papa's birthday

More old news, but that is what happens when you get busy. I have found blogging harder these last weeks as I am enjoying summer and trying to plug into my computer less and my family more. I will have to find a good balance because I do enjoy recording our life here. And here is one milestone: Papa's 35!! Charotte is saying "mama where's the spoon?" after she was done licking all the chocolate off.

split adventures

Well, I admit to using old news here, but just had to share about Charlotte and Papa's first father daughter camping trip. They had a great time-fishing, sleeping under the stars, attending a baseball game and a shootout in Southpass city. Big time. I forsee more outings in the near future.




Timothy, Erica and I went to spend the night in Dubois at a cabin outdside of town. We enjoyed a nice relaxing dinner, hike, window shopping, and petting the horses.

road trip

We had a great trip to Minnesota. It was one of those trips where everything seemed to go right. We headed out Thursday, July 2nd at 4:45pm-destination Avon, Minnesota.
Reid and I drove through the night while the kiddos slept. It went pretty smoothly-they woke up a few times whenever we stopped, but returned to sleep without too much trouble. Reid ended up doing most of the driving. We made it to the Minnesota border around daylight. After a nice break for kids and nap for Papa we headed toward Avon, and discovered a town called New Ulm with the second oldest family owned brewery in the U.S.-it just happened to be named Schells Brewery. We knew this town was our destination for the evening-it seemed too perfect-no? After some lunch and playing peek-a-boo in the park we headed out to find our spot for the evening.
The camp ground at the state park was full, but we found out we could camp in the fairgrounds for 10 bucks. We were the only folks there, and it was a beautifully shaded park-another nap for kids and Papa and then off to the brewery-to view the gardens, the peacocks, and buy some German sausage and Schells beer for dinner.




In the morning after some yummy biscuits for breakfast, we headed just a couple hours down the road to Avon-town of 1,000. Expecting 2,000 for the free 35th year celebration of a Prairie Home Companion (they ended up hosting 10,000 people). The outdoor field opened at 1pm-we were there at 12, waiting with lots of other folks.



We had an hour to scope out the perfect spot, and we ended up staying right where we were in the shade of the trees rather than fight through the rush of people to claim a spot in the sun-I think this was our best decision of the weekend. 7 hours in the sun with 2 small kids, one sick at this point sounds like disaster. Well, disaster averted.

We had lots of fun and made some great Minnesota friends-who we spent several hours in close proximity too. Charlotte, although feverish for 2 days seemed to be fine when her fever was down (thanks to motrin)-never fear grandparents that your grandchild was suffering on this vacation. She got treated to ice cream and Beebopareebop Rhubarb Pie, as well as way too many cookies from sweet little 2 year-old Sophie next to us. Timothy enjoyed viewing the show from the chair and danced to his little hearts content. After a night in a hotel recovering and cleaning up-we headed out on the road again. On this day we took a long break at the Sioux Falls Zoo-where Charlotte and Mama got to ride a camel!! Big fun.

Then we headed out for a few more hours of driving and we camped in Valentine, Nebraska. The next morning we headed towards Wyoming and stopped just before the border to have a few hours of fun at Fort Robinson. I must say, we will return to this fort!! What a great vacation spot, and super reasonable. We rode in a horse drawn carriage for 4 bucks! We even went swimming in the pool and Charlotte jumped off the diving board!! There was so much to see and do there we will have to return.

We made it home by 7pm Monday night and everyone was ready to be out of the car. Overall a great vacation was had, and it is really exciting to know that our family is crossing into another phase. One full of adventure, roadtrips, and kids who are a little bit more easily packed along. I find as Reid and I raise our kids and grow as a family that I am often reminded of my own childhood. Adventures that we had, and the fun things that we did-and I sure do appreciate them more now than I did as a kid. I am hoping my kids will have great memories too.

boat ride

 

 

I know I haven't posted about our trip yet, but the pics are abit overwhelming-so soon. i just had to post what Charlotte and Isa did today. After a fun photo shoot in adorable new dresses by Mountain Aven Baby, Isa and Charlotte took a ride down the creek-and loved it. Isa does have panties on :) Fun,fun. Vacation pics next, I promise.

one from the road

We are doing remarkably well-even with Charlotte being sick and feverish-yikes. The concert was fun and bigger than expected. Last night was our "hotel night" and we stayed in St. Cloud, MN. Charlotte and Papa are sleeping in the room and Timothy and I are having a banana and coffee-respectively. We will head down the road for as much as the kids can stand today and take lots of long breaks-hopefully Reid can get some naps in too, I am pretty sure he is getting gyped on the sleep this trip. More details and pics to follow soon.

we're off

to Minnesota-see you Tuesday :)

mornings

 

 

 

