Saturday Farmer's Market

One of our favorite things to do on Saturday mornings is going to the local farmer's market. April and I have always enjoyed these markets wherever we have lived, but now our kids love making this a regular Saturday activity. April likes to frequent a lot of the vegetable and fruit stands (too many to count!), making sure our family is well-nourished and healthy! Our kids like to eat all the good food along the way. This may include Korean BBQ pork sticks, fresh mini-donuts, or, one of our favorites, fresh grilled corn on the cob or in a cup- yum! You probably wouldn't believe Elin can finish off a whole cob unless you see it. For myself, I just enjoy the general market atmosphere, the good food, and the local music- folk guitar, a capella, etc. It's a great time all around- it's just too bad winter has to spoil this one.

This is a general shot of the market- about 3 blocks long.

Nate likes to buy flowers for Mommy- he does a better job of this than I do (oops!)

Nate is always up for new books.

Corn by the ton! This is becoming a larger part of our diet all the time.


A local college group singing a capella here- great sound!


Nate always asks to contribute to the local music artists. I think he just likes to be "on stage".

Just one of the many vegetable stands- I'm sure April would take it all home if she could.

Mmmm, hot Korean BBQ pork on a stick.

We usually bump into a few people we know on our market adventures. Here is the Hemmert family, some good friends in our Church ward.

Marshmallow Camping...

Marshmallow camping??? On our recent camping trip, after we'd finished eating our campfire dinner and put Elin to bed, Nate comes to me and asks, "Dad, are we marshmallow camping tonight?" I was pretty sure he meant "Are we eating s'mores tonight?" Well, what would camping be without s'mores? Of course!

We think our kids are going to be big camping fans. Elin had a great time wandering all over the campsite and trees, but her favorite part was the tent- just one big play room! And Nate loves to cook over the campfire and sleep in a big dark tent. April and I just look forward to sitting down after the kids are asleep and finally RELAX. Those of you who camp with small children know what I mean. Happy marshmallow camping!

Lake Fun

This is a small beach on the lake near our home where we like to go to play sometimes or do picnics. This is just a small clip during our picnic yesterday. The kids love playing in the water and on the sand. Unfortunately, our visit yesterday was very short because I was called into work, but we'll be back soon!

Dairyland Dare!

Last week my Dad and I did something crazy. We rode a bike ride called the Dairyland Dare, which includes 7,600 feet of climbing hills in 65 miles. This is more climbing than I've ever done in one ride, and my legs knew it by the end. I think the best part of the ride, though, was our hotel... the Don Q Inn. I don't have any pics, but the name says it all. Because it was nearly full, my parents had to stay in a theme room called "Paradise Cove" which included silk-sheeted 4-poster bed and a large cheese vat as a whirlpool (large enough to stand in). Hilarious! Next time I think we'll just bring a tent.

Getting ready to ride, looking very fresh!

We're not sure, but we think my Dad was hailing the Bike Gods by the end of the ride.

Last hill!

There's nothing better than a filling meal after a hard ride... yum!

I love pics of our kids!

Happy 60th Anniversary Mimi and Poppo!

Congratulations to Mimi and Poppo (code names for Bud and Jackie for those of you who don't know them) on their 6oth wedding anniversary! We just returned from celebrating their anniversary in the Northwoods with the rest of the April's family, and had a great time. We were lucky enough to turn the trip into a vacation, and spent 5 days tooling around the Northwoods.

After a big celebration dinner with the family, we spent the rest of the week in various activities. Nate's favorite activity was swimming (he was probably wet more than he was dry). We also spent time hiking, paddle-boating, swimming on the lake, eating good food, visiting the quaint downtown area, mini-golf and go-karts. It was hard to convince Nate that he's not ready to drive the go-kart yet. Maybe next year!

EAA Airshow

In my opinion, most of the year there's not much to say about Oshkosh, WI, except that it is the home of Oshkosh B'Gosh. However once a year it seems to be the most popular place in the country, and this is because it hosts the annual EAA Airshow. For one week tens of thousands of people crowd onto the airport grounds for one of the largest airshows in the world. How did this get started in Oshkosh?... I have no idea, because there's not much else in this small rural town.

