Concerts in the Garden

One of my favorite things about Madison summers is Concerts in the Square. On Wednesday nights, the Symphony Orchestra plays at the Capitol and everyone comes to the lawn for picnics and music. It is so much fun but there a few downsides - parking is completely crazy and there are lots of people (most of whom would like to actually listen to the music rather than hear occasional toddler screams). I also have my yoga class on Wednesday nights and I desperately need to attend that class at this point in my pregnancy.

 

Anyway - we attended our first week of Concerts in the Garden last Tuesday evening. It is the same concept - music on the green lawn of Olbrich gardens with picnics. We packed up a picnic and walked to Olbrich (no parking issues - yay!). I was a little afraid that Lucy would not eat anything and get distracted by the music/other people but she did a great job and exceeded my expectations. We had an awesome picnic, Lucy ate well and swayed to the music as she sat on the ground. There were a lot of kids running around toward the back of the green space and no one cared. It was perfect! We'll definitely be going back for future performances. :)

 

Here is a montage of photos:

 

Lucy loves raw peppers.

 

Silly eyes!

 

Picnicking with Dad!

 

Listening to music....

 

 And Lounging.

 

Lots of fun!

The big 3-3!

I turned 33 last weekend! Wowza! When my brother Austin called to wish me a Happy Birthday he reminded me that I am half way to retirement. Yikes!

 

Here are some pictures from the birthday festivities.

 

I did not work on Friday so Mom, Lucy and I spent the day shopping, thrifting, and going out to lunch. Daniel and I went on date night so we had a lovely dinner out followed by ice cream and Jazz Fest at the Terrace.

 

Here is a very happy pregnant lady with her ice cream cone. :)

 

 

On Saturday we had dinner at home with strawberry shortcake! It was so delicious! We got strawberries at the Farmers Market so they were super fresh and wonderful.

 

Mama and Lucy celebrating. Lucy was excited to eat the cool whip and cake but the strawberries, not so much. What a silly baby!

 

 

Mom, Daniel, and Lucy eating dinner. Thanks for grilling, Dan!  

We also had dinner with friends on Sunday night. So, as you can see, eating was a common theme! haha! :)  Thanks to family and friends for a great weekend!

Showers and Father's Day in South Dakota

We traveled to South Dakota for bridal showers for Aunties Jacque and Amelia over Father's Day Weekend!

 

So Lucy has traveled to the Dakotas probably 6 or 7 times since she was born. The drive takes approximately 7 or 8 hours and we generally try to plan around Lucy's sleep schedule. We always pack lots of toys and snacks, and I try to hang out in the back seat with her for at least part of the journey. The crazy thing is that our trip over Father's Day weekend with our 19 month old was by far the worst trip to South Dakota with our Lucy. She was good all the way to LaCrosse where we stopped for dinner, here is our happy girl with her cheese quesadilla.  

 

 

Then things got ugly. Lucy could not get comfortable. It was a summer evening so the sun stayed up for a long time and, as a result, Lucy could not fall asleep with the light. AND she had a major blow out. Like, tiny baby style blowout. I don't really know what happened but our little girl pooped everywhere!! Totally filled her car seat. Gross. To top it off, we were in the middle of no where so there was no gas station, rest area, or any place to change a baby to be found. So we had to use the back seat of the truck. Let's just say that we used lots and lots of wipes and between the diaper and clean up materials, I have never wanted to litter more in my entire life!! It was so disgusting. We just threw all of the trash in the back of the pickup. Good thing that we didn't have any dogs with us on this trip! :) We finally arrived at my mom and dad's house around midnight and breathed a big sigh of relief!

 

While we were in South Dakota we were able to see our pups!! Ken and Nola brought Chief and Scout down for a visit. It was so good to see our sweet dogs. Our little dog-lover niece Abigail was super excited to see the dogs too. She was so cute, she spent time just cuddling with Uncle Dan and the puppies. Lucy was thrilled to see the dogs too, I was happy to see that she was not nervous around them even though they have not been living with us for the past few months! We miss them!

