Anniversaries

Happy Anniversary!

Mom and Dad (31 years)

&

Dave and Barb (8 years)

Maplewood Camping

Raleigh enjoyed his first trip camping this weekend. We traveled to Maplewood State Park on Friday night and set up camp.

Maplewood is the first park that Josh and went camping at, and it is by far our favorite park. This is the perfect time of year to visit it also. About half of the trees have already turned their magnificent orange, yellow or red color for the fall. There were no mosquitos...although hornets had taken their place...and the weather was perfect - cold at night, hot during the day.

One of the most exciting part of the camping trip was Friday evening in the pitch dark. We were witness to three or more Barred owls enjoying their nightly hunt for small woodland creatures. The sounds that they make are so beautiful. When the owls became truly excited, they sometimes sounded like monkeys and we felt like we were in the jungle. I did manage to get some of the sounds on video camera, however I haven't upload those video files to my computer yet. But I will share with you soon enough.

One of our favorite hikes at this park is the hike up to the highest point in the park. You can see for miles and it always takes my breath away to see such beauty.


These leaves were right above us at our campsite.

Raleigh enjoyed time in his Pack N' Play while Josh and I set up the tent.

We also took this opportunity to get some frameable pictures of us all.

Raleigh had fun walking around the picnic table down by the beach.

If you've never visited Maplewood state park, please do. It is truly a treasure. There are horseback riding trails, hiking trails, mountain biking trails, and in the winter there are cross country ski trails.

In past visits to Maplewood state park, Josh and I have seen deer, otter, beaver, toads, and bald eagles....we've heard Barred owls...we've had a raccoon steal our bag of hot dog buns...and we've been lost in the dark. I love that place.

Money

This blog is about money.


Slowly, Josh and I have been chipping away at the debt that we incurred from our Wedding. We haven't used a credit card in over two years now. Applause, please! That is a huge accomplishment in our culture.



Well, the purpose of this post is to solicite excitement from you all in the fact that Josh and I no longer have any debt that did not stem from a mortgage or a student loan. Yay for us! We are high-interest-rate debt free.

And now, we can start planning for the "Grow Money" phase of our lives.



Our current plan (I say "current" because we change plans often) is to purchase a plot of land that we will eventually build on.

I know my life seems to be copying the big events of Lanae's life (She got married, I got married. She had a kid, I had a kid. She bought a plot of land, we're trying to), I swear that is not my intent.

It is just impossible to find a house in our area that has a garage that will be suitable for building a personal training gym on top of. Josh is planning to personal train out of the home and I don't want strangers walking through my house.

We'll keep you posted on the progress of the "current" plan.

Park Time: Swinging It Up

Oh, the fun that can be had at the park.

Raleigh's first Parade

..and his Dad was in it!

Our church entered a float in the parade. The church band, which Josh is a part of, played churchy music on a trailer going 10 mph.

I thought it was going to be some dinky little parade that lasted a whole 10 minutes. I thought this because, 2 years ago, I attended another local parade that was extrememly wimpy on the candy and it lasted a total of 15 minutes.

Well, good thing I packed food for Raleigh because this parade was 2 hours long!!! OMG! A 2 hour parade, that is crazy. There were 120 different "entries" in the parade. Can you guess what number the church float was? Yup, #99. Raleigh and I watched 98 other floats pass by before we could see Josh on his float.

It was fun though, and Raleigh had a bunch of firsts at the parade.

He tasted his first bit of candy. That wasn't on purpose though. A lady near us picked up a sucker that fell near Raleigh's stroller and she handed it to him. I figured there was enough waxy candy wrapper to keep him from tasting any of the sucker. Turns out I underestimated the power that baby saliva and teeth have on a common sucker wrapper.

Raleigh was not happy when I took that sucker away.

Raleigh also had baked beans for the first time when I purchased a pork sandwich meal to support a local High School fastpitch team. He really liked those beans, I barely got any.

A frito-lay truck was one of the entries in the parade and they were throwing out bags of cheddar coated popcorn. So, Raleigh got to try some of that too. I think that is the last time Raleigh will get any cheddar-coated anything. Boy was that a mess.

