Cousin Erin came to town!

We have had a great week playing with Erin and showing her around town. With Emma and Ian in swim lessons, we have spent a lot of time at the pool. Afterwards, everyone enjoyed popsicles as a special treat



We also took a trip up to our favorite cupcake store for some treats, too



On Saturday, we went into San Francisco for some adventures. First we grabbed a quick lunch from one of the street vendors.



Then we headed off to the Aquarium by the bay to check out some cool fish





Finally, we took a tour of the city on the back of an old fashion fire truck






The tour took us through the city on it's way to the golden gate bridge. We saw the cool octagon house...

and we went right through the Presido. Unfortunately, the fog came in right before we went over the bridge

On the other side of the bridge, we stopped to take some pictures on the truck....





Riding across the bridge was a real thrill

Here is the sign of a great day ...


On Sunday we went even further north to the town of Santa Rosa where they have a great safari park. We got to take a jeep tour through the safari and walked around and saw even more animals:







We have had a wonderful visit and will be sad to see Erin go back home tomorrow!

Royalty ready to watch the opening ceremonies

We had royalty come to visit for the Olympic opening ceremonies:

Lake Minoqua, Wisconsin

After reuniting with the kids in New York, we headed to Wisconsin to spend a week with Dan's family. Dan's parents rented a house right in the lake and Dan and his brother rented a boat to waterski, tube, and wakeboard from.

I think everyone had fun on the boat:









One evening we all went to see the local water ski show

Emma and Ian "sitting on the dock of the lake"

They also enjoyed the old school swing set

Emma and Ian got to spend some quality time with their cousin

Keaton
We went miniature golfing for the first time as a family


Kayaking was a lot of fun, too



Emma made a "New Friend"

We went to a lumberjack show


Emma got chosen for one of the games

Future Lumberjack?
We had a relaxing week enjoying a new place with fun times all around.

Eight Planes and Three countries in Twelve days

After dropping off Emma and Ian in NewYork, Dan and I headed to Europe for 12 days. This was the longest that I have been away for the kids, so I missed them a lot, but knew they were having a great time with Grandpa and Grandma. We started our trip in Paris where Dan had been invited to attend the board meeting on a non-profit organization that college friends had started. We then headed to Macedonia to visit these friends and see some of the projects they were working on. We ended our trip with some down time in Santorini, Greece. Below is a slideshow of some of our adventures.

Summer in Rochester

We have had quite the adventure on our Summer Vacation this year. Our first stop was to New York to drop off Emma and Ian with their Grandparents.  Emma and Ian had a great time there swimming in the pool, celebrating the 4th of July, riding bikes, scooters, and tractors!


"Fishing" in the pool

Tractor rides

Watering the lawn

Our "waitress" for dinner

End of School year activites

Emma and Ian's last days of school were in mid June. Both of them had a wonderful year with great teachers and new friends. They have both grown so much over the year. At the beginning of the year, Ian was a kid of few words. Now he will talk your ear off. Emma loved Kindergarten, made some great friends, and tried new things.

Here are a few pictures from both of their end of the year performances:
Emma's performance was of some of their favorite songs throughout the year:








Ian's last day had a performance, also: