Nebraska, Missouri, and South Dakota

Dave had the week off and we took advantage of every single moment. 

I drove down to Omaha last Friday evening as one of my BFFs from college was flying in late and had to overnight there before going to her family's lake home in Nebraska. I went early and did a bit of shopping before picking her up at 11pm from the airport. We didn't waste a minute and went directly to the Old Market for wine and apps before returning to our hotel. We spent Saturday morning wandering around the city, reminiscing about our old Creighton days and doing a bit of shopping before I returned to Sioux Falls. We had a really great time together, and the only thing we will change next time is that she will arrive about 5 hours sooner ;). I quickly unpacked and repacked for another trip on Sunday.

The four of us took our second family flight, this time it was to Missouri to visit my friend, Stacy and her family. We spent two nights in St. Louis and the other two at her family's river home near Bourbon, MO. What an adventure. All of the kids played so well together. We ate more than I have in months and enjoyed hot afternoons on the jungle gym and even spent some time on the river. Believe it or not, Sully had his first float trip with Dave. I was back managing Greta (who, by the way, started pulling herself up on this trip!!), and by the sounds of it Sully was no small task. However, by the time they arrived back at home base, he seemed to be loving it. He is going to be such a good little outdoorsman, I love it. We really had a great time and can't wait until our adventure again next year. A new tradition was born. Thanks to Stacy and her family for their hospitality. We literally had our needs met before we even realized they were needs. They are amazing people. 

We returned so Dave could work on Friday and then spent most of the weekend talking all things house...How could I forget, we have A/C upstairs! Yes, it took twice as long as expected, but now that its done, we are ok with that. We came home to two 10 foot deep holes in our front lawn. Egress window digging has begun! We are excited to see some progress around here. 

Becky and I in Omaha. 

Sully swinging in St Louis.

Checking out Grandpa Tom's sunflowers. 

GG!

Dave and Sully after their float trip on the
Miramac River. 

We stopped in Sullivan, MO for a photo op, Sully
was more interested in running around :). 

First annual Munters Adventure Week. 

Kiddos

High fives in the Chicago Airport play place. 

The only thing you can't see here is that Dave is
wearing Greta on the front. More airport fun. 

Roughing it and someone got some bling!

We gave Dave a tent for his birthday and the rest of any camping supplies you may need for Father's Day the following month. Ever since, he has been plotting the first perfect camping experience with Sully. June was way too wet and busy, as was the early part of July. So they finally, finally go to camp this last Saturday.

Pitching the tent was hilarious. The kids were so excited with the new 'toy' in the yard. They were crawling in and out and all over each other. Needless to say, this was kind of a handicap for Dave, the mission was ultimately accomplished.

We came in to put Greta down and to watch some TV with Sully until about 9 when Dave was ready to take him out to read stories and head to bed. Let me set the scene: a very muggy and humid night, a full (extra bright) moon, lots of bugs, Hot Harley Nights going on downtown (about one mile from us), an AC/DC cover band squealing until 11:30 (also downtown), and a really excited, curious, rambunctious two year old. Wow, I had it easy compared to Dave. We kept in touch via text throughout the night. I was inside doing laundry and other things and would pop out to the deck off our bedroom every half hour or so. It never failed, I would hear giggles and squeeks, every time, until about 11:30. I texted Dave numerous times giving him the 'ok' to come back in whenever. He would reply and say how great they were doing, and how Sully was in great spirits. It's no secret that Dave has more patients than I do, but if there was ever any question, the camping experience proves it. I would have thrown in the towel long before Dave did.

Once Dave was able to get Sully to fall asleep, he did great except for one short period at 3am when we jumped up to point out the moon. Dave acknowledged it and then snuggled him in. They came in around 7:30 for breakfast, and just like that, they are now campers. Dave is anxious to do it again, lucky for me :).

In other (super, great, awesome) news, my older sister, Liz got engaged on Sunday evening! She has the kindest heart and best sense of humor and I'm excited that she has met her match. She and Matt plan to get married next summer. Congrats, guys! I smile just thinking of you two.

Tent assembly with the help of Sully and Greta. 

Greta Girl trying it out. 

Sully, excited for what lies ahead. 

Story time in the tent. 

Matt and Liz, congrats! 

A two year old's mama.

