Summer Fun Stuff

I would love to put pictures into a shared group Heit Family Reunion Photo Album. Who's in charge of that? Anyway, featured below are some (not all) of the many pictures I have taken recently. So get ready and strap those rocket boots on because we're going for a ride!

Funeral

This was taken at my Grandfather's funeral. You know it's the only time you see those distant relatives when you gather for a wedding or funeral. I got to see all my cousins I have not seen in ages. My Grandpa Morse was born in 1933 and died in June of this year. (2014)

Here you can see my sister Ann, brother Adam, Sister-in-law Michelle, brother Allen, Sister Amy and Brother-in-law Dan.

Here is my Aunt Sandy (My Dad's sister) and my Grandma Morse at the funeral. I thought I had better take this shot while they were still smiling! It got teary shortly after this. I wonder who they were meeting?

Here are some cousins, and other relatives of mine carrying the casket.

Alright. Time for some happy stuff. Kate got this balloon octopus at Epicnic this year. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is the company picnic Chris's work puts on every summer. They do fun stuff like give you steak (if only they could cook it well done!) and lobster. Carnival games, and other fun picnic stuff. This picture is out of order.

Eusters Farm

We went to this farm with a church group and kids loved it. Wesley asked to go again the very next day, which we did not actually do. Here they are feeding baby goats bottles. Oh and if you can't tell in this picture, Wesley is a ninja turtle again.

When the bottles were done the girls had to show the goats the empty bottles a few times. 

The goats were their favorites. They even touched them!

They enjoyed milking this fake cow. We had to come back here three times I believe. 

They rode on trikes. 

And they watered plants once I actually got the old fashioned water pump to work. I gave up on it getting any water up several times and others took a turn pumping the thing. 

Look really closely at this goats name tag. There were also goats with similar names like Kristoff. 

We may have spent a long time at this large sand box. 

And while my kids are scared of dogs, they seem to be fine with cats! Well really tired sleeping cats at least. They all held a cat on their lap. Here is Kairi holding a black sleeping kitty. I couldn't get a picture of the other two because they needed help keeping the kittens on their lap. 

This place just let you borrow red wagons. Who wants a ride?

They also had strange colored pigs.

What is this pig? Oh well. He's cute still.

If you leave me in the house for too long.......

I've got to do another wall next. What should it be.....? I still have the left overs from the blue wall colors. I am out of yellow. 

Visitors

My sister Amy came to visit for the 4th of July weekend. She got to help push Kairi on the swings. 

My brother Adam got to come too! This was his first time in WI. By the end of the week I was impressed to see he had ditched the long sleeves and black coat. Here he is pushing Wesley. 

Of course if you come to visit us you have to play games on the Playstation 3 like Super Sonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars. 

Most of us went to Little Amerricka on the 4th to enjoy the rides and the kids excitement. I say most of us because Allen decided to help some friends build a fence instead. How nice of him. 

Here we have Kate, Kairi and Wesley.

We grilled some food and played crochet. It was easier to play the game once the kids ran back inside and stopped taking the mallets away. 

We went down to the Dells one day to Wizards Quest. It was something that everyone enjoyed doing and I'm glad the kids enjoyed the crawling, scrambling, hunting part of the quest even if they didn't find any answers to the questions by themselves. Their favorite spot was a ball pit.

Then we ate at some random place. The kids had glow stick necklaces, so that is what Kairi is playing with. 

Here is Chris and Kate. I got shots of the other too, but they were at a side table behind me and the pictures were not all that great. 

On Sunday we just HAD to tour Epic. 

While at Allen and Michelle's I ran across a year book from my freshman year of high school. It looks like that year Allen and I shared a year book. It was his senior year so he got to keep the evidence. Anyway I bet you don't see my name listed right after Amanda Morrison do you?? Apparently I did not exist that year right?

Then how come on that very same page above it, I'm featured in this picture standing next to my sister Ann who is not that short anymore. Why was she ever so short?

Ah. My name is officially mentioned in this one post. I played the flute in the band and here is the place I technically appear in my year book. Do you see that watch on me? That was my favorite watch. I lost is sometime in college. 

But back to our visitors. We took Amy and Adam to see the zoo. The most remarkable creature this time around was this snake who came right up to Kate and Kairi and pulled his head up to look at them. I had to tell them several times to not shove their fingers through that small gap in the door on the left. I reminded a lot of Harry Potter when the snake came over to greet them. Not that I would make the glass vanish or anything, just the, "You won't believe what this snake is doing!" part. 

While we had visitors Michelle had extra visitors in her backyard too. A family of baby mice. 

We went miniature golfing.

