family vacay, day 3

Today was a cold day in Duluth. High of 43 degrees. Extremely windy and cold! Yuck! Definitely not a day to spend outdoors. So we took the kids to the Great Lakes Aquarium. They had a great time there!














































We also spent a lot of time in the pool. The kids graduated from swimming in their lifejackets to their arm floaties. They claim tomorrow "I'm swimming all by myself, no one helping" By themselves they mean with their arm floaties and mom and dad not helping!




























Proof of what the weather looked like today, this is from the skyline drive.














Tonight we ate dinner at the "Top of the Harbor" restaurant at the Radisson hotel, the entire restaurant revolves so you get a fabulous view of Duluth. It's a pretty fancy place and our waiter was quite the db. We decided he hates kids. He was quite rude to the kids sitting at the table next to us as well. And they were older than our kids. But the food was good and the kids enjoyed the view and the chocolate cake for dessert. We even got them Shirley Temples to drink! Kevin and I were going to share the chocolate cake and the kids attacked it before we even got a fork to it, eat of us got a bite, maybe two!

But it was fun nonetheless.


















Tomorrow we have to pack up and head home. I'm kind of sad to have to go home already, not looking forward to all the laundry. The good thing is, my dryer that quit working on Friday, is now fixed and I won't have to go to the laundromat when I get home!

family vacay, day 2

We had another fabulous day today. We started the morning out by enjoying the hotel's complimentary continental breakfast which includes make your own Belgium waffles. They are super tasty!

After breakfast we headed back to our room to get our swimsuits on for a quick swim before we headed out for the day. Around 10:30 we headed out for the day. We were headed for Gooseberry Falls state park, when we just got on the freeway and spotted a boat coming into the harbor. So we got off the freeway and turned around back towards Canal Park to watch the ship come in. The kids are very impressed with the size of the boats up here!

After watching the ship come in, we continued northwards. Our first stop was our favorite little cafe along the North Shore...Rustic Inn Cafe in Castle Danger, just a little ways north of Two Harbors, near Grand Superior Lodge.






After lunch we headed to Gooseberry Falls state park to check out the "waterfaults" that Amelia has been begging her daddy to take her to for the last three months. She was very impressed and would have to sit down and watch them for a little while whenever she came upon a spot with a bench or a good view. She's quite the little nature girl!





Addie's first visit to Gooseberry Falls. She slept the entire time we were there!

But Amelia is sure Adeline loved it just as much as she did!
















This is how we keep Paul contained and out of the water...the baby backpack! What a fabulous invention!! We bought it for Amelia when she was Paul's age, the last time we brought the kids up here. He thinks it's a pretty cool place to ride and Mom and Dad like it because they always know where he is!







Amelia sitting an enjoying a view of the waterfall. The moment was too precious to not snap a picture of her. She was sitting there so nice, eating her gourmet sucker that she talked her dad into at the Cafe.

When we left Gooseberry, we ventured to Split Rock Lighthouse, it's typically closed for tours when were up here, so it was fun to be able to do the tour this time. After Split Rock it was time to head back for Duluth.

We went to Old Chicago for dinner, we just ordered a few appetizers to split between the four of us, instead of ordering four meals, and it worked out great, we had a little of everything and Paul ate cucumbers and ranch dressing for his dinner. We didn't argue, at least he was eating and it was something healthy! And he managed to polish off 2 slices of their "big cookie" He knows what's good!

The temps today ranged between 68-80 degrees, depending on where we were. It was fabulous weather all day long. When we watched the news tonight the high tomorrow is suppose to be 45 degrees and then 70 on Wednesday...of course the day we go home! However, we feel extremely blessed with the fabulous weather we have had the last two days.



The perfect end to the perfect day...s'mores. When we went outside to do the s'mores that our hotel does every night it was around 9:30 pm and it was still 68 degrees out. A few sprinkles, but nothing serious!





It's time for me to head to bed, rest of the fam is finally sleeping, mom needs to head there too!

Chasing Seagulls...

Yesterday we found that Paul's favorite thing to do was to chase the seagulls...

Here is a video...


Also, the kid is absolutely fearless of the water...



Today we're headed for Gooseberry Falls, so far it's gorgeous outside, a little cool right now, but the sun is shining! Kevin and the big kids are in the pool, Addie and I are headed there after she eats!

family vacay, day 1

We had our first day up in Duluth. We left our house around 8:10 this morning, and arrived here at 11:30. The kids did great on the ride up. Paul slept a good majority of the time and Addie slept the entire drive up!

