2nd Birthday - Nautical Style

We had fun celebrating little man turning two in July!  A big thank you to Brian's family for making the trip up from Iowa for the party.  We started with brunch at our house and presents galore.  Then we headed out to Lake Minnetonka for a boat cruise on Lady of the Lakes.  BYOB and food worked pretty slick.  It was crazy hot out - thanks to the Woods & Davis Fam for being such troopers and making the day so special for E!   After the boat ride we went on a quick trolley ride in Excelsior.  Lucky little man got great gifts - he is now the proud of owner of pretty much the entire Thomas the Train character set ;)

Aunt Amy to the Rescue!

Brian's sister drove up from Iowa a couple days early before Ethan's birthday party to keep E and I company the last few days of Brian's long work trip.  So fun to have a visitor and E was in heaven.  He played hooky from daycare on Thursday to spend all day with Amy and I had Friday off so we went to the MN Zoo for the first time.  The monorail and tractor rides might have been more popular than the animals but it was a fun day!   So grateful to have an extra hand - we love you Aunt Amy!

Summer Random

Men in Plaid

They didn't even plan it but they sure wear a polo and plaid shorts well :)

Maple Grove Days

Bus riding is serious business!

My little fireman

Such a big boy - he wanted his own seat on the ride back to the car

E and I checked out our first Maple Grove Days the weekend Brian was in NY.  It was quite the town festival!  It was hot hot hot - 100 + degrees so we only stayed for a little while but had a good time.  Riding the shuttle bus in between activities was by far the highlight for E and I liked it because it was air conditioned.  I didn't bring the stroller as I couldn't haul both E and our big stroller on the bus by myself.  Big mistake - had to carry E everywhere so we were a hot sweaty mess.  I went and bought an lightweight stroller with a carrying strap the next day ;)  The big trucks and petting zoo were hits! Looking forward to the festivities again next year!

1-2-8

This was taken in July.  Now in December he has 1-3 and 7-10 down pat but skips 4-6.  Ironically, he can count from 1-10 in Spanish perfectly.  Silly boy!

Twinkle Twinkle

ABCs

Brian had to spend 2 weeks straight in Rochester, NY for work training in July.  They didn't even fly him home over the weekend which was ridiculous in my opinion.  It was a long couple weeks but E was a great little buddy and Brian did really well in his class.  We sent daddy lots of videos while he was gone -we sure missed him!  E picked up the ABCs pretty quick - he's just missing a few letters in the middle ;)

Reading in the Boat Bed

Snack/Dog Catcher