Ah, The Great Outdoors: Family Vaca

This past week we headed up North to Lake Mary with Nicole's dad, Kathy, Sean, Brenda and Liam. We had gorgeous weather and an awesome time- lots of time on the lake!


Greg and Nicole with Big Ole- we won't tell you what we saw under that skirt.


There was tons of Snakes-playing to be had..and some major competition! Above- Sean and Nicole.


Greg and Pat...look at that throw!


Uncle Greg reading Liam a bedtime story.


Nicole soaking up some sun out on the lake.


Brenda, Liam, Nicole and Sean at the beach. This was Liam's first time swimming! We're not sure he knew quite what to think of it. He seemed to prefer floating on the water in the floaty than being IN the water. He did grow to like it, though.


Mommy Brenda and Liam in his Little Swimmers


Liam! We seriously could not go anywhere without people commenting on how cute Liam was. And of course, he was all smiles.


Liam liked to feel Uncle Greg's face stubble all the time.


We did a lot of fishing! This was from our last trip on our last day. Nice little fishy, Brenda!


Liam in his Bumbo chair. It was pretty hot for most of the week, and Liam enjoyed being mostly naked.


Greg and a Northern he caught!



Pelicans on the lake.


Nicole and a Northern she caught- so slimy it was hard to hold!


Nicole also caught this huge dogfish- probably 13 pounds and uglier than heck. It actually snorted when we took it out of the water. Almost pulled Nicole in!


The lure after the dogfish took a few chomps on it- look at the teeth marks!


Sean and a crappie- nice!


Pat and a northern


A beautiful sunset on the lake.


Sean, Greg and Kathy around the bonfire eating some s'mores. Nice, Greg.
What a great time! It was nice to get away from the city and just do a lot of relaxing and spending time with the fam. Doesn't get much better than that!

Also, the Friday before we left Nicole's cousins from Florida drove up to visit- it was so good to see them! We grilled out at Sean and Brenda's.

Above- on couch, Barb and Paul, and their 2 kids on the floor Abby and Kyle playing with Brenda and Liam. Kyle and Abby got so tall- we couldn't believe it!


Barb and Nicole's mom Joanie


Liam loved laughing at Abby being silly!


Nicole's cousin Amy with Liam- he thought she was funny, too!

Whew! That's all for now...lots left to do this summer!

Happy 4th of July!!

Hope everyone had a great 4th! We had a wonderful weekend- lots of fun stuff! Believe it or not a lot of the following pics were all taken on the 4th- it was a busy day but awesome.


First, Greg got his traditional 4th of July round of golf in in the morning with Joel, Jesse, and Brian.


Above- Greg. Look at that form.


Jesse. Look at that form.


Brian and Joel


After golf, we headed to Nicole's cousins' house on Prior Lake. What a beautiful day!


Liam and his Grandma Kathy! Liam turned 5 months old on the 4th!


Nicole's cousin Ryan with his girlfriend, Janelle


Liam and Daddy...look at that smile.


Nicole's cousins Ryan, Kelly, Laurie, and Alicen taking a dip.



Nicole's cousin Bill with Liam...does Liam look comfy or what?


Liam and Auntie Nikki. Liam doesn't usually suck his thumb very much- only when he's falling asleep and then he takes it out right away. However, he was EXHAUSTED that day and constantly on the verge of falling asleep- hence the thumb constantly popping in his mouth! Too cute.


Vincent, Greg, Sean, TJ, and Kelly


And finally that night, we headed back up to Central Park to watch fireworks with Jenny, Chris, Beth, Jesse, and Jenny's parents Brent and Kathy. Above- Chris and Greg (and Jesse)


Jenny, Jesse, and Beth- ha!


On the 5th, we headed to Worthington to see our good buddies Louie and Keetha and meet their daughter, Jordan. They actually live in Arizona but came to Minnesota to see some family. Nicole went to college with Louie and they have seen many a Phish show together. :)

Keetha, Louie, and almost 9 month old Jordan--isn't she a doll??


Louie's parents live on a golf course, so Greg and Louie of course had to get a couple of holes in. Greg and Keetha in the golf cart.


Keetha and Jordan- Jordan was all ready for bed!


Greg, Louie and Nicole. It was so good to see them- it had been too long! And we had SO much fun playing with Jordan. :)


Some more Liam pics:

Liam sitting like a big boy in his chair! He just started eating rice cereal- he's getting the hang of it! He also has been rolling over- YAAAAY LIAM!!


He also likes to play with his spoon. Silly guy.


A random pic- we had some crazy clouds above our house tonight before some thunderstorms came through- we thought they looked pretty cool.


And finally, this is what we see at the kitchen table every night. Tiger, who is obsessed with people food (though he hardly gets any), sits in one of the extra chairs and rests his head on the table, hoping for a morsel of something. Goofball.

Summer Is Finally Here!

Wow, it's been beautiful out, and we've been enjoying it. Busy as usual- Greg headed to Milwaukee for the Twins-Brewers games (pics below), Nicole headed to Rochester for a conference at the Mayo Clinic...we've been running, gardening a little...lots of good stuff!


Here are Steve, Greg, Dan and Dan (coworkers) at Miller Park.
(sorry for the small pics)


The group in the crowd. Where's Greg-o??


Greg, Dan, Steve, Dan


Greg and Steve


And, we've been working on the yard quite a bit, planting some flowers. Doesn't it look awesome? :)


Here are the new flowers...we totally didn't know what we were doing so we'll see if they live...


We really have the red, white and blue color scheme going on with our house!


This past Saturday Nicole helped to throw a baby shower for her co-worker, Karmen. She's going to have a little boy in the next month!


"The Night Crew"- This is the group of us nurses who work nights together on the weekends (minus our awesome nursing assistant Tia)- Nicole, Karmen, Tanya, and Krista.


And, the pics you've been waiting for....LIAM!!

He's 4 and a half months old now. Getting so big!! Here he is having fun with Uncle Greg.


Liam is a Twins fan already- he gets mesmerized watching them on TV. :)


Liam in his Exersaucer.


Pooped, Liam fell asleep on Auntie Nikki. What a cutie.