Six Kids, 4 Adults, & 3 Dogs Out in the Country

Last weekend our friends from church, Tara & Lance Lohstreter invited us for an extended "slumber party" out to Tara's folks' house in the country (Cokato, MN). Tara & Lance have three kids pretty much the same ages as our boys. Their third baby was born just a month after Lincoln. With no collaboration on this, they had already picked out the name Abraham -- and having just as much trouble picking names as Brad and I weren't about to change it even with the humor involved with being friends (-: They call their little one "Bram" which is pretty nice, I think.

These crazy-kind friends of ours planned and prepared all our meals -- delicious!! We also had a fire outside for roasting marshmallows and even had some time for the grown-ups to enjoy some conversation in the hot-tub after the kids were in bed. We did some low-key garage sale-ing in the nearby town Saturday morning and then played and kept the kids alive the rest of the day until our big steak dinner feast sending us home. It was encouraging just to do this three-kid parenting thing with another couple...and to get some good conversations in sideways between diaper changes, nursing sessions, and naptimes. Brad even finished the book he was reading -- and I was able to take a deliciously blustery walk and write a little.

Dietrich loves pushing things around -- for long and elaborate periods of time. This stroller is one of his favorites -- It's Cozette's and she kindly shared it the entire time we were there.

Dietrich and Malachi

Tara & Lance

Bram & Dietrich

Cozette

More pushing...

The dog is "The General" -- He has one love in life -- an utter obsession -- catching balls.

Another toss -- look at the dog taking off for it...

Fuzzy photo but so captured Malachi's personality...such a sweet smile.

Just to the right of these rocks was a big pile of dirt. The kids had all been wrestling and climbing up and down this pile for about half an hour while Tara and I prepared a meal and Brad an Lance talked and supervised. Suddenly Tara says..."Hey, wait a minute...doesn't my dad have a pile of manure out there somewhere..." She starts walking toward the door to find out...and then her dad (who had stopped by the house before leaving on their trip up north) calmly mentions to Lance that the pile they are happily rolling about in is, in fact, manure. I must mention that it had been there for a number of years and mostly smelled like compost...so I'm sure it was fine. Nevertheless we got the kids off it and brought them in for baths (-:

The lake is across the blacktop in the back

The General and his Beloved

Thank you, guys -- Thanks for walking with us in this adventure...for pursuing us in friendship. We enjoy "couple-dating" you (-: It looks like it's going to "work out" for us.