Up North...

This past weekend we drove up to Northern Minnesotaear the Boundary Waters, Canada for a long weekend with our great friends/next door neighbors!  We made it to Duluth on Friday afternoon and walked along the pier on Lake Superior.  It was a wet and cool evening.  We enjoyed dinner at the infamous Grandma's. 

On Saturday, we had a true road trip up to Ely, Minnesota.  Along the way, we stopped at Two Harbors and watched the loading docks for the iron, an old lighthouse and train museum.  We skipped rocks into Lake Superior and the weather was clearing up, although still a bit chilly!  Evan LOVED the trains and cried hysterically when we left.  Good thing we will see Thomas in September! 

Next stop was Gooseberry Falls, a beautiful Minnesota landmark.  It's a state park with gorgeous waterfalls and hiking paths.  The gift shop/musuem had full size coyote and other creatures that Evan loved. 

After lunch, we headed up to Split Rock Lighthouse.  The light house was built after nine lives were lost during a terrible storm in 1905 when a ship carrying iron ore was destroyed in severe conditions---November, 30 degrees below, 60 mph winds in Lake Superior!  29 ships were destroyed during the storm.

Late afternoon we arrived in Ely at our cabin!  We had a great time with the campfire, fishing (or trying to fish), playing games and cruising on the lake in the pontoon boat.  The weather got better as teh weekend progressed and we came home to 80+ degrees in Austin!!  On the way home, we stopped at an iron mine in Viriginia, MN to show Evan the gigantic dump trucks used in the mines.  He was mesmerized and so were we!!. 

Random...

We've done so much in the last few weeks!  Here's a collage of our activities!!

Evan and our new neighbor Anna!

I caught a big one!!  Fishing at the pool!

Something looks very familiar....

Evan's 1st field trip to Skinner's Hill Park

Besides Happy Meals for lunch, riding the bus was his favorite!  He still asks when he gets to ride the bus again.  We count all the buses everyday!

Evan's 2 girlfriends from day care and two buddies!  The little one on the left is the boy he bit for a week when the boy first came to Evan's class!  The girls are all he talks about! 

Both girls will have little sisters too this fall!!!

One of the few hot hot days we've had this summer!!

 Daddy's low country crawfish boil! 

It was a great time and all the Minnesotan's loved it ...well most of them!!

Just being silly!!!

Watching the big boys climb the tree!  Hanging out with Daddy!!!

Cupcakes I made for our kickball game!  Our team is the Pig Pen...go figure!

But hey, we are headed to the playoffs!!!

Given our unseasonable summer, we decided to be funny by dressing up for winter before heading over to the Drennan's for pizza this weekend.  It was cool enough for jeans and longsleeves....

The kids just hanging out.

Ryley and Avari decided to play hair dresser!  Evan was smart to leave the chaos and brought us the scissors before the girls got to them...but it didn't stop them from
"shampooing" their hair with suntan lotion! YUK!!  It was quite funny!! 

 (maybe b/c it wasn't my child....this time!) 

Evan insisted on putting his snow boots, scarf, mittens and hat back on before we left Drennan's house.  The 3.5 minute car ride was plenty to put this monkey to bed!

Evan's 1st Campout!

I wrote this post the day after we came home from our campout; however, time flew by and I am now uploading it with photos too! 

Two weeks ago, we took Evan on a much awaited campout.  The country club does an annual campout every year and we decided to try it this year--definitely not rustic, but it was great for Evan.

Besides the autumn like weather (high of 62 and low of 49) it was a memorable trip.  The weather broke records being the lowest high.  Makes you rethink global warming...at least here!

Evan has been doing great with potty training at school and I received a phone call from him on Thursday while at work.  My heart drops anytime I see his child care number pop up.  However, Miss Julie said Evan had something to tell me....he was so happy for going "Beep Beep" (aka #2) on the potty he asked to call mommy at work!  I was excited and teared up!!  Everyone at work laughed but understood and it brought back memories of their kids!  In celebration of his accomplishment, while Daddy was travelling we did a little shopping!  Evan got a Lightning McQueen/Mater sleeping bag for his big camping trip.  I realized how important it meant to him, because anytime he began to act up, I threatened to take it back and he quickly behaved! Oh, the power (for now...)

