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!

To the Fair!

 We went to the state fair this week and tried to participate in as many of the features as possible! We were among the first people in the baby animal barn and saw piglets, lambs, a calf, chicks and ducklings.

 Pete had a photo op with this guy.

 We tried out a LOT of tractors. No big surprise, but there were a lot bigger and better tractors than we had at our county fair.

 Worked at a farm for a while

 And got AWESOME hats!!

 Garrick's cousins and aunt and uncle came and met us at the fair too-

 Pete got a beef stick almost as long as he was.

 And participated in the group sing a long by yelling as loud as he could into the mic. We could hear him for sure over the other 100 people singing.

The girls also took the kids on rides! A big slide, a train and some really annoying tractors that had horns that beeped. Pete double up on the horns for his whole ride.

Pizzzzey Farm

Peter (and Garrick and I) have been telling all of the grandparents about the pizza farm for a while. Grandma Linka and Grandpa Greg decided that enough was enough and left work early Thursday night and came down to Winona for some fun!

We had snacks and pizza and then let the kids loose to play on the toys and visit the animals. Peter thought that the rooster crowing was particularly funny and also liked the goats on the leashes. We also saw Oscar and his family there so he and Pete danced/wrestled to the music for a while. I thought I took a few more pictures, but I must have been mistaken!

California- Take 2

We made it back from California! The first day we were there we drove to Disneyland and went to downtown disney to get some food and disney spirit. Both were found quickly! Emi especially liked trying on  the hats- I wish we had more time to do that!

That night, Kimberly met us at the hotel and we were at the park for the opening! By 9am we had gone on 8 rides and had a plan for the rest of the day- to not rush and stay off of the darker rides- they made Pete a little nervous.

We headed over to Toontown (where Mickey lives) to see the big cheese himself next- this was one of Pete's shining moments and one where Emi struggled a little- they terrified her! But Petey went up to them all, gave hugs and talked to them a little!

Another big moment in our day was the Tiki room- Garrick LOVES it- so of course we all sat through it- well most of us- Emelia took a short nap.

But the boys were in heaven! 

We did a few more rides, had lunch (and watched the Jedi Training where little kids learn to use light sabers and fight darth Vader- very cute!) and took a quick picture before heading back to the hotel for naps.

After nap time, we went to the other park at Disneyland and did a few rides, waited in some lines, saw the new Cars-land- which was amazing- and made the decision that we were going to wait out the night as long as possible and stay for the fireworks! I am so glad that we did, we took a monorail ride, saw the fireworks which Peter is still excited about and got snacks.

Overall, it was a great great day and the kids were as good as they could be all day long. We had a long drive the next day up to Carmel where friends of Garrick's family live. We went to the ocean for the afternoon and let the kids  play in the waves. We all were soaked by the end of the that trip.

 The next day we went to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium which is also huge and like nothing else- the kids really liked the water, the fish and the different tanks that you walked through, under and  popped up in.

Compare to this!

This is where my picture taking ends- we also spend 3 days at Erika (garrick's sister) house and swam in their pool, played trains, took walks around their beautiful neighborhood, ate great food and most of all, relaxed!!! That was another best part of the trip- but I didn't get my camera out of the car. she did take some pictures of the cousins all together and I'll get those from her hopefully and add them in.

It was a long great week, but by the end it is always  nice to be home! The kids are still tired two days later!

North Shore

 Over Memorial Day we took out annual trip to the north shore. We left a little earlier than usual to be able to hang out  in Duluth a little before driving the rest of the way up to the Temperence River. We walked past the lift bridge (which according to Pete goes click...click...click up up up) and out to the light house. The walls were too high for the kids to see over, so they would peek in every drain hole along the way.

 This is exactly what each kid would have done the entire time we were there- Pete crawling on the biggest highest rocks driving his trucks and Emi walking on all of them with a little help.

 We spent one rainy and tired morning in Grand Marais.

 But here is proof that we had a beautiful day! The sun was out and we got to go for a nice hike. We didn't make it to the top of Mt. Carlton this year- the kids were just at too wierd of an age to take them on that long of a hike but we had a lot of fun along the way. Pete started to ask "is he nice?" about every person that we passed along the way.

Fun with the cousins!

Last week  Garrick's sister Erika was in MN visiting family and we got to visit with them for a few days as well. We did all sorts of fun things- the video from last week was of Peter swimming at Linka's friend's pool- here is a picture of us all swimming- Emelia was sleeping in her carseat and missed out.

We also went to the park a few times, let the big boys ride their bikes together and played with Grandma Linka's new kitchen and the trucks outside!

But I think that the highlight of the day was when Garrick got the big parachute out and we all played in it!

On top of it and

Inside of it!

Nick and Emi played with play food until he took something that she wanted...

This was our best attempt at a group shot that night. Emelia wanted to get to the rocks, nick wouldn't stay still and Ben was being told what to do...