Labor Day weekend-2014

Labor day weekend we did a little "lake living" again; it's been about 8 or 9 years that we have held this tradition. And it's probably our favorite weekend of the year; not one of us can tell you our most favorite part....because I think all of it is our favorite part. Each minute of each day, we have a great time just hanging out in/around the water. 

This year again we went with my parents, Uncles Ben and Jon, my cousin and her family with 2 young girls and my aunt/uncle to Idlewilde Resort on Lake Osakis. Nothing glamorous, in fact, it's anything but. However, it's less than a 2 hour drive and provides some great entertainment. 

The cabins are set just up the hill from the lake. The docks are wobbly (though several have been replaced) and walking on them gives everyone the heebie jeebies. The kiddos love spending hours on them :) 

And as long as my cousin's husband-Shane or grandma Jan are around, the kids ask to fish.
And fish. 

And fish. 

Off those not-so-glamorous docks. 

Sid was a great fisher-gal, catching a great keeper sunny right off the bat! She squealed and realed and brought in that sunfish for Shane to un-hook (lucky guy!).

There are some amazing sunsets and sunrises off the lake. Thankfully we didn't see any sunrises....which means the kids slept beyond the sunrise each morning!

Tried as I might to make it 3 days without bathing him, I just couldn't do it. And so, little Lincoln had a bath right in the kitchen sink one night. Something my mom used to do with me, and really our only option in this particular cabin (the first night I noticed a nice large mushroom growing in our walk in shower so the girls now call it the "mushroom shower"; not to mention it was much too small for me to hold him while showering). 

The girls scored the biggest Mr. Freeze we had ever seen at the local gas station.
Seriously it was 1/3 of the size of Sidney's height! And wouldn't you know it, she ate the whole darn thing.
I didn't even get one bite.

Lincoln seemed to be very at home the entire weekend. He happily slept most of the car ride there and partially back (not like that middle sister who whined "I'm hungry" "I'm tired" "I gotta pee" "I'm bored" for two full hours). He ate great, trying new foods and eating a lot of table food. He napped wonderfully in the cabin, and we were mighty thankful for that (thanks to a big box fan to drown out any noise) and he played all day outside with the rest of us. 

 He sat on the golf blanket, surrounded by toys and eager to pet my cousin's puppy when he came around. It was lazy days at it's finest as we watched the world around us and soaked in some fun belly laughs.

And he waved at each and every boat one afternoon.
Each. And. Every.

They'd cruise along past and he would wave and wave and wave. Sadly a ride in the boat for him means a really uncomfortable life jacket, so he was much happier just waving as they drove past.

Not the same story for these cuties. They delighted in the fact that Grandma Jan found an awesome deal on a 4 person tube at the end of summer. Thankfully both Grandpas let us use their boats for some rides around the lake throughout the weekend.

SCORE! 

We could hear them from shore screaming "faster!" as the boat went back and forth for 30 minutes at a time. They loved it!

I'm thinking Lincoln was ready for his own ride on a tube....ready to crawl off that blanket :) 

He hasn't quite got the movement part of it down, but he is "moving" so to speak. One lunch, he and I shared the blanket for mealtime. I kept him a few feet away so he wouldn't steal my plate and dump it. By the end of the meal, he had scooted himself all the way over to me and was resting his hands on my lap. So although he's not crawling, he sure is moving. 

It's no tube ride, but the giggles are just the same. And flying through the air with daddy is a lot of fun when you're 10 months old.

The kids know of a park nearby and so we took a couple of walking trips there to get away from the resort for a bit. Regan is strong enough to go around these circle dealio's with ease...ok, maybe not ease, but she has the strength and determination to accomplish them. 

And in Sidney fashion, she was pouting about something during my attempt at a picture. I think she was mad that I let them all come up on "her" rock so I could snap a picture. Oh the things she will need to learn in Kindergarten this week. 

Camp fires each  night are just one of the many loves of the weekend. Who doesn't love sitting around a fire, eating s'mores and making memories? The girls grabbed up some glow sticks, glow wands, glow poop (yes, Regan had glow poop) and had some good giggles around the fire. 

