Water Weekend

We went camping along the North Shore of Lake Superior north of Duluth, MN for one last hurrah before school starts and fall sets in. We arrived at Gooseberry Falls State Park on Thursday night and set up our tent in the rain. It continued to rain all Friday, but it mostly drizzled. We were lucky to get a camp site as the campground was full and Dennis and I are notorious for not making reservations, but somehow there were 2 sites available and we got one (after waiting an hour just to get our name on a waiting list and then having to come back later to claim our spot...). We spent our rainy Friday doing some short hikes and going to Grand Marais. We visited one of our favorite author's studio and bought a print for the kids' room. We ate pie and admired the grandness of Lake Superior from a distance as it was cold and windy. On Saturday and Sunday, the sun was shining and we had plenty of time for hiking, agate finding, and s'more eating.
I can't even remember the names of all of the waterfalls we saw, but this one is Gooseberry:

Being silly on a hike. I must say that this weekend is the first time that the kids hiked all of the trails like champs. Barely a complaint out of them and they loved the waterfalls and throwing rocks. It is also the greatest distance that they've ever hiked. We might just make hikers out of them yet. It made the trip so much more enjoyable.

I think this is Cascade River Falls:

They light up the Split Rock Lighthouse once a month. We were there for it. It was pretty uninspiring up-close. It looked so much cooler from a distance.
I think this is Cascade Falls at Tettegouche:

We finished our trip by riding the rails on a train tour. I'll have to post pictures of what Eli took pictures of. It's pretty funny.

So long summer, see you next year!

Nose News

Earlier this week, Eli fell on his new Razor Scooter and hit his nose on the handle bars. He had a couple of scratches on his nose and a pretty bad bloody nose. He wouldn't really let me touch it to stop the blood, but it eventually stopped on it's own. He took a nap following the accident and he was snoring like an old man, which he never does. Skip to this weekend, I know it's hard to tell from the picture, but his nose from the bridge of his nose to in-between his eyes is black and blue and he still won't let us touch it. We think he broke it. So, this kid who was pretty much guaranteed to have a big nose thanks to genetics, just got a bigger one thanks to being a kid! He's still cute anyways.

Echo

At Eli's 5 yr. appt. his dr. detected a heart murmur. Now, Eli has never had a heart murmur before so she wasn't too concerned she just wanted to have it checked out "just in case". So, we scheduled an Echo, which is basically an ultra-sound of his heart. He went in, laid down, and laid perfectly still so the tech. could check his heart. He's been talking about it non-stop and has been telling everyone he sees that he got to see his heart. Here is a picture he drew of the event: The circle with the heart is the computer screen. Eli is on the red table, the three red dots are the electrode stickers (or whatever you call them). Under the table are the stickers and the red jar on the green table is the jar of suckers!

The tests came back showing that his heart is perfectly healthy. He has no restrictions and we don't even need to go back in for a follow up.

Frog and Toad

While Sadie and I were in the backyard discovering Frog who likes to hang out on the gigantic horseradish leaves in the garden.Eli was in the front yard discovering Toad.

They met and became friends. Then they hopped on home.

A Week with Grandma and Grandpa

After Eli's birthday party, grandma and grandpa took the kids home with them for a long weekend at their house. I'm not sure what all happened because they like to keep secrets but they sure had a blast! Here are some pictures that my mom sent me of their time together.
They had pioneer days at Bonanzaville, which is a historic museum with a pioneer village. The kids tried their hand at all sorts of old-fashioned fun. Here they are making tin can lunch pails:

What did Dennis and I do while the kids were gone for 5 days?? Not a whole lot. We went on five dates though and ran a ton of errands, and took naps and slept in and sat in the silence... It was a good five days, but we were happy to have them back. Thanks grandma and grandpa for the great time!

Eli's Race Car Birthday Party

We had a successful birthday party at our house for Eli's birthday. In the past, we've done large barbecues for Eli's birthday, but this year we decided to just do cake and ice cream and it was the best, least stressful party I've ever thrown. And when a party is less stressful, it also means that it was the most fun! Eli invited all of his classmates and they are a fun group of kids. They all know each other so well, it was great to watch them all play so well together. Here's the lowdown of what we did:

We decorated cars:

We tattooed:We parachuted:We zip-lined:

We opened presents:

We 'ooh'ed and 'aww'ed:

Grandma once again pulled through on the cake. Have I mentioned how glad I am to have her do this? She's so good.

We sang and ate cake:We had a blast. And when the party was over, we played with all of the treasures. Sadie tried out Eli's new scooter:Four adults attempted and failed at transforming a difficulty level 4 transformer:

For posterity sake, here are Eli's 5 year stats:

Height: 41 inches (15%)

Weight: 36 pounds (15%)

Happy (Belated) Fifth Birthday, Eli!

I didn't forget Eli's birthday, trust me, I remember his actual birth day like it was yesterday, I'm just a little slow to blog. I can't believe that I've known this little guy for five years now and have been in love with him since before that. It's been so much fun watching him grow and learn and become a person. I can't wait to see what the future brings for him.

Too Busy to Blog

OK. So that's only partially true. I've been having "dates with Don" as the third season of Mad Men is out on DVD. So my nights have been filled with the gang at Sterling/Cooper. But, truly, we have been busy. The only bad thing is that I have neglected to take pictures of our goings on. We spent some time with both grandparents. We went to Seussical the Musical, Auntie Paula took the kids to Sesame Street Live and we went to International Day at Concordia Language Village. We've been to the county fair, some free park events that included horse rides, free jumpy things and magicians. We've had visitors from the south and west. We've swam and boated, go-Karted and mini-golfed. Dennis had his 20th High School reunion so we reuninted and caught up. Busy, busy I tell you... Summer is coming quickly to an end. It's 66 degrees today and it feels a whole lot like fall. Hopefully, we'll have a few more fun summer days before fall is officially here.

