Photo Catch-Up

My last couple of posts have been from my ipod, where I don't have access to most of our photos--so here's a little catch-up of photos from things mentioned in our last few posts:

Simon, ready for his first day of preschool

Simon also got to start Sunday School this fall--all the 3 year olds get a "bible bag" to color...some make a few strokes and are done, but as you can see, Simon was the last little kid there--he colored every inch!

Thanks to some generous overnight babysitting by Grandma & Grandpa, and free lodging in Andy's Aunt & Uncle's cabin, Andy and Jess were able to get away for two nights to celebrate their 7th anniversary, at the end of August

We found a lovely Italian-Persian-Greek-and-American fare restaurant!

Andy helped Jess do a little fishing from the dock while at the cabin!

These photos are from our first letterboxing adventure--we started off with a picnic.

Simon and Andy found the letterbox, just slightly off the trail

And Jess supervised the stamping effort (if you don't know much about letterboxing, check out : 

http://www.letterboxing.org/ )

 Here's our first stamp in a logbook!

 This is the second one we've found--just a couple weekends later.

This particular letterbox we had seen before, as Jen, Nathan & family had found it on one of their visits. We took some time to flip through the logbook, and found their stamp, dated 7-20-2010!

This is one of many attempts we've had to replicate an adorable photo of Andy & Peter in their jammies on the back of a sofa--this one was actually spontaneous, or started out that way (then we made them stay there to try and get a photo with both looking at the camera).

Whenever Andy has time on a Monday, he and the boys try to visit Great-Grandpa Hubert & Great-Grandma Audrey in Red Wing.

Here we are in the CROP walk!

Both boys riding...

And Andy doing double duty with both boys "riding"!

That's all for now!

Walking, planting, letterboxing...

We wanted to thank everyone who sponsored us in the CROP walk, which was this past Sunday. We walked the whole way--Theodore was surprisingly content in the stroller (with a 45 min nap in the middle, which helped!), and Simon was...well, less content. Our pace varied quite a bit depending on Simon's mood--he wanted to walk, but was slow and got bored/tired pretty quickly. So he rotated between walking, riding in the stroller, and riding on Daddy's shoulders. All in all it went very well, and we were proud to have raised $330.25 to fight hunger--so thank you everyone!

We have been trying to get outside to enjoy the nice weather (while it lasts), especially on those rare occasions when all four of is are able to spend some time together. The past few weekends we've been able to get outside as a family--finding our first two letterboxes (thanks to Jen, Nathan, Ellie, and Ben for getting us started!), and just today planting some trees in the neighborhood. Well, Andy and Simon helped plant trees, while Jess & Theodore played at a nearby playground. They got these spectacular tie-dye shirts, which Simon was VERY excited about, as green is his favorite color.

Here's hoping all of you are finding ways to get outside and enjoy the weather too!

Our Preschooler

It's official, we have a preschooler in the house!

Simon is truly enjoying his first year of preschool. He goes two mornings a week. Every day after signing in, the kids practice writing their names on little dry erase boards--something that has Simon pause his first day (there were almost, but not quite, tears). And just a couple weeks later, look how proud he is of the excellent job he did writing "Simon"!