Reconnect!

How fun to connect with friends you haven't see for quite a while! After church yesterday I was sitting in our "usual spot" with Liv, saying good morning as the "usual crowd" walked by. Gina came right over and offered to "help" hold Liv for a while (THANKS, Gina!)... and who walk up, but Werner F (can't spell or pronounce his last name) from Norway! He was here for the wedding of his friend, who had been his roommate while he attended an exchange program at the School of Mines. He graduated a year ago -- or was it two years ago?

Werner is here for a very short time, and is flying out of Minneapolis tonight, Monday. Werner is working on his Masters Degree -- a thesis in Mathematics and blood flow through the aortic arch (of the heart). Since I can't "talk math" it was a good thing Leonard H was there too! Actually, we talked more about world politics with Gabe Johnson than anything else. It's always fun to expand your world view a little! I learned that the King of Norway does have legislative power, unlike most other European crowns; but if he ever choose to exert his power, he would almost certainly loose it!

Then this morning I got a phone call from Brenda (Mayou)___ (can't remember her married name). We were great friends all through school. She has a baby girl too, very close to Liv's age -- and lives in the Cities. Now we have each other's email, so hopefully we can keep in touch!

Family Vacation... Wedding... Reunion

I'm not sure we could have packed any more into one week... but it sure was fun!

We started out a little more than a week ago planning a camping trip to Custer State Park (Custard Park as cousin Kelly said) in a camper (lent to us by our dear friends). We spent Sunday - Wednesday enjoying the sunshine, trees, lake and wildlife of the park. For me it was one of the most relaxing camping trips, due to the camper. I might be ruined now for tent camping?? All things considered, it probably was the only reasonable way to try to camp with a two month old -- and Liv did GREAT. It was very nice to have 3-4 days bonding as a family again. The kids LOVE having Dirk around more. Thor thought maybe Dad should have the whole summer off (from work) like he does from school (not a bad idea!!).


Next came a houseful of company - my family, the Moellers - as we prepared for the wedding of my brother Jonathan to fiance' Chary. As you can see, it was a pretty "full" event, even though Chary's family was not able to attend. Chary is from the Dominican Republic, and will be going through the paperwork now to get a permanent visa. This is the 2nd marriage for both Jon and Chary, so it was a simple event, but still a celebration of God's covenant of marriage. Ray Phipps from our church, Dove Christian Center performed the ceremony... later we enjoyed cake, fruit and punch in the fellowship hall. Jon and Chary opened the gifts from the family... and then went on to enjoy a short honeymoon.



The next day the whole family travelled to Kamp Kinship. When we got to our cabin I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a lovely, modern cabin with very new bathrooms, furnished like a mountain retreat -- not a rustic Bible camp building. Tyler said "Aunt Nancy, this is NOT like Bible camp, this is like a motel!" It suited our needs perfectly! Each family could have a room to themselves, if they wanted. There was a great room in the basement with a big screen TV/DVD player, pool and ping pong.. a full kitchen set up on the main level, coffee maker and dishes and everything. We enjoyed most of all the Kamp dining hall. We had arranged for 2 meals a day -- and just had to show up. The food was very good -- and PLENTY of it too! No dishes to do... no shopping, preparing or cooking! It really WAS a vacation!

The camp had so many fun options for the kids -- it let us grown ups have a relaxing time, not having to caravan around to keep the kids busy... the kids were immediately busy on the basketball court and playground... Over the course of the weekend we did so much, I hope I can remember it all:
fishing - paddle boating - taking ATV's up into the hills (Jacob was sure it he was going to die out in the forest when his dad got them "lost"!)
basketball - football (red-heads against the tow-heads) - zip line (WICKED AWESOME according to Abigail or Brianna) This is ANIKA on the Zip Line... can you believe it!! She LOVED it! - climbing wall ( picture of Thor) - roasting marshmallows by the campfire
- singing together late into the night - board games (of course, Acquire!) - even a little bit of resting and being lazy ...

We didn't even get time to do any hiking, swimming, playing on the beach or boating/canoe trips. I guess we'll just have to plan another weekend for that! We ended our weekend together sharing God's word -- Jon shared scripture and some personal thoughts, we sang together, and I had a short kids lesson too.



Even Liv had a great time! She got some good bonding time in with her cousins... seems like Tyler is one of her favorite people!

I think this might become the new Moeller family Father's Day weekend tradition!

Did anyone hear me say that this week was going to be a quiet week at home... nothing going on at all?? so boring... we'd get a lot of quiet time togehter?? I must have been dreaming (or as Dirk says... 'smokin' dope'??... TOTALLY kidding... no illegal substnaces here).

Anyway -- when we got home from Thor's baseball game on Tuesday there was a note in our door from our good friends the Krabbenhofts, who moved to Alaska last summer. Thor and Nicholas were very good friends and missed each other lots, especially over the summer months. The K's were here for a short visit, and had a day or two this week to visit us... so we planned a play date for Wednesday morning (the sooner the better according to Thor!). Of course, during the play time, Thor and Nick plotted together to get the mom's to allow a sleepover that night... how could we refuse? Who knows when they would get a chance to play together again... Needless to say, they had a wonderful 24 hours playing... lots of Star Wars and Narnia play "fighting!"