I am feeling like myself again-well rested with most of my brain cells back. It seeems to require that I go to bed rather early (between 8-9) because Timothy gets up at 5:30. I actually like getting up that early as long as I am rested. I have discovered a great way to utilize my mornings with Timothy. Charlotte is now sleeping in until between 7-8 so Timothy and I have been spending mornings in the garden in our pajamas. I had resigned myself to letting the weeds grow because there just wasn't enough time in the day-but now I feel like I have discovered a couple more hours that just weren't there before (mostly because it took those couple hours sitting around in the morning to realize I wasn't going to get to go back to sleep).
It has been wonderful in the garden-50 degrees, quiet, almost meditaitve, and super productive. I am already thinking of other ways to utilize this time-walks with Timothy, a little sewing-we will see. Yea for me!!

peek-a-boo

It appears that Timothy likes the new nook. He spent quite a bit of time there and here is a picture of him brushing his teeth and playing peek-a-boo with Mama.

the book nook

 

 

I have been dreaming of a large window seat in our dining room window for years, but we never seem to have the space to spare. I was excited today to discover a great little book nook just waiting for comfy pillows, a stack of books, and a budding little reader. Although, she is supposed to be the one in the nook entertaining herself while I am at the computer, sometimes the kiddos just take over :)

charlotte's perspective 2

Another few images from Charlotte. Not much exciting here this weekend, just catching up on house stuff. And making plans to drive to Minnesota next week-what you say? Are you guys crazy?-Maybe. But we got excited about the celebration of 35 years of Prairie Home Companion and the free concert. Sort of wild hair thing-wish us luck-18 hours in the car with 2 kids. Anyone out there have any travel advice?????

camping on the green river

We had a fun time camping on the green river with some friends. The green river runs on the west side of the wind river mountains and it was rainy and cool. Timothy and Charlotte did well. Timothy walked around a big grump if it was raining, complaining I think about bulky clothing and cold weather. Charlotte took the opportunity to sport her rain boots and splash in the puddles. Both kids slept well-so that is always nice.

I discovered on the trip once again how independent Timothy is becoming. I thought being in a new place he would want me to cuddle and rock him to sleep-well no way. He was just mad if I tried to rock him, he wanted to be in his crib and do it himself-okay-easier for me, just hard to believe. Even when he woke once in the night, he wanted reassurance that I was there, but did not want to snuggle and sleep with me-boy was he pissed. It is just so hard for me to believe at one year old, but he is a good communicator and does not hide those feelings. It will be interesting when he can talk. Right now he is signing some and will point to food and sign "more"-see if you can find the picture where he is asking for a Newman-O cookie.

Charlotte's favorite part about camping seemed to be all the "junk food" she got to eat. She tried somores for the first time-yuuummmy. I am thankful that I at least have one little cuddler in Charlotte. She was thriving in all the attention. Sometimes kid's professions reveal themselves early in life, see if you can find the picture where she is telling us what she wants to be when she grows up :o)

more from the big #1

It seems that Timothy had a pretty good day. We celebrated early with cake and gifts. Charlotte was a big help decorating the cake, and in the one hour between the time it was decorated until the time it was served I think she asked 100 times if can me eat some cake now. She was very eager to help Timothy blow out his candles, eat his cake and open his gifts. Luckily at age 1, Timothy was happy to share.
Timothy is loving:
the swing, saying hi, playing in the water, wearing his towel on his head after his bath (he has a fit when I take it off), throwing anything, wearing necklaces, playing peek-a-boo, putting his blankie on his head, walking down the sidewalk as far as he can go, smoothies, hugging his sister, playing with his papa, and cuddling with his mama.
At age one he is a sweet, sensitive, independent little sniff, sniff boy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIMOTHY

the big 1

 

 

the birthday boy first thing in the morning.

in my lap

 

I am all too happy to report that it is not a kid:) I have discovered the joys of bulky yarn and fat needles-very gratifying. I want to knit the kids a vest each for next winter and figured I had better get started now. I am using this great/easy/free pattern-and just making it a bit bigger. I had better get back to my spot in the sun (a rarity around here the last few weeks-the sun that is).

Hula Ho

 

 

 

Here is Charlotte helping me use my new wonderful tool-the Hula-Ho! Great for keeping my weeds under control, and fun for Charlotte too.

Really Off

He is really off-He hasn't crawled in 3 days and he loves showing of his new abilities.

Oh Boy

 

Here is Timothy not getting his way. He has been doing this quite a bit lately. Oh Boy.

Chickies

 

More chicks on the way. Courtney is raising them this year and we are looking forward to increasing our flock.

Flowers

 

Flowers and bling. All day yesterday Timothy kept putting these necklaces on and wearing them around. I finally gave up trying to take them off-it seemed they weighed him down. Mr. T???

Make it Sunday

 

 

Charlotte and I made reversible headbands from this pattern and I made Timothy a pair of "little diggers"-long shorts with reinforced knees-great for crawling and falling.

Fire Ants

Boy we sure had a lot of fun last night-dancing to the Fire Ants. Lots of our friends were there and the kids boogied the night away. Timothy has just learned to shake it (and by the way he has just learned to really walk-or should I say wobble)and Charlotte did not want to leave-she kept saying "1 more song". On the way home she said "I want to dance around with Isa". I hope we have more opportunities for dancing soon.