 

 

On Saturday we celebrated the upcoming weddings of Amelia (to Brian in October) and Jacque (to Fred in September)! It was so much fun to hang out with the Storm ladies. Lucy loved it. She enjoyed hanging out with her second cousins (there is an awesome pack of little girls in the family), she tore up tissue and wrapping paper, and refused to take a nap! :)

 

Here is Miss Lucy with her Auntie Amelia and Grandma Nola.

 

 

 

The brides-to-be Jacque and Amelia along with Nola!

 

Everyone celebrating at the shower! We are so excited for weddings this fall.

 

After the shower, I dropped Lucy off at Grandma Sharon's and went downtown for a Bachelorette Celebration! It wasn't too crazy given that I am 7 months pregnant - haha - but we had a great time! :)  

 

On Sunday we celebrated Father's Day with a delicious breakfast. Here is Lucy's Grandpa Glen and Dad ready for breakfast and gifts! We love you, Dads! And, sorry about this, but on Father's Day I captured pics of the Dads but no photos with them along with their kids. Oops!! :)

 

 

Thanks for the great weekend, everyone! Good news - Lucy was much better on the trip back to Madison. She took a nice nap and had Grandma Sharon in the back seat to entertain her. :)

 

Fun with Grandma Sharon!

Both Mama and Dad have been on the road this week so Lucy has been lucky enough to spend some time at Grandma Camp with Grandma Sharon! Mom traveled back with us after we spent Father's Day weekend in South Dakota (blog post coming soon!). We had bridal showers for Aunties Amelia and Jacque to celebrate, a girls night out, and Dad's day so it was a full weekend!

 

Lucy has thoroughly enjoyed her short vacay from day care and loves spending her days out and about with Grandma. Here are some sweet pictures of their adventures:

 

Lucy splashing in her favorite fountain at Olbrich Gardens. As you can see, she is a very happy little girl!

 

Playing at the park! 

 

Lucy and Grandma have had beautiful weather this week so they spent Tuesday at the zoo. In addition to seeing the animals Lucy was treated to a short train ride! She told me all about it - "Lucy Choo Choo!" :)

 

 

Thanks for all of your help this week Grandma!

Latest and Greatest

The last couple of weekends with the Storms have been pretty low key which is just fine by me! We were all set to go camping with some friends the first weekend of June but we bailed because it was pretty cool and rainy. Kind of a bummer since I don't think that I am going to be in a condition where tent camping sounds fun for very much longer! We'll have to make up for it next summer!

 

 Anyway, we spent some time at the Children's Museum downtown - Lucy loved seeing the pigeons and chickens. We walked down State Street and had some lunch. Wow! It has been a long time since we have done that - it is fun to see how much some things change and how some things stay exactly the same. :)  

 

 

We all took naps on Sunday afternoon! I just love this picture - family naps don't happen very often anymore as Lucy usually does not want to sleep in our bed. She loves to jump around and wake everyone up but isn't really interested in sleeping there.

 

 

We visited Olbrich Gardens during one of our recent house showings. Lucy loves playing with the fountains in the garden. While you can't see Lucy's face in this photo - I like that you can see her little tongue sticking out. Haha!

 

 

Last weekend Mama and Lucy went out for breakfast at Fair Oaks Diner. We shared a giant blueberry pancake - yum!

 

 

Later on Saturday morning we met up with our little friends Claire and Jack at the playground. Lucy had a great time! Thanks for meeting up with us, guys! The park was awesome except that it was lined with chunks of recycled tire-treads. For some reason, Lucy kept putting handfuls of these pieces in her mouth (??) Gross. By the time we got home, she was a little mess - she had tire tread stains all over her clothes, hands, and face!

 

In the evening we took a long walk and explored the Marquette Waterfront Festival. Lucy sported her pajamas as we strolled. :)  

 

 

On Sunday we enjoyed brunch with some friends and visited another playground. :) Lucy loves the slide, especially when she can go down with Mom or Dad.