Today was a little less adventurous, but I did get my first Mommie Field trip out of the house with NO children. Even Liv stayed home with daddy -- who by the way did a perfect job with her feeding and nap time schedule! (must be all the past experience?) Anyway, I enjoy 3 hours in town by myself, visiting the ObGyn (excitment...??) then my favorite consignment shop, my favorite kitchen store and topped the afternoon off with my favorite cold drink, a Heath Mocha Big Train! Dirk asked me if I missed the kids... ?? All of you mommies know the answer to that... OF COURSE... but getting 3 hours alone wasn't TOO much time away!

Tonight Anika experimented with the camera... and I think she did a pretty good job... take a look at her snapshot of Liv and me... then I got a couple of Dirk and Anika... Daddy was bothering us while we were trying to watch "I don't know what to wear" (Anika's version of What Not to Wear).

Sleeping ALL Night!! Yeah!

Just had to send the latest update for baby Liv. She is officially sleeping though the night now... mommie couldn't be happier. She started 5 nights ago, sleeping 7 hours straight... and for the next 4 nights has slept 8-9 hours each night. I'm still up early (between 4 and 5 a.m.) but at least I don't have to be up at 1 or 2 a.m. in between!!

We're also officially on Summer Vacation! Thor had his last day of school last Friday. It was a wonderful morning today, not having to think about what to pack for his lunch, making sure he's dressed and ready to go by 7:15 a.m. Getting Anika and Liv loaded up with Thor to head out the door to meet the carpool at 7:30 a.m.!!

We had a crazy amount of rain (praise the Lord!) last night, just 2-3 tenths short of 2 inches! So Thor and Anika haven't been outside much today. We are on our way out the door to Thor's 3rd baseball game of the season. He's in coach-pitch this year... which is like the "mature" version of T-ball. They have to hit a ball pitched to them, by thier own coach, and run the bases, try to get players out. But there is still no score, and innings end when each player has a turn up to bat. The players can't "strike out" either... so every gets equal chance, even if it takes 20 pitches before they hit the ball. You can definately tell which coaches are more gifted with patience!! Even with a few slow moments the games are quite entertaining! Thor still loves the positon of catcher the best... although last week I watched him immitate his coach as he was pitching ... so maybe later (years) he might want to try out the pitcher postion?

Liv's Dedication Service

We have just finished a GREAT week with (most of) the Morrison Family here in the Hills. We finished the week of family fun with Sunday Morning at our church, Dove Christian Center, and a special moment during the service for Liv to be dedicated.

Liv wore a new outfit given to her by our friends, the Roisums -- a sweet sky blue sun dress with matching sandals. I think the grandma's thought maybe Liv should have been in the traditional white frilly dress... I guess we're just not as traditional as we used to be! But the morning service was lovely - Pastor Gary shared about the precidence of Hannah dedicating Samuel to the Lord, and that when we dedicate our babies in the church we are bringing them into the extended family of believers. Pastor Gary challenges the congregation to support the family and the new little one, to pray for them and encourage them in being raised in the Faith. Liv was a perfect angel during the service, mostly because she had fallen alseep in my arms right before we started... but she is usually a good baby all the time. We have been so blessed by our Dove family -- so many gave us gifts for Liv, I'm still writing the Thank You notes!!

Let me go back and start at the beginning of our family time, last Monday. Lance, Gretchen, Tori, Logan and Grandma Lillian took a ROAD TRIP from their northern home. They arrived much earlier than I expected that day, and found that travelling west across ND was much quicker for them than driving south on I-29 through Sioux Falls. When we got home from Zion School with Thor, they were just pulling into our driveway!! What timing!!

On Wednesday evening Justin arrived from Astoria - with plans for turkey hunting Thursday and Friday (maybe also Saturday) with Lance and Dirk (if he could get out of work). Our little house was filled to the maximum... thankfully my mom and dad have an extra bedroom too, so Grandma Lil slept at thier home each night. It was also nice for her to have a little quiet space away from all the children ... having 5 kids under the age of 6 in one house can tend to get a little crazy!!

Gretchen and I got to have a little "GIG" time, (girlfriends in God) taking in my last MOPS meeting for the year, as well as our first MOPS outing to Bear Country, one latenight grocery store run when we just happended to find a DQ along the way.... It was so nice catch up with Gretchen, just mom to mom... (no kids!!).

The boys did get in a few turkey hunting attempts, but no dead turkey's this time. The weather was much hotter than usual this week, which might be part of why they weren't visible. But we did do some family fun stuff too -- went mini-golfing at Pirates Cove (big hit with ALL the kids!), watched Thor compete in the Annual Christian Schools Track and Field day at the School of Mines Track, and watched Thor's first coach-pitch Baseball game; not to mention hitting two of our favorite places to eat - Fudruckers and La Costa (mexican).

Everyone knows I love to talk... and blogging isn't far off... So I just had to join in the fun and create a blog for our family. Having a chance to update family and friends with pictures of Liv, Thor and Anika will be fun... as well as our regular but busy lives here in the Hills.

Smiles and Blessings
D, N, T, A and L