And on our final night, while Sidney whined and complained about her tooth hurting (add that to the list of things she whined about...oh so tired little girl), her Uncle Jon offered to pull that wiggly wiggly tooth. And she let him! One little tug and out it came!! Boy oh boy was she excited the next morning to see that the tooth fairy had found her at the lake; she was mighty worried that the fairy wouldn't know where she was. And after looking under her pillow and finding a handwritten card and $5 she announced "I love the tooth fairy!". (note: her adult tooth happened to be growing in behind the baby tooth so we were pleased as punch to learn she wouldn't need it pulled by the dentist; only Dentist Jon! She, however, exclaimed "my big tooth didn't move up like you said" immediately after the tooth came out. Here she thought that the adult tooth was going to instantly move into place; oh how we wish!)

Lincoln seemed to be smiling no matter what we were doing, including packing up to leave for home. Even in the midst of a power outage at 9:30pm when we were putting the kids to bed, he smiled and went with the flow. It was pitch black in the cabin! Like dark as dark. And he never made a peep. Someone sarcastically mentioned during our vacation "don't you wish you had a happier baby; geez, he's so grumpy and crabby all the time", because he is anything but. He might just be the happiest baby on the planet! 

Seeing Uncles Ben and Jon are always a lot of fun. They fished their hearts out in the early morning hours and caught many o fish this time around; making a trip from DC well worth their while! Oh, and they get to see their sweet nieces and nephew too :) 

Regan and Sidney had to share a bed for the weekend; something we completely discourage on any other trip. But at the lake, they are outside from morning til night and totally on the move. So night time rolls around, and they crash...hard. Normally Regan will read for 30-60 minutes each  night, but not here. She was simply too tired to keep her eyes open. 

I chuckled one night as I went in to check on them and noticed Regan sprawled out over Sidney who had a very small fraction of the bed. 

They are so adorable, quietly sleeping all snuggled together. 

Whenever I couldn't locate Regan, I would immediately look on the dock, and she was usually there. Fishing. That girl loves it like no other! Ryan smiled and said he wished he wouldn't have stopped fishing because now, having so many years without it, he wants nothing to do with it. He's bored sitting on the dock, he's grossed out putting on minnows/worms and he certainly doesn't want to unhook anything! Kuddos to Regan for loving it so much, and for having the patience to sit and take in the beauty of it all. 

She's convinced Grandma Jan that she can handle a bigger fishing pole, so I would have to imagine that I know one Christmas present that Regan will be getting :) And she is so ready for a big kid fishing pole!

A huge THANK YOU to Grandma Jan and Papa for yet another wonderful Labor day weekend at the lake. 

Until next year.....

10 months old

I can't quite come to grips with how quickly this past year has gone. Lincoln is 10 months old and just getting better by the second. He's not listening to my pleas to stay little forever, and so, I will just savor every minute of every day while we watching him grow. We are so thankful to have such a healthy, happy, smiley little guy in addition to our rambunctious little girls. It's the perfect blend of drama :)

In a nutshell: he's easy. And we have experience to prove that; as we had 2 (one especially), not so easy babies. But even when Lincoln has a rough spell, which he has had plenty, he's still easy. We can tell when something is wrong with him because he's not his usual happy, smiley, mellow little self. He gets cranky, nothing seems to please him and he can't be calmed. Thank goodness these bouts are far and few between and typically only happen when he's not feeling well or teething.

We continue to nurse, something I never really imagined I would still be doing. The funny thing is, with baby #3, I had no expectations. Like zero. People would ask us questions about nursery furniture, baby gear, how we planned to manage with 3, etc. And we didn't have any answers. It's not that we hadn't thought about it, but we knew better than to make unattainable expectations. Keep in mind, our experience with Sidney was still fresh in our minds, 5 years later! We were having a baby; all bets were off. And the same went for nursing. Instead of wondering "how am I going to nurse a baby when Regan has _____ (insert activity), we just rolled with it. In the beginning, an awesome friend reminded me "it takes a village to raise these kids", and without extended family around, our friends became our village. She picked up Regan each week and brought her to dance, giving me the ability to nurse in private. As we got into a rhythm, I became more comfortable and with the use of a cover-up, we became more mobile. And let's remember, he's easy! And so, when I needed to nurse him in the locker room during swimming lessons, or at a family room at Valleyfair, he rolled with it. And when I nursed him weekly in the car at softball games, he went with it. Heck, I had to go so far once as to face a corner of a dark restaurant and feed him! Never in a million years thought I'd be doing that. In other words, I didn't have any expectations about breastfeeding. Zero. People would ask "how long do you think you'll nurse him?". And I still don't have an answer (except to say I won't be one of those who whips up her shirt at the park to feed her toddler). But if he stops tomorrow, that's up to him.