 

The playground in Monona has giant dragon/sea monster at the entrance. Here is Lucy pointing it out.

Lucy is 19 months old

Lucy turned 19 months old last week! Here is a recent photo:

 

 

As you can see, she is finally getting some more hair! :) Some of her favorite activites are bubbles, trying on shoes (mostly mama's flipflops and dad's crocs), going down the slide at the playground (Her words to describe the slide are, "Lucy Whee!"), going in the water - either the pool or the bathtub (Her words for this are "Lucy Splash!"), she loves shape sorters, listening to music, and putting lots of things in containers and pulling them out again. The pulling things out of containers piece is making having our house on the market a little bit crazy!

 

This picture is a common occurance at the Storm household:

Lucy will fill her little school bus with all kinds of random stuff, pull it all out, and, sometimes, put it back again.

We love you Lucy!

A Sure Sign of Summer

Our Community Supported Agriculture boxes have started arriving each Thursday afternoon! Yay! We had 20 wonderful weeks of vegetables from a farm last year and this year we switched to a different local farm because our friend/neighbor Jason works there. It makes veggie pick up pretty convenient when he just drops it on our front step! We are on week 3 of veggies and so far we have gotten lots of greens, asparagus, green onions, rhubarb, and radishes. Good stuff.

Exciting News!

Big news from the Storm household - Daniel was officially offered a full time position at the Wisconsin DNR as a Elk/Deer Researcher!! Here is a link to the press release: http://dnr.wi.gov/news/Weekly/?id=382#art6 . We are so happy that Dan will be doing the research that he loves and that he will be getting benefits/sick time/vacation leave! Woohoo! :) Along with this position comes the opportunity to move up North because Daniel could do his job from the DNR field location in Rhinelander. We'll see how it all shakes out - we still have a house to sell and a baby to have but we are so excited about the possibilities. We love you Dan and we are very proud of you!!

 

Memorial Day Weekend in Baraboo

This year we held our annual summertime Hoekman Family Weekend in beautiful Baraboo, Wisconsin near Devils Lake State Park. Despite the crappy weather, we had a great time!

 

We rented a lovely cabin.

 

 

The kids had a good time biking and strolling.

 

 

 

Lucy love, love, loves playing with her cousins, we don't get to see them as often as we would like!

Here is Miss Lucy dancing with Anna.

 

 

And sharing hugs! So cute!

 

The girls had lots of fun coloring.

 

Here are all of the cousins - Paul, Peter, Anna, Lucy, and Abigail. What a cute bunch of kids! Hard to believe that we will be adding a new baby to this mix in ~10 short weeks!

 

On Saturday morning, after breakfast...

We headed over to Devil's Lake State Park.

 

 

Abigail and Lucy got ready to explore. :)



 The girls did a great job sitting in Mallory's sweet double stroller as we navigated the terrain. No complaints at all! The little ladies were content to hang out and view the scenery.

 

 

Paul and Abigail patiently waiting for Austin to unload bikes and strollers from the car.

After our walk, we visited the nature center. Lucy loved the fish!

The kids hanging out outside of the nature center.

The ladies spent some time relaxing over the weekend by going to garage sales, thrift stores, and a Sunday craft market downtown! :) 

And, only in Baraboo, home to the Circus World Museum -  would they have a specific area of their Thrift store specifically dedicated to Circus items! Hahaha! Scary clown alert...

 

 

The ladies also took advantage of the giant jetted tub at the cabin by having pedicures! :)

 

 

On Sunday we took family pictures (Side note: I totally stole these off of my sister-in-law Mallory's blog! - Thanks, Mal!)

 

Grandpa Glen, Grandma Sharon and their grandbabies.

 

 

The Storm family!

 

 

On Sunday evening we went to Wisconsin Dells for a night at the water park. It was crazy! Daniel called the Dells a Las Vegas for kids. :)

 

Lucy driving a car as we waited to get into the swimming area.

 

 Austin and Abby in the pool!

 

We had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! Can't wait to spend more time with the Hoekman family soon!