Fall Fun (snow included)

While I'm sure most people did not enjoy it, the girls had a blast playing in the snow yesterday! They weren't quite sure what this crazy white stuff covering their little car was, but eventually got the jist of it and were running around squealing and saying, "Snow!"

Another recent discovery the girls enjoy that most people don't: washing dishes! We pull some chairs up to the sink, add warm soapy water, a few plastic dishes and they have a blast for a good 20 minutes. The girls love playing with the water (and the spray hose) and I love anything that holds their attention for that long.

I've also discovered that Claire is NOT a morning person. Lately, when she wakes up, she has to gather up everything in her crib before she'll let me take her out of it. This is how we ended up with Elmo, gorilla, puppy, and two blankets in our high chair the other morning.
We've also been having fun on little trips. A few weekends ago, we took a trip to Emma Krumbee's (about an hour away), where we looked at scarecrows, walked a rope maze, jumped in hay, rode tricycles, took a hay ride, and went down the big green slide. Here's Abby and I post-slide. Lots of fun!

Ryan and I also took a trip without the girls to Mt Horeb, WI, Troll Capital of the World! It was the weekend of their annual fall festival, so there were food and craft vendors all over. We also got to check out their famous mustard museum. Who knew mustard was so darn exciting?
It's been a blast running around and getting all our energy out before winter hibernation set in. Wake me when it stops snowing!!

September Softball and Scrappin'

We are trying to squeeze as much fun as we can into these last few remaining summer days! Ryan is on a softball team now (that's him catching above), so we began the fun by going to one of his games. Luckily, Ryan happens to be on this team with Grandpa Rich and Uncle Andy, so we got to see them play, too, AND hang out with Grandma Gwen, Cousin Matilda, Aunt Stephanie, and Cousin Alex during the game.
Grandma Gwen brought us some delicious raspberries from her yard - yum! We also loved running in the empty soccer field with Alex. So adorable!
We then took yet another trip to the MN Zoo (we are trying to use our membership as much as humanly possible). The girls rode the monorail for the first time ever and had a great time seeing the animals from this new perspective. And this past weekend was my personal favorite September event: Scrapbooking in Wabeno! I joined my friend Amanda, her mom Lynn, her sister Teri, and about 14 other wonderful women for a girls weekend away. We stayed at The Crystal Bell Inn & Spa in Wabeno and had a marvelous time relaxing, pampering, and of course, scrapbooking. I mean, seriously,

look at how much fun we're having! It was awesome and a great break from taking care of the girls (poor Ryan had them all weekend, but don't worry - he survived). I even made a scrapbook of the girls' first year, which I'm glad to finally have. Only 361 more days until Wabeno 2010 - I can't wait!

Summer Fun, Happened So Fast

Why hello there! Hope you have all been having a great summer. We sure have! Here's a bit of what we've been up to since my last post:

For a week over July 4th, the Campbell Family headed to my aunt's cabin near Birchwood, WI. It was SO much fun! We got to hang out, read, play, boat, swim, and all kinds of fun stuff. My sister's blog has a great post about it, but here are also a couple of pics.

We loved spending so much time with Grandpa, Grandma, Great Aunt Pat (above with Claire), Aunt Jill, Uncle Jason, Uncle Greg and especially Cousin Lily! Here Lily is below on the pontoon boat......and with Grandpa, watching Ryan and Greg set off fireworks for us. It was a great time, and hopefully the first of many annual family trips to the cabin together!

Next, we went to National Night Out in the beginning of August in these cute dresses our neighbors Jon and Katie got us. They have twins, too, AND a 1-year-old, so they are busy people.
Also in August, we got to go to two big celebrations in one weekend. First, my Aunt Joy and Uncle Joe celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary! That's them below at their wedding, 50 years ago.

