How the days of summer were spent

Well Summer has come to and end and here are some shots of how our summer days were spent. The boys had fun Playing with Caroline. I had Monday's off and we got some longer weekends together, which was a treat. It was a good summer all in all. Caleb is ready to start 6th grade at Central Middle School and Silas is ready to start Pre-School in the 4 year old room at Discovery Days.

The boys headed to MN with Grandpa and Grandma Hoffman

First week of Aug! All four boys went to Minnesota with Chris' Mom and Dad. They drove 10 hours north to their cabin. The boys love it up there and this year they got to go with their other two cousins as well. Grandpa and Grandma took two cars and six kids. They fished, drove the four wheelers, went to the lodge down the road and played video games,played in the sand, went to turtle races, water parks and had fun just hanging together.

Grandpa and Grandma had their four wheelers up there for them so they got to get around and have fun. They made a sand park in the back of their lot and made motes and tunnels and played for hours back there. Fish were caught and they even got to go tubing and managed to push each other in off the dock. :)

Chris and I drove up to bring them home the following Fri and stayed until Monday. We stopped half way on the way up. I liked that better then doing the whole trip at once. We took Chris' brother CC and wife Rhonda, with us to Minneapolis. Chris Dad Ron, met us the next morning with CC's girls. They drove back to Iowa and we took Ron up to the cabin which is near Bemijee to see the boys. They were excited to see us after being apart seven days. No one got home sick (except mom and Dad) so that was good (we were missed but no tears).

When we got there the boys couldn't wait to take me on a four wheeler ride. We did that and went to the lodge in the evenings to watch the Olympics and hang out. We spent an afternoon at the beach and had fun burying the boys in the sand!

Silas and Seth Kyle and Caleb

Seth's turned 7 the next week so one night we celebrated his birthday as well. He loves to keep and collect THINGS, including rocks. Grandpa and Grandma gave him a huge bag of rocks, big small, shiny rocks. He even got a large GEOD. He was thrilled!

On the way home we made it straight through in 10.5 hours. The boys do really travel well. We are blessed in that way. Everyone had a blast. Thank you Grandpa and Grandma!

Cousin dinner

July 26th Jeff lined up a dinner for the Schneiter Cousins ( the ones that live in Monticello still) to get together with the Hanssen Cousins. We met in Hail, Iowa at a supper club. It is a very small town near Olin. We thought it was half way but much closer to Monti. Anyway, we had a lot of fun, lots of stories and good food. We closed down the place and probably ran everyone out to the dinning room by our laughing. It was fun to catch up and see each other again.

Silas check up

July 22nd Silas had to go to Iowa City to the Urologist for a follow up visit. He checked out all fine. He was going to need to pee in a cup so I tried to prepare him ahead of time the night before about having to hold his pee pee's for a while so he would have to go when he got to the docotors office. He was ok with that as long as they weren't going to poke his arm(draw blood). He woke up that morning and I asked if he had to go to the bath room. I told him he could use the bathroom on the main floor since we were by the kitchen. He said no I need to go at the doctor's office, he had to repeat him self three times in order for me to figure out what he was saying. I laughed and told him he could go now and then later he would have to go again and then that would be at the doctors office. As he proceeded to sit down and go, he had to tell me that if he drank a lot a lot a lot of milk, and a lot a lot a lot of sunny d and alot a lot a lot of water it would all go down through to his belly and then he would have to potty again and he would hold it until he got to the doctors office. I thought that whole scenario was funny and so cute. He was so willing to do what needed to be done and try to understand it all. Everything went fine. As we were checking in at the clinic he was doing his little dance and they let us do the pee test right away. Successful!

Learning to do plumbing

Well, the boys had a plumbing lesson. We had a backed up drain and had to fix it. After getting everything cleaned up before Dad got home( the water), then the boys got to learn how we do our own plumbing jobs. This is learned by experience. Don't put potato skins down the garbage disposal. Here is Kyle doing some handy man work!

Caleb takes life saving class

July 21st Caleb started a jump start Life Saving class at the Y. It was four days from 12:00 -4pm. He enjoyed it and learned a lot. They did book and pool lessons. His high point was learning how to use the AED (automatic external Defibrillator) machine. He is growing up on me! He can't actually take the life saving class for a few more years but we figured this would hurt any since we around water so much during the summer. He did learn a lot.

Off to Sigourney

The next weekend July 19th we took off for Sigourney. After numerous home improvement projects Chris was ready to leave home for the weekend and we had a wedding to attend for Greg and Diane's daughter. Dancing was on the agenda so everyone was excited. Saturday we left and made it to the farm. We made it to the wedding and the reception. Fun was had by all and Theresa was a beautiful Bride. It was a gorgeous wedding. The next day Caleb got to play pitch with Grandma Aller, Great,Great Aunt Nadine, and Donna Jean. It was a relaxing weekend for the boys and I. Chris worked his but off helping CC and Rhonda roof their new addition to their house. It was very hot but they got a lot done. We headed home late that night.