Brown County Fair

The kids were anticipating the Brown County Fair all week and the day finally came on Friday! I took off work early and met Grandma and the three kids at the fair. The boys were already busy on rides, so Harlow and I went on the Merry-Go-Round. She loves rides! Last year she screamed bloody murder when Jamie took her off the Merry-Go-Round, this year thankfully, she was more cooperative.

Carson and Alec joined us in the fair fun, and they all squeezed into a tractor.

I think they had fun on the rollercoaster......!!!!

But leave it to Paxton to have a little naughty fit. I joked and said I'm going to have a lot of pictures of him making these mean faces if he keeps this up! He was furious with Grandma because....she smiled at him when he was getting off the ride. The horror, right!?!?! How dare she!

A couple snapchats I sent.....

And a short video of Paxton and I going down the big slide. It's his favorite ride. He wanted me to go down with him the first time, but then went by himself. But I think he had the most fun going with me!

Swimming Lessons

The boys ended their swimming lessons for the season, both passing onto the next level (Hudson to Level 1 and Paxton to Preschool 2). I'm pretty sure each of them could skip a few levels but we'll trek along the course and meet all of the necessary requirements. 

Their lessons were right after another, so each brother had to sit and wait through the others lesson. And let me tell you, it was HOT in there!! Sitting through the 30 minutes of lessons each proved to be difficult sometimes (especially when sister was with!). We got a little silly to pass the time.....

Up to Cass Lake

So we set off for Bemidji/Cass Lake at approximately 6:00pm on Friday, ready for our 5 hourish drive. We really can't complain about how well the kids drove. Paxton was the best, but he's always the most content car rider. He barely said a word, watched movies, played his Kindle, and took a couple short naps. Hudsy talked most of the time, with every other question being "How many more hours is it? Why are we going somewhere that's so far away? Is this further than Faribault (remembering the drive to Maddi's house)? This is like as far as Florida! What town is next? Then how many more towns? Is this Bemidji yet?" He only slept about 10 minutes right before we got there. Harlow was talkative too and happy most of the time, slept later on in the drive which resulted in her being wide awake when we got to the hotel......

So she and I stayed up awhile by ourselves. I was more than happy because Big Brother After Dark was on TV and it's like my favorite show! Some time after 1 a.m. I kindly asked her to close her eyes and go to sleep, but I know I fell asleep before her so I'm not even sure how late she stayed up. 

Jamie got up early the first morning to go fishing, so it was me and these three kids in the hotel. We had breakfast and headed straight to the pool.

When Jamie was done fishing, he came and picked us up and we headed to Paul Bunyan's Animal Land. Harlow liked seeing the animals but it took some coaxing from Morgan to get her to finally feed one. The boys loved walking around and feeding the deer.....until......

Hudson realized that there was deer poop all over and he got sick of watching out for the bombs and opted to ride on Kayla's shoulders. Pax didn't care one bit and ran like crazy through the park, but he didn't want to turn down Declyn's offer to carry him too!

Seeing these big bucks was right up Jamie's alley, although as a hunter, you can guess what he was thinking about! This poor buck was nice enough to let him get close and feel the velvet on his antlers. Poor guy didn't even know Jamie was dreaming about shooting, mounting, and eating him! 

We went fishing and Paxton caught some teeny tiny sunnies. It was fun because you could see them swim and bite the worm on the hook. He knew exactly when to reel up because he could see his catch!

Daddy got sick of catching little sunnies and went for the bigger bass.

Grandma Sharon let Harlow play with the worms so they were the best of friends.

Our last stop before heading back home was to see Paul Bunyan and Babe the Ox. Can you see the three tiny little kids sitting with them?

T-ball is over....

The boys completed their t-ball season as the Courtland Green Lizards. It was.....interesting, or I guess NOT interesting would be more appropriate. Hudson definitely had a better season than last year. He didn't complain about playing, he tried harder, he went for the ball, and all in all he paid more attention. Paxton started out okay, but by the very last night, he walked off the field sat down by Grandma and had enough. We had to really coax him to get back out there, but he did. He seems to like playing ball, enjoys hitting with Jamie at home, but I think he was bored during the games, and would see Harlow playing with her cousins and eating suckers and he'd much rather be doing that. So let's just say, from this mother's perspective (and I think I can speak for cheerleader Grandma and coach Daddy too) that we aren't too disappointed to see the season end.

To call these three kids "flirts" seems a little silly, but they really kind of are. Poor Brenley had to tell Paxton to quit kissing her more than once. I think their favorite part of the game was sitting and giggling on the bench with each other.

last saturday/sunday

The Johnson five plus Grandma, Sheri, and Carson all headed to the Gaylord water park last Saturday. The clouds loomed over the late morning/early afternoon so we stopped for lunch at a bar and grill, and as we ate, the sun shined through and we were ready to swim.

I loved her faces coming down the slide. Her tongue usually out.

We love having Carson with. Even though there's a bit of an age difference, he plays so well with the boys and LOVES Harlow!

Of course we wouldn't get through an afternoon without a little sibling abuse. Paxton and Harlow were both at the top of the fish slide, Harlow first, and Paxton ran out of patience and pushed her down. So.....timeout at the pool. I asked Harlow to go by Paxton so he could say he was sorry, which he did not want to do (obviously, look at those mean eyes!). So what does the poor girl do? Hug him and tell him its okay, guilting an apology out of him. Nicely played sister!