So, we arrived around 5:30 to set up camp and Evan had a blast watching Garry & Alex put the tent together.  The club grilled out, had lots of games and golf carts to ride.  Then we sat around the bonfire, roasted marshmallows for smores and listened to some live campfire music.  Evan stayed up til about 10:30 and I left the boys to sleep at home.  I worried all night if they'd make it through the night and if I'd need to pick them up (poor planning we didn't leave a car at the club).  Too my surprise, no phone calls!!!  I met them for breakfast at 7am and arrived as they were just waking up!! If only Evan would sleep in like that at home like the old days!! 

It was a blast and knowing how well he did, I think we'll be investing in a tent of our own and other necessities!!

Zootopia!

Last Saturday, we met our friends, the Tobaks (Jeff, Beth, Sydney & Addison) at the Como Zoo in St. Paul.  They flew in from San Francisco yesterday and we drove up for a visit.  Evan has been excited to see the animals all week and is was amazing the difference from our visit last summer.  He was mesmerized by every animal.  I'm waiting for a new camera, but this photos will have to do!!!

(Addi, Syd & Evan)

It was great to see the Tobaks even if only for a short time!  We miss them dearly!!  The kids call me "Tizzy," a nickname coined when we lived in Pittsburgh.  Sydney was on cloud 9 when I gave her her twirling dress!  A turquoise/white polka dot dress that I made.  Addi received a matching one!  I'm so excited to have a little girl because the looks on their faces when they get a new dress is priceless!!

4th of July!!

Happy Birthday America!

We had a nice weekend and I spent all day Friday creating my annual Cheeseburger Cupcakes!  They were a hit on Saturday, although while entertaining friends, supervising toddlers and being pregnant, I completely forgot to take a picture of them!  We had planned to take Evan to the Spamtown Freedom Fest on Friday, but the weather was ugly so we prepared for our cookout on Saturday. 

One of the nice parts about living away from family is care packages!! My mom sent us a care package full of 4th of July decorations last year, so we were hosted the party this year!  I made dresses for the girls (instead of cleaning while nesting...I sew dresses, curtains, etc!)  The girls were precious in their dresses, even if they jumped into the pool with them (again, missed the photo op!) But picture two 3 year olds anxious to swim!!

The 4th of July has always been one of my favorite holidays---summer cookouts, fireworks, etc!  Before the cookout, we headed to the parade and had a great time.  Evan loves the parade and especially the big trucks, tractors and fire engines that stroll down!  We didn't get much candy this year, but still had a blast!  Everyone came over in the afternoon and we had tons of food! Alex manned his new grill with hot dogs, brats and burgers!!  We missed the southern sunshine and humidity but still enjoyed watching the kids play in the pool and sprinkler! 

Every year the city puts on a firework show and we can actually see them from our cul-de-sac (sort of like the daily Epcot firework show we had when we lived in Orlando!)  We were so excited to share the spectucular with Evan, but he decided to go to bed at 6pm!  I figured I'd let him sleep and then get him up around 9:30 for the fireworks but, about an hour later I checked on him and he was just staring into space so I sat next to him and he was on fire!  His fever was high but no other symptoms.  I suspected he was dehydrated and worn out from teh day, and he just wanted to lay on our bed and watch Cars.   Fireworks started and he perked up slightly.  We went outside to watch them and after 10 minutes he said "Fireworks all done, Mommy, want Cars inside!" So, we missed the rest of the show plus the fireworks every brought.  Oh, well!  We took him to the doctor for peace of mind, and they found nothing wrong.  Earlier this week I noticed his molars are popping up on the bottom right, so must be teething, AGAIN!

Thanks everyone for a great time and see you next year!!

BABY UPDATE!!!

Tuesday was my 24 week check up.  Everything looks great and we scheduled the c-section!

On Monday, October 26th our baby girl will arrive (unless sooner on her own!) We haven't decided on names yet and should make a decision soon (I hope!)  I'm feeling good with the exception of a lot of back pain...but nothing weekly massages can't fix, right?! 

The next appointment is the dreaded glucose test, which I failed with Evan...so we hope that I pass this time around!  If not, no big deal, I just detest the drink you have to ingest!!  Nothing I can control anyway!!

Hope ya'll had a great 4th