Carolina's Visit

 My cousin Carolina (who lives in Spain) has been in MN for 6 weeks as a camp counselor.  And after camp she has been passed around between aunts and uncles making her rounds.  Well when she was with my parents they made the trip up to Duluth to see us.  We took her out to dinner and down to the lift bridge.

The boys had a lot of fun showing her the Lakewalk, the Bridge, the fountains, and the horse pulled carriages.  In the morning we took her to Enger tower, the Great Lakes Aquarium, and up to UMD.  Thanks for coming to visit!  It was great to see you.  

Oh, and Cullen loving on Mazie.  He is always trying to ride her, climb on her, lay on her, and step on her.  They must be best friends cause she never seems to mind when he does it.  

Our Garden and the Park

 Enjoying the summer days!  Cullen climbing the rocks and mom just happened to be at the top with the camera!  Busted!!

 Pure Joy!!  Look at those smiles :)  They love to go down this slide that is made of rollers, but they found that if they go down together it goes a lot faster!! Cullen even holds on a little to try and slow down a bit.  

 Breck yelling out "King of the Castle" when he got to the top of the rocks!

 Here the boys are after picking the 1st cucumber out of our garden.  They ate it right away too and boy was it tasty!!  

 My tree climbers...

 And tree huggers....

And this is what we picked from our garden today!!  Frest Cilantro, 2 cucumbers, pea pods and green beans!  Yummy, can't wait for dinner :)

Silly Boys and the Races

 We were trying to get out of the house one morning and the boys decided to play a game of sitting on a chair and sitting on each other's laps.  First Breck, then Cullen on his lap.

Followed by Breck on Cullen's lap, and Cullen on the chair.  I think they did this for at least a 1/2 hour.  I just sat on the kitchen stool and laughed.  These are the days when we don't get much done! 

 This is Cullen's in the hole dance!  He was putting from about 3 inches away and this is reaction when it goes in!  So cute :)

 Duluth offers races on Wednesday nights but we have been so busy we haven't made very many of them.   This was from 2 weeks ago in Hermantown.  The boys like warming up on the grass and hurdling over the 5 yard lines.   

 Here they are at the start line.  Notice the congestion...Cullen didn't make it past the start.  One of the older boys cut him off and tripped him so he didn't end up running.

But Breck did great!  He's been running faster each race!

Carroll Cabin

 Forgot about these cute pictures of the boys while we were in Mankato.  Just wanted to share them.

 And Breck skiing behind Shawn.

 3 nights and days without kids and we spent most of the time on the lake.  Didn't matter if it was cold or not we could do whatever we wanted :)  Snacks, drinks, and games is how we spent this night. 

 The only pic of the 4 of us.  Thanks timer :)

 Rachel and I on the boat.

 Breck and Shay reuniting! 

The kiddos joined us on Saturday night and we did dinner on the deck!  Not the best picture but they were all sitting, all looking, and most importantly all eating!!

This picture is the reason we had 3 days without kids...amazing Grandparents that took our kids so we could  enjoy the water.  So we tried to repay them with a big dinner, wine, conversation with adults, and a boat ride!  Thanks again Bill & Ginger for allowing us to invade your house year after year,  Thanks to Mike & Carol for taking Breck and Cullen, and Thanks to Stacy & Mark for taking Shay and Alyssa!

So fun to have everyone together too!

The Carroll and Burns Crew!  Thanks for a great vacation :)

Enger Golf and Tower

 I took the boys golfing the other day and I had never bought balls for the driving range, but Breck told me how to do it.  So I placed the token in the machine and pushed it in and all of a sudden balls started pouring out of the machine.  Well, I didn't have a bucket in place to catch them and the machine malfunctioned and wouldn't stop shooting out balls.  Oh, it was a site!  But the boys had endless balls to hit and were really happy about it!

Breck running up the stairs at Enger Tower so happy to be the leader and Culley hanging over the wall flashing me one of his amazing grins! Man, these kids are adorable! 

 I love that he is still so amazed at the view when we get to the top!  It is a great site.

 CHEESE!  I am surprised that I get some good pictures of them when most of the time they tell me "stop taking pictures Mom" "All Done" and "No more".  I just can't help myself sometimes :)

 Cullen on the move!  He was running down the stairs trying to get away from me and I still got one when he looked back to see how far behind I was!

Here are my silly guys...I told them to pose and Breck says " Ok Cullen, you grab my ear and I'll grab yours and then we pull"  Haha, then they both say "CHEESE"   Go Figure!  

People watching is also fun to do, and I caught both boys watching some kids jumping off rocks!  Guess what we did when we left the Tower??  

Boys & Lucas

 I'm not sure why when Lucas, Erin & Nathan were in town last I didn't get many pictures.  But here are a few that I did get.  One of Cullen passed out from playing so hard.  He also loves holding Lucas, I think he ended up holding him more than I did.  They are some cute boys!

 Breck also loves lil Lucas.  He is very sweet, tender, and gentle with him.  Who do you think is taller?  Breck was just curious.  I tried to get a good picture of the 3 boys/grandkids but Breck and Cullen were too busy looking at Lucas and kissing him to even attempt to look at the camera.  

 Our sweet nephew!  He's such a happy camper..love him!

Just a random close up of Culley and one of Shawn and I on our 7th Anniversary! Hard to believe it's been that long already.

Daddy's softball games

 We spent a lot of time playing while waiting for Dad's game.  So Cullen was eating cereal and doing "Chicken wings"....he thinks he's really funny.  Oh, and he got a mohawk:)  Pretty cute, huh?

 So Breck wanted one too!  My rebels :)

Breck wanting to play some ball!  He played all day and won't stop for anything!  He had all the team playing with him on down time and they all think he's pretty good. 

Thanks to all the guys who played with the boys....they had an amazing day!

USA Soccer

 Nothing better than spending the morning with our boys watching the USA women's soccer during a picnic breakfast in the living room.  The boys thought it was super cool and I got to watch some soccer!!

Which turned into playing soccer together.....even better :) 

So much fun!