Swimming lessons.

We decided to try swimming lessons again for Abby and I am so glad we did. She is doing fantastic and absolutely loving it! We signed up for a summer camp class which was four days a week for two weeks. By the last day she was seriously swimming! She went under water two days in a row and grabbed rings that the teacher was holding under water. This child of mine, who had so much fear of going under water, now goes under water all on her own. She was ready. I am so glad we never forced her to finish the other classes she had. She has even asked to do more lessons. We signed her up for another camp and I look forward to seeing how much more she will do. I am so incredibly proud of her it has been awesome to see her eyes light up and the look of amazement on her face after she accomplishes something she thought she couldn't do. You go girl!

Biking and canoeing

Shawn has to work the night shift tonight and has been working a lot lately so he wanted to do something fun with the kids today. We decided to bike over to Lake Harriet, which is a couple of miles, and then go canoeing. Once we got to the lake and it was time to put the life jackets on Joe decided he absolutely did not want to go boating. I tried to get him to sit in the canoe but he refused. So we decided to sit on the shore and play in the sand while Shawn and Abby went out. Abby had a great time but only lasted about 10 minutes. Abby said she had a lot of fun but didn't want to do it anymore. Shawn ended up canoeing by himself for awhile and then we headed back home. I don't think it was quite the canoeing that Shawn had in mind but it was still a very nice afternoon.

Joe happy that he doesn't have to go canoeing.


Getting ready to take off.


Shawn and Abby out on the lake.



Checking out the ducks.


Watching dad come in.

Joe turned two.

My baby is two!!! We had the family over to celebrate and here are a few photos.

Dad and Joe enjoying their cake and ice cream.


The family.



This was probably Joe's favorite gift. I was trying to find him one like this and mentioned to my sister that I was having a hard time. The next day she called to see if I found one and I hadn't. She surprised us by giving Joe Tyler's (who is 16) hoop. The hoop is in great condition and they still had the original ball. Joe constantly asks to play and just loves it!



Family picture



Cousin Serena helping with a gift.



Grandma helping with a gift.


Joe diggin his new tractor.

Camping

We went camping in Brainerd last week and had a blast. Two other families were with us and the week just flew by so quickly. We were looking forward to a warm sun and swimming filled vacation but for some reason the weather in MN is acting as if it is October so we spent the week in jeans,sweatshirts and wind jackets but we still had a blast. The second day we were there we had flash flooding and Shawn and Abby were out biking in it. They got back to the camper and they looked like drowned rats! Poor Abby was pretty freaked not only from the torrential rain, and super strong winds, but the thunder was booming really loud. I don't think she will ever forget that ride. Mr Joe slept through the whole thing. The rain calmed down and then pounded again so we ended up going into town for dinner which was nice, except when Joe decided to use his straw to "bat" a piece of chicken across the table and over onto the people behind us - oops! Fortunately, we didn't have any more rain and Abby was able to enjoy the heated pool a few times, play at the park, ride around the camp ground and go fishing. She caught her first fish and was super excited. Here are a few pictures from the trip.


The kids piling up on eachother


Alayna doing Abby's hair, which she loved.


My gorgeous girl!


One afternoon we went to Crow Wing state park


Hanging out at the spot where the Crow Wing River and the Mississippi join.
Joe didn't want to get off Shawn's back initially. He eventually did and loved playing in the sand and water.




Here is the whole gang. The only missing one is Shadow. Oh and Max is hiding in there somewhere.


Shawn, Abby and Joe fishing.


Abby's first fish.


Abby getting ready to wash her hands after building a forest in the dirt.


Family


Here are some pictures from last years trip at the same campground.

