Where the Corn Grows

We had a great time in Iowa a couple of weeks ago! Case experienced many "firsts" during our week down there. It was great to see all of the extended family who hadn't yet met Case. I wish I would've had my camera for more of it, but the highlights are as follows. Cornie taught Case how to click his tongue and he hasn't stopped doing it ever since!
On Tuesday, Matt's Aunt Miriam and Uncle Dave came over for lunch. It was great to catch up with them and Case loved playing the piano with Miriam. That night we just relaxed with Matt's parents. On Wednesday we went to visit Case's great-grandma, Angeline in the afternoon. That night Matt's aunt Arlis and cousin Brenden came over for dinner, we hadn't seen them in five years. It was a great night where we heard lots of stories of Cornie's wilder days!
On Friday we headed over to Cornie's parent's house for the afternoon.
Here's a four generation picture with Case, Matt (Daddy), Cornie (Grandpa) and Arend (Great-Grandpa). Case is named after Arend's Dad who's name was Cornelius, but also went by Case.

Case took his first tractor ride with Grandpa and then Matt and Cornie took him on a ride on the "gator". Case LOVED this, jabbered the whole time and he swung his arm up and down in constant excitement, it was great! That night a group of the aunt and uncle's went bowling. We split into teams and my team won (meaning Matt's team lost!). Although, I have to say, it had little to do with my skills.

Saturday was a nice relaxing day with more family and Uncle Ryan came down to join us!

Sunday was the real fun! Dave and Miriam bought a boat since we've been there last so after church, we all headed up to Lake Okoboji to go boating. Case wasn't so happy about the life jacket he had to get into, but once he had it on he started to enjoy it all.

Karleton taught him how to drive the boatit didn't take long before Case had it all under control

Case went tubing for the first time with Daddy. I wouldn't say he loved it as much as he was pretty much just taking it all in.

And then he enjoyed playing in the sun with Grandma

That night we all headed over the the Johnson's for dinner and then we packed up and headed home. It was a wonderful week! And now here we are, back to "real life! Matt's so thrilled to be back on staff at SGF and we've already enjoyed so much of being back in MN. We had a great 4th of July weekend, I'll try to blog about soon! Oh, when will playing catch up end!

Cambridge

Matt, Case and I spent last week in my home town, Cambridge, with my family. It was a great week! We spent several hours eating, reading, eating, relaxing, and more eating! Matt and I were anticipating the return of the one fast food restaurant we like... Taco John's! It did NOT disappoint! We even splurged and got Churro's because we've been without good old Taco John's for 10 months, not an easy thing to do. We also went to some great local places, Herman's Bakery, the Pizza Pub as well as some others, but there's nothing in Cambridge as good as my dad's grilling and my mom's cooking! Case had a great time playing with Gidge, my parent's English Bulldog, as well as enjoying chasing the cat with his new found scooting skill. We went to the Cambridge Dog Show where Case met a Great Dane as well as some other dogs. One dog tried to take a bite out of him, suffice to say I am no longer a fan of blood hounds after that incident. But all the other dogs were great and Case loved it.
Another day, we went to the park. It was so much fun, Case loved the swing and the slide. He got tired from all the playing and then just snuggled with Nana and watched all the big kids play.
On Father's Day, Matt and I got to go to our church, it was so great to be back worshiping with everyone. Then we came back to my parent's house and spent the evening with my parents, Brooke, Alisha, Scott and Macey. It was a great summer afternoon and Macey and Case had a great time in the kiddie pool.
It was fun to celebrate Father's Day with Matty. He's such a great Daddy to Case, I've loved seeing him in this new role. Case got him a baseball and a bat!
We're now spending some time in Iowa with Matt's family... basically eating, reading, eating, relaxing and more eating! But after the week is over, I'll blog about our week here!

Home Sweet Home

Last Monday, Matt and the moving truck rolled into town and it has been nothing but good times since that evening. We had about twenty friends come and help us move into the Eikums. The guys unloaded our boxes at the Eikums and then drove around picking up our stuff that was stored and moved it and the rest of our stuff from MD into a storage unit. While the guys did that, the ladies had us totally unpacked within an hour. Then we all sat around having pizza, laughing and telling stories on the Eikums patio, it was so great to be back with these good friends!
On Tuesday Matt and I did the last of the settling in at the Eikums. Case can now scoot around and get into everything, so I got a little creative during the unpacking...
Then on Tuesday night, drum roll please, we took Case to his first Twins game! We went for Hannah B's "Birthday Week". Case LOVED the Twins game and we beat the Pirates 8-2!

Case is telling the players what he thinks they should do...
My favorite little twins fan...
Did I mention Joe Mauer went 4 for 4 that night!!

It was a GREAT night! Go Twins!!

Last few things from Maryland

Our last few weeks in Maryland were so much fun and SO jammed pack that besides graduation, I haven't had a chance to blog about any of it. So here are my last few fun Maryland memories.
One BEAUTIFUL Monday morning, several PC wives and kiddos decided to go strawberry picking at Butler's Orchard.
Since Case was in my sling the whole morning, I didn't do much picking, instead I mooched off of the ladies whose kids picked way to much for them to bring home! But I had fun taking loads of pictures.

Teresa, Marie, and Rachel

We all packed lunches and enjoyed a picnic at the Orchards playground. It was great!
That night we had our last date night with The Hansen's at Red Rock Canyon and then to Barnes and Noble where Tiff and I got ditched as Jason and Matt had so much fun going through all the History books together!
We had our Ladies Night Out, our last official PC ladies event. It was, as always, such a wonderfully hosted event where we were spoiled rotten and had way too much fun together!