We all got together at their daughter Kim and her husband Larry's beautiful house to celebrate. There was delicious food to eat, pictures to look at, many people to talk to, and polish golf for Claire, Abby, and Lily to play.
The girls and I then headed to the Woyaks for a sleepover playdate. There wasn't much playing for the little ones when we got there because they all went to bed, but the growups got to play! The girls got some play time in the next morning and then we all headed to Uncle Greg's new apartment in the afternoon to celebrate the Campbell women birthdays: Mama's is the 14th, Jill's was that day (the 16th) and mine is the 23rd.Abby really liked the video game area of Greg's new apartment - she's just like her daddy that way! - and all the girls loved going swimming in the outdoor pool. Sadly, there was one casualty as Greg accidentally left his phone in his pocket when he jumped in the pool, but we managed to get past that and still have a wild and crazy time! And of course, it's not a birthday without presents! There were tons of good ones opened that day: gift certificates for me (exactly what I wanted), a Wii fit for Jillo, and pictures of the granddaughters for Mama. Hooray for birthdays!We also got a couple of visits from Grandma and Grandpa Lambert this summer. They came first at the end of June (above) - over their wedding anniversay no less! - and then again in August. It's always so fun when they come visit (lots of Settlers of Catan after the girls are in bed) and I love when the girls get to spend time with them. Of course, it just isn't a visit from Grandma and Grandpa without a trip to a chinese buffet - yum! Claire and Abby especially loved the jello. One of the main reasons for Grandma and Grandpa's August visit was the girls' baptism, which took place on August 23rd (my birthday!). Yes, most people don't wait until their children at 18 months old to have them baptized, but what's the fun in doing things the normal way??First Lutheran Church in Columbia Heights is a church my extended family has gone to for a long time, and since Ryan and I don't yet have our own home church, we went there for the Baptism. It was a very nice service and the church was so nice to us. The men of the church carved these very nice chests for Claire and Abby to each have to put in momentos of their faith journey, and the women made cozy blankets for each girl. Here Jill and I are with Lily, Claire and Abby in front of a door in the church that bears our Grandma and Grandpa Stinson's names.After the Baptism, Aunt Pat hosted a lovely little party so the family could get together and celebrate. We don't get all sides of our family together too often, so it was nice for everyone to be able to see each other and catch up. It was really a very nice day! By now, you're probably thinking, "Wow! How could you possibly squeeze any more excitement into your summer?" Well, it's just not summer without a trip to the MN State Fair! This year was extra exciting because our friend Val and her adorable daughter, Kendall (above), came all the way from Maryland to join us! Her husband (and our good friend) Jon couldn't join them on the trip because he's too busy learning to be a doctor. Whatever, Jon!Sean, Kari and Zach Shipman were there (above, on left) and so were Bob, Michelle and Jenny Dettmer. That's Jenny below, trying to look like she doesn't know the crazy woman next to her. Ha ha! Just kidding, Val! Val tried her first ever corn dog at the fair, which would make anyone giddy with excitment.We tried out the Reptile House, Dinosaur World, and the Butterfly House. Okay, well, I actually didn't go into any of those places, but the people who did thought they were pretty cool!

All in all, it's been a great busy summer! That about covers the main events. In between each event, we've stayed busy by running through the house with blankets...... playing in the bathroom sink......and talking about Daddy! Seriously, he's our new favorite topic. The girls love him so much! And who can blame them? Here's Claire expressing her undying devotion to a picture of Daddy.

Enjoy the last few days of summer, everyone!

A Zoorific Father's Day

For Father's Day, we celebrated with a trip to the MN Zoo with my sister Jill, her husband Jason, and their adorable daughter Lily! The weather, although sprinkly, was actually perfect because it didn't get too hot and the rain held off until after we'd see all the outdoor things. We had a great time! The girls loved one animal in particular. Watch this video to find out which animal they're giggling at.

Aren't prairie dogs cute?

We also got to see the new Africa exhibit, which included feeding a giraffe! Ryan showed Abby how it was done. Both girls weren't sure they quite liked having a giraffe so close, but he grew on them quickly.
We also checked out the Splash Pad the zoo has going now. Lily, who is used to the water park by her house, got right into it, running through the water and sticking her face in the spouts. (my sister also took a cute video of Lily playing in the water. Check her blog for the post - coming soon!)
Claire and Abby weren't so sure what to think of the water and generally cried anytime we took them near it. They did okay on this wagon ride through the water that Ryan took them on (aren't daddies great?), but still weren't convinced. Guess we'll have to visit Cousin Lily and play in their water park more often to get the hang of it!

Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there!

Bubble Beard

Claire finds out what happens when you try to eat bubbles. (Trust me, it was much bigger but lost a lot of it's bulk in the time it took me to grab the camera.)

Catching Up

Okay, I've been a horrible blogger and not posted for over a month. Sorry! Things have been busy around here! Let me catch you up...
My second Mother's Day was very fun! We celebrated with a grill out at my parents with my whole family. Abby, Lily, and Claire (above) had tons of fun playing outside and even tried a little Bocce Ball (below). Ryan and the girls got me Season Four of "The Office," which I love but haven't had time to watch much of yet. Maybe when the girls are teenagers... Dare I dream?
Next up, we all headed to Green Bay and I got to spend some time with Amanda before her Baby #2 arrived (which he did just a few days later! Welcome, Sampson Donald!) Here she is with her mom, Lynn, and son, Atticus, in her parents new and amazingly awesome house.
It was so great to relax and just hang out with Amanda again! Ryan took the girls, which was very nice.
Don't worry, though, he had plenty of help as he was staying with Grandpa Wayne and Grandma Sharon. Luckily, I also got to hang out with them a bit, too, and we all had a great time! See how happy Abby is about it?
The next weekend, we were still in travel mode, so we headed to Lark Toy Store, about an hour and a half away, in Kellogg, MN. It was a really cool place! There was carved trolls and such on the walls...

... and a carousel to ride!

Daddy helped Abby ride the goldfish, but Claire didn't want anything to do with it. I tried to get her to ride the loon but ended up in the bench behind it when she made it clear she wanted nothing to do with the loon!
There was lots more to do at Lark Toy Store! We then amused ourselves by making the girls try on hats from their large unusual hats selection.
Abby made a very cute Viking girl, and Claire can't wait to grow up to be a cowgirl! Next up was the June 7th Cam Fam, where we celebrated Father's Day and Jason's Birthday. Jason was pretty excited about the Wii he got from wife Jill and daughter Lily. Hey, Jason, when can we come over and test it out for you??
Papa also loved the picture holder he got from his grandgirls. Hey, Grandpa, the bib goes on the babies! Oh, well.
The celebrations didn't stop there! This past Saturday, we met Uncle Scott and Aunt Emma at Como Zoo to help celebrate Emma's birthday.
It was so great for the girls to see them! We had a very great day at the zoo and even got another chance to ride a carousel.
This time, I rode on a horse with Claire and she did much better. Abby, however, did not seem to enjoy herself quite as much, so Ryan ended up holding her for most of the ride. Even Scott and Emma got in on the carousel action!Claire (below) and Abby also got a chance to ride this little bucking car, next to a monkey, elephant and giraffe. They both weren't sure what to think at first, but then got pretty happy about it.
After all that excitement, I was about as exhaused as this here lion!
What a treat then to go get my very first pedicure that night! My colleague Sarah Kurachek and boss lady Jennifer Valley joined me in the pampering.
Here's the finished product! I'm the one in the blue flip flop with Blushingham Palace nails. JV is in the red with brown, sparkly toes, and Sarah got the dark red toes. Very nice!

JV and Sarah headed off to a wedding reception afterwards, while Ryan and I took the girls and JV's adorable son Demetrius to the drive in. We saw Up and Night At The Museum, which were both good -- I think. It's kind of hard to focus on the movies with two 16 months old and 1 seven-year-old in the back seats, but reagardless, we had a good time!

Finally, my two favorite things about it finally being summer are: 1 - the girls can walk themselves to the car (more a developmental thing than a summer thing, I guess, but I'm sure this would be harder to do in Winter), and 2 - it's warm enough that we don't have to bundle up to eat our breakfast in the sunroom (no, we did not do this in Winter, of course! But it was cold enough on those May mornings to need a hat and jacket).
Whew - I think we're all caught up now! Thanks for hanging in there!