Family Pictures

Here are our latest family pictures taken by the wonderful Larry Gantner (friend of ours from Pinewood). If you want to view, to go http://www.squibnocketphotography.com/ then click on "View and Order", you will then click on "The Adolphson Family" and enter my email address anneadolphson@yahoo.com.

Stay-cation

This past weekend was the teacher-loved MEA weekend. This is the first break teachers are given since the beginning of school, and as all educators know, September (and sometimes January) are the longest months of the school year...so this break is very much looked forward to.

We had big plans to go up north to visit our family. We were going to leave on Thursday morning, and head up to East Grand Forks to spend a few days with my dad (AKA Boppa), and then head even further north to spend the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Adolphson (AKA Grandma Ju Ju and Grandpa Doo-aine). But, on Wednesday morning, Ella woke up with a low-grade fever, so we decided that we were going to stay put.

We were happy to see that even though Ella was under the weather, she still wanted to play and had no problems eating and drinking a lot...of course I was freaking out because I thought she might have the dreaded H1N1...but I don't think that was the case. :) I continued to the a "germ-nazi" and insisted on obsessive hand washing for ALL and even made Jocie and Carl change clothes immediately upon entering the house from school, so nobody else (knock on wood) has gotten sick.

We were all a little bummed because we were looking forward to seeing grandparents, but we still wanted to have a fun weekend. So we decided to do some fun things at home. Here were some of the highlights:

Thursday night - Family Movie Night - rented "Monsters vs. Aliens" popped a lot of popcorn, snacked on Junior Mints and Sour Patch Kids, and washed it all down with Coke and Fanta. We also moved all the furniture in the living room so it was right in front of the TV and turned off all of the lights so we had the real "theater" experience.

Friday - Trip to St. Cloud to shop for a winter coat for Jocie and then onto Granite City for dinner. After dinner, we returned home to watch the Sioux hockey team destroy the Gophers (4 - 0)! Sioux, yeah, yeah!

Saturday - After a morning workout (big commodity for mom) Jocie and I headed to the Mall of America for a little Jocie/mommy outing. We had a blast!!! Lunch at the big food court, then to the American Girl store where jocie got to spend a $50 gift card, then to DSW where she got to pick out 2 new pairs of shoes, then decided to grab some Cold Stone ice cream for an afternoon snack :). Then onto evening Mass. All-in-all fabulous day!

Sunday - The girls re-cooped a little at home, while Carl fished with a buddy all afternoon.

Even though we had looked forward to going home, we had a wonderful weekend just hanging out together!! We need to have "stay-cations" more often!!

Proud Mama

This past Saturday was the annual Medtronic Twin Cities Kids Marathon. This is the 5th year we have been partaking in the running festivities. I coach a running club at Pinewood, and these races are always our culminating event. Even though it was chilly and rainy, the kids showed up with big smiles ready to run! In the years past, Jocie has run the 1/2 mile race, then decided to upgrade to the 1 mile race, and this year took the big leap to the 5K race! I was super excited for her to do this because 1) she is a fun running partner 2) how awesome is it to run a 5K when you are 10 years old!! I was 26 when I ran my first 5K!! Although she was a little nervous about the run, she was up for the challenge.

Jocie was already a running club member, but she wanted to do a little extra training at home with me. So we started jogging about 2 weeks before school started. It was really good for us to have some "mom and Jocie" time again. Since Ella has been born and now Claire, that time has been a little more limited. So it was really fun to just hang out!

During the race, she told me a few times that she was really getting tired....but she kept pushing herself and finished the race without walking!!! Not only did she not walk, but she sprinted the last 50 yards! It was such a cool feeling crossing the finish line with her! I told her that when I was her age, I competed in a 1 mile race and had to walk during that race!! She felt much better after that story. After the race she told me that "she felt like she was on top of the world"! She did awesome and I'm so proud of her!

Joc and I after the 5K

All of the 5Kers

All of the 1/2 mile and 1 mile runners

Give me some real food!

Claire has started to understand what happens at the kitchen table. Whenever we eat a meal, we always pull Claire up to the table so we can "eat like a family". She has started to copy some of our eating behavior...observe

(Just click on the play -arrow- button on the video picture below)

She could be telling me that she wants to eat too! She is probably sick of just sitting there watching us eat...she wants to eat too! Even though it looks like she's got this chewing thing down, she will still have to wait a few months before she can eat any "real" food...sorry Claire!

Wedding Bash!

This past weekend, we celebrated the marriage of Keith and Katie Adolphson. The wedding took place at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Lino Lakes. The ceremony was absolutely gorgeous, mainly because the bride was absolutely stunning in her gown (way to go Keith!!). The whole family was involved in the wedding; Carl was a groomsman, I read during the ceremony, Jocie handed our programs, and Ella was the flower girl. We were very honored to be included in their special day!

After the ceremony, we were all off to the reception at the Middland Hills Country Club in Roseville. When we arrived, most of us enjoyed the beautiful weather out on the patio where we enjoyed awesome views of the golf course. We then sat down for a great meal and some entertaining speeches.

(Joc was excited that Daysha could come too!)

When it was time to dance, many people hit the dance floor and didn't leave until the wee hours of the morning! The girls had a great time getting their grove on...but were a little upset when it was time for them to go home with Boppa and Grandma Barb at 10:30.

We are all so excited to have Katie as the newest part of our family. She is such a sweetheart, and most importantly, everyone can see that she makes Keith very, very happy! We hope they have a great time in Maui this week :)

Jocie's First Day of School

Well, Jocie is officially a fifth grader!! I cannot believe it...just yesterday I was sending her off to kindergarten, and now she rules the school!

Claire was in a back-to-school mood also! She was brushing up on some reading on the morning of the first day of school.

One of Jocie's many fifth grade activities is school patrol. Here she is "on-duty" on the very first day of school. Look how important she looks! Driver's and pedestrians beware!

Some other school patrol members directing me away from this exit! Don't mess with this crew, they mean business!

Next year Ella will be starting kindergarten while Joice heads off to the middle school (big gulp!)..time is going MUCH too fast!

Bathing Suit Beauties

A few weeks ago, we wanted to enjoy a hot sunny day. Jocie was already at camp swimming and canoeing, and Ella, Claire and I wanted to get in on some of the summer action. We could have tried to go to the beach, but with Claire being so little, I didn't think that would be the smartest decision. So I turned on the sprinkler in the back yard, and dug the baby pool out of the shed and we had our own little "ghetto fabulous" summer afternoon :) Claire loves the water, so I knew she would like it. Ella also had a great time running through the sprinkler and holding Claire in the pool. Next summer we will finally be able to go back to the beach and enjoy summer the way it's supposed to be enjoyed...on an over-crowed beach with sand in our swim suits!

Notice the spit-up on her lip and then on her foot...i caught her right after one of her MANY barfing sessions :)