Some other facts about our growing 10 month old:
* He naps 1-2 hours in both the AM and PM, then takes a shorter 1 hour nap around dinner time (this is both convenient and not so convenient).
* He sleeps overnight well until about 6:30/7am.
* We still use the soothie green pacifiers. His choice. We've tried others and this is his preference.
* Since getting tubes in his ears, he talks so much more. Most of his babbling happens when everyone else is quiet, and in this house, that happens around 8pm when the girls go to bed. I love to hear him talk, his most common babble goes something like "ee ya ya ya ya ya". Which I heard a girl at daycare doing so I'm pretty sure that's where he picked it up.
* He sticks his tongue out....a lot. Not sure where that is coming from, but it's darn adorable :)
* He loves balls. Loves. Loves. Loves. Playing catch (using his left hand to throw) for hours each day.
* His favorite book is Baby Boo! And he giggles and laughs throughout the book, especially when we get to the page that says "BOO!". Over and over and over we read this book.
* Still doesn't move much. He rocks back and forth when on all 4's and will left up his hand to play with toys so I know it's coming soon. Been working hard at having him bend while standing to pick up a toy. He's accustomed to having a big sister just hand him whatever he wants, so learning to do these things actually takes practice (and patience).
* wears size 12 month clothes and still in Pampers Cruisers size 3
* Eating more and more table food, preferring that over baby food at times and the other way at other times. We went out to eat last night and had to apologize for the floor beneath him....it was a disaster! Pretty sure more went on the floor than his mouth. And 2 nights ago, we had tacos at home and I gave him shredded cheese, because the softie in me knows how much he loves cheese. My mom used a vacuum to clean up the mess, we had cheese EVERYWHERE!
* Weighs roughly 23 lbs  Height ? Almost 30 inches

Happy 10 months buddy! Love you always!

6th friend party for Sid

Our adorable middle child wants to do everything her big sister can do. 

And that includes birthdays. 

In anticipation of her birthday in early September, Sidney was begging for a "friend" party. Regan started getting "friend" parties at age 6, so Sidney thought she deserved one too. And had plans to do it at Pump It Up....until her awesome parents decided that paying for a party for 15 kids at the start of kindergarten when she won't know ANY kids in her class, just wasn't a good idea. And so, we opted for a pool party with her current High-5 class friends. 

Once I got her to buy into the idea of a pool party, and forget about going to Pump It Up, she jumped right on board. We couldn't have asked for better weather...90 and humid. PERFECT pool weather!

We got a fun idea to let the kids decorate their own cupcakes instead of doing a cake. And it was like a craft idea with a snack and cake all rolled into one!

Unfortunately, 2 of her good friends weren't able to make it as they fell ill on the weekend of the party :( Darn summer illnesses! But these guys had so much fun and everyone played so nicely together. It really was a great afternoon. 

Sid picked out a Frozen pinata and each kiddo took a whack at it before big brother Tyler knocked it down and we ended up just dumping it out.

The little kids were so polite and nice as they shared their loot of candy, making sure everyone got the same amount. 

And what's a birthday party without your 3 bestest friends: 

Madilyn, Sidney and Natalie

They're like the 3 musketeers these girls.
Sidney handed out 2 little BFF necklaces and they all wore them proudly after the party had ended and the other guests had left. 

So glad we are able to keep seeing each other as the girls each head to different schools this fall, they'll join up weekly for dance class. 

And they are so. stinkin'. excited. 

Happy Birthday party weekend sweet Sidney!

Timber

Evidently he's stronger than we thought! 

(he's watching the scoreboard light up and can't seem to get close enough!)

The Little Mermaid

This past winter, the girls and I came across these Mermaid tails online. And they just HAD to have them! They arrived at Christmas and had to wait all winter long before trying them out. In all reality, it was good to wait, because Regan perfected her 'dolphin kick' in the meantime. 

