Pizza and sunsets

One night we went to a little restaurant at a hunt camp for dinner.  If you ever want to hunt/fish in Canada...check out Le Cueyer's. It seemed like a nice place.  Their little restaurant was filled with stuffed animals and mounted fish.  Bears, geese, deer, moose, racoons, pike, whatever kind of animals they up there, I'm sure it was mounted at LeCueyer's.  In all honesty, the pizza wasn't that great, but as always, the night was filled with memories. 

There were two funny stories that involved me.  Do you want to hear them? 

Well, as always, in the middle of dinner, Hannah had to go potty.  My rule, especially when out is that if one girl goes potty the other has to come and go as well because if they don't, I will be back in the bathroom again soon.  So, I took Nicole with me.  Now, Nicole is 4 and wants to be a big girl whenever possible.  She has been going into the little stalls by herself lately...which is nice because public potty time is shortened a little.  The problem this night was that the stalls did not have the back and forth latch, rather, they had the little rotating disc type of latch. These are easily rotated to the lock the door, but often can get stuck and be difficult to unlock....I guess.  After Nicole was done doing her business she tried to get out...and couldn't.  She kept trying and I kept offering help, on the outside of the stall.  She was getting upset because she thought she would be stuck in there.  So...what does any loving and somewhat psychotic mommy do?  Yep, I laid down on the dirty floor and military crawled my way into her stall to save my sweet girl.  I did it...just for her.  To make me feel better about my act, the lock was difficult, even for me to open, so she wasn't just "playing me" like sometimes she does.  I am just thankful that I wasn't at walmart or somewhere there is high bathroom traffic and nasty nasty floors.  This little bathroom was clean (but dirty...you know what I mean?  a bathroom is never really that clean).  We came out of the bathroom laughing and Jeremy was just smiling.  Why was he smiling?  Because he knew that funny things always happen to me in the bathroom:)

The other funny story may not be that funny unless you were there.  We were going to walk down the boardwalk and take some sunset pictures, but I had something in my hands that I wanted to put back in our rental van.  Our rental van was a white Town and Country (great van by the way).  Anyway, I was walking to the van to quickly put the stuff away and the door wouldn't open.  I turned around and asked Jeremy to unlock the van and I tried to open is again.  Then...the alarm on the van next to me started going off....I don't know why.  Until I looked at Jeremy and he is bent over laughing at me.  I look back at the van, and realize that I am trying to get into someone else's white Honda Odyssey.  I quickly let go of the handle and walk to the van whose alarm is going off....our van.  I start laughing and I feel like silly girl....until, we hear the people inside talking about what I just did and laughing at me.  It was Their van.  Jeremy was having a fit...he just thought it was hysterical...and Nicole was asking me why I was trying to get into that other person's van!  Haha...it was a funny moment.

Well, we did walk down the boardwalk and saw a beautiful sunset and took some fun pictures. 

Emo, Ontario

On Tuesday of our vacation, we had to take a 45 minute drive south to Emo in order to pick something up.  I asked the cashier at the grocery store if there was a park around and she told me about a really beautiful park, playground, splashpad on the river just around the corner.  She told me about the water playground but then said, "but, if it's to hot out, there is a library down the street too."

Um...excuse me?  Is 73 degrees to hot?  I was worried it was to cold! 

I really didn't think the girls would play in the water for two reason...one, when the wind blew, it was a bit chilly and two....no bathing suits.  Now, no bathing suits hasn't stopped us before, but we weren't in a foreign country 45 minutes from the house. 


The girls played on the playground for a little while, then Jeremy ventured over to the water play area.  I am so glad that HE is THEIR daddy.  He makes life fun.  He is intentional about making memories and not letting a little thing like no bathing suits get in the way.  So, he turned on the water and the good times started.

Well, for ONE of our children

Hannah was not excited about getting wet, or watching others get wet.

She cried and whined most of the time.

Or, she covered her face.

We tried to force her in, thinking that if she just got wet, then she would let loose and enjoy it.  Nope...didn't work.

Nathan was also not excited about being wet, or cold. 

But, Nicole....Nicole loved it.  So, we made Hannah sit and watch her big sister run around half dressed in cold water at a beautiful park in southern Ontario.

All three kids had a chance to ride the lion statue.  Fun!

Speaking of Emo...there was this cute little prayer chapel on the side of the road.  We had to stop, and I went inside.  Just a tiny room for one.  But, cute nonetheless.

