More photos posted - June and July

The photos from June and July 2013 have finally been uploaded.

At Cole's high school graduation

In the May-June 2013 album, the June pictures include: Joe's birthday, Cub Scout Rockets, Cole's high school graduation, Vacation Bible School, Squirts baseball (coach-pitch) and the Marriage Encounter group's camping weekend.

In the July-Aug 2013 album, the July pictures include: the 4th of July celebrated with friends; BBQ Days with the 5K and Kids Fun Run, parade and carnival; Z&A learning to ride bikes without training wheels; the Scott County Fair and demolition derby; and a great day at the park.

Cole as George Gibbs in "Our Town"

We also added a great picture from May, a picture of Cole that was in the Hopkins newspaper from his performance as George Gibbs in Hopkins High's production of "Our Town"

Catching up

The massive amount of photos to sort through from our last two big trips (Disney last Nov and Hawaii in May) got me really far behind on all of our normal family pics. I'm slowly working my way through all of them and am finally caught up through the end of May, plus a couple of fun events this summer!

Scouts and their Den Leader at the Pinewood Derby

Jan-Feb 2013 - Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby, Polar Camp, Blue and Gold banquet and a TV station tour, Cole's Honor Band performance (with video!), his Senior Pops Concert and Cole's 18th birthday
Zach and Alex's 7th birthday - birthday dinner at Osaka and a birthday party at the bowling alley!
Mar-Apr 2013 - a Spring Break trip to the zoo with a friend, Easter fun, and more Scout events including the recognition Zach and Alex got for earning their Light of Christ pins and religious emblems, community service on the City-wide Clean Up day and other fun Pack activities

Cole performs a solo at Hot Club

May-June 2013 - Just has May pictures for now - crazy kids driving the lawn mower, Cole's final high school band concert and Mother's Day brunch
Muckfest MS 2013 - Joe and I got mucky with some friends for the Nat'l MS Society, running a crazy muddy 5 mile obstacle course!

Crossing the finish line together at Muckfest

OLP Ladies Pilgrimage -Karen joined some lovely ladies from church on a pilgrimage and retreat in Eastern WI.

With the addition of the Scout pictures listed above, the Tiger Scouts album is complete with the full set of pictures from the various activities Zach and Alex did as Tiger Scouts

Celebrating 10 years of marriage – Kauai, part 3

A little piece of heaven at Polihale Beach

Part 3 is the last 3 days of our second honeymoon trip. Day 8 was a beautiful day, so we went back up to the North Shore to do some snorkeling at Ke'e Beach in Ha'ena State Park. We bought an underwater disposable camera when we rented the snorkel gear and got some pretty cool pics.

The highlight of Day 9 was a drive out to what I like to call "my happy place," also known as Polihale Beach, to watch the sun set over the ocean. It's a beautiful, secluded beach just south of the Na Pali Coast and is accessed by driving just about to the end of the highway and then driving through rough dirt roads for about 5 miles. Such a perfect way to spend our last night on Kauai - a bottle of wine with the relaxing sound of the waves while we watched a spectacular sunset. (I feel the stress lifting just thinking about it!)

Day 10 was our last day in Hawaii. Our flight left in the evening so we had just about a full day to head south to sunny, warm Poipu where we saw an endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal sunbathing right next to the tourists and locals. We also spent some time exploring Shipwreck Beach, known for its rough waters and some nice hiking, and the natural wonder of Spouting Horn. After once last mai tai at the airport, we were on our way back on a red eye flight home.

This link takes you to the beginning of Day 8, where we stopped at an overlook heading north out of Kapa'a on our way up to Ke'e Beach.

Mahalo and aloha, Hawaii - until we meet again!

Celebrating 10 years of marriage – Kauai, part 2

Part 2 is days 5-7 of our amazing 10 day trip. Day 5 was May 17th, the day of our 10th anniversary, and we celebrated it in style!

Celebrating our 10th anniversary

We started the day with a tour at the Steelgrass Chocolate Farm, where they grow a number of tropical fruits and vegetables, including, of course, the cacao tree. The tour includes a chocolate tasting (yum!) where you blind sample 11 different dark chocolates and try to identify their flavor notes - similar to a wine tasting.
From there, we drove up to the North Shore for a quick stop at the Kilauea Lighthouse and Wildlife Refuge and then on to the St. Regis resort in Princeville where we had a couples massage at the spa and an amazing anniversary dinner at the Kauai Grill, watching the sun set over Hanalei Bay from our table while we dined.