On Sunday we played around the house for awhile, cleaned the vehicles and garage, climbed Hermann the German (realizing we hadn't even been there yet this summer), and went to Grandpa and Grandma's to ride the four wheelers.

Harlow stayed at the bottom while me and the boys went up. Both of them claiming they weren't scared one bit, and I don't think they really were, at least not enough to stop them from going up. But Paxton did mumble to himself, "Why did I even do this, it's the scariest thing ever!?", as he clung to the stair railings for dear life. And right before the last flight of stairs, Hudson said, "That's okay, I'll just wait down here for you guys. It's funner here." Not a chance buddy! So we all made it to the top, on a VERY windy day!

Vacation Bible School

Both of the boys went to Vacation Bible School all last week and THEY LOVED IT!!! They went to Jamie's church and spent the entire week with their cousins, Grandma Sharon, and new friends. I dropped them off at Grandma's in the mornings (we usually stopped for donuts and juice first) and it never failed, every morning I heard their request of, "You can just drop us off Mom, you don't even have to come in."  Needless to say, they were always so excited about their day, both at VBS and at Grandma's. Hudson would always ask if I could come a little later everyday, there was always just so much to do at Grandma's with his cousins; ride the golf cart and go-cart, play with the kitties, dress up in scary masks/costumes, go swimming, to Schell's Brewery and Dairy Queen, but most importantly, EAT EAT and EAT some more! Grandma Sharon has GOOD food at her house! In VBS they made arts and crafts everyday, learned and sang songs, and made new friends. Dropping them off that first day, I could tell that they were both a little nervous (and I cried when I left, obviously) but with their older cousins by their sides, they braved through the unknown. A HUGE thanks to Morgan and Declyn for watching out for them! And an even BIGGER thank you to Grandma Sharon for watching them all day every day for 5 days, for feeding them and letting them have so much fun! 

At the VBS performance at church on Sunday- Kendra, Paxton, Morgan, Hudson, Bryce, and Declyn

I was a blubbering mess at their performance (so pardon the shaky video)! Never in my wildest dreams did I think they would stand up there in front of a church full of people and perform their songs, singing and actions. But both of them did (especially Paxton, you can clearly hear his voice at the end!). I was beyond proud of them! And we're still singing those songs (even me all.the.time!). This is a long video (I zoom in eventually), but again, so proud!

My favorite part about this one is at the end, Paxton nudges Hudsy on the shoulder and if you look real close, and can even hear a little bit, he asks him if he wants to play Transformers later. Hudson kind of gave him a look like, "You're asking me this now, are you kidding me??"

videos lately

Here are a few short videos I've taken of the kids lately......

Harlow was trying to help Paxton get his swimming trunks on. This was a snapchat video so its pretty short, and I missed Harlow saying at the end, "There!" like she just accomplished something great! 

Hudsy just being silly. He's always asking if I'm taking a snapchat picture/video because he knows those disappear right away and he wants it to stay on my phone forever.

Possibly the cutest squishy cheeks to ever dance!

Harlow was loving the Merry-Go-Round at Valleyfair until Jamie said, "Here comes the guy" and scared her death. He was talking to me, because I had my phone out and was already warned by the ride operator to put it away, but I'm pretty sure poor Harlow thought he was out to get her, you can see the fear on her face.

This is my daughter...crazy, strong, and fearless. Daycare told us that she could flip around on the bar/rings, so Jamie put ours up and sure enough, she swings around like a monkey. I keep telling her she's too little and that it scares me, but then she just does it more and hangs upside down saying, "What Mommy, this??".

Harlow and Mommy had a little love fest while waiting in line at the car wash. I love her sweet voice. I pretty love everything about her I guess. (Notice her "so much" is really "po much". She replaces a lot of sounds with a "p" sound, like c, ch, s, f. My favorite thing she says is "this is pun (fun)!!" 

Valleyfair on my Bday

We went to Valleyfair last Friday and it just so happened to be my birthday as well. Hudson was thrilled and a little surprised that I "picked" to go to Valleyfair for my birthday. Since we always let them chose what they'd like to do and where they'd like to eat on their birthdays, Hudson said, "You're picking Valleyfair for your birthday?!?!" The morning started out with McDonald's breakfast brought in by Jamie, so we decided to stick a candle in my breakfast sandwich and the kids sang and opened presents.

We squished in the car (Grandma and Sheri too) and headed to Valleyfair. Harlow thought she looked just like Mommy with her sunglasses on.

Like every year, we met the Friederichs and the cousins rode rides until they couldn't ride anymore.

Even this little one! She loves rides, begged and pleaded to go on the big rides. As we were standing in line for a kiddie ride she turned around and saw the rollercoaster, and pointed to the kiddie ride and said, "I don't wanna go on that one, I wanna go on THAT one (pointing to the rollercoaster)!" We kept telling her that she isn't big enough and she'd say, "Pleeeeeeaaaaase".

Look at that pure joy!

Thanks for a great day Friederichs (and Logie!!)!!

She gets pretty silly after a day in the sun and no nap!