A day at the lake

Last Sunday I brought the kids to the lake that my mom goes to on the weekends. We had a really nice time and it was so awesome to watch Abby have fun on all the "toys." She went out on the pontoon when we first got there, I didn't go because Joe was too scared, but I guess she thought that was a little boring. Afterwards, she went on a big floatie thing with grandma that was pulled behind the wave runner by grandpa. All I kept hearing was more, more, faster faster, I want to go over the big bumps and lots and lots of laughter. After that then she went on the wave runner with grandma and loved that too! It was just fantastic to see how much fun she was having especailly since last year she was too scared to do any of the "toys." We went back again a few days later, this time with dad, and once again Abby had a blast. This time I was able to convince Joe to go on the pontoon, at first he kept saying no boat, no boat, but then after awhile, when we would idle, he was saying more boat, more boat. It was a great time. Unfortunately, both days I forgot my camera.

Surprise party for Grandpa Ackerman

Last weekend we went to Fargo to surprise Grandpa Ackerman for his 60th birthday. He was very surprised as Shawn nearly gave him a heart attack when he jumped out from behind the door and yelled surprise as grandpa walked into the house.

Here is grandpa being very surprised!


Grandpa trying to recover - Joe is helping.






Family picture


Playing in the yard


Grandpa gave Abby and Joe a ride on his tractor. It started to rain so they didn't get to go very far but they still thought it was a blast.


Here is a picture from a few years ago with grandpa and Abby on the tractor.

Drawing

Abby is starting to show some interest in drawing. In the past she has just liked to scribble or draw circles over and over again on a piece of paper. Here is a picture of one of her recent drawings.

moths and butterflies

A few weeks ago I posted about a caterpillar that came home with Abby from her camping trip with Shawn. The caterpillar evolved into a little brown moth and we released it awhile ago. Abby also found a mourning cloak caterpillar on our front steps and we kept that as well. About three days ago we were looking in the jar and found the butterfly and so released it. Abby was excited to see it fly away but then got really sad. I don't think she realized how fast the butterfly would fly away as we barely could keep an eye on it before it was out of sight.







Joe loved to look at the jar and watch the caterpillar eating leaves. Once the caterpillar turned into the pupa he still loved to stare into the jar but I don't think he really "got" what happened to the caterpillar :)

Wizard of Oz

We went to see the play Wizard of Oz at a local children's theatre with some friends last week. We really enjoyed it and I think it was the first play that Abby completely followed along with it and understood what was going on. The last two we went to were a little abstract. The night before the play we read a short version of the book and then the next night I guess the movie was on t.v. I thought the movie would be too scary for her but according to Shawn she liked it, although she was in the bathtub for the monkey part. Poor Joe did not like it. At the play he kept saying out mom out mom, so we took breaks and walked around the lobby. He also did not like the movie - surprise surprise. I was a little peeved at Shawn when I found out he let Joe watch the monkey part. Shawn is a big scary movie junky and I think Abby will follow along in his footsteps but not Joe. He seems way more sensitive to the scary/startling things and gets very concerned. Oh yeah back to the Wizard of Oz, yesterday we got the soundtrack from the library and Abby and I enjoyed listening to it in the car and trying to figure out the words. We also picked up the 1970's movie of Charlotte's Web. I am really excited to watch it with her, now I just need to find someone to lend us a VCR.

Strawberry picking

It seems likely nearly everyone from this area has been posting about strawberries and strawberry picking and now it is my turn. Last Tuesday our family joined two other families for a morning of picking berries. We had a really nice time and the kids loved playing in the fields of wildflowers. Joe stayed really close to me which was nice as I wasn't sure how it would go this year with him being mobile. Last year he was on my back in the ergo or sat right next to me as I picked. We came home with about 10 pounds of berries. I froze a whole bunch and also made some yummy GF biscuits for strawberry shortcake, it was super yummy!


Joe really liked the chickens. One jumped out of the pen and it nearly scared him to death.



Abby was mad at me for taking this picture- I didn't realize that she had to go to the bathroom really bad!


Here are some pictures from last years strawberry picking day.





Here are a few pictures of Abby when she was two. We were berry picking in Texas with our friends Deb and Alex. I can't believe how little she was!