And finally, here's a picture of the church float. Josh is in the back with the t-shirt for a head band on. Jamie is playing the red guitar to the right of Josh.

After the parade, we went to Home Depot, where we purchased a new toilet seat (which turned out to be too big) and a new air filter for our furnace. And after that, the grocery store was the final stop before we spent the rest of the evening at home.

Raleigh's Pet Horse

Grandma Deb brought Raleigh this stuffed horse the last time she visited. We all had a bunch of laughs after seeing him "ride" it.



I remember when Raleigh was first pulling himself up to standing position with the help of furniture. He used to just fall over and bonnk his head when he was done standing. Now, he slowly lowers himself to the ground.



Here's a good pic of Raleigh with his Auntie Jenna.



This is my latest favorite outfit on Raleigh. And in two of the pictures you can get a good glimpse of his top and bottom teeth.

Morning Flowers

Finally, I remembered to bring my camera to work this morning.

For the past few weeks, I've driven by this fabulous field of flowers during the sunrise. As the sun is so low in the sky, it casts such a beautiful soft and warm light on the yellow flower petals.

Here are three of the photos that I took this morning.

Lunch at Erika and Joel's

Yay! I found my other camera cord so I can upload some pictures to my computer. Now, you all can see pictures of our delicious lunch at Erika and Joel's today.
The highlights of the lunch were Raleigh and Adam, of course. Look at what a difference 8 months makes.

Erika is holding Raleigh and Robin is holding her beautiful baby boy, Adam.

Raleigh liked playing around Erika's stools.

Josh was trying to coax Raleigh into walking.

Look at Adam's cute puckered up lips. I miss when Raleigh had those cute newborn lips.

Joel was showing Raleigh the herbs that are growing in Erika's Aero Garden.

9 Month Check Up

Raleigh had his 9 month check up yesterday. He's a healthy boy.

Here are his stats.

Weight: 19 lbs 11 oz.
Height: 27.5 in

He also got his finger pricked so that they could run a hemoglobin test. They normally do one between 9 and 12 months.

We'll get the results back in a week.

I don't have new pictures or videos today, but I do have a milestone to mention....Raleigh and I were sitting on the floor together and he put his hand on my knee to help himself stand up and then...he let go of my knee so that he was just standing by himself. All by himself, standing there. I felt like I had a little child instead of a baby.

He would have stayed standing but I think my "OH!" reaction startled him and he quickly lowered himself back to the floor.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a fun weekend at my in-laws. This was the first time Raleigh has been to their place since he's been crawling. Needless to say, there were quite a few fun things to touch and do at their place.

Raleigh, was playing with Chelsea's purse (which she made her self), so Chelsea thought it would be fun to let him try it on.

Obviously, any time Josh and I are around his dad, we all have tennis on the brain. All three of us played once, but it was too windy. Josh and Steve went out without me on Saturday though. Raleigh had a lot of fun playing with this tennis racket.
He pushed it around quite a bit and then he would stand up with it. We're all hoping he gets the tennis bug.

There were new toys from Grandma Deb. These toys will stay at their house though. We've got plenty at our place...remind me to take a picture of the new storage unit we bought for Raleigh's room.


Raleigh loves it when his Grandpa plays music. Although, in this second picture, it looks like Raleigh is trying to get out and away from the music.

Grandpa Steve read to Raleigh. This is the book that Grandma Wanda gave to Raleigh the last weekend she was here. It's an awesome book that also makes sounds and has hidden pictures behind tabs throughout the book.

Ah, the stairs....This was a new concept for Raleigh. But he had no problems climbing up them. The trouble was getting back down. He hasn't quite figured that out yet.

We attended the Picasso exhibit at the Walker Art Museum in Minneapolis on Sunday, which I have no pictures of because we wern't allowed to take any pictures...and I didn't bring my camera. I'd like to go back when the weather has cooled off a bit so that we can tour the sculpture gardens.

Overall, it was a good weekend full of lots of food, and fun to be had for all.