Proud owners of 2 beautiful pieces of art

Day 6 was a low-key day trip to the south side of the island. We shopped the art galleries in Hanapepe and picked out a couple of beautiful pieces as anniversary presents for ourselves. Day 7 was a rainy day, and we were back up at the North Shore where we drove all the way to the end of the road to Ha'ena State Park.

This link to the photo album will take you to the first picture of Day 5 at the chocolate farm. Enjoy - aloha!

Celebrating 10 years of marriage - Kauai, part 1

 At the beach of our hotel in Kapa'a

To celebrate our 10th anniversary in May, Joe and I took a wonderful 10-day trip to the site of our honeymoon: Kauai, Hawaii. We had an amazing time (of course), exploring the island that we both fell in love with 10 years ago. There are some activities we repeated - the same luau, visited some of the same restaurants, visited our favorite beach (what I call "my happy place") - and some things we tried for the first time. We took a zillion pictures, or so it seems. I've narrowed them down to our favorites and have posted pics and video clips from the first 4 days of the trip in the Kauai - May 2013 album (hover over the pic to see the title/description). Enjoy our little piece of paradise with us. The rest of the pictures will be coming soon. Aloha!

Finally finished posting 2012!

Visiting Santa's factory at Macy's after
having breakfast with him

OK, so it's already May... you can't rush into these things, right? Joe gives me a hard time because I spend way more time on editing and posting pictures than I really need to, as I spend time filtering out the not-so-good ones, editing/cleaning up the photos I like, adding captions and tags and then finally getting them posted on the site.  But I really do like doing it this way, even if it does take a lot of time.  We took *so* many pictures in Disney World (it was a great trip!) that it took me forever to get through them all, and now I'm behind - much to my mom's dismay, lol. So here you go, Mom - the rest of the pics from 2012. :)

In the Nov-Dec 2012 album, there are pictures as we decorated for Christmas, the first big snow storm of the season, photos from our Breakfast with Santa at Macy's with our friends from New Horizon, and a Cub Scout Go See It activity where our den got a behind-the-scenes tour of our local police station. There are also videos from OLP's annual Christmas concert where the OLP School students performed a number of songs for the congregation.

There are also photo albums from our weekend trip to Chicago for Thanksgiving and from our Christmas celebration at home.

Now, on to all those pics from 2013!

It's a Small World - but it's a lot of pictures!

At the Magic Kingdom
with Grandma and Papa

In November, the Vandermark and Belousek families took our annual family vacation together; this year was a trip to Disney World. We timed the trip so that we could catch the very end of Epcot's Food and Wine Festival, where we grazed our way around the world (yum!) and the very start of their Christmas/Holiday festivities. We had a fabulous time, of course - so many fun things to see and do! One of the new things we tried on this trip was The Pirates' League, where Joe, Cole, Zach and Alex all were transformed into pirates, even taking a pirate's oath!  We also made our away down to Kissimmee, FL, where the new Legoland amusement park opened up; some very cool things to see there.

Our fearsome pirate crew

I take a lot of pictures normally, but I went really camera-happy on this trip.   There are lots of fun ones in the WDW - Nov 2012 photo album, including interactions with Disney characters, pictures captured on the rides, all the cool rides and exhibits at Legoland, some cool videos from the Osborne Christmas lights and a stunt show at Hollywood Studios, and of course, our crazy pirates.

Our Super (Mario) Bros.

A family vacation and the holidays caused me to get behind on the photos, so I'm finally getting around to finishing up October and starting November.

The Scouts at the 1890's school

Zach, Alex and the rest of their Scout Den had a fun field trip (known as a "Go See It") to a historic place called The Landing (formerly known as Murphy's Landing for those in MN). The park has historic homes and buildings from the 1850's-1890's to show how settlers in the area lived at the time. The Scouts got a taste of what family and school life would have been like for them - no video games or electricity! They all had a lot of fun.

