final vacation pics

I can't believe our vacation is so far over now! You know you wait all year and poof it's gone. Well we still have three more weekend camping trips to do ... and that is a good thought. Lucy musing the meaning of life at the mouth of the mighty Mississippi

roaring campfire

does everyone see the baby in lucy's tummy?

sweet Jacob having a banana

very excited to go fishing on the boat

driving the boat with Eric

look at that bald eagle, breathtaking.

she took boat driving very seriously

silly

Lucy, the fearless going on her first tube ride!!!

Jacob couldn't handle the excitement

last day of vacation and the little guy was spent

In other news. Lucy had her first real playdate this afternoon. She had a blast and was very mad when I came to take her home. The mom of Lucy's little girl friend got some views of what I was referring to when I said "call if you need me to come earlier". Ahhhh well Lucy got over her madness pretty quickly, ate a good dinner and had a nice bike ride.

vacation 3

I had to double up on the photos in this post. We spent one night camping at Itasca State Park. It was our second year camping with just the moms and four kids. We totally rocked the campground. First of all we had the BEST SPOT in the whole campground. Who would've known? Generally I do spend a lot of times looking at the campground map before picking our spot. I usually try to get one close to the bathroom but not right next to it (too much light). 2nd criteria is how many sites are directly around it. Somehow our site (which will remain a closely guarded secret) was perfect in every way. The evening was perfect. Nice breeze, not too cold but not hot at all, not horrible amounts of mosquitoes. Quite nice. The kids did really well. Bedtime took a little re-vamping but really the kids managed bedtime really well considering the chaos that could have erupted.

Lucy played mini-golf for the first time. As with any other organized game with rules and waiting she lasted about 30 seconds (one part of one hole).


The kids ran their way to the Mississippi Headwaters!

Group photo attempt. Jacob not having it.

Attempt 2. Surprisingly the kids were all sitting together. Our most cooperative guy was the one having issues. Well at least all four were in one shot at one time.

Itasca State Park. It's so beautiful, it's magic. Campground, playground, beach, headwaters, restaurants.... it has it all! I love this place. I love that we played in the headwaters of the Mississippi.

Jacob is missing from this photo. The kids have grown soooo much. I will have to find last years photo of them sitting together on this log.

Vacation part 2

we went to a bison farm. had a lecture, know all about how bison are not buffalo yet still i want to call them buffalo. The little lecture was actually quite informative and as interesting.

We then hopped on a short bus and the tour guide took us into the herd of bison.

Mabel the bison was about the only known bison to be conditioned (apparently bison are very stubborn and independent and unlike their bovine counterparts are not trainable or tamable. Mabel however is one of a kind and has developed a liking for the vitamin tablets that come with the tour bus. She stuck her big ole' head in the bus when he opened the door.

we stopped to have lunch at a Mexican restaurant where the kids had virgin daiquiris! Lucy liked licking the sugar rim.

Jacob enjoyed having a breakable glass.

in the morning the three big kids shared a snack of popcorn.

Vacation part one

We are back from vacation. I am soooo tired. Do not have energy for proper blog post. We had a really good time, we were both sad to leave and neither one of is looking forward to starting real life tomorrow (although only one of us had a sobbing breakdown about it and NO it wasn't me sobbing). I thought I'd write about vacation 5 photos at a time and spread out the fun. Does anyone know why blogger uploads photos backwards ugggh. Here is part of day 1 of vacation (actually we left Tuesday evening, the real vacation started Wednesday morning). Blogger being blogger and me being unwilling to move things around means that we start with Wednesday afternoon and we move into Wednesday morning as the first five photos present themselves.

Here is our Jacob. 2 years old and trying his best to do everything the big kids do.

Lucy learns to shuck corn. She was so proud of herself!

Back at the park Lucy and Nathan intently watch the bikers/skateboarders on the ramps and half pikes. They were both very excited future participants.

Peeking out the train window.

Wednesday morning all the kids helped make skinny pancakes.

OK OK one more post ...

So a couple weekends ago I left Lucy's hair down for the weekend for a break from the binders. Lucy loved it down but obviously hates having it combed out. Every morning we would wet it with our sprayer water/conditioner combo and comb it out and she would complain and I would say, "let's just put it back in braids" and she would scream NOOOOOO I like it shaky, I like it down. Finally, it was enough of the torture. I mean, I like to let Lucy have some control over her hair etc but clearly my 4 year old was making a painful choice.