We met up with Matt and Kelly for lunch at Grandma's, they were up this way to celebrate their anniversary over the weekend. They were headed home today and since we were going to cross paths, we decided to meet up with them for lunch. It was nice to see them.

It was an absolutely perfect day today. The weather was wonderful! Tomorrow it's suppose to be around 70 degrees again, but possible thunderstorms. I hope they are wrong, about the rain that is!



After lunch we walked around canal park for about an hour and a half, then decided to see if we could get into our hotel room. Once we got checked into the hotel, we unpacked and set up "house" for the next three nights. Then we ventured outside again to watch a boat come in. Also, I got some good shots of Amelia for her four year old pics. I'll keep y'all in suspense until we get home!


As witnessed by the Mother's Day pics posted last week...it is still impossible to get a good picture of the three kids!! Also Addie had her first stroller ride today without her infant seat, she seemed to enjoy it, though she did sleep most of the time.








Here is Kevin and the kids watching the big ore boat come in this afternoon. It's departing around midnight tonight, everyone is passed out but me, needless to say, we'll miss it's departure.






Adeline's first time going swimming. I don't think this swimsuit is going to fit all summer!! She really seemed to enjoy swimming!


The girls laying in the "girl bed" tongiht!
That's all for tonight! Just a few pictures and a sneak peek at our day! I'm off to bed. I'm sure it'll be another busy day!

Best Mother's Day...

I had a fabulous Mother's Day! That carrier that Addie is in, is my Mother's Day present! And this picture pretty much sums up my life=crazy!!

We started out our day by going to Mass this morning, came home changed our clothes and headed for the cities. Kevin and the kids took me to Noodles and Company for lunch, we wanted to grab something quick to eat before we went to the MN Zoo. The weather was kind of cool, but we still had a TON of fun at the zoo anyway.

We purchased a zoo membership, since we figured this year we'll be going to the zoo a few times because the kids are really into animals this year. The amount they charge to get in versus what they charge for a membership isn't that huge of a difference when you're paying for three people to get in (2 and under are free) plus parking, we figured even if we only go twice the membership is the way to go. It's good for a whole year. Another nice thing is we get into zoos across the US for free or half price, so next week when we go to Duluth, we can get into the Lake Superior Zoo for 1/2 price! Also when we go visit my mom we can get in free at the Chahinkapa Zoo in Wahpeton, ND, which isn't terribly far from my moms place, we use to go there all the time for Girl Scouts when I was younger.

There are some neat things coming to the zoo this year, now I can't wait to go back. The Africa exhibit starts May 23-September 7 and they'll be bringing the giraffes back. Amelia was just a little over one the last time they had the giraffes there And there is a new play place thing opening up for kids called Woodland Adventure and that opens in July.

The kids had an absolute blast. Adeline slept most of the time, only waking up to eat. And I'm thinking they are going to sleep extremely well tonight after all the fresh air and not having naps today! We asked the kids what their favorite part of the zoo was and they both said the baby pigs! One of the baby pigs is going to be the new mascot for the St Paul Saints.

After the zoo, we went to Coldstone because we promised the kids ice cream at the zoo, and the ice cream place at the Farm was closed, so we decided to wait until after we left the zoo. That was the first time the kids had been to Coldstone and they were pretty impressed with all the mix-ins. We picked their ice cream flavor for them based on their topping choice, because at first they were picking their ice cream by color! Something about M&M's in cotton candy (blue) ice cream doesn't sound so good! So they both had cookie dough batter with M&M's.

For dinner we went to Chili's with Mary and Ron and it was very nice!

A Few Reasons I love being a mom...
-Amelia, Paul and Adeline
-Amelia and Paul's laughter
-Adeline's toothless grin!
-Hearing the word Mom/Mommy and know they are talking about ME!
-When all the kids crawl in our bed for a morning snuggle...even when I'm dead tired!
-Being the comforter when there are bad dreams or scary noises
-Watching them explore the world around them


Here is a video of the kids feeding the goats...turn your sound on! :)

I've been trying and trying to get this video downloaded too with blogger, but it took too long, so I tried something different! Enjoy!

I hope all moms out there had a wonderful Mother's Day!

10 weeks!

Sorry that the video is sideways, I just love the cute little noises she's making now!

Back on the Saddle...

2+ months postpartum I'm back at the weight loss game. To follow my journey, visit my weight loss blog! Also there is a link on the right hand side to continue to check back! I'm going to try and update this daily, at least until I go back to work! Wish me luck!

I'm also finally updated my cooking/recipe blog too! Check it out for new ideas!

Here are some new pics of the kids!