Marvelous Minneapolis!

After our trip to Colorado, the kids & I packed up and headed to Minnesota with my Mom & sister, Catherine, to visit another sister, Lucinda. We had such a fun time - Aunt Cindy had all sorts of fun activities planned for us! On Day 1, we visited the UofM campus where Lucinda is working towards her Master's in Education, and afterwards she treated us to a tour of the Target Headquarters where she works. It was pretty cool. We came away with more Target "Bullseye" dogs than we need. Day 2, we hit Como Zoo which was crazy busy and loads of fun! Day 3 was a visit to the Mall of America - and for the second time that I've been there I walked out not having spent a red cent, except on lunch at the food court. We played on all the rides at the midway courtesy of free tickets that Aunt Cindy scored from a friend at a neighborhood BBQ. We visited an Art Fair right down the street from Lucinda's condo and had a great time at the beach - on a lake down the street the other direction. We had such a fantastic time and miss our Aunties and Mona! And since I'm playing catch-up, these photos are in no particular order and some may be a bit skeewampus. Sorry.

Lovin' the lake.

The Carousel at MOA. Clayton loved riding the "wagon" with Aunt Cindy.

Caroline, of course, went for the fancy horses with Aunt Kitty.

Our favorites! We love the Backyardigans!!!

On the train caboose at the 1800's authentic pioneer village we stopped at on our way home.

Saloon girl.

We found Jake the Horse Thief's final resting place.

This little town was one of the best parts of the trip. Caroline & I had spent the summer reading "Little House on the Prairie", "Little House in the Big Woods", and were actually halfway through "Little House & the Long Winter". We didn't visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder homestead (it was a couple hours out of our way) but when we stopped at this little village, we identified a ton of things that we had read about that made them real to Caroline. My favorite find was in a barn of old farm equipment and wagons. We had read about a "Horsepower Machine" that used horses to generate power to a machine that threshed grain. We tried to imagine it as we read, but there in the barn was an actual original implement that had an illustration next to it showing how it worked. It was amazing! The other thing we had read about was the muskrat homes that by looking at, Charles Ingalls could tell that a hard winter was expected. I'd never seen a muskrat mound before. But it dawned on me as we drove past the marshy land of Eastern South Dakota (which is actually where "The Long Winter" took place that the mounds I could see were exactly that! I was so excited. Unfortunately, that is the part of the trip that Caroline slept through.

Our balloon parrot from the Rainforest Cafe. Connor was giving it kisses.

Excited about the "Thunderstorm" in the cafe - with real rain! What a refreshing way to end a long day at the Mall!

Aunt Cindy teaching Clayton bad habits - water fights in restaurants are not good behavior!

The Lego Store & Woody!

The Balloon Ride!

More Carousel!

Painting a piano at the art fair.

A sunny day at Como Zoo with Aunt Cindy.

All super excited to be at the Como Zoo carousel. Obviously. (Actually, it was just really bright out.)

Clearly, we have a thing for carousels.

Making new friends while waiting in line.

Awestruck.

The butterfly pavillian. At some point during our walk through, each of them had a butterfly land on their head. Clayton was a little freaked out by it.

Butler Family Reunion

Our family rotates our reunions every year. This year was an adults-only getaway (with the exception of two little ones). Last year was the whole family together and the year before that was girls weekend.

With my hottie at the top of the mountain. What a view! (Oh, and the trees and mountains are nice, too.)

We got together at Estes park in Colorado. I've never been before and was pretty amazed at how tourist-y it was. But it was fun. I loved being with the other adult family members. I love and appreciate them so much! I'm grateful for my own sisters and the relationships I have with them, but there is something so different about having brothers that I never experienced growing up. And I really enjoy having sisters-in-law who are in the same place I am in life as far as being wives and mothers. I don't get that from all my sisters. Yet. (Don't ask me why this is all underlined. I can't turn it off. No, it doesn't link to anything.)

We rode the tram to the top of the mountain, where the chipmunks are so tame they'll eat out of your hand. I think that was one of the highlights for me - feeding the rodents.

Jared, Christina & Porter on the tram. I miss this woman (okay, and her hubby and baby, too - but mostly her!) We had so much fun - we sortof did everything together since we both had babies on board. But, she is moving to Utah this week, which is much closer than Michigan, where they've been for the last few years.

Jake & Connor on the tram.

Cutie Cousins after the tram.

Jared feeding the chipmunks.

My hand and a chipmunk. I haven't gotten pics yet from the other family members' cameras that actually show me feeding the little guys.

We wandered around downtown and visited the shops. But there's only so much that is different in each t-shirt, candy and rustic decor place you walk into.

Mr. Cool chilling out with a refreshing drink.

We ate at the Grumpy Gringo. And now we know why it is called that.

