A BIG surprise on McCoy's birthday!

I have waiting since mid-July to do this post.  Patiently waiting for Mandy to give me the A-OK.  It's time.  We headed to Mankato for McCoy's third birthday and just about everybody was there from both sides of the family.

Let me get to the coolest, best, most surprising part of the weekend.  McCoy was opening up his gifts and the last one he opened was a dinosaur t-shirt (it was the theme of the party) that said Big Brotherasaurus!!!  We were all like....whaaaat?!  We were all so certain that Justin and Mandy were done having little Huneckes and we were all shocked.  Happy hugs and tears!

 We were teasing Mandy that she was going to have twin girls, but alas, the initial ultrasound showed only one baby.  Ha!  Please pray for a healthy baby and mama as we await the February arrival. 

We ended up something like 400 water balloons, so we had a water balloon fight, both big kids and little ones.  Justin got the sling shot and chaos ensued.  We went to the park/ballfield that's just a block from Mandy and Justin's place for some sling shot water balloons (Aaron, Cody, Mitch and Justin), playing on the playground stuff and some softball.  This was a day before Jenna's championship game.

 I didn't have to catch!  Ali was nice enough to actually want to catch.  My old lady knees can only take so much, so I was grateful for an off day!

Our fans.  Don't they look excited?!

 

Look at the birthday boy.  Pure joy. 

 I swear that the maturity level of these four dropped about 20 years....  They thought it would be funny to try to hit their wives who were ...

 ...taking some ground balls, just like back in the day from Coach Hunecke. ;)

 Somehow I got stuck playing shortstop.  Because why?  I have no idea.  Talk about an awkward shortstop!!

 Mandy felt as comfortable playing in the infield as I did at short stop.  I'm not going to lie though, I wish we all lived closer because our group actually looked pretty good taking some infield and it would be fun to play in a league together.

Then, it was time for a cake.  A Dairy Queen ice cream cake because obviously they're delicious.

 

I have pretty cute nephews, I'm just saying. 

 These two were like partners in crime.  They took over cooking duties and smoked and grilled some meat.  It was all about the spices and sauces and ALL THE THINGS.  They didn't disappoint.  It was delicious!

 Giant Jenga, anyone?!

 

When we get together with this side of the family there's a lot of boys.  Like SEVEN.  SEVEN.  

I mean, this looks safe, right?  What could go wrong?!  #boyswillbeboys

 

Love the smiles though!

 

Definitely a great weekend of celebration for McCoy and big news for our family!  Here were are, all of us!

Minnesota

Way back in July we spent four days in Minnesota for a long weekend.  My dad had invited us up to Frontenac for a couple days before we headed to Mankato for McCoy's birthday party.  

 Frontenac is in the Red Wing/Rochester area and has a TON of Hunecke family history there.  I love it  It's filled with old houses and trees and Lake Pepin and childhood memories. 

 My dad had his boat up there, so we took it out one afternoon.  It was beautiful.  The bluffs up there 

are just picturesque.  

 The bad news is that there is too much yucky stuff in lake water for Blake to go in.  I'll be honest, that sucks and that's putting it mildly.  I love the lake.  It's one of my happy places.  When I got the news that Blake couldn't go in I was and continue to be devastated. :(  Just one of those things I guess

 We cruised around for awhile and then parked at a sandbar. 

 We'll figure this out.  Like maybe Blake will be the boat driver or something? ;)  I don't know, but hopefully as he gets older we'll be able to reason with him about why he can't go in the water.  Grandpa let everybody take their turn driving.  The kids thought that was great!

Saturday morning we headed to Mankato for Super McCoy's 2nd birthday party!

 Aunt Mandy, party planner extraordinaire, had a super hero theme and everything was so cute, as usual.

 The day was spent hanging out, catching up, playing in the sprinkler, on the swing set, making superhero capes, hanging around the campfire, listening to awesome old songs and more. 

 The kids in their capes and the photo bomb by Uncle Justin.

Suns out, guns out.

 A fun weekend!  Always love time with family and it makes me wish we all lived a little closer.

P.S.  I know I missed yesterday, but five out of the last six days isn't too shabby!