Canning with my sister!

My sister & I kept with our tradition to can again this year.  Well, I really should say I canned with my sister and her husband, Pat... because Pat does A LOT of the work for us!  This year we decided to also can spaghetti sauce and I am in love with it!  I don't think I'll ever buy another jar in the store again.  It's such a fun time to spend with my sister and the whole family enjoys salsa & now spaghetti sauce for the year!  Can't wait to continue the tradition again next year. 

Alaska!

We just returned home from the most amazing vacation in Alaska!  There was not one day that went by where I was not thankful to have this opportunity, breathe in the beauty, & get to experience all that we did.  We took a family vote & this was all 5's favorite vacation ever!!!

We started off with a week on land where we toured Anchorage, Fairbanks, Denali National Park, & Seward.  Our highlights were walking the farmers market in Anchorage, seeing a moose walking right in the city of Anchorage, taking a dome train ride through the mountain range & seeing Mount McKinley (only 3% of tourists actually get to see it - you need a clear day), touring Denali National Park & seeing all the wildlife.  Once we got to Seward, that is where we boarded the cruise.

Next we spent a week on the Celebrity Millennium Cruise Ship.  While on the cruise we cruised by Hubbard Glacier and ported in Juneau, Skagway, Icy Strait Point, Ketchikan, & ended in Vancouver.  We did some amazing excursions during our ports.  In Juneau we went on a whale watching excursion where we saw breaching humpback whales & a pod of orca whales.  While in Skagway, we took a helicopter ride up on top of a glacier, got out & went dog sledding, & then took the helicopter ride back down.  In Ketchikan, we went on a bear excursion & got to experience a momma bear protect her 2 cubs from another bear that wanted to share food.  Then once we landed in Vancouver, we stayed an extra day & enjoyed Grouse Mountain, walked one of the largest suspension bridges over Capilano Canyon (450 ft long & 230 ft high), walked the Cliffwalk over the canyon as well, & hiked through the rain forest.  Vancouver is absolutely breath taking!

We took 971 pictures while on this vacation & yet none of them truly capture the "aw" of the moment.  And now I sit, trying to figure out which pictures to post & what are the best stories to share.  I could obviously go on & on, as we just had the most amazing time ever.  So, I am going to do my best to try to limit the amount of pictures posted, but here are my favorites:

 We saw this moose on the outskirts of Anchorage while taking a trolley ride through the city

 We took this picture while on the train ride, Mount McKinley is way out there

 Denali National Park

 We saw 13 caribou

 Our family in Denali National Park

 We saw 6 Grizzly Bear while in Denali National Park

 Bon Voyage!

 While on the cruise, we sailed near Hubbard Glacier

 Our family in front of the Glacier

 The kids on formal night

 Our family in Juneau

 Our whale watching excursion - we saw Humpback whales

 And we saw tons & tons of seals

 And we saw a pod of Orca whales

 In Skagway, we first took a helicopter ride on top of a glacier

 Then we went dog sledding

 In Ketchikan, we went on a bear excursion.  We were on a boat that brought us to many streams, where the bears feed.  Notice the bear in the back ground?

 Here's the Momma bear & her cubs.  We ended up seeing 16 black bear!

 Our family, on the cruise

 Docking in Vancouver

 The top of Grouse Mountain, notice the blue mountains in the middle of this picture?  I love it!

We walked the Capilano Suspension Bridge, over a canyon

 And we walked the cliff walk over the canyon

And time to head home.  We had 13 bags of luggage, all full to the 50 lb. max. weight limit!  

It was bittersweet as the vacation came to an end. On one hand, we were all having the times of our lives. The boys loved that they could eat pizza & ice cream at any time of the day, all day long. Lauryn & I were enjoying the shows & night life. Jim loved not stressing about work. Yet, we were all ready to get home after being gone so long & we all couldn't wait to see the dogs. And it was time for us all to try to get back on schedule before school starts up. Alaska is 3 hours earlier than MN, so we were eating dinner at 7:00 (10:00 here), going to bed at midnight (3:00AM here), and waking up at 9:00 (noon here). So we've been having lazy days at our house since returning!

Outer Banks - Corolla, NC

To celebrate my Mom's 60th Birthday, my parents took my whole family on vacation.  We chose the Outer Banks & rented a beach house that slept all our families comfortably.  We had such a wonderful time together, it was sad to see the week end.  The kids always love spending time with family & Sean loves to play with his cousins.  It was an added bonus to spend that time together at the ocean! 

I have so many pictures & stories to share, I'll try to wrap this up as best I can! 

