Bear Lake

We had a great trip out to Utah this year. We drove by Mount Rushmore but didn't want to pay the $11 parking fee thinking that we would get some free lookout somewhere.... but it never came! haha. So this is the only picture that we got of it. 

 Grandma Funk came to visit us at Bear Lake. It was so good to see her.

 Here is the whole clan minus Buzz, Thomas and Alex.

Papa got a new boat this year and we all loved the new feature of surfing the wave.

 I love this picture. Zola is finally enjoying her ride and Dennis is asking for more with his thumb's up.

 I also LOVE this picture. Dennis' smile says everything! He was constantly asking for more speed and more waves.

 Little Holland seemed to always offer to put lotion on her parents. Pretty cute gal.

 These boys played so well together! I wish we lived closer.

 ...and these two gals warmed up pretty good and started playing with each other too.

 Baby "Angus Mangus" needed to do a little surfing too! I did it a couple of times but never too long or too crazy.

And here is the video of Dennis surfiing! Not at bear lake but I decided to include it with all of the other surfing pics. 

Summer fun

Our summer was packed with fun this year. Dennis was able to participate in many sports and enjoy our beautiful Minnesota summer. He went to t-ball camp. 

 It was super fun watching them play. T-ball is always entertaining. Dennis is doing a little strut while kicking up the dust to get to first base and the girls are playing in the dirt in the background.

 He did a lot of swimming lessons. It was fun to watch. He is in level 3 with kids in 3rd grade. He was a foot shorter than most.

 He never stopped goofing around... he loves the water and had a hard time staying up out of the water long enough to hear the instructions (the biggest difference between pre-K and grade schoolers).

 It was sure fun to see his improvement throughout the year. He can now do the front crawl with breathing to the side, he can tread water and he can dive! We are still working on his back float and other strokes.

 Dad let Dennis drive into the garage. He was so proud!

Zola is so great to tag along to all of Dennis' activities. Next summer, she will be able to participate in the summer camps. 

 Dennis also joined a t-ball team. Here is a great shot of him playing in the grass while the other team gets on base.

 The best part of t-ball was the gatorade that he got.

 His team name was the Mets. He was able to improve his throwing, catching, and batting skills. And started to really run by the last game.

 Baby bump mid June. Its a lot bigger now.

 As a family, we went to watch the Honkers baseball team play. It was a blast and Dennis really enjoyed the cheers and songs in between plays.

 ... oh, and our raspberries. Too many to be fun anymore. We are going to make our patch way smaller for next year. Anyone want some really nice plants?

 Both Zola and Dennis participated in their first track meet! Zola was more proud of her smiley face on her hand than her ribbon.

Movie of Zola's race here:



 They both did a great job. Though we did find out that we are not the fastest runners around.

 They also had a long jump set up that was super fun.

 Dennis is getting more creative with his lego creations. He is always building new planes or cars... this was an electric station. I think he was making a refinery.

 He participated in soccer camp. He really likes soccer.

  One days worth of raspberries and 4+ hours of picking. 

 Zola loves clothes and will find her favorites.

my sweet zola girl

Zola is at an age that is totally adorable. We eat it up everyday. Here are some things/ stories about her that I can remember:

-She LOVES pink. She picks out all things that are pink and says, "CUTE!" or "This is cute." We were at a brightly colored room set up for kids to color at the art museum and she went around collecting all the pink things. She carried a pink flower around the whole time and Loved the pink flamingo. She got all of the pink crayons and pink markers and colored a picture with them. She just might be obsessed. She has gotten to the point where she assumes that if it is pink, then it is hers. She has two really cute swimming suits- one from Nonnie that is adorable and bright pink and the other is also really cute that I bought that is aqua blue. You can guess which one she has only worn once and because there was no other option. We go swimming almost everyday.

-She loves dresses and skirts. They are all "CUTE" no matter the color and will often change her clothes midday to put one on. One morning she saw me in my summer nightgown (for the first time) and was wide eyed and envious of my grandma style silky yellow dress. She said cute to describe it over and over again all morning and even asked if she could where it. I am afraid of the day when she gets her first nightgown. She will never wear other jammies again.

-She loves to shop. She often asks me if we can go shopping. "Go shopping?" If she is allowed to walk around through any size of clothing she is in heaven and will stop at every item that she can reach, pull two of them off the rack and hold them up to her top and bottom respectively and say, "I love it!" I tell her to put it back and she does the same thing 5 feet ahead at the next rack. and of course if there is anything that is pink she says, "CUTE".

-She loves her daddy and cherishes every moment she gets to spend with him. She has gotten into the wrestling matches with Dennis and Daddy and now asks him to wrestle as soon as he gets home from work. One evening we got to see him for 10 minutes before he was off to an ER shift- She asked if she could come with him. "me come with you?" He told her that she couldn't. She was VERY sad and covered her eyes.

- She loves Dennis. Just today she gave him a hug and said, "Love you". She had a hard time all year when I would drop Dennis off at preschool. She would often cry.

-She loves to play pretend. She creates a story with whatever she happens to have. One day I heard her playing with my nail polishes as people. One said, "Hi, How are you?" And this went on for some time, moving them around like people. This also happened last night as she was doing her job of putting away the clean silverware from the dishwasher. I heard her singing song after song and then in a stern voice said, "shh, go to sleep!" and kept singing.

-She loves to sing. If nobody is paying attention, Zola is bound to be singing a song. One day we were at the park and it was just Dennis, Zola and I. Zola climbed up to the highest peak out on a ledge and started belting a song. Like she was a princess in the high tower of a castle.

-She is definitely learning how to hold her own. She is not always smiling and singing. She has a little sassy, bossy side too right now. She knows how to scold the dogs and won't let a single bark go by without yelling, "quite it, Buster!" She copies my corrections for Dennis and makes sure that he heard me. We are working on leaving the mothering to mother.

-She loves it when my hair is wet. Whenever I get out of the shower she comes up to me and strokes my hair and says, "I like your hair, mommy."

There is no doubt that we love this girl.

Kobs Picnic

The Kobs picnic is a family reunion that we have every year with all the descendants of my great great grand parents. LARGE picnic. Most people don't come. But that shows just how long this has been a tradition. And being part of a tradition loving family... I don't think it is going to end any time soon. 

We eat a potluck lunch and then play some fun games with prizes. The crab crawl was a tough one for Dennis. 

 ... and Zola didn't even participate but everyone got some cool glasses.

 There was the three legged race that Randy and his family were preparing for. Dennis did it with his dad and Ryan practically carried him across the field.

 ... and then there was the wheel barrow race. That one I knew Dennis would love.

 ... He left everyone else in the dust, I wasn't quite expecting that to happen... but of course the kid with all the upper body strength and no weight to lift. Of course he would win.

 Then we blew bubbles... Dennis had 4 or 5 pieces of gum in his mouth but couldn't quite figure out how to make a bubble.

 The bummer about bubbles is the mess they leave behind.

 We love GG June and were so glad that she could make it.

What a great year at the picnic!