Fall around here

Before we get too far into winter, I better recap fall or I'll forget what happened. We are moving at light speeds lately, and I don't want to forget anything. 

It's not a true change of season unless we get over to Como Conservatory and check out the sunken gardens. This time, I told the girls maybe they should have a wedding in that beautiful place some day. I got a few sideways smiles. But it's just so pretty! 

We had our first fire of the season in our fireplace. Man do we love that thing. It's so toasty warm and everyone usually cuddles around it at some point in the day. We sure get good use out of it. 

We taught Lincoln how to ice skate, in 10 minutes flat! Honestly, that boy picked it up faster than I ever anticipated. He used a walker for a very short while before announcing he was ready to let go. Ryan took him back a few days later and he did great. Thinking Santa has some gifts in his bag for our new skater :) 

Sidney painted Lincoln's face like a tiger.
 On more than one occasion. 

Sadly, they neglected to use Crayola brand markers and he was left with streaks across his face for days. Opps. 

Regan and I ran another turkey trot on Thanksgiving Day, pretty sure this is now an annual event. It was much colder than last year, and my "snot catcher" sure came in handy!

We celebrated Grandma Jan's birthday with gifts and a trip to town to help her decorate for the holidays. 

And upon buying our own Christmas tree, we had our first visit to the big guy (who wasn't such a great big guy since his daughter was hollering "HI DADDY" from around the corner). Yikes!

Now onto the holidays! 

Halloween 2018

The week of Halloween was a bit of a whirlwind around here. Maybe it's because it was in the middle of the work week or maybe because Lincoln's birthday is smack dab in the midst of that hustle/bustle, but it feels like we hurried along to fit everything in this year. 

We managed to carve pumpkins, this year Sidney surprised us and wanted to do everything on her own. From the gut-digging to the carving, she was my little helper. 

We ventured over to a little Halloween party at a nearby vacant store, where the best thing about it was a cute picture :) Ok not entirely true, we enjoyed a horse/wagon ride and the kids played a few games. 

I got to volunteer at Sidney's class party. 

And then finally, it was time for these three to hit up the neighborhood for treats. Regan is teetering on outgrowing this annual tradition, but I was happy she decided to hang out with some friends and still enjoy the treats from their neighborhood. 

The other two and I met up with some friends and walked door to door to their hearts' content! It sure was a successful Halloween! 

Happy 5th Birthday Lincoln Ryan!

This handsome little devil turned 5 at the end of October. 

He was beyond excited for his big celebration. Like jump out of bed at the crack of dawn (wait, he does that everyday!), run down the stairs and beg to open his presents. 

Just look at that little ham of a smile :)
Oh how I love him!

A whole hand! Check out that concentration to put up 5 fingers. 

Five things I love about him: 

* his energy. He can go and go and go, and talk and talk and talk

* how he loves his family. He gives the most amazing hugs and tells us all how much he loves us. 

* he is polite. Don't you dare miss an opportunity to say "thank you" with him around. He will remind you. 

* his animal impersonations. Especially the tiger! ROARRRRR. 

* he's wicked smart. He's mastered writing his name and numbers up to 10, and most recently, told Regan she needed to turn left while we were out walking. And was correct in his directions. she looked at him in shock, joking that she still has to use her hands to show which way is left :) 

Happy 5th Birthday Lincoln Ryan! We love you :) 

Duluth October 2018

Last month we were able to spend a few days in Duluth where we ate, shopped, played and enjoyed some overdue family time. We lucked out and scored a room in Canal Park where the kids had a great time in the outdoor rooftop pool! Although air temps were chilly, it felt more like a hot tub than a pool. 

With a recent massive storm, the lakewalk was pretty torn up, but that didn't stop us from exploring every day. We climbed on rocks, did gymnastics on rocks and built with rocks. And let's not forget that Regan taught all of us how to skip rocks, she's quite the pro at it. 

