Spring Sniffles

The entire Sales family has been suffering from ear infections, colds and coughs these past few weeks. Enough already, right?! Although, we've been feeling under the weather, we've enjoyed some time outside, except for today... Just as the snow has completely melted away, we're expecting another round tonight. But here are some pictures from the beautiful weather we had this weekend. Evan and the neighbor kids! Remember these days??

Anyway, Friday afternoon we attended the elementary school carnival after playing outside with Evan's new wagon. We had a nice time fishing for ducks, doing the Donut Walk, The Lollipop Tree, Weight Guessing and of course no visit to a carnival is complete with out enjoying a snow cone. We did win the Donut Walk after four rounds and Evan took home some nice toys made in China! :) Kallie babysat for us Friday night and we went on a REAL date...dinner and a movie. We saw 21 and it was good to get out.

Saturday, we headed to Rochester to go to the mall. Rochester is about 45 minutes from Austin and where the infamous Mayo Clinic is located. Evan handled the shopping better than Alex! It's literally like the old movies where you pack up to go into town. As I was packing the car, I saw a sign that SPRING was finally here! A duck in our yard! To my surprise, we have 3 ducks in our yard--2 male and 1 female. It's strange since we have no bodies of water, unless you count the puddles. Alex already knew of our visitors, he said they've been in our yard every morning this week. (Note: He leaves 2 1/2 hours before me for work!)

I am thinking positive for spring and we are getting our version of April Showers today...except the rain is now freezing rain with the chance of changing yet again into that dreaded four letter word...SNOW! I hope this is my last posting where I speak of the weather...I hope!!!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! We had an interesting weekend and very memorable! Although we didn't get to see family we spent lots of time with our friends here. Our neighbors had us over for dinner and drinks and a friendly game of Wii Bowling. Alex is addicted and I had lots of fun too!

Saturday morning we took Evan to the Country Club for an Easter Egg Hunt, Brunch and a Magic Show. The Easter Bunny made an appearance. Evan followed him around but didn't want anything to do with him. We visited some more friends for dinner on Saturday night and Evan broke out in hives. We're still not sure what caused them, but they went away. So, we thought! At 2:30 am he woke up hysterical and the hives were back! Off to the ER we went. We truly are lucky to have the hospital within a 5 minute drive and to be in and out in less than an hour is usually unheard of. Needless to say, our little man had an ear infection and some sort of allergic reaction. It could have been from a strawberry he ate at lunch, or our friend's dog.

Evan slept in Sunday morning and Chantal attended Easter service alone...with out Alex and without Evan in his adorable Easter outfit. By Sunday afternoon, Evan was feeling a little better and was playing with his Easter Basket.

Is it Spring yet?

Well, I can officially say that this is the NEVER ENDING WINTER! It's the first day of spring and I refused to wear a coat to work to today...(and neither did Evan)! Layering has become a preferred option. The high today was 45 but we have a SEVERE WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY through tomorrow...they are predicting another 4 inches of snow. Everything just melted on Monday. I never thought in a million years that our Christmas lights would still be on the bushes and trees into January ...I mean March (Easter weekend to be exact!) It's embarrassing, but you couldn't pay anyone enough to spend a couple hours outside to untangle them until this past week. And this week, we just wanted to take a walk and enjoy the weather. No worries...we're not the only ones...AND at least we have no other evidence of Christmas hanging around!

I've been battling a bad cold this week (another sign winter is still hanging around). It's like the guest who has WAY overstayed their visit...except this is no visit...it's a sabbatical. I think Evan has also become a little under the weather. (no pun intended) It's been a quiet week at our house. It's Austin's spring break and all the neighbors managed to escape including our beautiful and helpful girls next door...Kallie and Marissa. They are my angels and Evan's unofficial God Mothers! They returned home tonight and have already helped with dinner and his bath.

The boys being silly before bath!

We are excited about Easter and have a busy weekend ahead with neighbors, friends, an Easter Egg Hunt and hopfully a visit from the Easter Bunny.

