June 2011 Recap

Sarah and Johannes's Wedding Week/end (June 2-4)

Mark's younger sister, Sarah was married in Windom at our church (First Baptist) on June 4! They arrived two Thursdays prior to the wedding and were able to make it for some Memorial Day Festivities. On the Thursday before the wedding (a week after they arrived), I joined the girls for an evening in Worthington for some Mexican and a lingerie shower while Mark taught Johannes how to golf and then out to eat at Bergen for a nice big steak. Friday was the day to decorate and the rehearsal/rehearsal supper. Then Saturday was the big day! For a full recap of the wedding week festivities, click here!

Aunt Nancy and Uncle Bob's 50th Anniversary Party (June 5)

The day after Sarah and Johannes's wedding, we headed down to Humboldt for the day to attend my Uncle Bob and Aunt Nancy's 50th Wedding Anniversary Party in Fort Dodge with my family.


Happy 50th Anniversary, Aunt Nancy and Uncle Bob!!

A Weekend Off! (June 10-12)

I couldn't even tell you for sure what we did this weekend, but I do recall that it was nice to have a weekend without plans with the house to ourselves! I'm sure Mark spent some time in the field, but I'm also sure we didn't do a lot more than watch tv or movies and relax the rest of the time.

Busy Saturday (June 18)

Mark and Jamie decided to take part in the Toro fishing tournament and didn't end up doing too terrible! It was a long morning out on the boat for them, but they ended up catching a perch, 2 bullheads and a catfish, and oddly enough ended up winning 2nd place in the northern contest (they had to draw haha!)

In the meanwhile, I stayed home, relaxed, did a little garage sale-ing, a little shopping in downtown Windom, and relaxed a little more on the deck outside. It was an absolutely beautiful day!

That evening, Mark and I decided to head on down to Jackson for a night at the dirt track races down there. It was a LONG night of racing, but a good one. We arrived around 6:30pm for hot laps and the evening finally wound to a close around 10:45pm!

Iryna Stops Through (June 24-25)

Iryna made a quick overnight stop through Windom en-route to Washington to finally join Daniel out there! They hadn't seen each other since the morning after their wedding, so she was eager to get out there! :) It was nice to catch up a little after the harried wedding week.

Ropte Family GTG 2011 (June 25-26)

The Annual Ropte Farm GTG was a hoot this year! Mark and I made it to the farm Saturday early afternoon, after getting Iryna off on her way, and spent the day visiting with family. Sunday was a big day with big news, and the big official Ropte gathering, and I also got to meet my good friend, Steff, from college for breakfast, as she happened to be coming through town! As always, there was lots of good play time for the kids, visiting for the adults, and good food and memories :)



For a full recap of the day, click the links below for each day:
Day 1: click here!
Day 2: click here!

Humboldt Ropte GTG Day 2 (June 26)

Sunday

Sunday Morning, we visited with Mom a little (more on this later), and then I got ready for church and drove into town to meet one of my best college friends, Steff for breakfast at Miller's Landing. She just happened to be passing through town on her way to LeMars!

A Big Surprise

In another way, Sunday was quite the day for us, and one we had been looking forward to for a while in nervous anticipation! See, we've had a secret for quite some time now, and we had been waiting to let the cat out of the bag until everyone could be together:

I'm Pregnant!

The whole "visiting with Mom" part was really us telling her about the baby that morning, and I was able to tell Steff over breakfast as well, which was a pleasant surprise :) We decided to tell the rest of the family by ordering a couple custom t-shirts online and then wearing them that day. Yeah, we're total cheeseballs, but in all fairness, it's our first baby and we're STOKED!!

This picture is technically from the 4th of July, but these are the shirts we wore :)

Adorable little Benjamin was having such a blast playing with his cousins



After lunch, we decided to bring out the fun sprinkler toy we found for the kids, and they had a blast playing and running through it.







Dave and Elicia - Elicia is just under halfway at this point and looking great!


Even Mom got out and enjoyed some time in the yard! She's doing SO great right now, and we're hoping she continues to get stronger :) It's nice to see her enjoying herself and not so worn out :)



Yep - this is pretty much what we were all doing while the kids were playing lol It was such a nice day!!


Riley and Jacob are best buddies!


The kids loved the slide! They all wanted to make sure I took their picture as they were going down lol



Uncle Michael found a small little frog that entertained the kids for some time!


Tiff and Reign decided to stick with the shady route and stick to the deck :)

Craft Time!

After getting all soaked in the sprinkler, Aunt Mandy suggested it might be a good time to do some crafts.

Scavenger Hunt

The kids absolutely LOVE the scavenger hunt part of the weekend. The clues always have them running all over the yard and house to find the next clue. This year's clues included the swingset, the cop car, the mailbox, a leisurely walk with Uncle Dave, singing a song to Uncle Mark, and as always - fun prizes at the end!

Fishing Game

Another big hit is the fishing game!

The Roptes - June 2011

Of course, Jason was already off to work, so I had to Photoshop him in there, but this is everyone :)