Sidney spends more time upside down than she does right side up on most days. 

She is constantly with her hands on the ground. 

This photo cracks me up. While these boulders look easy to climb on, they are beyond unstable and wobbly. Regan and I were trying to capture the beauty of nature in a mother/daughter photo using my camera timer. She was set up nicely and my job was to set the camera on a rock and then run to pose next to her.....except I ended up stepping on a wobbly rock and went down quickly, flat on my back. See me laying down there below?! 

Regan took full advantage of my mishap and gave the camera a thumbs up just as the photo clicked! Thanks kiddo :) 

Although Lincoln was begging to get out to the lighthouse, when it finally came down to the walk, his legs were suddenly tired and he wanted very little to do with getting out there. It probably took at least 45 minutes to make that 2 block walk.

But he sure had fun chasing birds around along the way.

Ryan took us to one of his former stomping grounds across the border. He scored the most ridiculous sized beer for roughly $5. What?! 

We all giggled when reading the menu saying that children under 21 are allowed to drink alcohol with their parents permission. Don't get any ideas kiddos. 

After a stop at the college, and spending a crazy amount of money on new UMD clothes, we headed over to the Amsoil Arena. My cousin happens to play hockey for UMD so we showed our support cheering her on, and getting some fist bumps from the Bulldog. 

One evening I made a suggestion to check out Enger Tower at night. Shockingly something Ryan had never seen before. When we travel abroad (and even out of state, I have a thing about always finding the highest point in the city for a view). We had never seen this view at night, so it was an easy sell. 

The kiddos were hilarious running around up inside the tower (we had it all to ourselves), screaming about the boogeyman coming to get them! 

Isn't it pretty? 

I have to admit, I was a little scared to be walking around. It was dark up there. Like pitch black dark. And I have a silly mind that always thinks the worst. 

It's not always easy to convince Ryan that we should take a long weekend trip, but whenever I mention Duluth, he jumps on board faster than I can say the dates.
I'm so glad we had an opportunity to sneak away and explore Duluth once again. 

Halloween / Dia de los muertes

I’m fortunate that Sidney still wants me at her holiday parties at school. Today, despite the mountain of work piled high on my desk, I kept my promise to her (and the room parents) and made my way to school for the fall harvest party. We had a good time and I spent most of the afternoon snapping pictures and chatting with parents/teachers while helping with crafts and activities.

After school, with only her in tow, Sidney and I decided we needed a special after school snack. There’s a new restaurant in town; and this place has been packed since opening day. So packed that they literally ran out of food and had to close last weekend! Her and I dined on appetizers and strawberry lemonade while discussing the party. I mentioned to her that this may have been the last harvest party as the school is deciding whether to continue. After commenting about cost and religion as factors, we decided to look up the history of Halloween (so I may somehow help her understand the religion aspect). Pretty interesting stuff. I explained it to her by relating to the movie Coco (side note: if you haven’t seen it, go watch it. And expect tears, like crocodile tears). The movie is all about Dia de los muertos, ie: Halloween. Where if we remember those that have died, setting up a shrine on that special day, their spirit will come visit us. 

We wrapped up our day-date and headed to the evening festivities of trick or treating. 

This year, we opted to go door to door with some friends that live nearby. They took us to streets and houses I’d never been to before but right in my own neighborhood. We were having a good time, when suddenly a cute dog comes bouncing out of a house wanting to play. The owner comes dashing out after him calling: Leo! Come back here Leo!

I stopped in my tracks, smiled up to the night sky knowing I hadn’t forgotten, and neither has my dad. Love ya dad! Thanks for the visit. 

Enjoying a Minnesota Fall

We seemed to land in a massive hustle and bustle this fall. But despite all of the running, we have found time to slow down and enjoy the beautiful Minnesota fall colors. 

Regan signed up for the school cross country team again and I felt like I spent more time racing across town each week to watch her run than I did doing anything else. 

