North Shore- 2014

We took our annual camping trip to the North Shore with Garrick's family and had the most perfect weather ever! We spent hours at the lake shore, Emi and I must have thrown in about 1000 rocks. When she missed the lake or it didn't go where she wanted, she said "try again, oops" in the most calm voice I have ever heard from her!

 We also took the kids for the first time to Lutsen to do the alpine slide. We weren't sure what Emi would think of it, but she loved it, screamed the whole way down the mountain and giggled. Peter actually took control of the slide and did the lever the whole way down. We actually came into the bottom too fast one time and crashed over the edge of the ramp. He still said it was fun.

 We also went for some short hikes, to the local school to play on their amazing playground and had lots of campfires. Peter's favorite parts had to have been either playing in the hammock OR our night hike where a fisherman showed us the whitefish that he had caught.

One time that we walked to the bathroom, Peter started to go into the first potty, and then stopped himself and said- No mom, you can have that one, I like the other one better- it has an owl picture in it. And sure enough- there was a poster of a great gray owl on the wall!

There is also a natural spring down by the bathrooms that Linka LOVES to drink out of and that the kids would stop to take a big gulp from each time we walked by, Emi straddled the fountain (instead of leaning into it from the side) and WOOP, slipped and landed right under the stream of water! Poor girl. She came back and seriously told me, "I feeeel in under the water".

And Lainey. Well she wandered around the campsite, ate a lot of food and was the best baby camper that we could have asked for!

Chickens, Chickens, Chickens

After taking a year off of having hens, we decided that we did in fact miss having them and found a farm with some hens that should start to lay sooner than later. After a few twists and turns, we ended up with seven chickens- most lay brownish eggs of some sort, but one lays a blue-ish green egg which Peter of course just loves. Emelia loves to go into the hen yard and give them "treats" (compost) from the kitchen and they both like to pet them if someone else is holding them.

As of right now, the favorite chicken is "milkie the silkie" who is a fiesty little Silkie chicken. She lays tiny cream eggs, but she is cute and different looking and is easier to handle than the big laying hens.

We got our first egg and it was very exciting for the kids. They both enjoy looking in the boxes to see if there are any more eggs and haven't dropped one yet! One of the chickens likes to follow us around the pen, I did find Emelia up on the stool screaming for me as that hen

The Rock

At Saint Mary's there is a large rock outcropping up on top of the bluff that students climb up to and it is known as 'The Rock.'  In normal circumstances it is a little tricky to get up there, it is straight up, lots of roots to climb over and a very steep narrow path to follow. When we decided to go, I'm not sure what we were thinking!

Peter was so excited to go up- he took off running right out of the car. We saw some friends at the bottom of the sledding hill and stopped to talk, when we were done, he was already at the top of the hill! Emi worked really hard to climb as well and made it quite a way on her own and then when it was steep Garrick put her up on his shoulders.                                           

We sat everyone down in the middle of the rock, told them not to move at all, took a picture and then got down! I was more than a little nervous that I was going to lose someone over the edge. Of course, on the way back down, Peter was also a mile ahead of me. We joke frequently about when the kids are going to start beating us at running, biking, skiing... etc... but I have a feeling that the day is closer that I might think. It has become a lot of fun to share these special places with the kids this spring!

Emi running down the sledding hill. So green and lush!

Mama's Day

This year we took some time to go hiking at Great River Bluff State Park with the kids and then went with a lunch to a new park - to us- in Homer. Peter especially loved the hiking and kept asking if we could go sliding all of the way down the bluff into the river. He also loved looking down on the river valley and seeing the barges and trains running on the tracks. He said it looked just like a model railroad.

Lainey had the best time at the park playing. There was a small slide that she must have gone up and down 20 times on her own, usually head first.

Homer park. from garrick holey on Vimeo.

After dinner, we took a bike ride around town, went to see how high the river was and Peter rode in and out of the water for a while and then we came home and made brownies before bed time.

Biking and Running

A lot of time this spring has been spent out running with the kids. Peter is much faster than I am this year and aside from a few days with a bad attitude (and days early in the spring that were super windy), he has had a lot of fun riding ahead of me this year. Our deal is that if we go fast enough that there is time to stop and play at the park of his choice both while I load up the bike and stroller and after that.

Lainey and Emi still love to go for stroller rides. Thankfully. I did upgrade to a double BOB jogging stroller this year to give them a little more room, I felt they were getting pretty cramped inside of the Chariot, and to be honest, was looking forward to a new toy!

Emi's thing this spring that she has started to do is go down all of the slides at any park. Even the big red ones at the Lake Park. She also loves to swing and go on the merry go rounds at the park. Additionally, there are a lot of questions while we run, "who is that? why are they walking? who is that kid? why are the ducks there? where are the baby ducks? why is there a bridge? WHAT IF THE BRIDGE FELL DOWN?" and so on. Sometimes, I put in my headphones... not always though!

Lainey loves the stroller, sees it and climbs up into it. She and Emi giggle in the stroller for most of the time and I can't think of a single time that she has cried running this year. At the park, she runs for the swings and the slides.