West Coast Adventures

Are you sick of the videos yet?  This one is a little delayed in coming, but back in May we flew with all three littles to California to join the rest of my family in celebrating my brother Andrew's graduation from medical school.

It was Bode's and Brooks' first airplane rides, and everyone did great!  We flew into Palm Springs and spent lots of time at the pool and just hanging out.

We took one day to surprise the kids with a jaunt to Disneyland, which ended up being extremely crowded due to 60th anniversary festivities.  Despite the crowds and therefore limited number of rides we spent the time waiting for, Maggie and Bode were thrilled with their first Disney experience.

The Dells Tradition - Vacation Number Two

As has become a yearly (and sometimes biyearly) tradition, our family took off for Wisconsin Dells for three nights this past week.  We spent most of our leisure time enjoying the waterparks at the Wilderness.  Maggie continues to love the water and even accompanied Steve on a dark tube waterslide called "Dueling Mammoths."  Both were quite relieved to see the light at the end of the waterslide tunnel.  And Bode surprised us by venturing down several waterslides that he had not previously attempted.  He needed some coaxing, but then kept requesting "one more time" as we tried to make our exit.

Besides enjoying dinners out at our favorite restuarants, Moose Jaw Pizza and Marley's, we also revisited the Wisconsin Deer Park after a one year hiatus.

Enjoy Steve's video!

Principal Conference...or Summer Vacation Number One

June traditionally brings the MASSP (Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals) conference at Breezy Point Resort.  The past two years, Steve has attended while Maggie, Bode, and I held down the fort at home.  After observing many other school principals with their families last year, Steve invited us to come along for this session.  While his days were filled with useful meetings (seriously!), the crew and I found activities to keep us busy as we enjoyed some good ol' Up North relaxation.

Steve volunteered his skills at making a slide show of our time, also including photos of a few hours at the superintendent's cabin on Ten Mile Lake, a brief tour for old time's sake at Camp Shamineau, and a day and a half with family in Princeton.

Puerto Rico and Kids with Grandparents

With our 10 year anniversary coming up in August (what - 10 years???), Steve and I had planned for awhile to travel someplace new for a short time this summer.  We had booked a trip to Puerto Rico before Baby #3 took up residence in my belly, but I guess now this vacation doubled as a babymoon, too.

We spent lots of time by the beach and pool, ate delicious food, had a couples massage, hiked in the rainforest, and toured old forts in San Juan.

We did lots of this.  Beach and pool time.

El Yunque Rainforest.

Observation tower in the rainforest.

Old San Juan.

Castillo de San Cristobal in San Juan.

And while we were in the Caribbean, Maggie and Bode had a great time with both sets of grandparents.  They even completed several items on their summer list:

• Visit Grammy and Bapa (my parents).  They also visited Grandma and Grandpa (Steve's parents), but we already checked this off our summer list from an earlier summer trip.
• Bonfire with s'mores.

• Tea party.

• Made homemade pizza.
• Put on a play - "Cinderella."  We saw the video - it was amazing. :)
• Root beer floats.
• Blow bubbles.

We all had a wonderful time in our respective locations, but were extremely pleased to be reunited in time for the Fourth of July.

March

It has been over a month since I've posted, so I'm trying to think of our happenings since mid - February.

Highlights:

- Maggies dance show in Rochester

- Birthday celebrations for our niece and nephew. 

- End of the quarter busyness and professional development in the metro. 

- And a 3-night trip to the Dells over Steve's spring break.

All of us, except Steve, dealt with a crummy head and chest cold that wiped us out recently. I was the last one to get it after continuing to share drinking containers with the children, and was totally out of it for about 5 days. During that time, my phone died, and I was shown incredible kindness by Steve, Maggie, and Bode. Steve went out and immediately bought me a new phone as an early birthday gift, along with bringing back my favorite - Buffalo Wild Wings. Maggie colored me beautiful pictures,  kept feeling my head to see if I had a temperature, and saying sweet prayers for me. And Bode gave me the best snuggles. I'm feeling much better now!

I think this one is Ariel.

My snuggler.

Perfect day to be outside today.

Here and There

After almost two full weeks out of state, I am quite behind on documenting our summer happenings.

On July 12th, we did a test run in the van in preparation for our long car trip.  We had less than 3 hours to travel to Steve's parents for the night, but we ended up getting stranded an hour from our destination with car problems.  This was after the $900 tune up we just had.  *sigh*  Steve's dad came and rescued us and then they were kind enough to lend us their car for vacation while our van went to the "doctor," as Maggie said. 

We had another brief panic when their car wouldn't start the next morning.  Steve was able to jump it so I could make it in time for a 5K that I ran with my friend, Evie, that morning.  It was her first one, and she did great!  It was also fun for me to be able to be the top female finisher that day.

After church on Sunday, we started our vacation to Branson.  It was pretty low-key, but fun none-the-less.  Steve put together a video to show the highlights:



We returned home Friday night after a full day of driving, washed clothes and repacked Saturday, the helped to celebrate our nephew's 1st birthday in Minneapolis on Sunday.  He is adorable as was the party.

Getting after the cupcake.

I feel like these pictures pretty much sum up Bode's personality.

The cousins had fun popping bubbles and giggling together.

My parents were in heaven.

Monday morning, we spent some time at the Mall of America before my mom and sister took Maggie and Bode home with them so Steve and I could leave on our own vacation.  It was our first vacation without kids! 

We spent four nights in Las Vegas before driving to visit my younger brother, Andrew, and his wife, Kate in Loma Linda, California.  Our time with them Friday evening was definitely a highlight.  They brought us to a really cool brewery at a hangar and then out for Thai and handcrafted ice cream.  Yum!  In the morning, Kate and I ran a niner (whew, you pushed me, girl!) and then she took Steve and I to experience our first Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf latte.

We saw the Cirque du Soleil "O" show.  Awesome.

 

Fountain show at the Bellagio.

Morning trip to see Hoover Dam.  The heat was stifling all week.

Trying a Coca Cola world sampler in Vegas.

I've always been curious to see a wax museum, so we went!

We had a very long night of flying with a layover Sunday morning, but we were refreshed and soooo ready (at least this mama was) to see our sweet babies.  They didn't miss us a bit after getting to see both sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

Steve wants to make Vegas a yearly trip...we'll see. :)

Two Day Vacay

Wanna know what's great about summer?  Lots of things, but one in particular is Steve's more flexible schedule so that we can take mini vacations like the one we just took to the Wisconsin Dells.  I have to say that I think this was our most enjoyable family vacation to the Dells thus far.  Bode is old enough to enjoy splashing and playing with Maggie, and Maggie gained confidence we weren't expecting.  She loved the lazy river, swam and jumped in confidently with a life jacket on, and even took the step to go down a longer water slide instead of the tiny kiddie ones.  I was sad to see it end, but then reminded myself of all the summer fun yet to come!

Steve put together a little YouTube video of our time there:

Spring Break

Steve had spring break this past week, so we headed to Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells for four nights and five days of fun.  Maggie loved the indoor water parks, and we were even joined by Steve's brother and family for a couple days.



It was a much needed break for Steve and a fantastic vacation for the rest of us.