Our mini vacation! We went to Lake Itasca, which is the lake where the Mississippi river originates, to go camping with the extended Erickson family. Besides us were Carl's parents (who flew in from Texas for the occasion), sister Kari, and sister Janel, her husband David, and kids George and Ingrid. We could only be gone for a couple of days, but getting out of town and being with family was a lot of fun and a much needed break. We've had unusually dry, drought conditions much of the summer. This month has seen more rain, and we happened to get rain while camping too! We were using an old tent, which leaks rain, so Carl ended up having to go to a town 30 miles away to get a tarp that was big enough to cover up the tend! Our last day of camping was beautiful, so we got to get out and do some sight seeing and playing at the beach.

our tent after Carl covered it with the tarp!












Kjersten making smores by the fire. Yum! :)

Some random pictures of our kids from this month. As you can see, Nathaniel is drooling up a storm! No more sign of teeth than when he first started drooling 2-3 months ago. He's now able to push himself up into all fours and can also move around a bit when on his tummy (can move about 1-2 feet, given enough time). He's started activating one cause and effect toy with purpose and is growing like a week. Nathaniel continues to love standing up, with help, and being doted on or talked to. Tianna is very social, cheerful, and is very motivated to explore the world. Hopefully we'll be able to potty train her one of these days, when life's craziness slows down (am I dreaming? will that day ever come?). She continues to receive some speech therapy, but her language skils are where they should be for a child of her age, which is great. We're thinking right now that she'll be a mountain climber, an acrobat, or an engineer when she grows up, judging the heights she'll climb, her fearlessness of movement, and her smart way of figuring out how to orchestrate furnature in such a way that she can climb heights that her parents didn't think she was able to reach! Kjersten is becoming such a big girl! She doesn't look like a toddler at all, and looks more and more like a child who could be going to Kindergarten (though that's a year off for her). We're trying to give her many social opportunities as possible. She's a smart girl who invents songs and loves to tie knots into any string that she can find in our house. She loves her baby brother a great deal and he grins at her.

Our annual trip to Valleyfair! It was a fun day of many rides. Carl's sister Janel and kids George and Ingrid joined us this year. It certainly is different trying to go to the fair with three rather than two kids of our own. We didn't end up having quite the energy to stay a long this year, but we had fun.

We recently heard that my sister (Andrea's) second oldest daughter Emily, who is 7 years old, is very sick and in thehospital. She has apparently been unable to keep foods down, having ver loose stools, a fever that isn't breaking, and significant level of stomach pain. Also, her white blood cell count is very low right now, which is also very concerning. She has tested positive for E. Coli and also thought to be infected with Typhoid, though that's uncomfirmed yet. Please pray she will stop loosing fluids, get relief from pain, have a boost in her immune system to fight infection. pray they can find definitive conclusions about what all she is fighting and have treatments to help. Pray also for Naomi & Tim, Emily's parents, that they can get rest and have thesupport and encouragement that they need. If you want more details, go to their blog: http://theformeroptimist.blogspot.com/

Recent photo- The Brasilian church in town that we are involved in had a Festa Junina party in July. My girls already had Festa Junina dresses which my paents brought to the US last summer as dress up clothes for the kids. So they were able to get dressed up for the occasion! :)

I've gotten several messages from people out of state asking if we were OK and if we knew anyone injured in the 35W bridge collapse yesterday. We are all fine, and Carl's sisters and their families are fine also, and were not anywhere near that highway (I was Kjersten, in her tumbling class just a few short miles away, but drive there on surface streets). It IS a major road here in town and I usually drive it about once per week, last time being this past monday. We don't know any names of victims at this point, but so far have not heard of anyone I know being missing. Hopefully we won't know of anyone when everyone is accounted for!
I plan to post some new pictures soon, but have not been able to do so yet due to time constraints.
Updates on our kids: Kjersten had her first sleep-over with a friend of hers from tumbling class last night- I'm anxious to hear her talk about it when i get home today. Tianna- continues to climb things we don't think she can climb, but is doing well on the whole. She's been discharged from outpatient speech therapy at this time, but still gets weekly speech therapy from schools. Her articulation remains her biggest issue, but her language skills are otherwise age appropriate. She will see her orthodontist and have a check-up with her plastic surgeon later this month. Nathaniel- he has started making some consanant sounds in the past few days, tries to get up onto his knees when on his tummy in prep for crawling, and loves to suck on his hands.