Summer Vacation

We recently spent a week of vacation up in Minnesota on Spectacle Lake. It was such a great, relaxing vacation. It was really hard to pick just a few photos to share, but here are some tidbits. Maybe I'll get some more on here later - for now this is the best I could do!

All three of my "boys" went skiing!

Peter and Noah tubing

Lots of swimming out to the raft and plenty of fishingMost important was time spent with family. Love the picture of Brian and his brothers. Such goofballs. My family was there too, but I didn't seem to have my camera out when they were there. Hmm.

Oh, and Noah catching fish off the dock - for some reason this picture ended up down here and I've given up trying to move it!I'll do another post later - just too many good pics to share all at once!

Update

Looks like we will have to update the family photo soon. Not because this one is really old and we just need a newer one - although that's a good reason! We will need to update it because we are expecting a new addition to our family! Baby Blomquist #3 will be making HER (yes, we found out!) arrival sometime in mid-october. We couldn't be more excited!

Soccer

The boys just finished up their second season of soccer. They have really taken to this sport and it's been fun to watch them enjoy it. They are both good, but for very different reasons.
Jacob will always run "near" the ball, but he's usually waiting for the ball to come loose for his chance to break away with it. This has worked well for him - he scored two of his teams four goals in their last game. When he scores he still looks over at us on the sidelines with a big smile on his face and some excited jumps. I don't want him to outgrow that.... :)
Noah's strategy is much more aggressive. He goes after that ball! He has scored goals in every game he's played in - but since he gives it his all he has also ended up in tears a few times. See the picture of him chasing the boy in blue? That was the one boy that was bigger and faster than Noah and he DID NOT like it. That caused some crying on the sidelines - but also fueled him to work harder. When he scores he runs around giving "hi-fives" to everyone he can!
I love how sports brings out their personalities. Jacob sitting back and waiting for the right time, and Noah aggressively going after things is exactly how they are day to day. Such fun - I'm a blessed mommy!

Cheese!

No corn on the cob for Jacob this summer! The other front tooth is loose and about to come out too - he can't wait! I think its adorable... :)

A great freebie

Have you ever heard of Lowes "build N grow" workshops? We recently discovered these on a random trip to Lowes on a saturday morning. Every other saturday they host these workshops for kids. It is completely free. They give the kids kits to build something new each time. They also give them aprons, badges, and certificates of completion. They provide tables and hammers, or you can take the kit home and do it there yourself. They are super easy for adults to figure out, so anyone can help a child do this. Our boys LOVE it. The first thing they built was a bird feeder (which they then colored) and last saturday they built these schoolhouses. The lids on the schoolhouse open to store school supplies or whatever. I am sure someday down the road I will be getting rid of these - since all projects eventually recycle themselves! :) But the boys are so proud of their work and they loved hammering the nails in and knowing that they made it themselves. Did I mention that it is free?! Go do this! (no, I am not getting paid by Lowes for this free advertisement....)

Sad day

Last Tuesday it was time to finally change out my California license plates for new South Carolina plates. I haven't been looking forward to this day. Most of you will think this is silly, but some will understand. It's not that I have anything against South Carolina. It's a nice state - I even like that they still say "In God we trust" on their license plates. It's just that we loved California so much. So the day finally came to remove our last "visible" sign that showed everyone where we came from. Sigh.
Fast forward to Thursday. I drove Jake to school sporting our new plates (by the way, these pictures aren't our plates. I just pulled them off the internet!). He is doing his standardized testing this week so his teacher keeps telling them to eat healthy breakfasts full of brain food. She was teasing him and asked him if he had his grits that day. He smiled and said "what are grits?". I was sort of proud that he doesn't know what they are, but she looked at me like we were crazy. "We aren't from the south" I said. Jacob laughed and said "no, I'm from San Diego!".
                                                                                  

Yes Jake, yes you are! I walked happily back to the parking lot. Who cares that my car makes me look like a local. I have something even better from  California - one the dmv can't tell me to change! My two little California boys!

No training wheels!

Noah has been begging me for so long to take his training wheels off. I have been putting him off saying "wait until daddy can help you". Of course, when daddy's here he would forget and it just never got done. I don't enjoy this task of parenting. Running slowly, bent over, holding onto the bike. My back ends up hurting and I find myself thinking "just put the trainers back on". However, I finally decided that the poor kid had waited long enough. We started out on his little bike so that he could easily touch the ground. This was going well and I figured we would wait to do the big bike until, well, until daddy could help him! So one day Jacob asked if he could take Noah's training wheels off for him and help him learn. This was either a brilliant idea, or disaster waiting to happen. Either way, I said "yes". Jake got out the wrench and got the training wheels off and, while I watched, he held onto Noah's bike and started running with him. It was so cute to see big brother seriously helping little brother and little brother completely trusting in big brother! And suddenly Noah just had it. He took off on his own and never looked back. He started shouting "I'm doing it! I'm doing it!". To which Jake shouted back "good job little brother!". Oh, be still my heart. It was one of the sweetest moments! Wish you all could have been there to see it too.....