Last year I started volunteering at the medical building during the EAA, and did the same this year. That was actually quite fun. After my shift, April and the kids came down and we spent the afternoon at the airshow. Nate, of course, loved it. He wanted to climb into every airplane in sight. For myself, I could watch the fighter jets speed overhead all day.

My favorite part- We were lucky enough to tour the B-17 Flying Fortress, the plane my grandfather flew 27 missions in during WW II. It's so amazing to go back in time and imagine what it must have been like for him back then. Anyway, we had a great time, but too too short.

Our Garden Part II

Well, half way through the summer our garden has made some progress, although not as much as we would've liked due to the long winter/no spring we had here in the "tundra" this year. We have already enjoyed lots of our spoils, including spinich, lettuce, peas, green beans, zucchini, summer squash, blueberries, rasberries, red and orange carrots, gooseberries, currents, and turnips. It sounds like a lot, but some of these gave a small turnout because they are new. We are still looking forward to our tomatoes, watermelon, pumpkins, edamame, blackberries, grapes, and apples (only a few). And our herb garden has been faithfully producing all summer. I love a fresh tomato and mozzarella sandwich with balsalmic vinegar and fresh basil leaves!

I have to be honest, April's been behind 95% of this garden, and I've put in a little effort here and there (usually picking off fruit/veges). Not only has she looked after the garden, but because of April we've enjoyed mixed-berry jam, zucchini bread and zucchini in all sorts of dishes (anybody want some zucchini?). It's been a lot of fun at the Foreman Farm, and there's lots to go!

The garden as a whole.

Blueberries... better cover these or the bird will get'em (we learned the hard way).

Rasberries... Nate's favorite- he visits these every day and steals all the best ones.

April's herb garden... lots of things I couldn't even begin to identify.

Our first watermelon!

That Girl Can Eat

Elin has started really walking in the past week. She has transitioned from more crawling to more walking. I guess it takes a lot of calories to be one, growing, and chase after us all. At dinner tonight Elin ate the following and kept it all down:

6 slices of watermelon
1 piece of pepperoni pizza
1/2 of corn
sippy cup of juice
1 piece of cake

To top it off she asked for more. To her disgust I said no, which did not go over well. That girl can eat.

Nathaniel Turns Four!

I know many of you didn't think it would be possible (I admit, I've had my doubts now and then), but he has proved us all wrong. Today Nathaniel made it to his 4th birthday! He has been looking forward to his party for many months (really, since his 3rd birthday), and yesterday he was finally satisfied. Nate and his friends had a great time, but Nate said it was too short... "It needs to be longer next year."

We played some games (including a water-balloon toss, which lasted 1 minute then turned into a water-balloon fight- much more fun!)...

Ate some pizza and yellow watermelon...

Sang "Happy Birthday" in an interesting key...

Took a crack at a pinata (we had to explain to Nate that he wasn't the only one playing... this was a tough lesson)...

And lots more cracks...

And finally enjoyed the spoils of the poor sea turtle...

Nate, of course, loved all of his gifts. Thanks to everyone who came and made it a great time!

Our Trip to Alaska!

Last week April and I, along with my Mom and Dad, made a visit to Alaska. The main reason for our trip was a bicycle race (see post below), but we also had a few extra days to enjoy the vast landscape of Alaska. What a beautiful land this is... truly vast, almost completely mountainous, and full of wildlife everywhere.

We started in the city of Anchorage, which is really more of a small town- but a nice town at that. We ate great seafood (and pasta for our ride), and spent time touring Anchorage on foot. The flowers are amazing there, most growing twice as big as we have in the "lower 48". I guess this is because of the 18.5 hours of sunlight in the summertime, which was something I couldn't really get used to.

After our bike ride, we spent a day in Valdez (you've probably heard of this town from the Exxon-Valdez oil spill almost 20 years ago). This was an even smaller town mostly based on its oil exportation, fishing, and tourism. The highlight of our visit was our 6-hour cruise to the Columbia Glacier, during which time we saw some wonderful wildlife- whales, sea lions, eagles, puffins, and other various creatures. Our last day was spent driving 300 miles back through the beautiful mountains and glaciers, enjoying the scenery and visiting small outback cafes along the way. What a trip!