We started off by heading to the airport as a group.  We were quite the production, having 10 kids, 14+ pieces of luggage, 3 car seats, & 2 strollers (one being a double stroller).  Here are all the cousins, in front of our aircraft:

Zach, Sean, Evan, Cade, Logan, Mara, Nora, Olivia, Sydney, & Lauryn

We stayed at a house that had a pool in the back yard, but we really enjoyed the ocean best.  The kids loved digging in the sand, jumping the waves, watching the crabs scamper along the beach, we enjoyed the breeze, and we all soaked up the sun.  Here are a few of our beach shots:

Our family, at the beach

Lauryn & I

The boys enjoyed digging: Evan, Zach, Cade, Logan, & Sean

Burying Sean

Burying Zach

Besides spending a lot of time at the beach, we did some sight seeing & tours.  We spent some time in Kitty Hawk, where we went to the Wright Brothers National Memorial.  The kids got to fly kites, we hiked Kill Devil Hill, & saw where the first flights took place.  We always love when we can teach the kids about history by experiencing it.  Here are a few pictures at The Wright Brothers Monument:

Jim, squeezing the Wright Brothers Monument

Our family at the Wright Brothers Monument

While being along the ocean, we also thought it would be fun to see one of the Light Houses.  We decided on going to Currituck Beach Lighthouse since it was only a few miles from where we were staying.  However, it was such a hot day, we chose to not go inside & hike to the top.  I am sure we missed out on a gorgeous view of the ocean. 

Currituck Beach Lighthouse

Another fun tour that we did was renting open jeeps to see the wild horses.  The kids thought this was great, driving in the open jeep.  There we were, driving along Highway 12, when all of a sudden the Highway becomes a beach.  So we were driving on a highway that did not have specific lanes, instead you found "grooves" in the sand to fit your wheels in so you didn't get stuck.  But this was the route we had to take to get to see the wild horses.  These horses just roam right in to people's back yards.  It was pretty cool! 

Sean in one of the Jeeps

Zach & Lauryn in another Jeep

Pat & Jim - Pat is driving us down the Highway/Beach

Our family, in front of a group of wild horses

And before we knew it, the week was over & it was time to head home.  I was sad to see the week end, as I always love spending time with my family.  I have to admit I even shed a few tears.  But I will always cherish the memories we made & am so happy we had this time together! 

The cousins in front of the beach house:

Sydney, Evan, Logan, Zach, Cade, Sean

Lauryn, Olivia, Mara, Nora

All us adults:

My Dad & Mom, Kelly & Kyle (my brother), Tyler (my brother)

Jim & I, Cori (my sister) & Pat

15th Anniversary

Jim & I celebrated our 15th Anniversary while in the Outer Banks.  Hard to believe that it has been 15 years already.  I am lucky enough to say that I married my best friend & today, I still lean on him more than ever!  He is an amazing husband, wonderful with our kids, & the love of my life.  I am so thankful for the life we have created together. 

We had a wonderful time celebrating our special day.  We started with the kids by hang gliding.  It was so much fun!  First we had to hike quite a distance up sand dunes with burning hot sand.  We were advised to be careful to not get blisters on the bottoms of our feet.  The kids put their socks on because the sand did get pretty hot.  I wasn't all that crazy then about having to lay down in the sand to get started.  I HATE being dirty.  But it was well worth it.  We did 5 runs each & on each one we improved our skills little by little. 

Here are a few pictures:

Lauryn

Zach

Sean

The best was when Sean was SO tired from walking up the hill after the first run.  One of the other instructors helped him out after the 2nd run & carried him up the hill.  I think it made Sean's day! 

We had so much fun!

The kids & our instructor

Then later that evening, Jim & I left the kids and went out for dinner & drinks.  It was nice to have that time together.  Dinner was wonderful & I had such a fun day.  Every year we take a picture of us on our actual Anniversary (it's always fun to see how much we have changed - and AGED!).  So here we are in 2011:

4th of July Weekend

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend, full of baseball, strawberry picking, family, friends, good food, laughs, fireworks, swimming, sun...  The list could go on & on!  We started out Friday by eating dinner out and heading to the Twins game.  We were excited to watch the Twins play the Brewers again, since the previous weekend we watched them get beat (while in Milwaukee).  However, once we got there, we had a 2 hour rain delay.  So the game didn't even start until 9:15.  Then we watched the fireworks display after the game & didn't get home until after midnight. 

The kids, before the bad weather set in

The bad weather rolled in fast

The next morning we were up early & off to Bauer Berry Farms, where we picked 2 full boxes of strawberries.  I was hoping we didn't buy too many, but they were pretty much all gone by the end of the weekend.  If any of you know of Zach's love for berries - you sure understand why they didn't last long in our house!  But we had fresh strawberries on the table every day, I blended some & made vodka slush (yum!), we made smoothies, and desserts.  We sure enjoyed them!  I think next year we'll get 2 boxes full again.  Who doesn't love fresh berries?

Lauryn

The boys

Our take home berries

Later that morning, my sister & her family, and my Mom & Dad came to enjoy swimming & a BBQ.  I think the kids were in the pool for a good 7 hours.  It's always enjoyable to spend that time with family! 

Logan, Nora, Sean, & Cade

Lauryn & my Mom

On Monday, the 4th of July, we invited some friends over to celebrate.  The kids always enjoy having their friends here.  We love to hang out, swim, enjoy the sun, BBQ, & have our own little fireworks display. 

Here are the boys in their traditional picture:

Jack, Luke, Nick, Sean, Zach, Adam

(Funny...  all 4 letter names!)

Lauryn, blowing bubbles