But I love watching her run, and I love seeing her shave seconds off her time each meet. 

She was all smiles coming in 3rd place and earning herself a ribbon at the second to last meet. 

I'm so proud of her for taking on cross country (and in the midst of playing ball and hours upon hours of dance lessons each week). 

We raked and raked, and raked some more.
Lincoln and Sidney set up the iPad one afternoon and created videos of them jumping into leaf piles.
Love when technology meets play time :) 

Regan cashed in on her 12th birthday gift and we went ziplining! 

Somehow we managed to reserve a weekend where the fall colors were in amazing!
It was an incredible day spent together high above the tree tops. 

Hyland ski hill offers chair lift rides to the top of the hill each fall. Another opportunity to see the Minnesota fall colors. Regan opted out of this event (apparently it's not as cool as in previous years). Lincoln adores running all the way down to the bottom, all the while I'm hoping he doesn't fall and land in geese poo. 

And fall is not complete without a stop to MN Largest Candy Store! We spend far too much money at this candy store each time we make a visit. Chocolate, suckers, pop, chips, caramel apples, you name it, we try it :) 

Happy Fall everyone!

Jay Cooke State Park

For as many times as we drove up 35W, we have never made a stop at Jay Cooke State Park. The opportunity presented itself recently and we had an afternoon to explore en route to our final destination. 

With some recent rains, the waters were moving pretty quickly, which made me panic slightly whenever Lincoln got too close to the edge. 

The beauty of the swinging footbridge is heavenly. Sadly it's tough to get a good picture because of the amount of people. I settled for a picture of Regan with the river behind her.

Sure is peaceful out there. 

These rocks were a lot of fun to climb around (plus I was very happy to see some calmer waters one one side). 

 At the top of the rocks there is a very smooth rock to lay on and perch over the river. It's scary and exciting and peaceful all at the same time! Lincoln loved perching up there, I would've been more at peace if he was in a lifejacket. 

This scene warms my heart, because as everyday life happens, they bicker and fight like two sisters do. I hope and pray that they will end up best of friends as they grow old. 

Apple orchard fun

We picked a chilly weekend day early in October and headed to an apple orchard, fall festival event. We raced around from activity to activity while trying to stay warm. Lincoln was in his glory being able to run all over the place, the kid has one speed: FAST! And he never turns off. 

They didn’t last terribly long on the jumping pillow without their shoes providing some warmth. Regan showed off  some  of her dance moves to us. I didn't catch a picture of Sidney, but she had a heck of a time just getting up onto the top...something about her slipper socks and being so scrawny she could not pull herself up. Even the staff was getting a good laugh :) 

The girls and I went apple picking, one of Sidney’s favorite things to do...it’s an apple orchard of course! It was muddy but we enjoyed finding some of the most delicious apples in the orchard! 

I do think Lincoln would've lasted much longer than the girls. He's at the prime age for these types of things, and the girls....well, they have fun for a while! 

Someone broke her Braces Code of Conduct and maybe taste tested a tiny apple just to be sure it was good ;)  

Sadly I didn't get a picture of all of us, you'll have to trust that Ryan was there too :) 

First day of school 2018

Eeek! I'm a little behind.

Regan started school a day earlier than Sidney this year. She was all smiles heading back to middle school, ready to face 7th grade with all of her friends. she seemingly enjoys school...mostly for the social aspect of it! She eagerly signed up for school sponsored cross country, adding it to her already busy schedule of dance and fall Fastpitch. 

Ready for her first day! 

Sidney got to spend that first day frolicking around the Mall of America with her bestie, enjoying rides, sweets and mirror mazes. And when it was her turn, she gave me the eye roll I had expected from Regan. 

And then this was her smile:  

It’s not that she was bothered with going to school. Nope, she was annoyed that I couldn’t tell her if she had gym class that day which impacted her clothing choice. Oh the troubles of a 4th grader!

Happy school year 2018-2019!