Growing Everyday

Along with Grandma and Grandpa Westberg, we took a day trip to Squire Boone’s Caverns. Squire Boone is the brother of Daniel Boone. There is a whole little kitschy town set up with a place to mine rocks, a bakery, and even a candy shop. To get to the cave you have to walk down a spiral staircase consisting of 73 steps. Now, it is dark and damp going down these stairs. The kids were very brave and with a little coaxing from Mom and Dad made it down into the cave. The cave was amazing. There was an underground waterfall that we walked over, rim dams, soda straws, and so many other formations. It was really worth the drive to see the caves.

Beka and Jared have inherited a love of Fishing from their Grandpa Westberg. Grandpa and Grandma Westberg bought them their first rod and reel and will forever be their heroes because of it. Jared and Beka just love to go to the pond and fish. The pond in the neighborhood is wonderful for kids fishing. There are a lot of hungry little fish, so you never have a long wait between casting and pulling out a fish. Andrew gets run ragged putting worms on the hooks and taking fish off the hooks. I can put the worms on but I still haven’t figured out how to get the fish off. To give Andrew a bit of a break and to spend sometime together, Grandpa and Grandma came over to fish with us. I think a good time was had by all.

We caught a glimpse of a turtle while we were out there.

Over the 4th of July weekend, the kids and went to Quincy to visit the grandparents. Beka and Jared had two requests for the visit. One, they wanted a pretzel from Auntie Anne’s pretzels. Two, we had to go play at Dewey School because they have the cool old school merry-go-rounds. We accomplished both of those. Plus, we made mud souffle a la worm. I, also, had the opportunity to visit with most of my extended family that I hadn’t seen in a very long time. It was a wonderful time.

In the picture below, Grandpa is pretending to go across the monkey bars, but he is really cheating because he is waaay too tall to actually have to work at the monkey bars.

We took a quick visit to Quincy last weekend. Grandma and Grandpa Wiewel finally got to meet Kahla. Overall, the trip went really well. We were able to just hang out and relax without rushing around. We took the kids to South Park and stomped through the creek. We saw Uncle Joe’s house. We enjoy the good cheesy breadsticks. From some reason Indiana cannot make good cheesy breadsticks. Beka and Jared’s favorite part was visiting Dewey School. The playground there is awesome with all the climbing equipment and the old time merry-go-rounds. Hopefully, we will get to visit again this summer.

Oh, and no pictures because everytime we left the house, I forgot it.

Ahh, a deep breath. The wrapping paper is finally put away, the boxes are emptied, the presents have all found their places, the travleing is done. Time to sit back and be thankful for the wonderful holiday. And it was a wonderful holiday. We were so blessed to have time with family. It was nice to talk to everyone and see them. The kids are pleased with everything they received and thankful.

So a few pictures to remember it by.

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This is Jared practicing patience while waiting for the gift opening to begin. He still needs to work at it a little.

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While we were visiting family over Thanksgiving, Beka and Jared dug out some dress up clothes. They had fun putting costumes on each other and Mommy. Beka particularly loves the dragon fan. Jared loved playing with the cap he has on. Mommy was just a good sport about it.

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Over Labor Day, we went to visit my parents. The kids had never seen the Mississippi up close so we took them to a park to see the mighty river. They enjoyed looking at it and touching the water, but overall weren’t too impressed with just a big river. I think they had more fun walking on the railroad tracks.

It was a nice time to visit with Grandma and Grandpa though. We grilled one night and Andrew made them brunch on Sunday morning. It was a nice relaxing visit.

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Grandma and Grandpa Westberg came over the other day and took us all fishing at the big pond. I guess I should say Andrew fished with the kids and I took pictures. I can handle putting the worms on the hooks I can’t take the fish off the hook. The kids had a great time and they can’t wait to go again. The fish in the pond are small but they bite at anything, so that makes it great for the kids. There isn’t a lot waiting to fishing there.

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We were invited to Andrew’s cousins wedding in Chicago. It was a wonderful time to catch up extended family. Beka and Jared had fun playing with cousins they rarely see. Andrew had the opportunity to talk with his aunts and uncles. The wedding was beautiful and the bride was gorgeous. Everyone had a very nice time.

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The kids were still on Eastern time, though, so at 6am they popped awake. Andrew, being the brave man that he is, took them down to the hotel pool. I think they were down there by 6:30. The kids just love to swim.

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On the way home, we stop for awhile at a reststop where Beka and Jared had fun; climbing a tree, playing hide and seek, and chasing each other around.

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Grandma and Grandpa Westberg visited us recently. We had a blast spending time with them. The kids got to ride the carousel.

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We also played minature golf and then went off to play on the playground. Beka enjoyed the seesaw and Jared enjoys just running around.

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After things settled down a little, Grandma and Grandpa were able to watch the kids ride their bikes. The kids really like showing off this new talent.