Sully is the sweetest boy around, the older he gets, the more fun he seems. Ever since he has been here, we have loved and have found fun in every stage in his life. Its amazing how one little being can bring so much to our lives, and so much of it we didn't know we were missing.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been jotting things down that I wanted to capture about this phase in our/his life, so here they are, in no particular order.

The battle to clip his toe nails. He squirms, screams/giggles like crazy. And when I do finally get a hold of his feet, I am surprised by how fat, sweaty and stinky they are. I blame the hand me down sandals from Isaac ;).

The quivering lip, pouty face, and the deep breaths he takes when trying to hold back tears while saying "bye bye" to dada as he leaves for work. And then the tears that finally get the best of him, but all is good in the world when offered a snack.

When he sees anything he wants me to see, he yells, "mu maa!" with delight. It is the sweetest word in all of this world. Fortunately he says it when he sees something as minor as a fly and as major as a train, so I get to hear it numerous times each day.

Gosh, I wish I had jotted down more!

Ah-ha! I thought of another one last evening as I was putting on my jacket. I reached in my pocket to see what was in there, and there it was, the little airplane I have for those 'just in case' moments. In every one of my jacket pockets I have either a matchbox car or an airplane. Every time I reach in and my hand bumps into it, I smile.

Greta and Sully make life so worth living.

'Up!' Thanks, Megan and Chris for the cool balloons! 

Winding down for naps. 

Fourth of July fun with daddy. 

Girls go South. Boys go West.

Dave had the week following Father's Day off, so we parted ways half way through the week. Dave and Sully went to Helena, MT to visit a friend of Dave's and Greta and I went to St. Louis to spend some time with Stacy and her family. We were both busy, but in different ways. Sully traveled like a champ, although resisted things in the airplane, like his seatbelt. No big deal (yeah right). They had a couple of long travel days, but overall had a great time doing things like deer watching, dog tormenting, carousel riding, toy shopping and treat eating. Its the beginning of a beautiful thing. Dave has waited a long time for his very own travel buddy and it turns out Sully is just as crazy about Dave as Dave is about Sully, so they are a perfect match. When they arrived home (at 11:30pm), one of the first things Dave said to me was, 'I can't wait, Im taking him to Patagonia as soon as he turns 7!'.

Greta was also a happy traveler, although much busier than our last trip in March. Turns out this mobility thing changes things a bit. She was squirmy and wiggily and wasn't overly thrilled with being on my lap on any of the flights. Not to mention the joy of getting a middle seat between two large men while I'm still nursing. My modesty is about gone, but we survived. We had a really nice visit with the Winters family. The kids were so excited to see Greta and she loved to watch them play. Greta and Joe are nearly the same size, so that was fun, too.

We all returned last Saturday and spent Sunday trying to catch up with each other and with laundry before Dave went back to work on Monday. We were so thankful to be able to do important things to each of us, and thankful to be together again after our trips.

Candy shopping with John.

Watching the deer. 

Carousel ride. 

Killing three hours in the airport by riding moving walkways. 

Chewing the flight safety literature. Before you judge my
(lack of) parenting skills for allowing this, please
consider that I was desperate for her to be content, and
this was the only way to achieve that :).

Snuggles. 

Pretty Greta girl, showing off her 8(!!!) teeth. 

Family time at the park. 

Father's Day and an army crawler.

We had a nice Father's Day weekend. We had a few activities to attend, but for the most part, it was just us, which was just what we needed. On Saturday we went to a gender reveal party for Amy and Kyle and found out there will be a baby GIRL Schock in November. We are thrilled for them. On Sunday we went to church, came home for an exciting brunch of burnt (oops) pancakes and a broken dish (Greta Girl got ahold of one :)). Pretty chaotic around here, but that's status quo, we would't want it any other way. Somewhere between brunch and naps, Greta discovered the concept of movement. Yes, thats right, she is army crawling. She is so sweet and so active, and the proud owner of 8 teeth! They wont stop coming. Let the fun begin! Lastly, we celebrated with my dad at a Connelly family picnic. It was a gorgeous day for Dave. We are so lucky to have such a great guy in our lives.

Sully found the only puddle around.

Grandma Banana and Grandpa Paul with the Grandkids. 

Family photo.

He shoots, he scores! Thanks, Jeff :). 

Bedtime stories and wiggles. 

Daddy and Greta girl. 

Celebrating Flag Day.

Jeff turns 40 and other recent happenings.

