I guess we’d have to be home long enough to be able to post.  We joked that last week was going to be a pretty uneventful week for us….boy were we wrong.  We ended up filling our our days just fine!  I have to backtrack and start with the Johnson visit was made on the 16th.  We first stopped at Medford at the outlet mall.  We didn’t have enough time, but I still managed to find something for each of us.  Micah’s sister and her family live in Byron, MN, and they had their town celebration.  We decided to head up there for the annual Johnson parade, food, and firework party.  It was fun to see familiar faces again. We enjoyed hanging out with their friends, the Dursts, who smoked a turkey and pork loin Sat. night.  The boys…James, Evan, Garett, Wyatt, Kahle, and Bodee had a blast cooling off in the sprinklers.

After a routine physical for me and story hour for Kahle, we headed over to Reid’s to help clean out a couple of sheds.  It’s a good job to have done.  We also helped Mom set up a king-size bed that she had gotten for her downstairs bedroom.  My brothers, sister, and I all have king-size beds…..so we’re excited to be able to use it if we ever stay overnight!  Mom thinks a full-size bed worked just fine all the years Dad and her were married.  Well, it was probably less than five hours later when half the town of George flooded!  The rain kept filling up basements, parks, rivers, etc.  Mom had to ditch her king-size mattress and many other things in her basement.  Reid, Ryan, and my grandparents also had lots of water to deal with.  We headed back to George on Thursday and Friday to help clean up the mess. It was neat to see everyone helping each other out in whatever way they could.

Two fairs down…two to go!  Micah and I both grew up with the whole fair frenzy weeks, but it’s fun now to have our boys experience it with us.  Kahle and Bodee both showed another pig during the Sioux County Fair Open Swine Show.  They did awesome…it’s adorable to watch them pat their pigs with a whip. Bodee told the judge, “Piggy,” when he walked by.

Kahle got 4th place with Westra’s pig, so he got $5.  He was very excited to add that to his piggy bank…he’s a conservative.  He’s saving up for a real payloader…anyone want to donate to his fund?  :)  The boys got so filthy each day at the fair, but they had a great time.  G’pa Weber came for the swine show.  He spoiled us with ice cream shakes! (He also made his famous cinnamon/caramel rolls for Micah’s ring help during the show).  We’ll leave you with this good lookin’ cowboy…

We had our pictures taken a couple of months ago, so I thought I’d finally put the link to our family pictures that Melia Winter took for us.  (At that time Bodee was 18 months and Kahle just turned 3). She did a great job (considering what she had to work with…ha ha).  I would highly recommend her to take pictures for you!

http://meliawinterphotography.zenfolio.com/

Also, I know that we have a link on the side of this blog for photos, but I thought I’d remind everyone that we put tons of pictures on there (Picasa).  Here is the link for that site…

http://picasaweb.google.com/home?tab=mq

You’d think two teachers would have somewhat of a relaxed schedule in the summer, but that is not the case.  We’ve been on the go since last weekend, so I’ll do my best to recap since then.  My sister, Rachel, and her family came to stay with us on Friday.  We devoured Pizza Ranch pizza and hung around in the backyard.  We saw our first Inwood parade on Sat. morning…I was impressed.  

After some shopping and more hanging out, they left for Mom’s.  Our whole family got to celebrate Noah’s 2nd b-day (a little early) in George.  Kahle and Jack were in the kiddie tractor pull in George.  Jack got third place…way to go Jack.  We drove around the Little Rock/Sibley area and saw some of the tornado damage from a couple of weeks ago.  My uncle and aunt, Burt & Deb, had mostly trees go down.  They filled us in on what went on while the little boys ran from one piece of machinery to another.

The next morning began George’s 4th of July celebration.  Rick, my bro-in-law, was brave enough to run in the 5k! I’m proud of him…but definitely not jealous.  Maybe next year, I will join Rick (if I start training now).  We got tons of candy at the parade.  Rachel and I had a hay day sorting it…and sampling it.  I love small towns where you know almost everyone in the parade.  We even got to see our friends Brad, Ashley, & Baby Taylor.  The downpour began right after we got back to Mom’s.  Kahle and Micah love playing in the rain, so the swimsuits were on in no time.  They did the same thing with our neighbor in RV a couple of weeks ago.  Boys will be boys!  After another Pizza Ranch gorge fest, we shot off fireworks at my brother Reid’s house.  The boys loved them…..my nephew Noah did not!  Silly G’ma had some sparklers for them, too.  We called it a night and left for RV after that.

