2015 Week Thirty-Two | August 3 - August 9

We belong to pley.com, through which Ian gets mailed Lego kits. He put this one together, and then he let Annaliese join in on the fun with her Elsa Lego figure. 

I flew back home Monday, so there was the obligatory carpet shot and landing. 

He doesn't read much, but he saw previews for "The Martian" and having already read it this summer, I told him he'd love it. Turns out I was right. 

Soccer practice started for Ian this week. Up to this point, he hadn't played in two years. Soccer turned out to be such an amazing thing for us this fall. 

Darrin texted me this picture. He had picked the kids up from school and they got in the pool. He opened the umbrella to find this frog sitting there. We found out earlier this summer when I'd found them in the pool skimmer my dislike for them (the jumping freaks me out) so he sent this to me mentioning how he pictured my reaction had I opened the umbrella and found this little guy there. 

The back-to-school packets for the kids came this week. Annaliese had a necklace to wear on the first day, so of course we had to fill it out right away. She then proceeded to snap several pictures of it. 

Enjoying the last few days of summer when he has unlimited time to read. At the time, I wondered if we'd go to the library as frequently as we did during the summer. We don't go as frequently, but definitely still once a week. It's insane the amount of pages he reads in a week. 

2015 Week Thirty-One | July 27 - August 2

This could also be called, "The Week Apart."  I was in Portland, OR. The kids were in Iowa with their grandparents. And Darrin, well, he was at home working and living the bachelor life (picture evidence below). 

My sister sent me this picture of the kids playing with their cousin at a park back home. I'm so glad they're always able to spend a week back home every summer being spoiled by their grandparents and spending some great time with their cousins. 

The girls I was going to spend the week with had been posting pictures of their feet and the airport carpet, which I later learned was a thing specifically at the Portland, OR airport. Anyway, I snapped a picture before I left the Omaha airport. I flew Southwest and we stopped in LA, though it was a through flight so I wasn't able to deplane. I just stared at the palm trees out my window instead. 

These are the wonderful ladies I spent the long weekend with, scrapbooking, laughing, and eating. 

And this is the place I went walking/running each morning. So beautiful!

My work space, complete with a delicious truffle :) 

While I was hanging there, Darrin was hanging out with our new porch furniture and enjoying a case of the beer he had at the restaurant we ate at for our anniversary. It was delicious (I could even stand to drink it, which is saying something). We had looked for it and never found it in stores, until this week. 

At the end of the week, Darrin met his parents at Adventureland, where they all had an awesome time. Seeing this picture reminds me I really need to scrap the pictures Darrin took of that day. The kids still talk about it to this day. 

2015 Week Twenty-Four | June 8 - June 14

Our vacation around Duluth continued at the beginning of the week, then we did a bit of traveling through Wisconsin to see Emily. After spending time with her, we drove to the Twin Cities to chill with Darrin's best friend Matt and his wife. Always leave wishing we lived so much closer to them.

Monday we spent the day driving Old Highway 61 and exploring the state parks along the way. We had so much fun exploring the falls at Gooseberry Falls State Park. They were beautiful, and fell into shallow enough water we could step out into them. 

Another favorite stop on Monday was Split Rock Lighthouse. Beautiful lighthouse set high on the cliff. 

Tuesday we took a ferry from Bayfield to Madeline Island, where we rented bikes and rode the 7.5 miles to the state park to play at the beach... and then rode all the way back. Our butts were sooooooo sore. 

Wednesday we drove to Cable, WI, where my childhood best friend Emily works as a naturalist at the Natural History Museum. We checked out the exhibit at the museum, then headed to a nearby pond to learn about nature up close. 

Wednesday night we spent in the Twin Cities, stopping by the Mall of America to visit the Lego Store and ride a roller coaster. Thursday morning we spent time with Darrin's best friend and his wife, then headed home. 

 Saturday our town had its local celebration. Ian was in the parade for cub scouts, and after, the kids had a blast cooling down in the pool. We had friends over for dinner later, and the kids spent their time rolling and running down the hill in our backyard.

2015 Week Twenty-Three | June 1 - June 7

This was the week of the frog. I spent Monday working on opening the pool- cleaning out the debris, getting the hoses hooked up, fixing chem levels, etc. While I was working, there was a frog climbing the side of the pool, and later I found him in the grass by the pool. I went to take replace the brackets around the edge (many were damaged in a hail storm last year), and discovered three living under there, which resulted in Darrin getting a text that HE will be changing the brackets. The next day I discovered three or four in the skimmer basket, and Darrin got another text letting him know he'll be dumping it. I just don't do frogs/toads. They jump.

The rest of the week was some normal stuff around home, a trip to the zoo with friends, and the start of vacation in Duluth.

