Another Walk in the Woods....

We ventured out to Spring Brook Nature Center today...

We didn't end up seeing many animals though...I think our little animals were too loud!

We saw 2 deer...

And a little froggy!

The swampy, marshy areas had so much algae!

William was trying to copy farmers by putting a piece of "wheat" in his teeth!

Another one of Charlie's children's charity shots:  Please help give me a Merry Christmas...

Bees!

An actual picture of both kids looking happy at the same time!

KINDERGARTEN???!!!

William started Kindergarten this week.  The first day he was very nervous.  By the 3rd day, he was saying "I don't need you to walk me to my room Mom, I know where it is."  He loves his class, he loves his teacher, and he was so sad when the weekend came and he had to stay home for 2 days.  So excited to see what this year holds for William!

A River Runs Through It...

 

Minnehaha Falls is very close to where we are staying...it's a little piece of heaven in a busy city...

 

There is a nice area of shallow river bed where all the kids were splashing around and wading.  My boys took wading to the "swimming" level and ended up soaking wet...Thankfully, I always bring clothes.  I am still not used to the level of friendliness here.  People are so nice and they talk to you so naturally that after 7 years of living in the unfriendly environment of DC, I am still stunned when anyone strikes up a conversation with me!  This place was full of kids, and parents, and everyone was chatting and enjoying the day.  So nice...not to mention beautiful!

A Step Back In Time...

The zoo here in Minneapolis had a traveling Dinosaur exhibit and it was leaving for good on September 2nd, so we made 2 trips in 3 days to get in on as much of it as we could!

 

 

Will wasn't too sure about these guys at first, they were loud!

Charlie was THRILLED! 

Moving On Up...(North)

William said goodbye to Goldie (the beta).  She headed North to Minnesota with Daddy, and she made it!

All our stuff piled up fast!!

The most exciting part was watching the movers back the truck into our little parking lot!

Our stuff took up the first part of the truck, basically right up to the first door. 

We said Goodbye to our dear little townhouse.  Lots of happy memories here...

The drive was LONG, but we had dual DVD players and lots of snacks!  We left on Tuesday at noon and arrived in Minneapolis on Thursday at about 6pm.  Not too bad!

Our first view of Minnesota!  This was crossing the Mississippi...


 

So, we found out near the end of July that Jason's job finally came through.  He had to start on the 12th, and so it all started to quickly come together.  The company paid for movers THANK GOD! and they even packed!  I worked till the 9th, and then spent the week getting ready for the move.  Jason came home for the weekend and we spent the time cleaning and organizing.  We had never had movers before so it was an interesting experience.  They were amazing, fast, organized, and really knew exactly what they were doing.  They packed the whole place in 8 hours and loaded it in less time than that.  We brought the kids back from the hotel to see the place one last time and we had a pizza picnic on the floor, and said goodbye.  It was sad, we have had lots of happy times in that house.  The next morning we got on the road after dropping Jason off at the airport shuttle.  We drove and drove and then arrived in Minneapolis on Thursday night.  Friday morning I met up with a realtor and I picked out a place to live.  I had to do it fast in order to be able to register William for school in time.  I found a great place that I will post more about when we move in.  For now we are living at a Homewood Suites and I can't complain.  It's a 2 bedroom, 2 bath, with breakfast and dinner, and maid service. Who can complain??

Where Did I Leave Off?

Well, it's been quite a summer:

Mom got hit by a man running from the police on the way home from work,

He landed on her trunk!  Thank God she wasn't hurt at all, and she left for England the next day!

The water main in front of our townhouse had to be replaced...so happy we were renting!

We picked lots and lots of blueberries..

Charlie kept saying "Kaplink, kaplunk" like in Blueberries for Sal...

The zoo is always popular with these boys, I think they feel right at home...

I love this little face!

William and I spent some time with the Calabrese kids again this summer.  We took a visit to a nearby cave and it was so cool!  In more ways than one...

We made a trip to feed the calves one last time before we left Maryland...

Grandpa finally for a chance to come out and see us.  He and Charlie got along great!  Will and Charlie were both very excited to see "Gampa"

Charlie is such a serious little man.  He takes so much more time to warm up to things, this expression says a lot about his personality...
 

We have had such a whirlwind summer.  I haven't had a second to blog.  Things are finally falling into place and I should be able to get on track again.  I know I will regret not keeping this thing going.  The boys grow so fast, I want to not let it all pass by undocumented!