Photos from Girls Weekend

I have access to my pictures so here's a photo recap of the weekend at Lost Lake Lodge.

NOTE: I keep trying to load more pictures, but it keeps giving me an error message. I will try to post more pictures of Girls Weekend later, but this is a start.

Random Cute

I fhave downlaod access to my pics again, so lookout! I have some catching up to do:)

Happy Birthday Zacky T!

Happy Birthday to our nephew Zacky! He turns a big 4 years old today!!!

TIGF -Delayed

I know this is a day late and a dollar short, but I didn't do one last week because I was out of town and that's part of my thankful thought of the day. I am thankful that we had a great weekend away with my mom and sisters and that my mom has such a great group of friends that let us tag along for the weekend. I am also thankful that our house is officially on the market and that we have a set of circumstances that allows me to stress less about keeping up the house with a 3-year-old and a 3-month-old...and last, I'm thankful the 3-month-old slept 6 hours last night so I got some sleep before heading to a dumb work meeting at 8 a.m. on a holiday weekend. Ugh. Retail:) Off to Caribou:)

Girls Weekend!

This weekend, Mom, Katie, Meg and I went to Lost Lake Lodge in Nisswa for some quality non-kid bonding time. LLL has a invite only girlfriend weekend and since my mom's girlfriend owns the place, we got an invite and boy am I glad we did! I wish I had pictures to post of this weekend, but Katie needs to e-mail me the pics she took because I still can't download mine yet. I will post soon though!

Anyway, the whole weekend was a busy fun time. We had a wine scavenger hunt ( that involved Katie and I in a kayak in search of a floating wine bottle clue, and Meg going for a hike in flip-flops to recover a clue in the woods)and a medallion hunt (we found the 3rd medallion hidden)as well as some VERY quality shopping time in Nisswa. The food is fantastic there and we also had a wine tasting and a wine pairings lunch. I drank more wine this weekend than I think I have collectively ever before. We didn't even touch the bottle of wine we got for the scavenger hunt or the stuff we brought up there ourselves or I would have been totally loopy...instead of just a little loopy;)

I think we sufficiently stimulated the Brainerd Area economy while we were up there, but just in case, we're going back in 3 weeks with the boys and the kids for more shopping and fishing for our annual family vacation.

Rowan's Bath Time

Riley has been a big help with Rowan's bath time since the first bath he had at home. Gotta love it!

Say Cheese!

Riley still loves being a big sister. She likes to hold "Doodle" and has recently started climbing into his crib to cuddle him. I'll see if I can get a picture of that soon. But for now, here's big sis hamming it up for the camera.

Tired Walkers

This is getting to be toward the end of the walk...some pooped puppies, and I'm not talking the furry kind. The trees were over the area we ate our picnic lunch. It's not every year the trees are in full bloom and it made for a beautiful spot to relax after the walk.

Sock Hop Bop!

Riley was invited to her first friend birthday party this weekend and it was a great one! Lexi turned 4 on Saturday and had a Sock Hop theme for her party. The invites were sent out on a CD of 50s music and had her picture in a 50s outfit on the cover of the CD. Riley loves the music and now goes around singing Lion Sleeps Tonight and Lollipop among other oldies tunes. I think I had just as much fun at the party as Riley did. Thanks Kim and Lexi!!

P.S. Thanks to Kim for e-mailing the pics so I could post photos!

Walk for the Dogs

Bennett wanted to give all the kids kisses...who wouldn't? They are all at his eye level! He also thought the basket full of bunnies would have made a nice picnic lunch, but Josh kept a good hold of him:) Coko thought she would snuggle up to Rowan and keep him warm, and Macy was all tuckered out! She didn't stay in the wagon long though. Too many kids in there!

Walkin' Macy in Action

Walkin' Macy!

Riley wanted to practice for when she gets a new puppy (when she's potty trained), so she decided to walk Macy after Mace was already good and tired so she didn't put up much of a fight.

Another Beautiful Video

Since I don't have access to my own photos right now, I will once again direct you to Katie's blog. She posted a beautiful video of the pictures from Brynn and Rowan's baptism with a song written and song by the music director at our church. Go get you kleenex, Linda, you're gonna need it!

Belated Mom's Day Wish

I didn't get on the computer at all yesterday, as one of my friends said on her facebook page, it wasn't exactly the "hallmark" greeting card kinda day, but I'm so thankful to be a mom anyway! And I wanted to say a huge thanks to my own Mom, GodMom and Grandma as well as to Josh's mom, grandma and God mom.

P.S. if you want to see a VERY cool mom tribute video, go to my sister Katie's Blog, the Bartsch Beat (on the right).

Awwwwww

What more can I say...just a cute picture. Brynn 4 months, Rowan 2.5 months.

TIGF

Wow! All I can say is we have GREAT family and friends! Getting our house ready to sell is a huge project, especially with a toddler and a baby. It's amazing how many projects you don't think about until it's time to make it market ready, too. I have to say a huge thanks to my parents for letting us crash here and watching the kids while we work, to Josh's Aunt and Mom for TOTALLY re-landscaping our yard and gardens, to our neighbor, Laurie for watching Roo and Row a few times too, and to everyone who has helped or plans to come out this weekend and help. It's been amazing how many people have helped us get our house almost there! My mom always says "It takes a villiage..." Thank you Villiage! We love you!

AHS Walkers, Start Your Engines

Here we are getting ready to go on the walk. We meet in our traditional spot half way up the hill to the shelter and as soon as we have our group together, we're off. We don't wait for the official walk to start because it gets way too crowded and we have enough chaos trying to keep everyone together! Brynn was in her third outfit of the morning before we even left for the walk. One blow-out, one puke. Thank goodness for cousins the same size, this is Rowan's backup outfit:)

AHS Walk in Pieces

Ok, I'm going to continue posts from the AHS walk that was this past Saturday throughout the month of May, mostly to space out pictures with photos because I'm not sure how much access to my Mac I will have in the next few weeks as we get the house ready to move and I don't have a lot of computer time.

Here is the first set of pics to showcase that this year we had to do things a little differently with 6 kids and 3 dogs in our family alone, not to mention my friend Jenny, her toddler, hubby, dog and "inside baby" too. It was a smaller group this year with some of our normal walkers being pregnant or working this weekend, but it was still fun.

I understand some of the normal "exotics" we see like the monkey and the parrots, were there, but we didn't see them or any other crazy animals this year. Maybe it was too windy for some animals? Rowan certainly didn't like that much. He cried a good part of the walk. We did see some bunnies that I will post later that Bennett thought would make a good lunch, but more to come on that. Here's the wagon and double stroller crew! We also had to switch riders often and feed babies along the way so it was a lot of stop and go action!