Luigi and Mario

For Halloween, they dressed up as Mario and Luigi from the Super Mario Bros. game, an idea they came up with all on their own (so cute!). They were excited to be dressed up for school all day. After school, they went trick-or-treating at the local businesses downtown and scored a huge amount of candy.

In other news, Alex was soooo excited to finally lose his first tooth! It bugged him that Zach lost his much earlier, so we were all happy for him when it was time for the Tooth Fairy to visit. Just like Zach, the Tooth Fairy gave Alex a set of gold coins for his special first tooth.

Check out the Sept-Oct 2012 album and the Nov-Dec 2012 album to see these pics and a few more, as well as some videos of Cole practicing his trombone for us. :)

School days

Ready for 1st grade!

As usual, September means that school is beginning again. This year, Cole is in his (gasp!) senior year in high school, and Zach and Alex started 1st grade at the Catholic school in our parish. I don't think Cole would be overjoyed at having pictures taken on his first day of school, but fortunately for me, Zach and Alex still are - so we took pictures of them as they went off to the bus stop. :)

Sept was a bit of a tough month for Zach, who suffered a broken collarbone when he got tackled in flag football.  Grandma Pat happened to catch some of the aftermath on camera, and in addition to the pain poor Zach suffered, the pictures show a moment of brotherly love as Alex helps comfort Zach as they leave the field.  Fortunately, the injury didn't slow Zach down much and he's right back to his energetic self.

Along with these pictures, the Sept-Oct 2012 album includes a fun day at our church's annual Fall Festival fundraiser and the Raingutter Regatta races at the October Cub Scouts Pack meeting (hence, the kids in costume), along with some other odds and ends - including some videos of Z&A reading and Papa playing the accordion!

Also, I've added a couple new photos to the Basement album showing the work I did on the basement bathroom - a new tile floor and wainscoting on the walls. Slowly but surely, it's getting done!

Scouting fun

Alex and Zach with Den Leader Mommy

We had a couple of fun Cub Scouts events in August - a camping trip with the Pack and a day camp specifically geared towards Tiger Cubs (first graders).

The Pack camping trip was the first "real" camping trip for Zach and Alex, spending the night in a tent somewhere other than in our backyard. They, and the rest of the Scouts from Pack 324 who attend, had a fantastic time. We did some canoeing, did some geocaching while we were out on a hike, made pizzas and s'mores on the fire, played some games and just had lots of fun. Z&A can't wait for the next camping trip - they're hooked!

A week later, they and two other friends from their Tiger Cub den attended a one-day camp geared just for kids their age. They did all sorts of fun activities while earning some of the achievements towards their Tiger badges, but I think their favorite activity was archery. They were so excited to try out the bows and arrow!

The pictures from these activities have been added to the July-Aug 2012 album. I also have a Tiger Scouts album to show all the fun activities they're doing in this year of Scouting (I'm having a lot of fun as the boys' Den Leader!)

Look out PGA!

Alex and Zach get golf lessons

At the suggestion of a friend, Zach and Alex took a series of golf lessons at the local country club with their friends (and fellow "double trouble") Jack and Ted. They had a blast learning how to putt, chip and drive over a five week period - so much so that they begged us to buy clubs for them, which they are frequently seen using in the backyard with wiffle balls. I took a few pictures from their first session and posted them in the July-Aug 2012 album.

Papa blows out the candles
 on his birthday pie

Also in the album are pictures from Papa's birthday, where we of course celebrated with the customary birthday pie. Never heard of birthday pie? Well, when you're the birthday boy, you get to pick your treat, and Papa couldn't resist a homemade raspberry pie - yum!

We celebrated another milestone in July - Zach lost his first tooth!  He was very excited to get a set of special Presidential gold coins for his first tooth (the tooth fairy gave a more "standard" gift of a quarter for his second tooth, which came out a few weeks later).  Alex hasn't lost any yet but has two very wiggly teeth, so we expect another visit from the tooth fairy soon!

Fun in the California sun - Part 2

The happy couple celebrates their union

 The remaining photos from our trip to LA have been added to the LA/Katie's Wedding album. They include a stop at one of Joe's favorite parks as a child, the amazing Heritage Park in Cerritos with an island that contains a playground hidden in an 18th century Boston town.

