A Blessed 4th of July

Kyle and I traded another road trip in for two tickets to fly to Minneapolis for the 4th of July holiday. We spent a wonderful 4 days in Wisconsin with Kyle's family. It reminded me again of how lucky I am that my husband's family is so wonderful ... and I'm not just searching for brownie points (although, they never hurt!)

Here are the stars of the show - Kyle's little cousins, Hallie and Ciana, at 3 months old. Adorable, huh? (The cute little runt on the left is our new God Daughter!)

And here are the girls getting baptised by Father Ed, Kyle's great-uncle who presided over our wedding almost 2 years ago. Pretty neat!





Here we are with Ciana, proud new Godparents! Breathe, mothers. I know anytime people see Kyle and I with a baby they get to thinking ... ... ... We figure there are more than enough babies to go 'round for now! We want to get this aunt/uncle/godparent thing down first. (but we do look good, huh?)

This picture looks like two sets of twins ... but it's me and Abby (Kyle's cousin) and the twins after their baptism. We let them chill in their diapers for the afternoon after swimming in their ginormous baptism dresses all morning. They earned it!

Here's another pair of look-alikes ... sisters, Grandma Dot on the left and Aunt Berni on the right ... feeding little Ciana. They even have coordinating outfits on, I mean, how cute is that?!?

Kyle's Uncle Bill and his girlfriend Chris, and Kyle's Aunt Mimi and her boyfriend, Jeff, even drove to Eau Claire to see us. We're excited to move back to Minneapolis, but, boy are we popular when we live far away! (Here we are with Mimi and Jeff ... sorry, Bill and Chris ... we'll have to remember to get a picture together next time!)

After enjoying our time with family and celebrating the baptism, we headed up north to Kyle's hometown of Chetek for Liberty Fest. For those of you from small towns, you know the drill ... parades, street dance, beach party ... being more of a city girl, this stuff is always fun for me. We hit up the drive-in for some amazing root beer and cheese curds and stopped at the local bar on the lake for a brewski.


I even purchased some beers for the evening from my very own sister-in-law! Yes, she's kind of a big deal. Not only is she working in a consignment store in Eau Claire, but she's also selling liquor to the locals in Chetek. Thanks, Em! The Leinie's was delicious!

Kyle and I enjoyed 4th of July with Emily and her boyfriend, Cody, out on the chain of lakes around Chetek. We watched some of the ski show (not nearly as good as when Emily was on the team) and listened to the music pumping at the beach party. It was nice to spend a little quality time with Em and Cody and the weather cooperated for most of the afternoon.

The weekend ended with a campfire at the house with the whole family. Here's Kyle hard at work to build the fire for us ... just before he douses it with lighter fluid ... I think he missed Boy Scouts. :)

Happy Belated 4th of July! Thanks to Aunt Jodi and Uncle Patrick for choosing us to be Ciana's Godparents (we're honored,) and thanks to Kyle's family for a wonderful weekend!