visit. Hope its not too long before we see you again!

who needs toys?!

On the day I took this photo, Zoe came up to me with my sunglasses case on a takeout container lid and asked me, "Mommy, you want some cake? It hot though. You better be careful." We'd had the majority of our toys packed up at home since mid-April. That didn't stop Ava and Zoe from having fun. I think in the entire 6-7 weeks that they were all packed, I only heard Ava ask once for her Barbies. They both have wonderful imaginations and happily made do with whatever they found...like take out lids and sunglasses cases :)

big sky

Okay, these pictures are long overdue! Packing things up at home, cleaning and single parenting haven't left much time for getting my photos off my camera! We took the train out to see Jamie in Great Falls May 6th-11th. In hind sight I wish we'd gotten a sleeping car for the trip out there. We left Saint Cloud at 12:40 a.m. The girls fell right to sleep, but then were up again at 7 a.m. when people started moving around. With the lack of sleep we all had, the ride out there was too long! We got to Shelby, Montana at about 6 p.m. On the way home we left Shelby a little before noon and got back to Saint Cloud at about 6 a.m. The timing of the trip back went much smoother!

Ava is holding her ticket, excitedly waiting for her first train ride

We ate breakfast in the dining car

{{{BIG HUGS!!!}}}

We played some disc golf

Here we are on top of a hill that overlooks the city

We went into the mountains and Jamie fished a little.

Ava sent her first text to her daddy, telling him one more "i luv you daddy" She had a harder time saying goodbye this time. It took a lot of consoling and I was so glad this was the last time we'd have to say "goodbye"

The lounge car was great to get some play time in.

There was quite a bit of wiggling around before getting comfortable enough to fall asleep.