The past week

Since a week ago, we've enjoyed golf lessons (twice) for Carson, baseball (twice, tonight included) for Carson, both kids rode on the kiddie train at baseball, both kids had horse therapy last week and Carson got a girlfriend.

Last week was hectic with orientation, so I wasn't home a lot. We did manage to sneak in a breakfast with my brother, Chris, as he came through town on his way to Williston on Thursday morning.

As the week went on, I heard more and more about another little neighbor girl. She's five. Carson has announced that he loves her. Wait a minute...Carson is supposed to marry Emily - his girlfriend up in Crookston and the girl we have an arranged marriage with (Emily's parents Bill and Kim are Carson's Godparents and we are Emily's Godparents). Hmmm...this is getting complicated. We are at least blessed to have a neighborhood full of great kids, but we hadn't been scoping matrimonial prospects...yet.

Trav and I went to our monthly dinner and a movie night on Friday night. We tried out a new restaurant in Fargo - Kobe's. It had wonderful Japanese food with excellent service.

We went to Sibley, North Dakota on Saturday (just a bit north of Valley City) for a family reunion on my Mom's side of the family. It was a beautiful day and the kids had fun in the pool, playing games, etc. while everyone visited. They were wiped out when we got home.

Yesterday was Trav's birthday! We went out to lunch and then Grace enjoyed a 4+ hour nap. She would have easily slept for quite a bit longer, but I woke her up. We went over to my Mom's for a BBQ. My aunt and uncle from Seattle have been here for over a week and it was fun to catch up with Harlan and Mary. Carson was a bit distressed that we didn't make a cake for Daddy. Perhaps it was the 20,000 calories we had at the reunion on Saturday?!?! We also very briefly got to see Chris has he passed his way back through town - Grace was still a bit upset that she couldn't see Cousin 'Baby Jack'. Chris was in town for about 30 minutes, as he had a long drive back to Des Moines yet and it was after suppertime. Grace asks about Baby Jack all of the time! It's neat to see how she has already linked family members together. She's done this with Brody too - she sure loves her cousins!

We had my Mom, Grandma, Uncle Harlan and Auntie Mary over for supper tonight. Carson's girlfriend stayed for supper too. We've started (not in front of her) referring to her as our daughter-in-law. She was quite happy to sit next to Carson for supper. :)

Grace and I had an hour-long tea party tonight while Carson and Trav were at baseball. We had a great time. She loves singing, so we did some of that as well - "The Wheels on the Bus", "Twinkle, Twinkle" and a few more. She LOVES to sign the ABC's and 123's. She needs help, but some letters she doesn't need prompting for. Her current favorites are E, G, J, X, Z, 5 and 10.

Yes, this is a version of Sesame Street - this blog post is brought to you by the numbers 5 and 10 and the letter E.

Gracie doesn't know it yet, but we're going to "Elmo Live" in a few weeks. Elmo is coming to town and we have tickets. Carson doesn't even know yet. Will be fun to watch her face! She'll have to wear her Elmo shirt and Elmo pig tails!

Well, time for bed! Pics are coming soon. I have truly figured out a way to streamline and share pics. Really. It'll be good. I just need a few hours to organize and update!!!