so my super stellar parent tip for today revolves around how to convince a very opinionated slightly oppositional 4 year old to get her hair back in braids ... follow my conversation:

scene... sitting on her stool watching Monsters Inc. Me spraying and combing.,

MOM: "Hey Lucy, you know, I am really glad that you want to keep your hair down"
Lucy: "why?"
MOM: "because I was worried you were going to ask me to put it back in braids and THEN you would look so old, practically like an adult and well Lucy I prefer you to look like a little girl. So I am SOOOOOOOO glad that you just want to keep your hair down and get it combed out every day."
LUCY: "mom, um ... i think i want 4 braids. "
MOM: "oh no, no braids ... I want you to look little"
LUCY "YES, I want BRAIDS"
MOM" "sighs ... Fine fine fine, I'll do braids but I am only doing 4 quick braids, I am NOT going to do more, it woudl take too long and you are too little to sit that long"
LUCY: "do a lot mom. do a lot"
MOM: "fine, fine then but if someone hands you car keys you have to promise to say that you are too young to drive, I don't want people thinking you are a grown up "
LUCY: "laughts, ok mom"

ps: coco princess ... the no more tangles doesn't work well for us either (aside from getting her hair wet enough to be easier to comb through)! actually none of the premade sprays or detangling shampoos really work. do you have any products that really work? our best bet is warm water and conditioner in a sprayer bottle or having her lay in the tub with her hair out and i comb it under water.

and we are outta here ...

Well my last day of work ended with quite the bang. You know how it is when you have plans to line your ducks up in a row so you can relax when you leave on vacation, yeah. I had 7 hours in which to line up my ducks and our biggest funder went and messed my ducks all the heck up. My five little ducks went out, over the hill and far away and they didn't come back. I lined up the new ducks, and said a prayer for my old ducks and headed out the door with a smile. That smile quickly turned to tears of torture as I picked up quite possibly the most moody, most hostile, most tantrumy kid in Minneapolis from preschool. Whew Lucille was quite a doozy tonight, so much so that I am having a much needed beer now that she is in her bed all cozy and crabby. It's been awhile since we've had actual uncontrollable tantrumming but ladies and gentlemen the tantrumming was loud and in the house tonight. I will pat my own self on my own back right now (pat pat) as I believe I did a superior job in holding my stuff together while chaos ensued. I was, a good mom. I let her go. I held her. I gave her pineapple and a carrot (which really helped) and made her a good proteiny meal (also helps a lot). Post dinner things were much much calmer. Ahhhhhh. We both need a vacation. Lucy gets to go to school tomorrow so I can clean the house and pack our bags.

One more day ...

One more day of work until I go on vacation! We are heading back up to the boy's cabin for most of our vacation and also (of course) going camping at Itasca State Park where we'll swim in the headwaters of the mighty Mississippi. Bigger blog post coming soon ...

Four years ...

July 8th 2005 around 11:00 I turned in my completed dossier (in person) at the
CHSFS office in St. Paul.

July 8th 2005: 11:15 swung by my agency to pick up coworkers Risa and Mel for a celebrate my "official waiting" lunch.

July 8th 2005: 11:45, waiting for my lunch receive a phone call. "This is Karne from Children's Home, is this a good time to talk?" ... me stumbling ... me thinking "ugggh I thought I was DONE with the paperwork" her saying "girl" "six weeks" "blah blah blah blah" Me: not hungry at all any more

July 13th 2005: Took my "paper baby" to the pediatrician. She looked over everything and said "she's perfect" Pediatrician (who I adore) was not at all concerned with the congenital amputation of her right foot. I stopped at some store on the way to work and bought a Faux Burberry Jumper for my new baby girl.

sounds 'round the campfire

Camping

We went camping again this weekend. Lucy got up bright and early on Saturday morning so we made it to the campground by 9:30. Plenty of time to have lots and lots of fun in the sun, meeting and chatting up our new friends.

Betsy and Ivy form a game plan for the day.

Morgan and Mel took a tour of Minnesota before they found their way to Interstate State Park in WI. I took the kids to the naturalist event.

They became slightly engaged in the activity at hand. Of course Lucy made her own craft which was nothing like the craft the naturalist put together.

The kids were very excited when it was time to hit the beach. Lucy of course swam like a fish, shark or mermaid depending on the moment.

drying off in the warm sun

Betsy and the kids in search of twigs and sticks

Ivy smiles

Brian and Mindy joined us for a couple hours.

Lucy and Morgan driving the rock to Las Vegas

Making "hot chocolate"

Sorry "Queeny" (Gracies dad) Lucy found a new love in "Robert".

Lucy entertains

she really got into the dirt!

pretty Ivy

The best campfire entertainment

and she sleeps

the morning after, camp pack up in a rainy rush

Once again Lucy proves that she is a darn cool camper. She LOVES camping. She sleeps good in the tent, is fairly content playing with dirt/water/sticks and stones and eats like a maniac in the fresh outdoors.