Becker's 2010

Becker’s this year was a lot tamer with a lot less of a crowd, which turned out to be just fine. We were excited to have our own cabin this year and therefore Cooper got his own room, which he was very happy about. He couldn’t lay flat in his pack and play anymore so figured that probably wasn’t good for him. This year the weather was nice again which allowed us to enjoy plenty of boating, swimming and fishing. It was nice to have Abby up there and the kids played together really well. The first night they had a dance off and had the entire cabin up and dancing, it was pretty funny, I think even Doug danced for a few seconds. We took a day trip to Itasca State Park (Ron, Donna, Roger, Diane, Tim and our family all made the trip) on Tuesday and went for a 17 mile bike ride. Cooper came with and rode in a trailer and Tim and Rob split pulling him along. The girls all got electric assist bikes which helped, especially on the hills. We also did our annual golf outing to Chippewa National, Brian drove it over the lake but Rob still handily beat him with consistent drives and awesome putting (yeah I wish.) Ron actually played pretty well too, who knows he may up his golf outings to a 2 a year, watch out world. Cooper enjoyed the pool and it is kind of scary how fearless he is, with his lifejacket he can swim on his own and will just jump in wherever. He also had a lot of fun pushing the big kids in; Josh, Jordan and Sam were all great with him. Uncle Tim is Cooper’s favorite as he pretty much does whatever Cooper wants him to, playing horse, riding him, dancing, etc. After Tim left on Wednesday though Cooper became obsessed with Sam (16 year old girl) that was up there and almost every minute needed to know what she was doing. He was very excited to give all the kids tattoos as well. We didn’t have a lot of luck fishing this year (not a big surprise as I think we only went out 3 times) and Cooper is still scared of fish. The first time he was in the boat when we caught something it was a decent size northern that Roger caught, we got it in the boat and it flopped out of the net, Jami screamed for Cooper to get out of the way because it was close to him which kind of freaked him out. The rest of the week we tried to get him to touch smaller fish to no avail. Hopefully we can cure him of this next summer.

Fourth of July

Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays, it falls right below Christmas Eve. We had another wonderful long weekend at the lake. Cooper went tubing for the first time and loved it. He is going to terrify me when he is older, I can guarantee it. He kept asking to go faster and loved hitting the big bumps that seemed to come out of no where.


The kids had a great time at the parade in Randall this year and got way too much candy.

Then we watched fireworks on lake in our boats, Cooper loves Sam. He stuck by her side for the majority of the weekend. It was so cute considering Sam used to do the same thing to me when she was his age.

Twins game part 2

After Cooper and I went to the Twins game in May we decided it would be fun to go as a family also. We invited our friend Janet along and had a great time.

Father's day

For the last couple years we have started a tradition of going to Canterbury for fathers day. Rob remembers going there with his grandparents when he was a kid. We started the morning out by surprising Rob with breakfast in bed and his present.

This year neither of our dad's were able to join us as in prior years but Brent, Heather, Abby and Brian were able to. The kids had fun running around and hanging out on the playground and the adults had fun watching and betting on the races.

Tator Days

We have lived in Brooklyn Park for 4 years now and have never been to the Tator Days celebration. This year it worked out that we were in town so decided that we should go. We went with our neighbor Kerri and her two girls who Cooper loves, he fondly calls them his girlfriends. I didn't know what to except but were really impressed. There was an amazing petting zoo, carnival rides, mashed potato wrestling (picture a swimming pool filled with mashed potatoes), carnival food and talent shows.

Then at dark there were fireworks. We thought we could see them from our deck so we hung out at our house doing sparklers until it was time. Sadly there was a house in the way so we had to run to the end of the block to see them.

Jody in town for dinner

Jody came to town and took the whole family out to dinner at Oak City in Bloomington. The kids had a good time running in aisles and it was good to catch up with Jody as well.

Trip to Viroqua

We went to Viroqua this weekend to spend some time with family. We didn't know it but this weekend was the annual syttende mai festival. There was a parade, breakfast, craft booths, donkey rides and my favorite - cheese curds. I honestly have never had cheese curds like the ones from the local creamery. We hope to make this an annual trip because we enjoyed it so much.



