Only 9,999 lakes left to see

In the ‘Land of 10,000 Lakes’ we finally got to visit one and play! One of Lance’s classmates is from Owatonna and her family has a lake house about 25 minutes away. We went out there last Saturday along with almost everyone from Lance’s class. We had a great time and Ansley had a blast!  The weather started out overcast and about 68 degrees, but eventually most of the clouds went away and it warmed up! This was definitely NO Norris Lake, it wasn’t anywhere close in size, but they had a pontoon boat, Jet Ski, and a runabout boat.

    

This is a pic of their dock

Yep, I had a very busy day especially since Lance has a bum leg! Ansley wanted to go up and down the stairs about a thousand times and she wanted in and out of the water a thousand more times! But for the most part she was really good all day! She just isn't a big fan of her life jacket, but I don't blame her. We went for a pontoon ride and she took a lil nap. Lance took her out on the jet ski and she loved it! (Sorry, I don't have many pics from the day, cause it was hard enough chasing her around much less making sure the camera didn't go for a swim, so I stole some pics from Lance's classmates.)

 

This is Ansley bestest friend 'AsJay' as she says (really it's AJ)

The Steele County Free Fair is going on this week. It is about a block from our house. Not only can you hear the fair going on when you step outside our house, but you can SMELL all the fair goodies too!!! The fair is a big deal here, most people take off work this week just so they can go to the fair, kinda crazy! It is Minnesota's largest county fair.... http://www.scff.org/. We went Monday night before the fair actually opens, it starts Tuesday, and checked out the antique tractors. Ansley loved checking out the 'twactoors' like Papa!



I'll write some more about the fair later...

Only 3 days till our visit home! Continue to pray for us, our adventure, and our travel home!

We love and miss you guys!



The newest addition to the family

I know I haven't updated my blog in a little while cause things are crazy around here....

Let me explain, about two weeks ago Lance went and played basketball with some of his coworkers. When he got home he told me his knee hurt and he thought he just tweaked it. He said he doesn't remember doing one certain thing to hurt it, like he didn't hit anything or recall doing anything that automatically caused pain. The next day he said it was hurting worse and that even the outside of his knee was now hurting and it was continuing to get worse. He finally had one of the athletic trainers, that work for Federated, look at it and told him he probably tore his meniscus and/or MCL sprain. He got Lance a referral to get a MRI. As soon as he got out of the MRI the radiologist told him he has a fractured fibula and that the fracture is close to where the head of the fibula meets the knee. The only good thing is that the fibula is a non-weight bearing bone. The bad thing is that Lance walked around with a fractured fibula for a week! Lance will be in this walking boot for about 4-5 weeks at least. He says that even using the walking boot, it is still very painful. He walks at about the speed that Ansley does, so they make a good pair right now! This will definitely make our trip home even more interesting! Now you all know why I haven't blogged in a little while, I have my hands full with 'two kids' now! :)

More pics from Rib Fest...



                                                                                                                                                                    

Rib Fest and Vikings Training Camp

Saturday we had a successful trip to Mankato. We started off at the 14^th Annual Rib Fest with the John’s, Andrew and Jennifer. It was really hot and it wasn’t a huge festival, but we had a good time. There were about 6 different rib joints that were represented and yes, there was one from MEMPHIS! :) Ansley LOVED the ribs!

We also got an Hawaiian Shaved Ice to cool off with and Ansley helped herself to some….



After the rib fest we went to the Vikings Training Camp which is being held at Minnesota State University.

It was super crowded because they were having an intrasquad scrimmage. We were able to watch their pre-practice and get super close to the players. Andrew hollered at Donavon McNabb for a pic and McNabb acted like he was going to throw him a football, but faked the pass instead and did a little dance….it was pretty funny!

These are pics of the pre-practice....





Pics of the scrimmage....told you it was CROWDED!

We did get to meet a couple of the Viking Cheerleaders….



Before we left for our Mankato trip I was playing around with Ansley's hair and was actually able to make a little ponytail...it was so cute!!!