Also in the album are pictures from a visit to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach and a stop at Sunset Beach for some play time in the ocean and on the sand.

But most important of all - and the reason for our trip - was the beautiful wedding of Katie and Iose. After a ceremony at the LDS Temple earlier in the day, Katie and Iose exchanged rings in the lovely Gibbs Butterfly Park, followed by a reception at their church, where a mix of American and Samoan traditions celebrated the happy occasion in fantastic style.

Fun in the California sun - Part 1

With Katie and Iose at the
entrance to Disneyland

The Vandermark crew took a trip out to LA in mid-July to celebrate the wedding of Joe's sister Katie and her now-husband, Iose. We had so much fun at the wedding and during the rest of our time there, visiting and playing with the whole family.

The first batch of photos from the trip in the LA/Katie's Wedding album include a day at "the happiest place on earth" (aka Disneyland) with Katie and Iose and some video game fun at the Chuck E Cheese (check out Z&A's jam to "Slow Ride" :)). More pics from the trip, including Katie and Iose's beautiful wedding, are coming soon!

A festive(al) weekend

 Zach and Alex at the
BBQ Days parade

The second weekend in July is always a fun-but-busy weekend for us, as both our town and Cole's hometown have their big town festivals that weekend - BBQ Days and the Raspberry Festival, respectively. And starting this year, the big parade for each festival had some of the Vandermark boys in its list of participants.

Saturday was our BBQ Days day. Zach, Alex, Joe and I marched along with the rest of our Cub Scout Pack, handing out freezees to the parade-goers - a very welcome treat on a hot, sticky day! After the parade, we met up with Grandma Pat and Papa Bob at the carnival to have some food and enjoy some rides before Zach, Alex and I had to go work a shift in the Scout's pork chop and corn-on-the-cob stand. Joe spent the day working at the Knights of Columbus' burger and dogs stand. We were definitely worn out at the end of that day!

The next day was a little more relaxing for us but still lots of fun. We went up to watch the Raspberry Festival parade to watch Cole perform with the LMPM pep band from his school. Later that evening, we were back at BBQ Days to watch their famed fireworks, put on by a major pyrotechnics company based in town (they were amazing!).

Check out the fun in the July-Aug photo album, including a video of Cole's band performing (Hi Cole!)!

The boys of summer

Zach and Alex at T-ball

I'm finally catching up on our summer photos, and I've got the pics through the month of June up on the site. June was a great kickoff for summer.

As mentioned in the last post, the boys fired off rockets with the Cub Scouts and we spent a day at the zoo to see dinosaurs with Grandma Pat.
We celebrated Joe's birthday, including a special present where I took him to see Roger Waters perform The Wall, who was in town that night (great show!).
We honored 2 of the best dads I know, Joe and my dad, on Father's Day, a relaxing fun day up at Grandma Pat and Papa Bob's house.
Zach and Alex started their second season of T-ball, this year playing on the Maroon Team.
The carpet was installed in our basement - we have a functional space downstairs! Yay!! :)
Grandma Pat and Papa Bob spent a special day with Zach and Alex, taking them to the Como Town amusement park just to hang out and have fun.

Check out the pics and video clips in the May-June album.

From space-age to prehistoric

Zach and Alex are
ready for rockets!

We took quite a time trip in the last week, starting in the Space Age by shooting off rockets with Cub Scouts and finishing up the week going back in time a mere 65 million years to the Dinosaur era at the MN Zoo.


The Cub Scout rocket launch gave each scout the chance to fire off his rocket twice, and the rockets were flying high on a perfect Saturday morning. Zach and Alex had a blast (ha!) shooting their rockets - they went really high! Zach's rocket had a slight mishap on its second flight - the parachute didn't pop out, so it turned into a nice lawn dart on its return to Earth, burning itself halfway into the ground. Zach thought that was SO cool! :)

Did you stop by for a bite?

We finished the week celebrating the end of the school year joined by Grandma Pat for a trip to one of our favorite places, the Minnesota Zoo, to see the new Dinosaur exhibit. This cool exhibit features animatronic dinosaurs displayed along a trail similar to the other animals at the zoo. It was really neat to see the dinosaurs as they may have looked in life, really giving you perspective of their enormous size.

