First UP, the UP house!

The kids and I were lucky enough to go home to Utah for an entire month this Summer; Dave was able to come out and meet us for a week of that. It was fantastic! We lived it up and squeezed as much Utah Summer into that month as possible.


So the company my dad works for has been in the middle of a HUGE project for the last little while. I had heard all about it along the way from the simple idea to the finishing touches. My dad has been so passionate and pumped about this so it was super exciting for me to see the UP HOUSE in person!

Isn't the interior BEAUTIFUL?! and this is just a small glimpse.

We felt pretty special getting to have a few of our own personal tours. Tol & Addi wanted to go everyday- sometimes more than once a day. In fact, Tol was so stoked on it that he wore his Grape Soda "Ellie Badge" everyday, wherever he went. It was darling.

The detail that was put into this house was AMAZING- it matched the movie PERFECTLY! But the best part was that it is completely livable. I want this house; it is the perfect combination of functionality and charm. I'd seriously buy it if I could afford it.

The Salt Lake Parade of Homes was going on while we were there so we also got to meet Carl (from the movie)! He was the greeter. Russell wasn't there that day, but his 'Wilderness Explorer Backpack' was. It was hilarious how my kids thought they were the real people. And how Addi was scared that the house would take off at any moment.
 The UP HOUSE was a definite Utah HIGHLIGHT!

Tol's PENSKE

Dave and I are total suckers and rented Tolman his VERY OWN PENSKE moving truck for a day.

The story is: Tolman's school had a fundraiser where the grand prize (for selling 25 items or more) was a pizza party in a HUMMER limo. You can imagine Tol's excitement about this whole thing. With a lot of support, from mostly grandparents, Tol earned the GRAND PRIZE! Well, the day of the party came and I sent an ecstatic Tol to his usual afternoon kindergarten only to find out the party happened in the morning that day. Tol was devastated! and so was I. I felt horrible!! 

When I asked him what I could do to make it up to him (even though it wasn't entirely my fault- the school should have made the TIME clear), he said he wanted a U Haul. Somehow that turned into a  PENSKE. PLUS, he insisted on the 26 footer over the 19 footer, which would have been cheaper, because he wanted an International and not a GMC. Like I said, we're total suckers.

Since Dave was working, I had to pick it up AND drop it off the next day. And I gave a few rides around the neighborhood (with a cab-full of little bodies) in between clients (I was doing hair most of the day). That thing was a BEAST to drive. All I kept thinking was "how in the world did Dave drive one of these things with an attached trailer from Utah to Minnesota?!!" I would rather have walked.

Anyway, that night while Addi was at a pajama party, the boys and I took the truck to Nupa's for dinner! I guess I have some pride issues because it was pretty embarrassing. There was nowhere to park the beast AND we ran into our stake's Sister missionaries. But O-well, Tolman LOVED it and it made for a good story. 

I got a lot of phone calls and knocks on the door that day from people who thought we were moving. No one could believe that it was ALL Tol's- that he would actually want that over anything else in the world. I know, I can't believe it either.

Picnic in the Penske!

Tol's Penske was a HIT with the neighborhood kids!

It was a sad moment when we had to say goodbye. Tol has decided that he is going to earn this once a year (after asking if we could do it every month).

Man this kid LOVES cars! and trucks.

beach time

 We are loving our Minnesota beach time! 

Even though Minnesota is the Land of 10,000 lakes, Rochester is seriously lacking in that area. But we do have a few within 10 or 20 minutes so we've been taking advantage.

Here we are at Foster-Arend with Shawni and her kids.

And here we are at Chester Woods with the Hansons, Reeds and Worthingtons.


I know that come Winter time *YUCK* I will look back at these pictures as a reminder of better (and warmer) things to come.

*4th of July*

We celebrated Independence Day in style with a whole weekend of festivities. The kids and I started it off with a festive breakfast of Patriotic Waffles. Dave started it off with work. Unfortunately, he was on-call until the next morning.

The waffles are looking pretty ghetto, but my kids thought they were awesome. And they were yummy.

The 'Frei-for-All' was actually that afternoon, so after that we got cleaned up and met up with other Moms & Kids (whose men were also on-call) for dinner at the Chappels.

Then it was off to see the Rochester fireworks. Thanks to the Esplins, we were equipped with the CUTEST, yummiest and most FESTIVE treats. 

The firework show was awesome, plus we had great seats!

Because the fellas were working on the actual holiday, we had a post-party @ our house the next night. We BBQ-ed and had our own Neighborhood of Fire. After a while, the kids were more interested in catching frogs than the fireworks.

Our first 4th of July in MN was a success!

FREI for ALL

Our friends, the Freis, had their annual "FREI FOR ALL".

WOW- it was quite the gathering full of lots of yummy food and fun games and activities!

We adore the Freis and are so glad we're friends!

and we're so grateful for the Frei girls who are the BEST babysitters!

Strawberry Picking

Dave and Jeff were both on-call so Carolyn and I took the kids STRAWBERRY PICKING.

Can you believe this scenery?

And the strawberries were DELISH!

bye.

 
The Sullivans are off to their new adventure! We couldn't be more thrilled for them, but are so sad to not have them next door anymore. 

We were fortunate enough to have their girls over on their last day here.

new toys

Tolman got new rollerblades and Addi got a new bike.
Trying to get the hang of their new toys...

Slip n' Slide

Tol bought a Slip n' Slide with part of his birthday money, and the kids have LIVED on it this Summer. We have the perfect hill on the side of our house for it. Now we're going to have the perfect water bill to go with it.

As far as entertaining the kids go, this could be ther best $7 ever spent.

Our friends had a hot tubbing, Glee Karaoke, and Just Dance PARTY.
I hardly got any pics, of course.
But there's not many things better than spending the evening with good friends singing "Don't Stop Believing" and dancing to "Wanna Be."