Cooper has been obsessed with horses lately and we are very lucky that Di and Rog have 6 horses for us to play with. Grandma Donna was there the prior weekend and left a bag of treats for Cooper to feed the horses. He started out a little afraid to give them treats but by the end of the weekend he was a pro!

He was so excited to ride the horses that he wouldn't go to bed on Friday night and Saturday morning as soon as the sun came up he jumped up from his pack and play and said, "Mom! The sun is out, can we ride the horses now?" It was 7:00 am.. He got to ride Moon first

then Annie though Moon was definitely his favorite.

He also helped with chores while we were there. He was surprisingly good at peeling hard boiled eggs and loved helping Rog in the barn.

The best part of the weekend? We got to spend time with Rob's grandma. She really is an amazing lady! She is 90 and she loves to play with Cooper. They played cars, trucks, read books and shared a lot of laughs together.

Mother's day

Earlier this year Christy and I decided to do the Susan G Komen 5k Walk for a Cure, we couldn't think of a better way to spend mothers day than to do something for our amazing mom. Our team name is Fights like a Boie so we had custom shirts made for the walk.

We met at mom and dad's house for breakfast and then took the lightrail to the Mall of America for the walk. The walk was a lot of fun and it was fun to hang out with just Christy which hardly happens anymore. Once we got to the finish line my parents, Adrian and Kaylin were waiting for us!

After the walk we met Rob and Cooper at my parent's house for a BBQ which was also a lot of fun. I want to thank everyone who donated - we raised a combined total of $2,635.01 for Breast Cancer research!! We were truly humbled and amazed! Mom and dad both said they plan on walking with us next year, so this will become another loved Boie family tradition.

After we got home from the walk Rob's parents and Tim came over to continue our Mother's day celebration. We had dinner, played with Cooper and relaxed.

First Twins Game

I was lucky enough to score some free tickets to today's Twins game from work. Rob had school work he needed to get done so I took Cooper to his first Twins game. The weather didn't fully cooperate with us, when we stepped off the light rail it was actually sleeting. Thankfully it stopped but it was still pretty chilly. We walked around for a while taking in the sights and enjoying the new stadium before finding our seats, which were amazing. Thank you Fredrikson & Bryon marketing department! Cooper instantly became obsessed with TC Bear and wouldn't stop talking about him. Since they were tickets from work my co-worker and her husband were seated next to us. Thankfully they have kids as well because Cooper wouldn't stop asking where TC Bear was and when he was coming back out. No matter what I did to try distract him he kept coming back to TC. Finally at the bottom of the 6th inning I decided it was time to leave, I could tell he was starting to annoy the people around us and it was nap time. Though it was a little tricky at times it was a great way to send the day with Cooper.

My birthday

I was very lucky this year and had an amazing birthday. I told Rob there were two things I wanted to do for my birthday, take Cooper to the Minnesota Zoo (for the first time) and have sushi for dinner. So that was the plan. We ended up getting a later start in the morning than planned so we didn't end up getting to the zoo until around 1:00 which is right during nap time, so both of us were a little nervous. Cooper was so excited to see the animals but after he saw the monorail that took priority - we absolutely had to go there first. It was so great to watch him get excited about the animals and enjoy the zoo as much as I do. I had heard advertisements for the Wells Fargo family farm and while we were on the monorail Cooper saw the tractor rides and absolutely HAD to go on them. Since it was getting late we quickly went through the zoo and headed out for a tractor ride. While I was slightly annoyed at our delayed start it actually worked in our favor. By the time we headed to the farm the majority of the people had left and there were only three other families on the tractor ride and at the farm with us! We got to feed the baby farm animals and walk around at our leisure.

After a long day at the zoo and no nap we decided there was no way Cooper could sit through dinner at a sushi restaurant so we ended up stopping at a buffet and settling for Chinese food. I am so lucky to have my two wonderful boys!