She has spent the summer in this tail; she loves it! And it's so fun to watch her swim around, looking just like a mermaid! I'll have to catch a video of her, too bad I don't have an underwater case for my camera :) 

Happy 6th Birthday (party) Sidney

In an effort to double a birthday party with a pool party, we started celebrating Sidney's birthday a few weeks early each year. So last weekend, we bought Lalaloopsy everything and had a whooping fun party for this soon-to-be 6 year old! 

She adored this sweet cake and I have to say, I was quite impressed myself. We took an idea from Pinterest and talked to a baker who whipped up this fun creation, complete with some Lalaloopsy dolls, carefully placed by Sidney herself :) 

 It was a cloudy day but the kiddos didn't seem to mind swimming without sunshine. Ashley got off the hook of having to go into the water too. With Regan around, there was no way that Harlow was going to drown. Regan doesn't let her out of her sight for even one second! 

Sid had a great time swimming, coming out for a snack, swimming, coming out to open presents, swimming, coming out for dinner, and swimming some more before begging to cut into that adorable cake. 

We neglected to get a traditional birthday party family photo, so this one of me and the birthday girl will have to do. I promise to try getting one on her actual birthday. For now, we'll savor every second we have with our 5 year old, because she's growing up just too darn fast! 

Great MN get together!

As per tradition, we headed over to the MN State Fair on day #2 of the fair. The sun stayed hidden behind the clouds, and we were very thankful for that. The curls in Sidney's hair was proof of the humidity, and the sun would have done us all in. But with the clouds as protection, we were able to have a delightful time. 

Sid won 2 free tickets from a drawing at the public library and if it wasn't for her, we would have forgotten those 2 tickets hanging on the fridge back at home. Thankfully we were only blocks from home when she said "did we bring my tickets?". Opps. Good catch sweet girl. 

Once we were inside, we ate to our hearts content and let the girls try out some new activities (new to them anyway). We decided to skip the 3 hours at the kidway and only did a few rides there. So this year, it was Ye Old Mill and the Tubo Jumper instead. 

Our daredevil Regan requested this ride at the Midway. She's nuts and we told her she could go, but would be riding alone because neither Ryan nor I were willing to go on with her! 

She went. Alone. No problems. Although admitted while standing in line that she was feeling a wee bit nervous. 

Awww, a selfie at the State Fair

He wasn't so sure about those piggy ears, or that big giant pig but he loved seeing the horses and lambs and really got excited when he heard a loud "BAAAAA"!

On a much needed rest break, Sidney got Lincoln cracking up as she played a quick game of Peek A BOO! 

He's so easy to please that baby of ours. 

And then it was time for round 2 of the Giant Slide, and it was 

Biggest kid...

Followed by middle kid....

And lastly grumpy kid....

Just kidding, although he looks grumpy, he was not at all upset. 

I stood up at the end and his legs were kicking away in excitement! 

Thanks Grandma Sheri and Grandpa Arnie for a fun filled MN State Fair day!

10 years and many more to come

This past week, we celebrated 10 years. 

TEN! 

Who would have imagined in 10 years we: bought a house, traveled to Europe seeing 4 countries in 10 days in a trip of a lifetime, had a beautiful baby girl, traveled twice to DC and once to TN, had a second beautiful baby girl, traveled twice more to DC, sold a house, bought another, traveled twice to CA and had an adorable baby boy! 

Oh we looked so young in 2004. 

And so excited for what the future held for us. 

My sweetie did some research and discovered that the traditional gift for a 10 year anniversary is tin/aluminum. So he did some more research and found a beautiful bouquet of flowers, you guessed it, made from tin. They are adorable. And I think I am most in love with how much effort he put into my gift. He could have taken the easy route and ran up the street for some flowers, or over to the jewelry counter. But instead, he thought about tradition weeks in advance and had them ready to go for me as I was in my jammies, the morning of our anniversary.
Thanks love! 

And thanks to Leigha for babysitting, we were able to sneak away for a quick date last weekend to a new brewery downtown for some yummy food and beer (well, Ryan claims the beer is good. This breastfeeding mama is still waiting). It was here that we chatted about the last 10 years, and laid out plans for the next 10 years, including our hopes, dreams and vacation destinations. 

Happy Anniversary! 

Oh and just to note so we can look back: on our actual anniversary, I took the kids to the Mall of America for rides, fed Lincoln in the corner of an eatery while the girls snacked on funnel cake, and then later met up with Ryan at Regan's softball practice. The joys of 10 years of marriage!