Trip to Minnesota

WARNING....this is a long one.

And so the trip begins......

Addy and Lu Lu stretching their legs at the gas station after the first half of the car ride.

Lu Lu, Addy and Johnny holding hands so they would stay close to the trucks and not wonder off.

Cuties!

Great Grandpa Hayes holding Susanna.

The girls playing with tonka trucks while we are waiting for Roger to get home to surprise him.

Gettin down to business.

Still waiting for Roger....

.....and waiting some more.

The boys were out by the road on the look out.

Addy munching on an apple with Vika.

Katie took the kids on a tour of the place in the wagon. This is them walking back to all of us.

John and Lu were so cute with the flowers Katie put in their hair and shoes.

Addy with Great Grandma Hayes.....still munching on that apple.

We thought Roger was getting home at 4pm so we were all waiting for him in the driveway. He ended up not getting home til 6:30pm. Many people drove by wondering what in the world we were doing. Roger was pretty surprised that we were there and that the boys had planned a trip to the Boundary Waters. I got a video but I don't think it will play. Josh took all the pictures on their trip so I don't have any to post. When they post the pictures on their blog I will put up a link on ours if you would like to see them.

The guys ended up coming home a day early. Friday after we came home from the zoo we were sitting around feeding the kids and unpacking. The phone rang. Jokingly I said "what if that is the guys calling to say, 'surprise! We are coming home early.' " And guess who it was.....Josh calling to tell us they would be home a day early. I so called it! :-)

The following pictures are what the ladies and children were up to while the guys were gone. You will see when the guys get home (they will be in the pictures :-). 

Before they left, the guys brought down a play tool bench set for the kids to play with. It was a hit!

Susanna giving smiles to Grandpa before going to bed.

Grandma with the two little babies.

Addy and Lu playing together.....they didn't play this nice together all the time ;-).

Playing with cars and destroying grandma's living room :-).

Susanna was helping Katie sort her pictures to be put into albums.

Cutie Pie!

On our way to drop the three older kids (John, Addy, and Olue) off with Grandma and Grandpa Hayes while we went to Kristina's volleyball game. Here is Susanna, Olue and Jeremiah in the front seat. We traveled around in the Loegering's 15 passenger van.....only one seat was open! I'm sure we looked like a daycare unloading when we all got out. When the guys got home Jake asked how we fit all the car seats and strollers in the van. I told him we engineered it just right. He said "how can that be if all the engineers were gone?" I said "we had four domestic engineers!" :-)

Kristina playing.....it is hard to tell which one she is.

She is the one with black arms with both arms up. They won their game and the tournament they had two days later. Good luck with the rest of your season Kristina!

The ones that went to the game......minus me (taking the picture).

Off to the Zoo!

Strollers ready to go!

The kids are so cute!

Looking at the fish.

Walking through the tropical plants.....it was so hot in there!

Addy looking at some big fish.

You can kinda see the big fish.

This is a good one of Johnny and the fish.

There was an ugly snake in here.....don't worry the top had plastic or some sort of glass on it.

Some interesting looking geese.

Johnny looking at the geese and ducks.

Addy and Olue

Addy on the turtle.

Everyone that went to the zoo....minus me, Sue, Christine and the two babies.

Shoulder ride.

The lions eating their once a month chunk of meat on a bone. They get other stuff to eat also. But, it was cool to be there the one day this month to see them get that.

The lioness eating her chunk.

Giraffe.

It was nice to have help pushing all the strollers and taking care of the kids.

Another group picture.

Addy and I :-).

Zebra.....it is sad to see all the animals caged up with so little room to roam.

Vika holding Addy to get a better look.

Even though these are all native flowers and plants it was still a beautiful sight!

Everything was so big!

Here we are where there are plants that most of us have as house plants.....although these ones were much much bigger! It was fun picking out plants that were just like ones we have at home....except all of ours were miniature compared to these! Josiah and Kirill are looking at the fish in the pond.

A St. Francis statue over looking the pond. I thought that was neat.

Addy and Johnny looking at the fish on the other side of the pond from Josiah and Kirill.

Back from the Zoo and now playing outside.

Sue catching Addy on the slide.

Tolya pushing Lu Lu on the swing.

Lu and Josiah swinging together.

Tolya pushing Johnny on the swing.

Vika pulling Addy in the wagon.

Jeremiah sleeping.....this is what he did most of the week :-).

Josiah's Birthday Cake

Kristina, Katie, Christine and I collectively constructed a surprise tractor cake. Christine and I helped with engineering the cake. Katie and Kristina did the baking, actual construction and decorating.

Katie and Kristina starting to put the tractor together.

They made a white cake with green food coloring.

Frosting the windows....sorry I forgot to get a "finished" product picture. It looked pretty sweet though.

Measuring for the back wheels, which were made out of chocolate cake.

Saturday morning we had eggs, sausage and pancakes over the fire. Here are the three main cooks- Jake, Josh and Roger. The pancakes were sooo good I didn't even put syrup on them!

Yummy!

Later we went for a walk around their property. Roger carrying Addy around.

It was a beautiful day!

Addy and Johnny having fun on their uncles' shoulders.

Petting the goats.

Addy loved the goats.

Johnny did too.

The goat decided it had had enough......

.......so Addy decided to see if she could pet the cows.

Addy and Lu holding hands.....so cute. They walked all the way down the pathway you see in the previous picture holding hands!

Susanna and mommy

The boys playing football.....Jake going for the ball.

Jake is now trying to get it from Johnny.

Jake caught the ball.

And then he falls down trying to catch the ball....he's all tuckered out!

Susanna was very excited that G. Grandpa Hayes was holding her.

She loved touching his whiskers.

Happy Birthday Josiah! We celebrated Josiah's birthday on Saturday with Sue's family there too.

Addy got an early birthday present from G. Grandma and Grandpa Hayes.

A little baby doll that you can feed.....she loves it! It was pretty hilarious because Addy is wearing watermelon pjs and the doll had a watermelon outfit too!

On the drive home Addy fell asleep playing with her new baby doll.....so precious!

Well, we are all very sick here. Addy started getting sick on Friday so she is beginning to get over it. The rest of us (Jake, Susanna and I) are right in the middle of our sickness. We mostly have bad colds but I had a stomach flu also all of Monday and Tuesday. I feel a lot better this morning. It is no fun having sick children!

Our garden is definitely slowing down now. All we have left in it is tomatoes, peppers, squash, pumpkins, root veggies, celery, onions, and popcorn. We did 24 pints of pizza sauce yesterday and today I am doing some spaghetti sauce. We also need to can the pears and freeze more celery, peppers and onions. Too much to do, especially when you are not feeling well!

Well, I better go attend to my sick children :-(.