We have had a full and fun week around here, like most summers, we are busy and usually on the go. I look forward to quiet week nights at home, but love the busyness of time spent with friends and family.

We spent Saturday evening in Okoboji celebrating Jeff's 40th birthday. Maggie had organized a party boat for the night, so Dave and I had lined up a sitter (actually two of them) to stay with the kids. It was our first night away from Greta, so we had a little anxiety as expected. The party was really fun, about 40 people had made the trip over. The weather had almost worked out for the celebration, but it was just too windy and cold to hang by the water, so it was moved to the garage. The boat picked us up at 8pm from the Oliver household and things were smooth sailing until we got a call from our sitter saying there was a bat in the house. Yes, another bat. The kids were in bed, safe and sound, but the bat had scared the sitters outside. I would have been out there, too had I been home. Ill never forget those feelings from two years ago when the bats arrived at the old house. My brother, Sam and Lauren and Elliot came over to scope things out and were not successful with locating the bat so the girls just slept with every light on. We carried on at the party and had a great time.

We came home the following afternoon and when we went to bed last night, sure enough, the bat arrived. He swooped into our room and I simply laid back and pulled the sheets over my head while Dave took a laundry basket and nearly destroyed most of our room (knocking over tables, almost knocking the light off the ceiling, etc.). He claims he was cool and calm, but I'm here to tell you, his voice was trembling and there were a lot of four letter words dropped, all in whisper though, as he didn't want to wake the kids (smart man). He did catch him and we were able to release him. The true test will be tonight. Hopefully there was only one, if not, we will need to take further action.

Im not sure what is to blame for its arrival. The previous owner never had bats, so its hard to tell if he got in through a door or if it has anything to do with the work in the attic. The HVAC people are going to take a good look around to see if they see any signs. In other construction news, Greta's ceiling is leaking. It has been raining here quite a bit and something gave in there. Fortunately its good timing. The contractor is going to scope things out and hopefully find the trouble spot. Speaking of wet weather, we had a tornado warning here last week, too. The four of us went down to the gutted basement and sat on a blanket for about an hour. Fortunately there were no tornados, but it was quite scary.

We are looking forward to a quiet week and weekend ahead :).

Puppet show with Anna and Maggie. 

Sibling pic on the booze cruise.

Dave and I in Okoboji.

Birthday boy and his bride. 

Jumping in puddles is more fun without rain boots. 

Sully, 2 years and Greta, 7 mos. 

Construction Update.

We officially started construction here on 5/27 and it has been busy, to say the least. I went in to it thinking it would be tolerable, which it is until nap time becomes a factor. I initially thought I would go out to Maggie's, but for some reason, that is not at all conducive to Greta's sleep (Sully does just fine). So I thought I would try it here this week. The HVAC people also happened to start this week which has required them to be in every bedroom cutting holes in the ceiling. Not only is it noisy, its dusty as heck. We also had yard workers here removing more rock, so there was no where to go for quiet, for any of us, not even Kenzie. We ended up going to my parents' house which is so quiet and has plenty of space, that may be the best option for us. The construction woes are upon us. No one showed up today (yay!?!, Im torn, its so peaceful, but lets keep moving!,) so we were able to take naps here.

We have had most of the rock taken out of the back, along with relocating one or two trees, as well as removing a stone walkway in order to make way for sod which will be here next week. We are trying to maximize green space back there. Im sure Ill end up with landscaping in 20 years, but for now, we are excited to have space to run and play. It is slowly transforming to what we had visioned.

The basement is gutted. All that remains are floor tiles and wrapped pipes that contain asbestos. The abatement begins next week, so once that is behind us, hopefully the rebuilding process will begin. The attic is also under construction as we are having a HVAC unit installed up there and one in the basement (the house requires two units in order to prevent huge soffits from taking over the character of the home). I touched earlier on the holes in the ceiling (14 to be exact on the second level). Hopefully they come today to measure duct work and then can wrap up the attic portion of the project. We were (kind of) promised air conditioning on the second level by July 1st, so they have plenty of time...

Thats the progress for now. Ill post a couple of photos from the basement portion of the project (the large water spot in the middle is from the boiler, which they are draining).

Before, standing in the NE corner of the room. 

After (I had actually been near that yellow wall on the left in the
'before' photo). I was able to gain 6 or so feet with that wall out. 

Before in the SE corner of the room.

After in the SE corner of the room.

Before, SW corner of the basement. 

After, SW corner of the basement.