Check out the pictures (and a couple of video clips of the rocket launch) in the May-June album.

A birthday, baseball and Memorial Day

A great day for baseball

Just a quick post from a beautiful Memorial Day at the ballpark yesterday. Mom and Dad B had given Joe a family day at the game as an early birthday present, so the seven of us headed out to Target Field to watch the Twins "begainst" the Oakland A's. After a couple of days of weather extremes (cold, windy, rainy and then hot, steamy and windy with even more rain), it was a perfect day to spend a day at the ballpark as a family.

Because it was Memorial Day, the Twins had a number of tributes and memorials to honor and remember our veterans, particularly those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. It was great to explain to Z&A what the real meaning of that day is for. One of the highlights was the National Anthem, when a WWII vet raised the flag in front of his family and wife of 65 years and a pair of vintage WWII fighter planes did a flyover.

Check out the video of the flyover plus pics from the game in the May-June album!

From Lions to Tigers (Scouts)

Alex, Zach and the rest of the new Tiger den

Most of the pictures from the last month are from Cub Scouts events - participating in the city-wide clean up by cleaning up trash at Veterans' Park (on a cold, rainy day!), helping out at a fundraiser dinner, and graduation/rank advancement at the year's final Pack meeting. Zach, Alex and the rest of the Lions Den stood guard during the flag ceremony in their last Lions duties, and then they crossed the bridge to receive their orange Tiger neckerchiefs and the Lions badges they had earned. The boys were SO excited to move up to Tiger Cubs!

The city clean-up pictures are in the March-April 2012 album, while the rest are in the May-June 2012 album.  Also in this album are a couple pictures from Hot Club, the annual Jazz band performance at Cole's school, a highlight for the band members and families alike that is performed at the school in a cabaret-style club.  Cole even performed a trombone solo this year and sounded fantastic!

Easter fun

Alex and Zach: These eggs are
Easter Bunny approved!

Easter weekend is traditionally a weekend of family fun in the Vandermark household, and this year was no different. Zach and Alex started the weekend with an Easter care package from Grandpa Dan and Grandma Marilyn with a bunch of really cool coins from Grandpa's collection and some special Easter baskets from Grandma. Afterwards, we dyed some eggs and made yummy Easter M&M cookies.

On Easter morning, the boys couldn't wait to see if the Easter Bunny had left anything for them in the not one but TWO pairs of buckets they left out. Zach and Alex normally each leave a bucket out, the same ones every year ('cuz the Easter Bunny is all about reusing!), but this year, the boys decided to leave those and the buckets they got from Grandpa Dan and Grandma Marilyn's care package. I guess they thought they'd get more treats that way, and of course, the Easter Bunny obliged by filling all 4. :)

After we celebrated the real meaning of Easter in church, we had a little more fun with an around-the-house egg hunt, where the silver egg is an extra special find. You can find the pictures (as well as a video of the boys talking about the Legos they got from the Easter Bunny) in the March-April album.

Meaghan and Cole

Also in the album is a great picture of Cole and Meaghan, who both looked wonderful on their Prom night!

We've also made some progress on the basement (yeah!). The walls were painted a warm grey with a dark red accent wall where the TV will be. The bathroom was painted the same red and will eventually have some cream wainscoting. The picture in the basement album shows the trim ready to stain (we did that part); that trim is now up so it's time to order the carpet, a patterned mid-tone grey. Can't wait until it's all done!

Jamming to a "Jungle Beat"

Zach and Alex perform with their classmates

The kindergarten classes at Zach and Alex's school put on a Spring program titled "Jungle Beat." Each of the classes was featured for one of the song, performing music about the jungle and the animals who live there. Zach and Alex's class was featured for the title song, "Jungle Beat," using a bunch of percussion instruments for the beat. They did a great job! Video clips and pictures of the performances can be found in the Mar-Apr 2012 album.

Arrgh! We be here to see Pirates!

Also added to the album are pictures from Z&A's spring break, where Zach, Alex and Mommy went all over town having lots of fun. There are pictures from our trip to the Minnesota Zoo and, the big highlight of the week, the trip to the Science Museum to see their special Pirates exhibit, featuring treasures found from a real pirate ship that wrecked off the coast of Cape Cod.