Rochester Fest

Rochester Fest is a week full of festivities in Rochester (hence the name). The only things we imbibed in was the PARADE and the CHUCK-WAGON BREAKFAST.
We had a lot of fun and will for sure do more next year.

Here we are at the parade with some good friends. The kids were so into all the candy that was thrown. SO. MUCH. CANDY! And who am I kidding- I dove for a few tootsies myself.

Here's part of the group waiting in the breakfast line with

VIKTOR THE VIKING!

And here's the fam about to get our breakfast. I should have snapped a pic of the pancake conveyor maker thingy. It was awesome! And some serious skill is involved in getting your pancakes. They chuck them at you as you try to catch as many as you want on your plate. Needless to say, there were LOTS and LOTS of pancakes on the ground- and I'm sure that is where a lot of the kids got theirs from. YUM!

CURTY!!

Curt came to visit!

Curt came to visit for about a week and it was THE BEST!! We were all so excited to have Curt all to ourselves for a little while and to show him our new diggs.

First things first. Hair.

We went downtown to "Thursdays on First," which is a summer market and music festival that Rochester puts on EVERY Thursday.

 We also gave Curt a mini-tour of the clinic.



We couldn't NOT get one of these famous 'Curt poses.'

Funny thing was, the pole was totally loose and wobbly. We were sure we were taking it down- but it was still standing when it was all said and done, thankfully.

Tol was lucky enough to have Uncle Curty in town for his birthday! Tol had his birthday party at HOUSE OF BOUNCE. All his friends LOVED Uncle Curt; he was the hit of the party! Seriously.

Mall of America was a MUST!! Curt got some awesome things and KILLER DEALS, to boot!

 Here they are in front of Nickelodeon Universe.

 On the escalator.

 Posing with an old logger truck. This was for Tol, of course.

Inside the infamous MIRROR MAZE.

We did this when Chel was in town and the kids HATED IT! They were so freaked out! Well, when we decided to go to MOA, Addi unexpectedly (for some unknown reason) was determined that she was going to do the mirror maze again. I mean, this is after months of being traumatized from it. Whatever. Tol couldn't let his younger sister show him up so he went along with it. They both went through without a single tear or melt-down.

A gift to me from Curt. He is so kind and thoughtful!

If you can't tell already, I ADORE my bro!

Getting packed & ready to leave. Or so we thought...

Poor Curt flew standby which provided quite the adventure! First of all, he spent 10 hours in the Salt Lake airport trying to get here- and that was nothing. It took him 4 days to get home!! He was supposed to fly out Monday but flights weren't looking good so we switched to Tuesday. On our way to the airport Tuesday afternoon we were right in the middle of CRAZY WEATHER which turned into a tornado warning. We were right smack-dab in the middle of the warning area, too. After pulling off the road and parking near a "big stricture" for a minute, we decided to carry on. I was FREAKED- but we survived.

When we got to the airport, Curt got booked on a flight and things were looking good... but that was short-lived. Long story short, the weather grounded a few flights which bumped Curt and he was stuck. He ended up spending the night in Minneapolis. Then he got on a flight to Houston the next afternoon and ended up spending the night there. THEN, he flew to Cincinatti and ended up spending the night there. The next day- Friday- he flew to Denver then FINALLY caught a flight to Salt Lake City. Quite the adventure, especially for a 16 year old!

But here's the kicker: Curt was supposed to leave on TREK with his ward on Wednesday. When my parents picked him up from the airport on Friday, they drove him straight to Evanston, WY to meet up with the TREKERS. What a crazy whirlwind of a week!! Of course there are a bunch of hilarious details and side stories- but I'll let Curt tell you those :)

My kids LOVED having Curt around! They wanted to be playing with him EVERY second! Curt was a champ and such a good sport- especially because I was pretty much out of commission his entire stay. I threw my back out a few days before and it wasn't letting up. Therefore, we weren't able to do some of the things I had planned. But Curt was more than a good sport and helped me out SO MUCH! Thanks again, Curt!

Curtis was also a good sport and humored me by singing in my ward that Sunday. He sang one of my VERY FAVORITE church arrangements with 2 of my very darling Young Women. They did such an incredible job! And I was so happy and proud to show off my talented and handsome brother! And yes, he was a HIT amoungst the Young Women, right girls?