And we visited "Fun City" - with go karts and a huge slide. I think that was another highlight for me. My competetive side came out a little bit and I figured out why I'm not usually that eager to get in there and try to win. I usually get thrashed.

Jake racing around the track - I promise, I wasn't far behind.

This just made me mad. I was in the lead - in front of the WHOLE family, and just before the last bump I slowed down and ended up last.

Things I Love

I LOVE this man. And this girl. And when this man hangs out in her room to tell stories to this girl before she snuggles down for the night.

I LOVE it when this hunky man takes these beautiful babies for rides on their sweet pony past our gorgeous fields.

I LOVE this baby's big brown eyes - especially when he's up to no good and I'm trying hard to be stern even when he's so stinkin' adorable.

I LOVE this bird. He is beautiful. He perches here every day in the tree by my kitchen window and watches over my little ones at play, sings and talks to me while I'm in the garden and is generally just a fun addition to our yard.

I LOVE my life!

Dana MADE My Day!!!!!

I think of Dana from MADE as something of a celebrity. At least in my little blog/crafty world, she rocks. When I shared my version of her Warhol Dress, here, I also uploaded it to her "you MADE it" Flickr group. She put it in her latest roundup post showcasing the work of her fans!!!! Go here to see my cutie on her site! (I was very surprised - I didn't love how the photo turned out. I took it at noon and the shadows were so harsh. But Dana liked it!)

Milestones

At our house, it's a big day when a baby discovers the "snack cupboard". Oh, the joys of finding the crackers or applesauce cups and helping yourself to something to tide you over until the next meal.

For some reason, this is the only one of 10 darling pictures of Connor raiding the cupboard that would transfer from the camera to the computer. I've got a great one of him dumping crackers out of the box.

Oh, and Connor walked 4 feet from the sofa to the coffee table yesterday!

I Did It!!!

Sporting my 5K t-shirt. There wasn't anyone to take a picture of me at the actual race. But the shirt proves I did it! I'm not sure what's up with the weird line through the photo.

One of my New Year's Resolutions this year was to run a 5K. Today I completed my goal. I participated in the Chadron Colter Run this morning. Being my first time, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect and didn't realize I needed to listen for my time to be called out as I crossed the finish line. I was so focused on getting there that I didn't hear. It was a bit disheartening to finish and not see my little family there cheering me on - a mental image that I kept in my head while I was training. But with Connor being sick, Jake stayed home with the little ones so I could achieve what I set out to do at the beginning of the year. I'm so grateful for his support, even from home. I did better than I thought I would in the race, considering the last 3 nights have been rather sleepless with Connor. We're still not sure what he has, but are just waiting it out and hope the little guy is on the mend soon. His fever seems to have broken finally so maybe we're in the clear.

All I Wanna Do...

...is sleep or sew all day. Seriously. Since we returned from our Utah trip almost 2 weeks ago, I can't seem to get into my groove. Oh, I've got my creative groove on (I think it got stuck in hyper-create while I was making bows like a crazy woman on my vacation) but the house? Yuck. The carpet needs vaccumed. And deep cleaned. The craft room is a little scary from all this sewing and the kitchen, well...

Partly I think I've got the blah's from all the overcast weather and rain around here. It has been pretty much nonstop for a week and a half. All my outdoor projects are on hold and my garden starts and all the raspberry, blackberry & blueberry bushes I ordered have been living in pots in the kitchen - mostly on the chest freezer. I feel like I can't move in there for the living greenery. And today's nice but I am still not feeling any oomph. Except in front of my beautiful sewing machine.

I've been sewing dresses out of old t-shirts. Comfy, cute, wonderful summer dresses (that I can't wait to wear when it gets warm!) I got the idea from MADE and tweaked it for an adult's dress (it was originally a child's dress and I never actually looked at the pattern, I just grabbed my elastic thread and got shirring! I promise I'll post pictures eventually. I'm just not great at the whole take-photos-of-myself gig.)

Dana from MADE inspires me (never been there? you should go!) She has so many fun projects that up until now I haven't felt like I could tackle with 3 little ones underfoot. But lately, now that Connor is on the move and can entertain himself a bit better around my feet while I'm working, I've found the freedom to sew more. Yay! I saw Dana's "Warhol Dress" last week and wanted to make it for Caroline. I found two thrifted T-shirts just hours after viewing Dana's post and KNEW they would be perfect for this particular project.

It's been hard for our little country girl to understand that while we live in the STATE of Nebraska, we don't live in any particular town (though we do have the address of a nearby town.) So I figured this shirt presented the perfect opportunity for a geography lesson. I cut it so the area where we live is right up front and placed a little red freezer-paper-stenciled heart RIGHT where our ranch/horseshoeing school is located. It just happened to be right above her own sweet little beating heart. Caroline LOVES it! I love the polka dot ruffle and tie a the top.