Family trip to DC

Dressed up and ready to celebrate

We took a family trip to Washington DC over New Year's to celebrate the wedding of Joe's sister Mary Ann and her new husband, Nelson. We had a wonderful time at the wedding, spending time with much of Joe's family - such a good time, in fact, that we actually forgot to pull out our camera so we'll have to wait until we order some of the official pictures to post them. In any case, it was a lovely evening, and we are so happy for them!

While we were in town, we did get a little sight-seeing in, spending a day at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum with Grandma Pam, Auntie Katie and Uncle Iose. The museum is a kid's dream (big and little), featuring some of the biggest milestones and best artifacts of the history of air and space travel. We also took a brief walk down the National Mall to see the Washington Monument (from the outside, since the building is still closed). See the pictures in the Washington DC album. We're looking forward to our next trip out to DC when we can take the time to really explore all the other great landmarks and museums that DC has to offer.

Holidays Part 2

Excited for Santa

Finishing off the holidays, our pictures of family, fun and food have been posted to the Christmas 2011 album. We captured some pretty great expressions of joy from the wonderful gifts we got from our family. (Yep, short and sweet, but what else can you really say about Christmas pictures? :-))

The Holidays - Part 1

Spending time with GG

This year, we once again spent Thanksgiving weekend in Chicago to celebrate the Holidays with family and friends - a great way to kick off the Holiday season! We spent a day with GG, eating lunch at a nearby Polish buffet (yum!) and opening presents. The following day, we had breakfast with Karen's godmother, dinner with the Belousek family (and meeting our new cousin, baby Joshua) and in between we played for a few hours at a nearby children's museum. We then concluded our whirlwind trip with brunch with the Chmuras (aka "Uncle and Auntie Chooch" and Amanda) before making the trek back home.  See the Thanksgiving 2011 in Chicago album for the photos.

We continued our Christmas holiday celebration in the following weeks with performing at the church Christmas Concert, an awesome Advent calendar (Lego Star Wars!), a Christmas play performed at the Stages Children's Theater, and Brunch with Santa at Macy's with some of Zach and Alex's friends from New Horizons and their families. You can find all of these pictures in the Nov-Dec 2011 album.

Also added - some pictures from our church's Fall Festival in September, courtesy of Grandma Pat, and an update to the basement project! We've hired a contractor to finish the walls downstairs to the point where we can paint, and it's almost done! The pictures in the Basement album show the rooms with the drywall up - what a difference that makes!

October Fun

Our heroes - Ironman and Spiderman!

October was a month of fun for Zach and Alex. As I mentioned in the last post, it started out with a couple of visits to the Scarecrow Festival. The end of the month was packed with a trip to the circus, seeing one of their favorite cartoons, Phineas and Ferb from the Disney Channel, in a live show, and their first Cub Scout activities - their first Den meeting and their first Pack meeting where they got to race their own rockets in the Pack's Space Derby.

And then there was that little kid-favorite holiday, Halloween. The boys decided to go as superheroes this year; Alex was Spiderman and Zach was Ironman. They had a costume parade at school, went trick-or-treating at the local businesses downtown and later hit a few homes near a friends' house. We even had a special dinner that night, something we were calling Stuffed Jack 'O Peppers, which were quite tasty!

The boys show their
ferocious faces (?) at the zoo

Check out the Sept-Oct 2011 photo album for pics from these events - there are some really good ones in there! You can also check out a visit to the MN Zoo to see the new penguin exhibit after a recent remodel at the zoo in the Nov-Dec 2011 album.



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School Days

For many families, September means the end of summer and the beginning of a new school year. Cole is an old pro at this routine, starting his junior year in high school. He has taken on a heavy class load this year, with lots of honors and AP classes, as he prepares for college. He's also added another band to his activities, now performing in Pep Band in addition to the Concert and Jazz Bands.

Heading out the door, ready for school

Zach and Alex, on the other hand, began their school careers this year, entering into Kindergarten. They are having a blast at school, and they are doing really well, especially with their letters and numbers. They really like their teacher, Mr. Kampa. We take the boys to school most days, but on Fridays when Daddy works from home, they get to take the school bus. Daddy then joins the class to help out for a few hours - something both he and the class really enjoy.

In addition to school, the Fall season meant lots of activities for Zach and Alex - flag football, joining the Cub Scouts as Lion Cubs, and swim lessons.  It's been a busy Fall!

The Sept-Oct 2011 photo album has pictures from Zach and Alex's first day at school and their first bus ride to and from school. There are also pictures from flag football, a family trip to the Scarecrow Festival at Emma Krumbee's, a playdate at the Festival with some of the boys' friends from New Horizon and a few fun activities around the house.

Dells Part 2

On the train and ready for a ride

Continuing on from the last post... The following day, we spent a day at Circus World Museum in Baraboo, which was the winter headquarters of the Ringling Bros. circus for many years. Zach and Alex even got to be *in* one of the circus shows, staring as an elephant and a tiger!

That evening, Joe and I escaped..er... went out for date night, enjoying a wonderful dinner at a cafe in downtown Dells and then playing some mini golf.

The next day was "Train Day" with lunch at Buffalo Phil's, which brings out drinks and food to guests via model trains. When they're not carrying food, they deliver smiles with favorite character toys and gadgets like bubble makers. There's also an arcade there, so we had some fun playing games after lunch. From there, we visited our favorite train museum - the Riverside & Great Northern Railway, where Papa and Joe are members.

The final day of the trip, we had fun playing around our resort - go-carts, mini golf (indoor and outdoor) and the outdoor waterpark. We did it all!

Check out all the rest of the pictures in the Dells 2011 photo album .

Dells Part 1

The Vandermarks with Paul Bunyan

The 5 of us took a fantastic family trip to the Wisconsin Dells in August with Grandma Pat and Papa Bob. We stayed in the Glacier Canyon Lodge at the Wilderness Resort, where we were able to enjoy all sorts of fun things - indoor and outdoor waterparks and mini golf, go-carts, arcade games and more. We also visited some of our favorite Dells attractions: the Ducks, the R&GN Railway trains, Mt. Olympus amusement park and Circus Museum.

We took a ton of pictures so I split them into batches. The first couple of days, including some swim time and arcade games at the resort, a WI Duck tour, rides at Mt. Olympus and dinner at Paul Bunyan's Shanty, have been posted to the Dells 2011 photo album. Enjoy!