I am so blessed to have Curtis as my brother. From the day he was born, he has brought so much LOVE and HAPPINESS into the Nelson family. He is kind and sensitive to others. He is extremely talented in many areas. He has a strong spirit and gets a lot of things that I still struggle with. He is one in a million and I LOVE him so much!

Thanks so much for visiting Curt! We LOVE and MISS you!

Tol's BirthDAY!

HOLY COW! I can't believe my little guy is 7! That seems SO old- or I guess I seem TOO young to have a 7 year old. HA!
His actual birthday was fantastic! It would have been ideal if he woke up to homemade waffles, but because my back was out of commission ( I could barely walk and I wouldn't have even gotten out of bed if it wasn't Tol's BIG day) I waited for the kids or Curt to wake up to help me make Bisquick waffles. Those are yummy anyway and the kids love to help ;)

After breakfast we all got ready for Tol's big friend party at the HOUSE OF BOUNCE!

Tol invited 9 friends (and Addi had a couple friends there, too) and they all had a BLAST jumping and playing with "Uncle Curty." Curt was definitely the hit of the party- and I am SO grateful since I basically sat there with an ice pack attached to my back the entire time. SO lame.

After almost 2 hours of playing, we had cake and ice cream and opened presents. Tol got spoiled from his friends, of course!

When Dave got home later that evening, Tol opened his presents...

I didn't get pictures of the opened presents for some reason, but in those wrapped presents are roller blades and a GIANT supersoaker gun thingy from us, a car from Curt and a Nerf gun from Auntie Jess.

We let Tol choose what he wanted to do for dinner, we could either go wherever he wanted or we'd make his his favorite dinner. He chose going to Panekoeken so that's what we did.

All in all it was the BEST day to celebrate the little man.

Birthday Boy!!

Happy Birthday 

 to the little man who makes my world go round!

I seriously love this kid more than life and am so grateful to be his momma. 
Love you, Birthday Boy!!

For Mom

I planted flowers in honor of you.

They're not nearly as pretty and put-together as the ones

you would plant for me when we were basically neighbors,

but they work, and most importantly

they remind me of you.

I took these pictures the day I planted them,

which was about a month ago.

You should see then now-

and NO, they aren't dead!!

They are even prettier (if I may say so myself)

sitting on my porch today than they are in these pics.

I guess I knew you wouldn't be

rushing over to save them 

if/when I neglected them.

Kindof like my kids...

I'm a better mom with a greener thumb

now that I'm a thousand miles away from you. Ha!

AND-

My flowers aren't the only things that have a new home on my porch.

Cute, right?

 ...except for the bird poop. That's not so cute.

Memorial weekend

For Memorial Day we planned on having a few families over for a BBQ, so the weekend before we took a trip to the cities so we could go to COSTCO for the meat (Costco always has the best meat).

We decided that since we were in the area we'd go to Como Zoo, as well.
Como Zoo has FREE admission (they just ask for a small donation), so our expectations weren't very high. Needless to say, it exceeded our expectations by a long shot! It was awesome!
We were having a great time UNTIL Addi lost her flip-flop in the lions den. It was actually pretty hilarious!- but poor Addi didn't think so. By the way she was FREAKING OUT you would have thought the lion bit her leg off. That girl is drama sometimes!

Not sure what Addi is doing here- but it's not what it looks like!

Here they are by some statue thingy that they thought was cool. They tried to imitate the creepy faces on the statue.

Looking at the flamingos while Tol is figuring out our next destination on the map. He is taking after his father with his obsession for maps. uh-oh.

Addi and the polar bear. That thing was HUGE! This pic doesn't do the size justice, but look at those paws!

Addi with a lion (look closely) in the background. Notice how she has both flip-flops on. And notice how you look down into the lions den. She was doing a trick and kicked her shoe off and down it went just minutes after this pic was taken.

The lion eating the flip-flop. Okay, not really- but it looks like it.
We've had to tell Addi that the lions didn't eat her flip-flop but have played with it because it looked like a toy. That story was our saving grace for the remainder of the day.

Carrying a 4 year old around a zoo got old so we weren't there too much longer.