We reloaded our suitcases and took off for Rockwell after a quick dinner.  We met up with Micah’s family at the new swimming pool.  It was refreshing!  The next day was  the craziest of them

all.  We were up and at ‘em BEFORE 6 A.M.  Dean, Micah, Me, and five of the nine grandkids took off for the North Iowa Fair.  We got the pigs and veggie entries in and saw the sites to see.  It was a long day of washing, clipping, etc…..but it all paid off when the grandkids showed their pigs in the Open Show.  They did wonderful.  This was Bodee’s very first time showing!  He walked around the ring for about half of the time, then Micah carried him. Kahle showed his pig all by himself.  He even got in a wave to the family sitting in the bleachers.  It was great to see our Bormann friends there.  Matt & Nancy (& Baby due in Nov.) and Joe, Val, & Baby Emmett all came to see the Weber clan.  Kahle, Bodee, Matt, & Joe drooled over the tractors when we walked around the displays at the fair.

It was another late night as we stayed up and talked to Ben & Mandy (Micah’s sister & bro-in-law).  Thursday was back to the fair.  We were soon home-sweet-home by that night. The boys missed their toys, books, and bed!  We had a great week of seeing family and friends.

We had a busy day of games…..First we got to see my junior high girls play RV in softball.  Good job ladies…you did great.  After a quick dinner break, we went back to the diamonds to see my junior high boys play their baseball games.  They also did well!!  The heat must have been getting to us, because we all four took a nap this afternoon!  It felt great.  We picked MORE strawberries from our garden, then we had to get going again.  

Micah and the boys went to football throw around.  The high school FB coaches and players have that every Thursday night.  We also had our first adult/city-league kickball game!!!  It was awesome.  It brought back fond memories for me….bringing me back to GLR’s intense boom-boom games at recess.  We are looking forward to next week; however, our muscles need to heal.  Our days are usually this busy.  We love being on the go…especially when we have great weather.

Well, the piles of laundry tell me that vacation is over.  Micah and I took a trip with two of his Ag students to Washington D.C.  We flew out of Sioux Falls on Tuesday morning and got back Sunday afternoon.  We had a great time seeing the sites.  His students had their own agenda (it was a leadership conference) and the adults could do as little/much site-seeing as our body’s could handle.  We put on a lot of miles last week.  I think we saw about every monument/memorial in D.C.  We got to eat at awesome restaurants and hang out with fun people…we met up with the West Lyon clan.  Micah used Google Earth to figure out how many miles we put on in one day, and it was over 8 just doing our site-seeing…that didn’t count the other random things we did.

Kahle and Bodee got to stay at G’pa and G’ma Weber’s house the whole time we were in D. C.  They  had a blast being on the farm.  Bodee loved the piggies and chickies.

Kahle couldn’t get enough of the feed shed.  He filled enough pails of feed to last Dean a long time!  

We are SO thankful that the boys got to spend those days with their grandparents.  We knew they’d be loved (and spoiled).  Micah and I were so anxious to see them when we got home on Sunday.  We did a few things around the house quickly, then we took off for Rockwell.  We’re pretty sure the boys grew an inch during those six days.

We’ve been playing catch up back here in RV.  Kahle and I did get  to see BHRV play West Lyon in softball last night.  We cheered for both teams!  Bodee went to Micah’s meeting with him.  His attention span is much shorter than Kahle’s, so it was nice to sit and watch a game for once. Kahle started Story Hour today at the library.  He loves it!  We read so many books each day.  I actually get sick of them, so we make quite a few trips to the library.