Random Vacation Silliness

Today I don't feel like writing out stories or explaining things to well.  I just feel like posting random vacation silliness pictures.

Enjoy

Why eat ice cream when you can wear it?

Hi.

Pajama Party...

While waiting for the storm to pass in the boat house, we kept the kids busy making funny faces so the thunder wouldn't scare them.  Hannah wasn't to into it...

We asked the girls to go get ready for their naps...and very obediently they said "Yes sir".  A few minutes later, this is what we found.  Silly girls!

I know he loves my kisses!

This story deserves a post of itself...it will come.  Maybe tomorrow.

And, this story goes along with it.  Let's just say, Nicole had fun at the water park.  Hannah did not.

Remember when Hannah's smile looked like severe pain?  Now it's covering up her face that she likes to do for the camera.  She asked me to take a picture, and this is what she did.

Having fun on lake superior. 

LOTS more of these pictures to come!

Nathan having fun at Lake Superior...me...not having so much fun.  This kid is obsessed with hair, mine particularly!

Lake of the Woods

Lake of the Woods is the name of the large lake we stayed on...it's massively huge and known around the world for great fishing.  Unfortunately, we didn't get a taste of that great fishing.  We *thought* all week that we would be able to go on a fishing excursion, but it never happened, so the last day of our trip, Jeremy took Nicole out for a couple of hours and they caught a fish.  But, they had some nice quality daughter/daddy time.

Anyway, one day...I don't know which, they all blur together, we found a small playground on the bank of the lake down the road a bit.  After playing on the playground a little bit, Jeremy decided he needed to teach his girls how to skip rocks.

  One thing

led to 

another 

and.....

Yep....we got in the lake, fully clothed.  Ok, not we...but the girls did at least.

This poor little girl was having NO fun at all...

can't you tell?

Where is Hannah you ask?  Well, after a little sisterly love and tackle mishap she pretty much cried the rest of the time.  You'll have to watch the video to see what I'm talking about.

So, after that...Hannah hung out on the bank most of the time.

Hmmm....what in the world is she doing here?

Yep...going pee in the lake.  She insisted on taking her pants off, but we talked her into keeping her undies on.  It was actually quite funny, she kept squatting down and standing up.  We heard her say, "(giggle) I keep going pee!"  She didn't know it was just the water dripping off her legs, hahaha.  This probably would have been a moment forgotten if Nicole had not brought it up at dinner that night to Phil and Nancy, the people we were borrowing the house from (they live in a house on an island about 2 minutes boat ride away).  As we are eating dinner and Nicole is telling them about her day,  she says, "and I went pee in the lake!" as she's laughing.  Nancy looks at us and says, "There's an outhouse"  Ooopps....didn't see that one! haha.  It was embarrassing to Jeremy and I, but certainly not to Nicole.  I'm pretty sure she thought it was cool.

And, just to prove we brought him along, a photo of Nathan with his daddy-o.

Nate cut a tooth while in Canada by the way.  The bottom right one next to his front tooth (what number is that Valerie?)

Traveling with three

Traveling with three very little people is not the most fun thing I've ever done...but I guess it's not the worse either.  90% of the time, it was great.  Amazingly we didn't have an absurd amount of potty breaks (except on the airplane.  They were both terrified and amazed at the airplane potty....and I would be lying if I said I liked taking them in that nasty, stinky little box of a bathroom), there was a lot of movie watching (a HUGE treat here...our rental van had a video system.  I'm so glad we packed a few movies), and some snacking (did you know that both Nicole and Hannah can chuck a box of raisins to the front seat.  Quite amazing actually....one of them even hit me in the face with the box.  As two ballplayers, Jeremy and I were both happy to see some progress in their throwing ability).

What on earth am I talking about?  That was a long and confusing sentence! ha!!!

OK, so, what is so fun about traveling with three children you may ask?  Well, there is three of everything.

Three car seats
Three carry on bags
Three checked bags
Two extra sets of shoes to take off and put on in security
One stroller to fold up and put through the x-ray machine
And lots of extra food and drinks.

