I chose my love, and I love my choice: August 2014

Thursday, August 28, 2014

A girl's best friend

I'm not even sure what to say here. The planning for this trip started a little over two years ago. A sister's trip to Virginia. It gets tricky to plan around everyone's life - pregnancies, work, school. So we only had 5 of the 7 of us there, but we kept Cindy and Rebecca in the loop and took them with us everywhere!

Virginia Beach!

I don't know what this place was called, but they had homemade ice cream that was to die for. It was on our way home from the beach and we stopped both days to get ice cream there because it was so good!

Busch Gardens!!

I LOVE roller coasters, and so do these crazy girls! Brooks isn't much of a roller coaster person himself, so it was fun to have someone to ride with the whole day. That's pretty much all we did was the big roller coasters. It took my head/stomach a couple days to figure out which way was up and down!

Photo booth!

(I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have fit seven faces, or bodies, in this photo booth!

It was tricky enough with just five of us.)

This was a 3D Haunted House ride. Melissa and I were in the front row, we didn't figure out what the ride was about because we were too busy laughing with the girls in the back who were terrified!!

Picture for Dad! His girls under the British flag.

PLANK OFF!!

I challenged all the girls to a plank off about a month earlier. Most of us worked hard to get ready! Ben begged us to let him join, so we let him un-officially compete! Pearl and Rebecca got over 4 minutes I believe, I stopped right at 5 and Ben stuck it out till 8 minutes! Next time girls, next time!

We also enjoyed some duckpin bowling, fireworks on the beach, and many late nights filled with laughter and fun! Melissa and Pearl were awesome hosts!! Thanks for a great week girls!

I am so blessed with AMAZING sisters!

They may bring out the crazy in me, but they teach me so much, and make me want to be a better person!

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

4th of July and more!

Red, White and Boom Half Marathon in Minneapolis

Waiting for Dad and the half way point

We drove along the course and cheered for him at several points. The boys ran along side him for a ways each time.

Treats for the cheerleader!

Our traditional 4th of July round of frisbee golf!

We celebrated a friends birthday! Ninja style!

Waiting for fireworks

The week after the 4th I was able to go up to girls camp for a couple days. This is something I absolutely loved as a youth. I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as a leader, but I was very wrong. It was just as much fun this year as ever!

I love these girls!

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Visitors to Minnesota

Time for another Turnbow trip and we were lucky enough to have them come our way! We had quite the week showing them life in Minnesota! The kids loved having more people in the house and we all loved spending time with them. Here are a few pictures of their week here.

James J. Hill House (Our Downton Abbey House - at least the servants quarters)

This was our "Do you want to BE a snowman" picutre.

The infamous cherry and spoon!

What do you do with so much love?

Duluth, MN - it was a bit cold, colder than we expected for June.

Split Rock Lighthouse

We had planned to play at the water fall, but with all the rain we had the water levels were crazy high and all the rivers were flooding. So we got some cool pictures instead.