Plus, it started raining.
But we had to see a few more things before heading out...

Tol and the ostrich.

No pics of this, but we went to Chili's for lunch and I have to document that because we were all dying at how yummy the food was! I don't care what anyone says (Heidi :)), the restaurants in Rochester aren't that great. I mean, is it too much to ask for a Chili's?!

Kickin' it at Costco!

Addi the sleeping bird, on our way home. You cover her face and she falls asleep. It's so funny!

Then she woke up.
...
And here are a few pics from the aforementioned BBQ. It deserves a post of it's own, but I hardly got any pics. All I'll say is that it was a GREAT time and Dave's famous ribs were a HIT!

transportation fair

This is a post for another time (I have a lot of those 'other time' posts lined up, don't I?), but lately we've been discovering all the great activities and events that Rochester has to offer. One of which is the

TRANSPORTATION FAIR.

The weather forecast looked a little iffy, but nothing comes between Tol and his passion for things like this so we braved the storm and headed out alongside the Hansons.

There were all sorts of different cars, trucks, tractors and other various forms of transportation to climb on and sit in. We got to see the insides of an ambulance and other emergency vehicles, taxi cab, city and school buses, garbage truck, UPS truck- which provided great protection from the sheets of rain, tractors, mini vans (which Tol kept ripping on) and many other things.

The is the 2nd year, out of 17, that it has rained (which is a total understatement). But it turned out to be a blessing because there were no lines; we just walked onto anything we (or Tol) wanted. I guess the lines are usually super long.

After spending plenty of time at the fair and seeing all there was to be seen, we dined at Panera for lunch.

It was a Fun & Fabulous Day!

The next day was spent buying rain-gear.

Jeff

13 years ago today I lost a dear friend. There haven't been many days since that I haven't thought of him.

But blessings and trials seem to come in the same package, and I'm grateful for the blessings that I've received.

Until we meet again...

for my sis'

I'm back to attack! My camera (that I LOVE) is a goner so I had to resort to an old one that I don't love so much. One of the reasons I don't love it (besides the weak picture quality) is that the memory card isn't compatible with my computer and it didn't ever come with a USB cord and I can't find a USB compatible with this old school camera. Wait- was that 'one' reason, or three reasons? {and was that also a run-on sentence?} Whatever. So I hope you appreciate these pictures because it wasn't easy (or free) getting them here. And I also hope you appreciate your compatible cameras and memory cards. I'm saving for a new camera, but until then my posts may or may not be few and far between.

 

*I'm being practical and thinking solely of the BLOG BOOK by posting so many collages lately. Love them.

With all that said... here is a little something to tide ya'll (or just Jess & Chel) over for a bit.
TOLMAN'S SCHOOL CARNIVAL!! The highlight was definitely the few bounce houses and the low-light (?) was Dave not letting the kids play the fish game because everyone won an actual goldfish. Poor, neglected children! In the pic above, Tol is playing "MINUTE TO WIN IT." He had to sort Skittles in 1 minute. They change up the number of skittles you have to sort depending on your age. Tol and Ad both did it and were so pleased with themselves, as they should have been. After eating dinner,  playing all the games, bouncing, and spending too much money, we high-tailed it out of there. But it was fun, and it is nice to be able to support the public schools- especially my own kids'.

Addison recently finished her first year of DANCE in Rochester.

She took lessons at the Community Center and we were more than pleased! The class' focus was technique and the 5 positions of ballet. Addi learned a lot and her LOVE for dance grew.

Miss Tonya was the teacher and I can't say enough how impressed I am with her. She taught the girls SO MUCH about dance while making it so much FUN for them to 'learn' (or make PB sandwiches, talking on their cell phones, doing the chocolate or strawberry shakes and jumping over the individually named feather boas).

Miss Tonya and Addi on the last day of class

After 2 trimesters of a Ballet/Tumbling (a little random, I know) class, we decided to add TAP to the mix. Addison LOVED it! After we bought her tap shoes, she wore them for 2 weeks straight (in the house). Not annoying at all ;)

 And here she is on her last day of Ballet and Tumbling. Like I said, Addi has learned so much this year and we are looking forward to another year with Miss Tonya when the Summer is over.

...but we're NOT looking forward to the Summer being over.