Here is Uncle Adam, Wesley, Amy and Michelle. They were the ones who played the game. I watched the girls climb around the structures. 

Michelle.

Kairi is filling up the old car. 

Kate riding a dolphin.

Adam and Amy. When they left, the kids cried and I had to print this picture out to pacify them. You two were fun to have around! 

Other Stuff

The kids and I (Amanda) went to the beach behind the zoo and made a sand castle. The next time they went there with Dad they went shoulder deep into the water. 

Well we do try to encourage splash pad fun. They touched the water a few times!

But we always end up back at the park.

I made a lego ship. It has since been destroyed. 

Epicnic

Here are getting ready for Epicnic. 

The kids climbed through this blow up train.

Allen and Michelle played bean bag toss. I don't remember who won.

Here is a cute baby donkey.

Here is where they got balloon animals. Kairi got a giraffe. 

Trip to ND

We stopped at a kids museum someplace on the way to ND. We were the only kids there, but the kids had fun and played for two hours. It was in Fargo.

We got to drive this crazy car! My kids were good at stopping and going in a jerky fashion.

Here is Chelsea hitching a ride on her car.

She's pretty good at driving it.

Here we are at Oak park with everyone. You can see Chris, Kairi, Grandma and Grandpa Heit and Kate and Wesley.

Grandma and Wesley.

We had sicko kids this trip so most of the time Chris and I had full arms carrying people. That means I did not take too many pictures, but I got a few.

Like this good picture I got of Michelle and Wesley. 

Kate.

The one time Kairi tried to get out of our arms. It lasted a few minutes. Wesley is behind. 

We saw a dog show at the end of the day. The kids went on a few carnival rides and Rick was featured in a stage show where he blasted off into hyperspace or something. 

Alright Rick here is the picture you told me not to take! Ha ha. Chris and Greg on the sofa, Allen and Rick in front and Randy standing. I think they are playing Mario. 

Wesley played with the Duplos.  It was fun when the hamsters got to run through a Duplo maze that Uncle Rick made. Although I must admit that one hamster that took over a half hour to get out was a little slow.... She just curled up in the corner for a nap. The fastest time may have been close to two minutes. 

We went and saw "Rio" at the theaters and then played on the kids climby things at the mall.

And this year the pinata was Fly with Fire Guy I believe. Here is Kairi hitting it.

Here is Kate.

And Wesley. I also have other pictures you could see if we ever pooled them...

I think Erin mentioned she wanted to get a shot of kids settling down in Chelsea's room. It was very nice of her to share. Thank you! There were three beds in here. Wesley is on the left. Then Kairi in the middle and Kate on the right. 

We did other fun things with the Heit's but like I said I was usually holding a child and did not take pictures of everything.

But when we left the reunion we stayed at this hotel water park which is close to the Mall of America.

There was a lazy river, two water slides, a tide pool, a kiddie section and this learn to surf spot. Before the park opened we could look out of our window and see the workers surfing away.

You know that kind of reminds me of my last airplane trip (out for my Grandpa's funeral in Utah) where I saw one of the workers who load luggage onto the plane riding up the conveyor belt as if he was a suitcase. I wish I had been able to grab my camera and capture  him before he hopped off! 

At the Mall of America the only shopping we did was to eat at McDonalds, and check out the Lego store. This is a lego transformer on the top of it. If you have never been to this mall, they also have tons of roller coaster rides and cool stuff. We should plan a reunion here sometime perhaps. I didn't get to see hardly any of it.

Kairi and Kate stood around for a good fifteen minutes waiting to take a picture with Dora and boots. When it was our turn here was the reaction as I backed up to get a shot. 

Kairi was better able to handle this picture next to a Lego friend. It is Olivia.

The other side of the transformer made from Lego. How long do you think it took to build this thing?

At the Mall of America was an aquarium. Wes, Ky, Kt

Here is Wesley at the jelly fish.

Can anyone tell me what a cluster of sea horses is called? Oh bummer. It's just called a Herd, nothing fancy. 

Back in WI

Sometime after our vacation I wanted to use up some coupons the kids had earned from the summer reading program and go to this museum and planetarium. It was basically night at the museum type stuff and we almost made it through the whole place before they kicked us out at 5. 

They had a butterfly garden that the kids were super excited to go see. That is until we actually went inside. Who can be scared of butterflies? My kids! Wesley jumped and jerked anytime one got close to him, which was a shame since he was wearing green and may have been the only one of us to get a butterfly to land on him. 

A while back for something Grandma Morse, well my mom not my Grandma, sent us a Lego motorized thingy. We finally figured out what to use it on! Here it is Grandma.