They look cute... but then they jump. Ugh!

This was gross! 

We went with Marlena and the boys to the zoo. Forgot how much longer it takes to see things with a toddler along. There's lots of construction going on there right now, and Henry was fascinated by all the tractors. And water bottles. Even though Marlena had one along for him, he preferred to drink from Ian or Annaliese's. 

We had cherries for the first time in a long time, and Annaliese loved them. She couldn't figure out how to put it in her mouth and then spit the seed out, so she held the cherry and ate around the seed... which was messy!

We've been reading the Harry Potter series, so we had one happy boy after a stop at Game Stop. 

Annaliese got a toy the same day, a Barbie made for the water, and she got used right away when we got home,
with the first dip in the pool. 

Supper on the scenic train ride in Duluth. 

Excited for the train ride to start. 

Big Manitou Falls in Superior, WI. 

Choosing the 'fun' route to the tower at Enger Park instead of the sidewalk. 

Feeling good about themselves after making it to the top and back down. 

Programming a flight at the Duluth Children's Museum. 

Having fun at Park Point in Duluth. 

North Shore Day 5

Today (Wednesday, June 10) we left the shores of Lake Superior to begin our drive home. We spent the night in Ashland, and after breakfast at the hotel, headed south to Cable, Wisconsin. My childhood best friend, Emily, is a naturalist and educator at Cable Natural History Museum.  The kids had lots of fun exploring the Lakes Alive! exhibit (as did I), and then Emily took us to a nearby lake and handed us nets. The intent was to use them to scoop in the leaves on the edge of the lake to find animals, but they also worked just as well for capturing dragonflies to take back and feed the birds at the museum.

This is Emory, a Great Plains Rat snake.  It's one of the many animals Emily uses for teaching at the museum.  

Emily asked the kids if they wanted to hold the snake. Annaliese held her arms out and held it for 1 second. I held it much longer.  

Hanging in the bear den 

Trying to catch dragonflies at the lake. They were EVERYWHERE!

We were digging in the leaves and muck on the edge of the lake to look for animals when I spied this frog. We found lots of little dragonflies in different stages of development and snails, too.  

Emily caught the frog for us and we studied it in the pail. In the ice cube tray are the snails, dragonfly nymphs, and other tiny animals we discovered. 

After a picnic lunch at the museum, we said our goodbyes to Emily and headed towards the Twin Cities. We had to make ones stop on the way, in Hayward at West's Dairy for some homemade ice cream. I didn't get a picture of us, because I was too busy eating and enjoying my ice cream. So many flavors, all made in store- exactly what I want in an ice cream place. After a stop their, we headed to the Mall of America to visit the Lego store, Nickelodeon Universe, and grab dinner. 

Creating their own mini-figures at the Lego Store. They both left with three figures and a set. Ian got another Ninjago set and Annaliese a Disney Frozen set. The first thing they both wanted to do when we got home was put them together.  

Somewhere on there, Ian, Annaliese, and I were riding the roller coaster. A very tame one at that. So tame, in fact, that Darrin offered to hold our bags because he would only go on something that did something cool. This one went fast and had a few hills. No loops or large drops.  Ian rode by himself and said it was awesome. Annaliese clung to me and kept repeating she was scared and asking if it was over yet.  

We grabbed supper at Hard Rock Cafe. Annaliese thought it was the coolest place to eat; she loved all the music they played and danced while she ate.  Then we headed to our hotel... which took three tries to find one with an operating pool, and watched the Blackhawks for the rest of the night.  

The next morning the kids swam in the pool and then we headed to visit Matt, Darrin's best friend, and his wife Heather. Figuring, rightly, that we would be sick of eating out, Heather had made some yummy chicken enchiladas for us and we caught up with each other before driving home. That's what the best part of this vacation was to me, catching up with friends we hadn't seen in awhile. Makes me want to repeat this vacation year after year, if only for that reason. 

North Shore Day 4

We left Duluth today and headed east to the Apostle Islands in Wisconsin. When originally planning this vacation, I had hoped to charter a trip to explore the sea caves there by kayak, but we were a bit too early in the season. Instead we took the ferry to Madeline Island, rented bikes, and rode to the state park. It was the only place we had to spray on bug spray the whole trip, but the kids had fun playing in the water and collecting more rocks. Ian was able to ride the 13 miles round trip all on his own, and Annaliese, after she adjusted to being attached to Darrin's bike and got over her fear of crashing, was able to give Darrin a break and do all the pedaling for them. The bike to the park was in the shade due to cloud cover, but by our ride back to town, the sun was shining brightly. The deer were also out in force as we saw four lone deer on our ride. We didn't get to see all the beauty the islands had to offer, but it was still a fun day of vacation (and a sore one... my butt still hurts just looking at the pictures).