Mid-August Happenings

After the Hoekman family vacation, we left the big kids with their South Dakota family. It is always fun to spend some extra time with the cousins during the summer. While the baby and I enjoyed some quiet time at home and settled into life at Eau Claire, our big kids had a blast!

 

 

Anna, Abby & Lucy had a special treat this August, their second cousin Ella took them horseback riding!

 

 

 

Lucy is still talking about her horseback riding adventures many months later! I can relate - I went to a Girl Scout horse camp called Pony Tails about 30 years ago and I still have lots of fun memories from that experience.

 

 

Romy had the best time! He dined on Froot Loops for breakfast at Grammy Sharon's ...

 

 

And he spent time swimming with his big cousin Paul. 

 

 

The girlies had time at the pool too.

 

They traveled to Brookings and visited the Children's Museum.

 

 

The kids absolutely love visiting this spot!

 

 

Grammy Nola zipped down to Brookings and brought Lucy and Roman back to Fargo for more summer fun.

 

 

 Nothing betas ice cream,

 card games,

 

and August baseball practice!

 

 

Slow summer nights are just magical.

 

 Uncle Brad even came over with his Nintendo games. Uncle of the Year! ;)

 

Meanwhile we had date nights in Eau Claire with our sweetest little third wheel!

 We are so excited to have more ethnic food at our fingertips. Yum!

 

 The kiddos had a few more fun days in Fargo. 

 



 

I mean just look at these fun parks and pools that they visited!

 

 

 

They had Battleship tournaments.

 

 

Lucy and Roman even got to play miniature golf for the first time!

 

 

 Roman even managed to get a hole in one during the game!

 

We are so grateful that they can spend some quality time with their grandparents. :)

 

Dan headed up North to retrieve the kiddos and everyone went to the Fargo Farmer's market on Saturday morning because Uncle Brad's band was playing. 

 

What a fun market!

 

 

The kids and Daniel were excited to see Brad playing in concert.

 

 

The Storm children played a little more Nintendo on Sunday morning,

 

 

headed to church, and then left for Roseville to attend cousin James' 3rd Birthday celebration!

 

 

Leo and I had big plans of our own ... we met up with my dear friend Laura and her daughter Marina for brunch in Roseville before heading to James' party!! Years ago Laura and I lived together in St. Paul but we don't get to see each other very often these days so times like this one are a treasure! We had the best time catching up on all of the things and she was able to meet Leon for the first time.

 

Here is our little party of 4!

 

 

Besties for 20 plus years. :)

 

 

There is no better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than celebrating a birthday says Leo!

 

 

Time flies! Our cousin James is already 3 years old! He had such a cute Jurassic Park themed party.

 

 

And speaking of big boys, cousin Neal is growing like crazy too! Love this picture of him with his Uncle Dan.

 

 

Lucy adores her little cousin!

 

 

Roman is a fan too!

These two August boys of ours are the best!

 

 

The big kids reunited with their baby brother and it felt so good.

 

 

Amelia put together the cutest yard games for the party. We lucked out with awesome weather! Yay for summer birthdays!

 

  Lucy and Roman were cheering for James as he did the ring toss.

 

And you can't have a children's party without a piñata, am I right? Everyone took a crack at this dinosaur. Just look at Lucy's face in the background! Haha!

 

 

A huge thank you to our families for hosting the big kids for the week! They are making such wonderful memories with their cousins and grandparents and we are so grateful that they are able to hang out in the Dakotas!

 

 

Happy 40th Anniversary Mom & Dad!

 The highlight of our Hoekman family weekend this summer was to celebrate Mom and Dad's 40th Wedding Anniversary. These two were married on August 11, 1979. I feel like 1979 was around the time when wedding colors were transitioning away from the brown/orange family and moving into the blues/yellows. Mom sewed her own wedding dress, Dad sported a light blue tux with navy trim, and the sunflowers were in full bloom on that early August day. 

 

 

Grandma & Grandpa and the Dads took the kids to the aquarium/butterfly garden while we did some decorating and prep work at the house.

 

 

These rays have so many little hands reaching to pet them!

 

 

Uncle Dan toted sweet little Elijah around.

 

 

Lucy wore the perfect dress for a visit to the butterfly garden.

 

 

So fun to see the monarchs close up!

 

 

The three big girls love spending time together.

 

 

This big guy stayed back with us and helped with tasks..

 

 

... Like making this blue punch! Haha! Mom kept everything from her wedding planning including recipes for things like this crazy, fizzy drink.

 

 

When the Mr. & Mrs. got back to the house, we had a little program for them. Lucy carried a bouquet of flowers that matched Grandma Sharon's wedding flowers from 40 years ago.

 

 

Abby wore a bridesmaids dress.

 

 

And Anna wore Mom's wedding dress! It was so special.

 

 

Here is the couple - 40 years ...

 

 

...And 10 grandbabies later!

 

 

No better way to celebrate 40 years than with a Dairy Queen ice cream cake, am I right? ;)

 

 

It was a great day - we had delicious food and drink, the kids played a trivia game about grandma and grandpa's life, and we had lots of fun just hanging out together.

 

 

Thank you Mom & Dad for providing us with such a good example of married life! xoxo