A Couple of Eli-isms

While in the car:

Eli: Mom, I really like that car behind us.

Me: What do you like about it?

Eli: There's a really cute girl driving!

Ha ha, it's hard to pick up chicks when your mom is driving and you're stuck in the backseat in your carseat!!

Sadie and I were getting haircuts the other day at our usual stop, Hair Teasers, and Eli was tagging along. Eli was so upset that he wasn't getting a haircut. "Mom, why are you being so mean to me. All I want is a haircut!" The hairstylists were getting a kick out of it, but they knew that he just had one a couple of weeks ago (they all want to give Eli his haircuts because he sits so still. Seriously, he doesn't move a muscle.). They ended up giving him a "man touch-up". They buzzed his neck and styled his hair for him. He was perfectly happy with that! That kid just loves to be pampered.

In Uniform

I thought you might enjoy seeing Dennis in uniform. I'm finally used to seeing him as a soldier and I like it now. It has proven to be very helpful for laundry and wardrobe reasons and he's gotten out of a ticket too! I can't wait for the first time we have to go to the AFB for something and he has to wear his uniform. I hope he gets saluted a lot so I can smirk!!

Family Reunion 2010

Dennis' family had their yearly family reunion at Greg's lake home in Park Rapids, MN. There was a great turnout with all 12 siblings in attendance along with spouses and their progeny(40 all together, plus 3 dogs). There was a whole lot of family time which means a lot of food, a lot of laughs and a whole lot of fun. The kids got lots of cousin time in along with a lot of swimming and a lot of Ninja (which I'll have to film next time so you can get a feel of how much fun we're talking about...). We camped, we swam, we fished, we ate and ate and ate some more. Do you know how many pounds of gummy worms 17 kids can eat in one weekend? 15 pounds!!! I can't even begin to count the number of bags of chips, pounds of pasta, and number of pies, cookies, bars and kuchen. Let's just say that this family can eat!!
A huge thanks goes out to Greg, Michele and Jack for being such great hosts and volunteering to have 40 guests invade their house for the weekend. I know it's a huge undertaking and a huge toll on the septic system!!Anyways, we had an awesome time. Thanks for all of your hard work and great boat driving skills (and patience)!
Here is Dennis and all of his siblings. I can name them all too: Dave, Pat, Duane, Dennis, Becky, Greg, Cindy, Paula, Terri, Mary, Mick and Lisa
Can you believe that I've been married to Dennis for 8 years and I've known him for almost 16 years and this is the first time that I've met his brother Dave? Crazy. Dennis thinks that this is the first time that they've all been together since Cindy's wedding in the early '90s.

Grace, Maddie, Sadie, Eli and Jaime

Pete, Jake, Betty, Jack

Maddie, Ashley, Sadie, Elizabeth

Cindy, Erin, Kristen, Maddie, Grace, Cole, Greg

Pat, Gabe, Eli, Dennis

Sadie, Jack

Dennis, Eli, Sharleen, Sadie

Blueberries!!

Blueberry patches, like mushroom locations, are tightly held secrets around these parts. Luckily, one of Dennis' co-workers revealed her spot. We were there picking bucketfuls of blueberries faster than you can say "blueberry patch". We made quite a haul and we might go back for more...

Winnipeg Folk Fest 2010

We just got back from spending 5 days camping and attending the Winnipeg Folk Festival. I've been to a few folk festivals in my day and this is one of the best. It is well run, clean, environmentally friendly, and always has great music. I've attended this festival several times without kids and, let me tell you, it is a very different experience when you bring kids. The kids loved the kids tent and all of the gazillion activities that they had for them to do: music, face painting, arts and crafts, hula hoops, tight ropes, bubbles, juggling sticks, etc. The problem is that the adults didn't get to listen to any music except for in the evenings when we'd go to the main stage for the concerts. But, then we sat in the back so the kids could play soccer, blow bubbles, dance, spin, and twirl without bothering anyone. Either way we all had a blast just being out in the sun, listening to some good tunes, eating some good grub, and just experiencing folk fest and all of it's fun quirks. We did find a few new favorite musicians when we managed to get away from the kid's tent.

Sadie wore this dress the entire weekend. She refused to change. She also refused to comb hair and wear shoes. By Sunday, she was really looking like a hippie. When I asked her why she wouldn't change or wear shoes she said, "because I'm 3 and a half." Well, that just about says it all doesn't it?

Chocolate-covered bananas, a folk fest must have:Our good friends, Jeremy and Stacy,
More good friends: Mark, Brandy, Aiden, Noni and Liam. In case you didn't know, 18 month old twins are a ton of work. Just watching Brandy and Mark made me exhausted.Staying up until midnight dancing every night really makes you tired:Zoe all tuckered out:

The kids got their faces (or some body part) painted every day. The first day, Sadie thought it was going to hurt so she only got a little something on her arm.

Perfoming some actions with Aaron Burnett:

Admiring themselves:

Eli's favorite parts: the main stage at night, face painting and Peter Loung, an acrobat who performed in the Toronto Zero Gravity Circus.

Sadie's favorite parts: the clown at the circus and dancing