Tiff and I
Our FUN table, Teresa, Amy, Miran, Tiff, Jen, Me, Siobhan, Amanda and Shari
Lilli Leslie and Julie PurswellWe had our last gym day and hang out time at Jen's afterwards, our last Mahaney meeting and then our end of the year dinner.

Matty and I at the dinnerMatt and Jason

The week of graduation we spent our days packing and our evenings hanging out with friends one last time. On Saturday we went to Devon and Kristine's for another fabulous one of Kristine's meals and another round of Cornhole (a fancy version of bean bag toss) while Case and Korey had fun cheering us on. On Tuesday we went out for Mexican with our friends Jordan and Tali and watched the NBA finals over ice cream. On Wendesday Matt and I headed up to Columbia (near Baltimore) to my friend Dana's house for dinner. Dana has been such a great friend to me this year, she's made me several delicious meals, helped with laundry, watching Case and so much more. I'm so glad we had a chance to join her, her husband Mike, and her daughter Clancy for dinner.
Thursday was my last full day in Maryland and Matty and I made the most of it in between the last little bit of packing that always sneeks up on you. We went into Damascus (the little town close to us) to a little Diner caled Tom and Ray's, they have the best breakfast ever! We packed during Case's morning nap and then headed into Damascus again for lunch to The Music Cafe, it's a great coffee house with soup, sandwich type food. They have the best vanilla chai I've ever tasted. Then we finished the packing during Case's afternoon nap, rested up and then went out for dinner with Mike and Sarah, our host couple for one last meal together. We went to Houston's and they spoiled us with some really great and thoughtful gifts. Including Flags of our Fathers on CD so Matt could listen to it on the drive home.
Back in September, when Case was born and we brought him home from the hospital I took a picture of him in his car seat on the front step of his first home. So on his last day there, I took another picture on the front step as well as one of him in his first nursery, so here are the pictures!

Case's first nursery
On the steps September 2008

On the steps June 2009
So long Maryland!!

On Friday, Case and I flew out! On Saturday some great friends came and helped Matt and my dad pack up the truck, but since I wasn't there, no pictures. Thanks guys! On Sunday, Matt, my dad and my father in law drove our truck and two vehicles back to MN. They arrived safely home last Monday. Tomorrow I'll post on our first week in MN, it's been fabulous!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I love ya!

Ah, home sweet home in 24 hours! The place is packed, it's amazing it actually happened in an organized fashion. I take off at 9am and after a couple of hours of wrestling Case to stay in my lap on the plane, we will be in MN at 2pm!! Woo-hoo! Goodbye humidity and rain, hello sunshine and lakes!

Not Exactly Mom of the Year

So I got a little desperate while packing and let Case play with things I normally never would...

All Good Things Must Come to an End

Not the most joyful of sayings, but sadly... that's what happened last night when our PC year officially came to a close. It was a WONDERFUL day that left me feeling emotionally exhausted, so proud of my husband, excited to go home and sad to leave here. On Sunday morning we went to both CLC church services as a farewell to an amazing host church. We had a couple hours of break, and then it was back for our "formal" pictures.

Here's the PC class of 2009Us with the Ricucci's and us with the Purswell's

Then a quick break to scarf down some fast food (unless you were the Slacks and were smart and packed ultra healthy fruit and probably a green smoothie!) and then the graduation ceremony began! The service itself went above and beyond my expectations. It was so celebratory! We started out with some time of worship, next Eric Hughes did a great job sharing his pc testimony, then Gary lead the "special recognition" portion. He first recognized all the PC kids and had them stand up. I seriously love all of them, they are all such great kids. Then the guys honored us in such a sweet way, I won't put on the blog incase they use it again. I don't want to ruin it for any future PC wives! After that Gary gave the awards out. This part was GREAT! It was so fun to see the guys reactions as the three found out their fellow classmates voted them: Servant/Humility award - Josh Blount, Growth - Matt Slack, Leadership - Eric Hughes. Here's a picture of a proud Siobhan cheering on her husband, Matt when he got his award.

Then Jeff got up to give the last award for Academic Excellence and after expaining it was a very close race he announced the winner was... Matty! I was so proud of him, he's worked so hard in all of his classes this year! Here's a picture of him getting the award (I didn't have the best angle). Maybe I can use this to my advantage - why take any more schooling, go out on top, right?!?
The guys had an opportunity to hear from CJ and then it was time for diplomas! Here's Matt getting his...
After the ceremony they had a reception where we spent time chatting with friends from CLC that came, Uncle Kevin, and then having to say goodbye's to our PC family. After the reception we headed to the Hansen's to hang out one more time! We of course took plenty of opportunities to take pictures throughout the day, so here come a lot of pictures in the same poses, but I just couldn't cut any of these out!

Our Fellowship Group, Josh Blount, The Cambell's, and The Roca's
We love you guys!

Kim Alexander - a great friend throughout the year! She is such a joyful woman!

Matty and I with Bryon and Jen Lockhart, such a humble couple and some of the greatest parents we've ever known

Emily and I, we had way too much fun & laughs in fellowshp group, Em's too fabulous for words! (And she'll love me forever for saying that!!)
Megan and I - poor Meg had to put up with Em and I. Megs, thank you for the maturity so needed in our FG but for also being so much fun!

Josh J, Keith, Bryon, Jason and Matt

And of coarse, Tiffany!

Many of the sweet PC ladies have asked how I'm doing having to say goodbye to Tiff. My answer, I can't talk about it, and then I proceed to cry for five minutes. 24 hours after saying goodbye, it's still the same answer!

Case came to the activities and he was so proud of his Daddy!