Being that I wrote about Kahle’s childrens’ time during the last post, I’ll give Bodee his glory, too.  Micah took Kahle up to the front of church on Sunday for children’s time.  Before I even knew it, Bodee ecscaped from the pew and followed them up there.  We were shocked, but he sat right by Kahle and listened to the WHOLE lesson!  They came back to our seat when they were done! For the record, Kahle ran in church (naughty kid) and Bodee nicely came walking back to us.  :)

Bodee has been such a copy cat these days.  Whatever Kahle does, Bodee does!  He is going to make sure life is fair.  Kahle sometimes gets so sick of Bodee following him that he hides are locks himself in a room!  The two boys are often lost without each other, though.  Micah’s dad came and picked up the boys today.  They are SO excited to go to G&G Weber’s house!  They have pigs (Bodee can say piggy–it’s adorable), baby chicks, Dakota (Reid’s old dog), and yummy food….Dean and Bea are great cooks.  They are actually going to be there for a whole week.  I held back tears when they left this afternoon….I hate leaving my boys behind!  It is really weird to be home without the boys.  I’ve been cleaning nonstop.  I feel like they are just taking a nap, and I have to quickly get my to-do list done.  Micah and I are heading to Washington D.C. with two of his students for a conference!   We have both been there before, but it will be great to see the sites again…and this time with each other.  Geez….I’m so romantic, huh!?  :)

As many of you know, Kahle is a very shy boy.  (However, he’s not shy at all when we’re at home).  Micah usually has to take him up to Children’s Time at church.  This last Sunday Micah came back to our pew after walking him up there.  Donna, who does the lesson, had a Transformer for the kids to see as she related it to the lesson about God.  While Donna was talking, Kahle transformed the figure into a car.  He was pretty excited, because he ran back to our seat with a huge smile on his face.  We don’t have that Transformer at our house, but Kahle figured it out in no time.  I hope that means he’s on his way to becoming an engineer.  :)

Bodee’s latest milestone is constantly saying, “No” or “Piggy.”  I think he’s excited that we can understand him better these days, so he just repeats what he can say.  Even though it’s the word, “No,” we think it’s cute when he says it.  He makes a grumpy face and pushes out his lips.  We think he’ll be really excited when he gets to spend a week with G’pa and G’ma Weber.  They have lots of little piggies for him to look at.  Kahle is ready to start packing…..he told us that he can’t forget his chore boots!  They’ll stay busy working in the garden and hanging out on the farm.

Bodee is 19 months, but he just had his wellness check.  He’s weighing in at 29.8 lbs. (85th %) and is 33 1/2 inches (75th%). He took his shots like a big  boy….he barely got out a cry when he saw his sucker waiting for him.  Kahle was super excited, too….he also got one.  We have the best doctors at Rock Valley.  Dr. Greg is so good with the boys.  It seems like we’re in the office a lot, so it’s nice to know we have doctors who are personable and loving.
We are enjoying our summer so far.  They are doing construction work (and soon repaving our road) right by our house.  The boys are in heaven.  I thought they sat in our bay window a lot, but it’s almost ridiculous as to how much they are in there watching the action.  Kahle took it to the next level and helped himself outside after he woke up one morning.  It was early enough that Micah and I weren’t even out of bed!  Yikes!
We’ve taken many walks to the library already.  Kahle is looking forward to Story Hour again.  I am so lucky to have the summer to be with our boys every day!   Micah is usually busy with his extended contract, but we make sure to stop by his office if we need a “daddy fix.”

After the boys got done inhaling tons of cotton candy at neighbor Brekyn’s 1st b-day party, we were invited to take a dip in our neighbor’s parents’ backyard pool.  The boys had a blast.  Kahle had fun squirting everyone with his new noodle sprayer, and Bodee loved practicing the motorboat.  That definitely made retired lifeguard daddy happy. It was relaxing to sit by the fire and wind down for the night.
We ate Sunday dinner with my family in George and got to see new baby Nicholas!  He looks just like brother Jack!  After lots of digging in Silly G’ma’s dirt outside, we walked on the George Trail.  Bodee and Kahle both fell asleep along the way.  Brad & Ashley stopped by before they headed back to SF.  Taylor still looks like a tiny peanut!  She got to stay at Brad’s parents’ while Brad & Ash had a weekend in the cities.
Well, we had two busy days of summer so far.  The next two and a half months will be just as crazy.  :)