Vacation Pictures

I know the picture above isn't clear but Charlotte loved going in the water cave so I had to capture it.

We headed up to the North Shore with my parents for a couple of days early last week and finished off the week at our cabin, outside of Motely. We had a wonderful time together and really needed the break from reality, to relax and take in the beauty of our fortunate Minnesota Autumns. One early afternoon we also decided to enjoy the fun of being inside too and went to Paul Bunyan Water Park in Brainard. (Notice I did not put any pictures of me at the water park up on display. I'm not a huge fan of having my picture taken while sporting a swim suite not pregnant, so imagine how uninterested I was in displaying pregnant pictures of me in a swim suite).

Some highlights of the trip include, hearing the waves of Lake Superior crash against the shore right outside our front door in Lutsen, visiting the quaint town of Grand Marais and shopping there, taking in the scenic drive of Hwy. 61 up and down the coast of Lake Superior, running and jumping in the leaves and making a scarecrow and finally relaxing in the luxury of our cabin, gazing at the lake's amazing view and watching movies and playing games with Charlotte. Above are just some of the pictures taken on our trip. We look forward to going up North (and Northwest) more often as we get older. Our next trip will probably be winter Christmas trip up to the cabin.

Charlotte's Birthday

While I realize Charlotte's birthday was last Sunday, October 12th, I just haven't gotten the chance to report on it. It was a busy day and a lot of fun. We ended up meeting both sides of the family up at the Minnesota Harvest Apple Orchard in Jordan, MN at 11:00a.m. Charlotte wasn't too much aware that it was her birthday but she did continue to tell me that we were all going to a party, so she knew that something was up. We drove up to the party with my sister Katie and my nieces Lydia and Alice. Kevin ended up going with my other niece Mary so that she could practice driving on the freeway. And thank goodness she drove on the way up instead of the way back because after the party ended my sister Katie and Mary wend to head out back home to Bloomington and her car wouldn't start. They ended up having to get the car towed and being that we're on vacation I actually don't know where everything stands with that.

Nonetheless, Charlotte had such a great time with her cousins and friend Grace too (my friend Megan's daughter). She definitely enjoyed her cake as did her cousin Sam. They both were trying to eat it without using their hands, but surprisingly it didn't get too messy. After lunch and cake Charlotte and I happily opened her present. I must admit, it's even fun as a mom opening gifts for Charlotte. Charlotte had a ball opening her gifts and sharing them with all the kids and Kevin and I had so much fun watching her face light up, having such a good time.

Well, after all the presents were opened an then put away swiftly, we decided to enjoy what the Orchard had to offer. Charlotte got to look at the farm animals and went on a pony ride and best of all we all went on a Hay Ride and picked apples. For those of you who have been reading the blog this is Charlotte's 2nd time to the Orchard. This time, instead of having fun picking the apples in the orchard, she just enjoyed running around and sitting and playing with Grace and then picking up the gross half eaten apples. At least she didn't eat them.

All in all the day went great and as you can imagine, Charlotte slept the whole way home, as did her cousin Lydia.

(Funny story: Because my sister was going to drive Sammy,Alice and Lydia home with her and Mary, because Sarah and Ben were out of town for the weekend with their friends, it turned out that we had to take one of the kids home, which was Lydia. Well, that left Alice and Lydia who needed a ride. Thankfully, Bob and Karen were still there at the end of the party so they graciously opted to drive Alice and Sam back to their house to meet Sarah and Ben. Well, Sam wasn't to keen on this idea. His parents have been teaching him of course to not go with any strangers. So, he was having a fit and crying and screaming that he wasn't supposed to go with strangers anywhere. After a bit of a rant, Alice assured him that Bob and Karen weren't strangers and would safely take him to his mom and dad. My goodness, poor Sammy must be confused!).

Charlotte's New Big Girl Bed

As Charlotte quickly approaches 2, which is next week on October 12th, she has definitely out grown her crib. While Charlotte had climbed out of her crib since the middle of the summer, if not before, we were able to "block her in," if you will. But since last month, we had no choice but to graduate her to a big girl bed. So, for Charlotte's birthday she got her very own custom made bed by Grandpa and Grandma Samson. Of course this is another wonderful wood working creation by my father and Charlotte absolutely LOVES it. It is a day bed that looks like a picket fence with 4 bird house on each corner that she put lots of fun treasures in. I think they will be perfect little nooks for teeth when the tooth fairy comes. The other cool part of this bed is that it is a trundle bed. My Dad is in the process of finishing that up and my mom is going to paint a beautiful garden scene on it so that when it is under the bed it goes perfectly with the whole picket fence/outdoor theme. Now of course no child's bed could be complete without a set of Dora the Explorer sheets, at least according to Charlotte. However, instead of calling her Dora, Charlotte refers to this Nickelodeon character as "Backpack," because they sing this continuously obsessive song about a backpack. For those of you who have seen Dora the Explorer you know exactly what I'm talking about. And if you think the backpack song is obsessive wait until you hear Dora's song about "the map." Let's just say there is mostly one word in this minute long song and you won't forget it.

Here are some fun pictures above of Charlotte and her cousin Lydia enjoying her new bed. I must say thought the fact that it is a really fun bed has made her transition from a crib to a Twin Bed pretty painless, minus a couple of middle night wake ups.

Well, next Sunday is Charlotte's official birthday and on Sunday we and the whole family from both sides are going to head out to the Minnesota Harvest Apple Orchard in Jordan. I am really looking forward to seeing Charlotte and her cousins have a great time together. I'll be sure to update you next week on the turn out. Also, we are finally taking a family vacation next week too. On Monday, October 13th we are heading up to Lutsen,MN on the North Shore, with my parents for a couple of days and then off to the cabin for the remaining 5 days. We certainly need a break and can't be more excited to finally relax and do much of nothing except have fun and enjoy the beautiful fall weather and scenery. I'll have to update everyone on the vacation as well.