This summer Nate and I attended the wedding of his pitching coach Josh and his new wife Emily. The girls got to spend the day with Jenn and Seth. There are always high pitch squeals of delight and lots of jumping up and down when Jenn is the sitter. That is why I usually don't tell them she is coming. They spoiled them as usual and took them up to El Paso to swim at a little lake that belongs to Jenn's family.

Here is a little Jenn and Seth history for any blog readers who may not know them. Jenn was our afternoon sitter when Shelby was a baby. My sister watched her for the summer when my 6 week maternity leave was over. When Ashley went back to school in the fall, we found Jenn to take over in the afternoons when Nate left to do baseball lessons. She was a great sitter and has come through for us in a few minor emergency situations. Considering we have no family in Bloomington/Normal, that has been huge. She has become a great friend to our family over these last 6 years. Along with my next door neighbor, she is listed as an emergency contact for school and church. We go way back with Seth. He played Jr. High baseball for Nate during his first coaching years at Gridley. We sort of lost touch after we left Gridley but our paths crossed again when Seth was a student at ISU. He did an internship with Nate's summer college team the summer Shelby was a baby. Since Jenn and Seth are both from Gridley and have grown up attending the same church, they were not strangers. So we didn't introduce them. They did attend birthday parties and trips to Chuck E Cheese or ended up at our house at the same time. For anyone who doesn't know, I dream pretty much every night, all night. Back in the days that Jenn babysat for us, I dreamt twice that she and Seth got married. We never shared this info with Seth but I did tell Jenn. Both times she said, "that's never going to happen"! Well the Lord worked on her heart, because one day they show up on our front porch holding hands and Seth asking the girls if it was alright if he married Jenn! The only problem for us was it was April 1st. Fool's Day! So Nate was almost sure they were pulling a fast one on us! But they recently celebrated another anniversary so no joke there. Of course, for their wedding gift we gave them an engraved picture frame that said, "Dreams Do Come True". At least mine and Seth's any way! Here are some pics from all the fun that day.

The "Beach"

Seth diving like a frog & Shelby swimming
Seth watching Shelby hang on
He's probably trying to convert her to a Cubs fan
Seth dancing while Shelby is still
holding on!

Shelby getting ready to float

Shelby and Seth floating

while Morgan swims

Morgan snacking on a cookie

Being Cheesy

Shelby

Shelby joining Seth

He looks like he is asking her why

she won't like the CUBS?

Shelby answers as she pushes Seth in!

Because they stink and are cursed by a goat!

Shelby

Seth and Morgan in the canoe

More swimming fun

Thanks to Jenn for the pictures. I copied them from her Facebook photos. After the lake they came back to Normal and hung out at Jenn and Seth's. We picked them up at like 8pm and both of them had a fit when we showed up! They were helping them water flowers and spray for weeds. Thanks guys for adding another day of fun for the girls in their summer 2010!

Shelby's Week Away in WI 2010

Since we are approaching the 1 year anniversary of Shelby's 2010 week stay at my parents, I thought it would be a good idea to post some pictures of all the fun things she got to do. Morgan and I dropped her off at Ashley's and the two of them headed to Papa & Nonny Moe's house. It wasn't too far into our trip back home that I got a text from Ashley saying Shelby was crying for me. Seriously? I don't get this girl! When we are home together I know she can't hardly stand it, but when we are apart for any amount of time she misses me. There were also a few nights at bedtime that she shed some tears for her dear ole' mama. I thought this type of thing only happened with teenagers. You know, the love-hate relationship. Despite missing me, I think she had a lot of fun and was lucky to get to do a lot of stuff with Nonny, Aunt Ashley & Uncle Luke. Ashley took a ton of pictures and this post includes a bunch. So sit back and get comfy and when you start to get bored, just remember this post is more for Shelby than for you! :)

My great Uncle David owns a horse stable. Shelby had been there before and rode a horse with Ashley, but this time she got to ride all by herself. She did good. The only problem she had was when she pulled the reigns too tight, her horse kicked Ashley's horse who was riding behind her.

Shelby with her great-great Uncle David

making a new friend

Shelby & Mitch the horse

heading out on the trail

Shelby with her Nonny

hanging out with the horses

riding horses wears a girl out!

Next up on the activity list was a trip to Madison to the butterfly garden. From what I saw in the pictures, this place is full of beautiful flowers & greenery and butterflies flying freely about.

Shelby wore her butterfly shirt & had 1 land on her chest

strolling along with Uncle Luke

with Nonny by the waterfall

have to play some Sorry!

Shelby lined up to win!

she won!

coloring with Luke

Next fun outing was to Yellowstone Lake for some boating & swimming.

speeding right along!

check out Nonny's grip on that rail! She does not like water!

thanks to Great Uncles Nick & Doug for providing the boat & the fun!

meeting Ashley's friend Eryn's new baby

Finally, before heading home, she visited Nonny's Spa for a manicure & pedicure.

fresh out of the shower & ready to be pampered

excited about the nail stickers

inspecting the work

beauty can be painful!

checking her nails in the mirror

quick drying so she can hit the road

One piece of fun she doesn't even know about and probably wouldn't go back if she did, was the not so much fun bats in the house while she was sleeping! She slept through Ashley moving her from bed to bed and all the chaos involved with either killing bats or getting them out of the house. Some day when she reads this she will have to have her Aunt Ashley fill in the details.

This year Ashley, the girls and I are going to spend the week together in WI to close out summer vacation 2011. I'll try to post details of that trip before this time next year! Stay tuned!