I so wish I had a picture of us traipsing through the Minneapolis airport, although I'm sure if someone tried to take a picture I would have kicked them in the shins.  But we were a sight.  Close your eyes and imagine (OK, don't...then you can't read).  Nathan hanging out in the stroller, being pushed by Nicole.  Hannah dragging a backpack on wheels, stopping to look at every particle on the floor or shiny thing she sees.  Jeremy carrying two large, bulky car seats and a heavy backpack on his back, and me...wheeling three interlocked suitcases with a booster seat on top through millions (ok, not really) of people  in the biggest airport I've ever walked.  I think the Minneapolis airport is not laid out for families of 5 who need to rent a car.  We walked from one end of the airport to other, up and down floors and used the little subway too.  I really don't think I'm exagerating when I say it took us nearly 30 minutes to get to the car rental place from the baggage claim area.  It would have been better if my sweet, curious little two year old didn't feel the need to look at every single thing on the floor.  Anyway, by the time we got to the car rental place, I was ready to have a little pitty party and cry...or scream...or something (Dr. Pepper and chocolate anyone???).  Our bags were heavy, our children were slow and we had to walk so far!!!! 

OK, enough whining.  THAT was the worse part of the trip...and if that was the worse part...then, that means we had a pretty good trip.  We did not make the 6 hour drive to Canada like we hoped because were exhausted, hungry and tired.  I did eat Chipotle for the first time in my life....pretty good.

Oh, the airplane.  It was fun... for about 15 minutes.  Then, the novelty wore off but the girls did pretty well. They had books, crayons a video game system (I scored at Goodwill for $3...a leapster 2 for my mommy friends out there), and of course our iphones with games.

Nate however, changed into crazy baby.  He does not like to fly.  He wasn't screaming his head off the whole time, but it was a tremendous amount of work to keep him from doing that.  But, as soon as the plane landed, he was my sweet little laid back boy again.  Weird, huh?

So, our first day of vacation was NOT relaxing, but we didn't think it would be.  No false hopes there.  It was a bit more stressful than I anticipated (mostly because of that walk, rolling and carrying heavy things and little Ms. Pokey Little Puppy)  We only made it to Orr, Minnesota, about an hour form the boarder.  By the way, Orr is a very cute little town, we stopped on our way back (to get some free fudge) and it's just adorable.  I would have liked to have spent another hour or so there.  And, they have a cool hotel with a waterslide.  It seems that Minnesotaians like water slides, we saw them a lot.

The view from our hotel in Orr, Minnesota.  We ate breakfast outside.  We were weird, everyone else was inside because it was....

COLD....like, I think in the 50s.  But we soaked it in.  Every ounce of coldness we could get we did, because we knew what was waiting when we got home.  

Friday morning, we woke up and made our way to Nestor Falls, Ontario, Canada where we would spend the next 6 days in an insanely HUGE home on a beautiful lake.  More to come on that though later.

Back to the Grindstone

Well, Tuesday is here.  We are back to "life - normal" for us.  But, I am ready.  It's always nice to take some time "off" (although, who am I kidding...there really is no "off" time when children are around, right?).  But, it's time to get back to our normal schedule.  And, I am ready.  I'm ready to get back into my routine and schedule with the children.  I am ready to start actively teaching Hannah each week.  I am ready to be in a real routine with Nicole's pre-school curriculum.  I am ready to get back to our Bible Time in the morning, especially using their new Bible study tools that our church suggested.  I am ready to get into my cleaning routine.  I am ready to head to the library.  I am not ready to go grocery shopping, but I'll go anyway ; )  I am ready to eat healthy again...oh so ready for that!  I am ready to start exercising more regularly.  I am ready to play with my children.  I am not ready for Jeremy to go back to work, but work he must.  I am ready to plan our garden this year.  I am ready to start making Halloween costumes.  I am ready to finish a few sewing projects.  I am ready for MOPS and the opportunity to serve and encourage other young moms.  I am ready...ready...ready...ready. 

Vacation was oh so nice...and I believe it did just what it was suppose to.  It got me re-energized...re-charged....ready for the next year.

Canada, Oh Canada

Yes, we have been away on a much needed vacation, but we are now back!

We had the opportunity to stay in a very large and very beautiful home in Ontario Canada this year.  Jeremy has a customer who just built a house on his own island in a lake, so their "land" house is not used and they invited us to stay there.  We had a gorgeous view of the lake, listened to airplanes land and take off daily on the water, watched bald eagles soar through the air, use a telescope at night to see the moon, went for rides on the boat and waverunner and spend lost of time relaxing.  We were in Canada for just under a week and had a very nice time.  I have a lot of pictures and stories to share, so it will take a few days and a few posts....but we'll get through it.

I'm not feeling ultra creative at this moment, so I will just share some beautiful views and will post later with stories.