Happy Easter to everyone!!

WE SURVIVED!

Well, it has been hectic 2 weeks indeed, but we survived. It is taking Evan some time getting used to his new caretaker, Jolene. She is wonderful and he has one other friend there to play with. Ben is 2 months younger and apparently is trying to keep up with Mr. Busybody (a.k.a. Evan). He had the hardest time on Tuesday of this week. It was his first day back after the weekend. Chantal's schedule has been working out great. She's off Mondays and 1/2 day Fridays. The work days are much shorter than she's used to!

Alex has been traveling all over lately including this week...which is good news because he's getting out in the field to work one on one with the sales teams. His busy season is coming upon us here when he will be hosting his training seminars. His success is obvious, especially when I run into his coworkers and executives and nothing but praise is spoken. So, moving to this small town has been worth every degree BELOW zero!!!

Speaking of weather we had our first major HEAT WAVE this week. We had HIGHS of 45!! The snow is finally disappearing and people are venturing outside....in t-shirts no less! It's amazing how warm 45 degrees feels.

BATH TIME & FARMER EVAN

This video is two weeks old and of the first few real steps he took on his own. (I am not an expert yet at using the camera!)



Since then, he has mastered standing back up when he falls and carrying toys, sippy cups, etc. He loves walking and babbles every where he goes. His conversations are very detailed and full of giggles.

FRAT-TASTIC...DADDY IS SO PROUD (even without the front-tuck)

No, that's avocado!! This is Evan's "SO BIG"

Until, next time... (which will be sooner than later this time!)

Welcome to our blog!

So finally, it has arrived...by popular demand. It's a new year for all of us---Evan celebrated his first birthday, and Chantal is headed back to work. Alex continues his hard work at Hormel and has been quite the traveler these days.

We are still in the dead of winter here in Southeastern Minnesota! While much of our family and friends are enjoying blooming daffodils and warm sunshine, we just got above freezing this weekend for the first time this year. 32 degrees seems warm compared to the SUBZERO temps we had just last week. The many feet of snow that has accumulated over the winter is slowly diminishing in depth! Many Minnesotans say March is the snowiest month of the year....I hope March 2008 disproves that theory!! So enough about the weather...you all know it's cold here...but warm enough to be outside for more than 5 minutes...

We've had an amazing 2008 so far. Alex and I traveled to Costa Rica for a week in early January. It was a well-deserved trip that we was awarded through Hormel. We enjoyed every mojito and coconut vacation (a local fave). We traveled with 32 other top performing colleagues and their spouses/family members to Peninsula Papagayo in Guanacoste where the beautiful Four Seasons resort resides. Our trip was packed full of adventures including deep sea fishing, ATV tours, and jet skis. The most memorable adventure was our canape tour through the rain forest. We began on horseback through the harvested sugar cane fields and then took river rafts down Kokodrilo Creek (Crocodile Creek). From the river we hiked a little ways and donned our repelling gear. We zip-lined through the trees like monkeys. It was amazing...and of course the food, friends and fun were a great escape from the Minnesota winter. For a new mom, I enjoyed every minute of my first class spa treatments! So all in all, we kicked 2008 off pretty nicely!

February quickly arrived and Evan celebrated his first birthday with lots of friends. The theme was "OLD MC EVAN'S FARM". From pig and cow shaped balloons to barn tents, ball pits and yummy cupcakes...all that was missing was the real farm animals themselves!! Well by the end of the night, one might say there were a few crazy goats still hanging around!

The week of Evan's birthday, Chantal accepted a part time position with the Austin Country Club. She'll be working as an office assistant and starts March 4th. She's excited to get back but as one friend accurately described it "It's bittersweet!". Luckily, Evan took his first steps this past week too! So we accomplished everything in our first year home together!

Well, this pretty much catches us up to the present!

• Costa Rica


• Evan Turned One


• Evan WALKS!!!


• Chantal heads back to work