Welcome Lauren!

Our friends Jared, Nicole and their daughter Lauren visited this weekend to celebrate and participate in a wedding. They stayed with us so we got lots of kid time together. Lauren is just over a year old and happens to love blueberries. Here is Drew hand selecting blueberries and passing them to Lauren.

Lauren was a big fan of Drew's art work (you see behind them on the wall) - it was being torn down and put up a lot. Lauren was also a big fan of the new toys to play with. How did she manage to find all of Drew's favorite things?

Dane County Fair

The Dane County Fair was last week so Drew, Grandma Diane and I headed over. We saw all the animals (cows, horses, chickens, goats, donkeys, pigmy goats, etc.) and then had a dinner of fried foods. Then the very special surprise was that Drew is greater than 36 inches tall so he got to go on rides. Some rides were accompanied with me and others were on his own. Either way, he had a blast and Diane and I were having a great time just watching. (Before becoming a parent I never understood how much fun it is watching others have fun.) Topping off the evening was a trip to the ice cream tent.

Drew was talking to this rooster in proper rooster talk.

Hmm, does anyone recognize that hand hygiene kiosk???

Quesadilla Cook Off

So at some point I was talking to Scott about cooking and he said "Oh, I make the best quesadillas in the world" to which I replied "That's not possible because I make the best quesadillas in the world." And thus the cook off was born. All the secret ingredients made their way into my kitchen and we squared off. The result was that the kids ate plain old cheese quesadillas and the adults feasted on the two best recipes for quesadillas in the world.

Although no pictures were taken of the actual feast, we did get this one of Drew and Ava sitting in the hammock chair before dinner. You're probably wondering if Ava is our only friend because she is all over this blog, and really, no one else is. Well - isn't that the sad case of being two busy working parents with no one to hang out with.

Up North

The weekend of the 4th we went to St. Germain, WI for a weekend with Grandma and Da at the cabin. Drew learned all sorts of new things, like how to shuck corn. And Erik and I learned that Drew can hold his bladder (for now) for the entire length of the trip so that we he actually might sometime be potty trained, we can make it without stopping. (maybe?) Since WalMart doesn't count, I got absolute zero shopping time in this trip. (Hmm, will have to make up for that some other way, like a trip to Zappos later.)

Drew woke up with a fever Monday morning - and then was ok so who knows what that was all about. Drew totally loved hanging out with Joe and Pat and Cathy (who doesn't?). Drew totally loves Spangs pizza (who doesn't?)

I drank beer and we got to hang with Uncle Ted. What could be better except maybe a picture of us with Uncle Ted to prove that we were actually together? No dice.

Here are some other pictures to prove that we were having fun.

The first thing we did when we got there was feed the chippies and deer.

Drew also got to drive the boat - yes all by himself. The result of this was very little straight line movement.

Super cool new playground!

Here we are roasting marshmallows and tasting a first ever campfire smore. Why the skeptical look? It was delicious!

Shucking corn.

La creme de la creme - breakfast at Paul Bunyans!

Yikes! 4th of July pics!

OK, a little late on these - especially if you read Ava's blog too (ahem, ERIN). Our neighborhood does a fun 4th of July parade. The kids dress up wagons, bikes, skateboards and themselves and make their way down three city blocks to free popcicles, a jumpy castle, a fire truck and other fun things. So, we dressed up again and got out in the sun.