Only 12 days till our visit home! Continue to pray for us, our adventure, and travel home!

We love and miss you guys!



Ansley's Play Date

We finished off our fun filled weekend with Ansley’s first MN play date! The last time we went to the water park we meet a nice couple with a daughter just a little bit older than Ansley. We just made some small talk about our girls and then we left and didn’t think much about it. It turns out the nice couple we meet she works for Federated as well which is how we got the invite for a play date! On Sunday afternoon we meet Lisa, James, and their daughter Anna who is 18months along with another couple Elizabeth, Brock and Greta who is 16months at the water park to play. After playing in the water for a couple of hours we went to James and Lisa’s for a BBQ. The girls got a long great!!! We sat outside and watched them play, which was fun because at times the girls would all be playing together and then other times they would all be playing separately. Ansley really hasn’t been around other kids her age, so it was fun to see her interacting with them!

Greta, Ansley, Anna

Ansley LOVED this play structure...she loved the 'side'

Monday I went into St. Paul to Bethal Care Center, which is a sister facility to the nursing home I will be working at, to follow the Respiratory Therapist there to see a little of what I'll be doing. Tuesday I had an on site orientation for Owatonna Hospital. Then on Thursday I had my orientation for the nursing home. I know, I feel like all I have done is orientations! :)  Lance had 3 test this week with a final on Friday. He did great on all his test and he PASSED his final!!! Whoo-hoo!!!

Just a couple pics of miss ansley....

Only 14 days till our visit home! Continue to pray for us and our adventure!

We love and miss you guys!



Ansley's First Dance

Last week was busy for me I had to work Monday the 25^th –Wednesday 27^th from 7-3:30 at the hospital. While I was at work, one of the other Federated wives, Meagan, came over and watched Ansley. I survived work so on Thursday me and Ansley went to some garage sales. Yep-I found her a baby stroller AND a UT cheerleader bear! Best $1 I've spent in a long time! :)

After our great garage sale finds we went downtown where they were having the Owatonna Crazy Days, which is a 5 day festival. They had some food vendors set up along with a sidewalk sale. Pretty much all the stores downtown put out their junk, but me and Ansley meet up with our friend Allison and her lil guy Parker and browsed around. (I know I don't talk about what Lance does during the week because I have a hard enough time remembering what all I've done, much less what Lance has been into! Sorry, I'll try and do better!!)

Friday after Lance got done with work we went back downtown to the Hog Roast and Street Dance. There was a really good band playing and the BBQ was good. We had fun at the dance, but Ansley had a blast!! She even meet her a little friend who took her to dance! LOL! It was so cute! The little boy wasn’t much older than Ansley, but he led her to the dance floor! Ansley wasn’t much of a date; she didn’t even get the little boy’s name! :)





Here is a great video of Ansley dancing by herself. Lance says she dances just like her momma…I’ll let you decide!

 (PS-I promise she is okay from her wipe out at the end of the video!)

Saturday we went back downtown. They had the Festival of the Arts going on along with the Farmers Market. There were a lot of photography and jewelry vendors.

After eating a healthy lunch of Pronto Pups (corn dogs) and cheese curds (the north’s version of cheese sticks) we decided to drive to Mankato which is around 45min to an hour away from Owatonna. So not a bad trip and Ansley napped the whole drive. We didn’t really have any plans we were just going by the seat of our pants, which wasn’t a good idea. Once we got into Mankato we stopped at a store to ask what we should do and they weren’t very helpful. I guess local people don’t think there is a lot to see in Mankato other than the Vikings training camp so we didn’t stay very long, but we did see a crop duster plane during the trip, which was neat. We are planning on going back to Mankato this weekend; they actually have some things going on. I’ll let you know how this trip turns out! Once we got back, Lance went and played golf, while me and Ansley went to the pool!!



Sunday, Ansley had her first play date, but I’ll talk about that in my next post!

Only 17 days till our visit home! Continue to pray for us and our adventure!

We love and miss you guys!