Thunder, lightening and our first attempt at camping

I attempted to take Nolan to soccer, but at 9:07 there were only 5 other people at the field, and it started to sprinkle. By the time I got home with him it was raining pretty hard and thundering and lightening - which makes me feel better because it would have been cancelled anyway.  We quickly packed up the rest of our things and headed out with the camper in tow.  What a funny, grown up "I have a family" feeling!  We made a pit stop in St. Cloud to say hi to my parent's and eat lunch, and then hit the road to get up to the farm.  It stopped raining by the time we got there, so we set up the camper.  We had grand plans to sleep in it all weekend, but the weather just didn't cooperate.  Greg came out to get us at 12:30 am Sunday morning, as there was a report that hail was headed our way.  The thuder and lightening were intense, but other than Nolan popping his head up briefly both boys slept great.  We carried them in the house and got them to sleep right away.  Sunday actually turned in to a pretty nice day, minus the wind - but sure enough the forecast was for severe thunderstorms again, so we made the decision to sleep inside again.  We actually took the camper down Sunday evening so we wouldn't have to worry about drying it out when we got home.  The storms did roll through between 10 - midnight with lots of rain, thunder and lightening again, which made us feel better about our decision!  The good news is the boys were able to share and bed and other than it taking about 45 minutes to get Kale down it went well.  We are looking forward to our first real camping trip!

Highlights from Memorial weekend:
Nolan learning to pee on a tree!  I had the great idea of letting him give it a whirl in the great outdoors, and he liked it so much after the first time on Saturday that he asked Grandma Ellen if he could do it again on Sunday - and then managed to do it by himself!  We hope he'll learn that he can't do this everywhere - only in secluded places!  This carried over to his first time standing to do his thing at home this morning. 
Nolan jumping up to bat at the leaves every time he passed the big tree by the sandbox.  As long as the wind wasn't blowing too hard he managed to get them.


Nolan and Kale both discovering the joys of riding 4 wheelers.  I'm not going to lie - it was a little nerve wracking watching them with Adam, Erica and Grandpa Greg, but they did great and LOVED it!  Nolan even got to "drive" me and Adam around!  Kale was so exhausted by Monday afternoon that he fell asleep while riding with Grandpa Greg.  Proof that he goes until he can't go anymore!

Nolan and Kale once again enjoying "driving" a tractor at Kyle and Maria's.
 

Kale and Nolan both learning the joys of playing with bugs.  I just LOVE it when they pick them up to show them to me.  The other day Nolan picked up a dead dragon fly, ran over to me and said "mom, look at it's cheeks!" He meant the eyes, which didn't look like eyes anymore!


Nolan and Kale going fishing with Uncle Dave, Grandpa Greg and Adam. Kale did great as long as he had a snack in his mouth.Nolan did great, too, until Adam and Greg started wondering if his Lightning McQueen fishing pole would float - which resulted in Nolan just dropping it in the lake. It doesn't float.

Nolan and Kale eating S'mores for the first ime.  Kale didn't like it right away, but he sure did once he found the chocolate!

The kids playing with Bailey, the black lab. Nolan loved to throw her the tennis ball, and then tell her to "drop it" when she brought it back.  Kale tried, too, but it didn't work quite as well with him!

 

Kale saying "hi" every time he saw someone, followed by "what are you doooooing?"


Nolan and Kale "helping" with a few farm chores - carrying black dirt in a bucket and picking up sticks to put in the firepit.