Minnesota Vacation, Part 3

Ok, so this is actually the Wisconsin Vacation post, but let's not be technical. My best friend from high school lives in Madison, WI. Most years I only see her once in the summer when we all meet up in Minneapolis. However, this year she has a little baby so I figured traveling just to meet up with us might be hard on them. Instead we all met up in the Wisconsin Dells. If you're from the midwest area, you probably know of it. Basically, it's a resort town filled with waterparks. We dubbed it the Vegas of Wisconsin while we were there. We stayed at a complex called The Wilderness. It has multiple waterparks both indoor and outdoor, and most of them feature a children's area right next to the bigger waterslides. It was perfect for our two families!

Brian and I got there mid-afternoon on a Thursday and checked in. Noah was pretty excited to play in water, so we went to one of the little kid areas while we waited for our friends to arrive. They got in around dinner time so we went straight for food. We tried to eat at a place that boasts Pop Rocks cheesecake, but it was too busy so we got some to go instead. Noah had a lot of fun eating the left over pop rocks after we got back to the hotel. He also thought it was fun to hold on to baby Thurston, but didn't quite understand how unstable an almost 6 month old is. Let's just say Thurston almost fell on the floor.

On Friday morning we ate brunch and then hit the waterslides! My friend Danna and I have always enjoyed thrill rides and took a week long "roller coaster road trip" to celebrate graduating college back in 2003. We took turns with the husbands watching the kids so that we could hit some of the more adventurous slides. One of them involved stepping into a clear plastic booth with a floor that drops out from under you and shoots you straight down. Another favorite had Danna and I on a tube together getting dropped into a giant half pipe. So much fun! When it was our turn to watch the kids, I took a few photos. It was hard to take many though because it was so wet and I was worried about wrecking my camera.

Noah spent some time with me practicing his jumping skills on the side of a smaller shallow pool. He was getting pretty brave until my arms couldn't take it anymore!

At the end of the day we drove to Madison to spend a night with our friends at their house. On the way we stopped for some Dairy Queen and Noah made a pretty good mess of himself in his carseat. 

The next day we drove back to my in-law's house, but stopped at my sister's farm in eastern Wisconsin for a short visit. My sister cooked us dinner and Noah got to meet her newest calf T.J. and play in a cornfield. 

All in all it was another really fun trip home. We did a ton of driving which was a bit of a drag, but I wouldn't change one part of it. I'm already looking forward to next year's trip!

Minnesota Vacation, Part 2

My parents picked Noah and me up on a Friday afternoon to head up to their cabin. They have a cabin on East Battle Lake in Clitherall, MN. This was our last summer there since they are about to close on a new lake house much closer to their home in the Twin Cities area. We're all looking forward to a shorter drive, more space, and two bathrooms in the future! Anyway, we all had a great time and it was so nice to spend time with my step-dad Ed. When he was on full life support in February, it was something I wasn't sure we would ever get to do again. So yeah, pretty grateful! He is definitely still recuperating from his quadruple bypass so his energy level isn't what it used to be, but he said that he consistently feels better and better. As a result we did a little less fishing than usual, but this was also a shorter trip than usual so I didn't miss it. 

The first night it was just me, Noah, my mom, and Ed. Brian stayed in the cities to see an uncle who was visiting and a friend from college. Noah immediately found a pair of binoculars to play with and looked like a little goof romping around the yard staring at things. We also set up a bee game with Grandma Cheri which provided some entertainment for the evening. That night, Noah got his first experience with a "big boy bed." (Yes, he was still in a crib at home, and Grandma Wendy had a crib at her house, too.) We lined some chairs up around the side of the bed so he wouldn't fall out, and he did great! This finally convinced me that he needed to be done with his crib. Expect a post about that soon!

The next day Noah did some fishing with Grandma and Grandpa while I showered. He caught some big sunfish, and one fought hard enough to make Noah drop his fishing pole in the lake. Oops! Amazingly nobody swore and my mom quickly retrieved the pole, fish and all. But after that, Noah was less enthusiastic about fishing and asked me to do it for him. He told me fishing was "too tricky for me, Mommy." Poor kid!

Brian showed up later in the day and we finally took a spin in the boat. I love being on the water, and I'm so glad that Noah seems to be, too. Otherwise we'd have to trade him in. ;)

We also took our annual family cabin photo, and Noah spent a lot of time playing in the pea rock around the fire pit. My mom, Noah, and I used water shooters to have some afternoon fun on the dock, as well.

Saturday night we made a fire, ate s'mores, and played with sparklers for the first time. Noah had a lot of fun with all of it! It was nice to be somewhere that isn't in a perpetual drought with strict fire restrictions.

After our cabin weekend we headed back to the cities to spend time at my mom's house. She lives fairly close to the Mall of America so we took Noah there one day to try some of the rides at the Nickelodeon Universe amusement park. A lot of the rides were pretty tame, which is just Noah's speed. However, Brian did trick Noah into riding the flume ride by asking him if he wanted to ride the boats. The look on Noah's face as they descended the summit was pretty priceless!

We also tried out the park near my mom's house one afternoon. It didn't have a lot of stuff for little kids, but Noah still had fun.

Up next, the final installment of our trip - a side trek to Wisconsin!

Minnesota Vacation, Part 1

One of the reasons I was away from my blog for a while was because we spent a little over two weeks in our home state of Minnesota. This is always the highlight of our summer vacation, and this year was no different. The last couple of years Noah and I have flown while Brian and the dog drove, but this year we made it a family road trip. Noah was a total trooper for the 15-hour ride and aside from a few tearful, "I want to go home" moments, he was happy to sit quietly and play on his new LeapPad or watch dvds. 

We spent the first week with Brian's parents. The first day or two we were not very adventurous and chose to just recover from the long drive. Noah definitely loved every moment at "Camp Grandma." While I lack any interior decorating skills, my mother in law has just short of a million little decorative accessories lying around which were oh-so-fun to mess with. She also has a baby grand piano that he likes to tinker with.

As always, we spent some time at the country club's pool. I was rocking some pretty sweet heparin bruises on my stomach, but it didn't stop me from enjoying some sun and water play. The first day there, Noah was just about to test his courage by going down the water slide, but alas, the whistle was blown because someone pooped in the pool. Yuck. However, the next day Noah actually went for it. My father-in-law waited to catch him, but in the deep end of a pool that's kind of a hard feat. He did grab Noah just after he hit the water, but he was scolded. "Grandpa, you forgot to catch me!" Noah was also a total flirt and made small talk with a number of young teenage girls who were there. Sometimes he really reminds me of what his Uncle Kevin was like as a kid (or so I hear). 

One hot, humid day we tried out an indoor playground in Maple Grove. I didn't know anything about it, and it turned out to be a bit of a bust. They had a huge play structure which looked like a lot of fun, but it was all a little too big and tall for a three year old. The toddler area was pathetic with just a few large plastic animals to climb on and a three foot slide. Oh well. Afterwards we did lunch at my favorite Chinese restaurant, Leeann Chin. If you have never been to Minnesota, you are missing out. I just had to get a picture of Noah there. Shortly after, he spilled most of his milk all over Grandma Wendy. Oops!

Another day we hit the Minnesota Zoo to check out their dinosaur exhibit again. Noah was a lot less afraid this year and was willing to walk most of the way and even approached some of the animatronic beasts with a little encouragement. He also got to be nose-to-nose with a grizzly bear who was taking a dip.

While at the zoo, I caught sight of a little boy who looked an awful lot like a little boy from a blog I read. Then I saw his mom and twin sister and realized, "Holy crap! That is him!" At first I didn't want to bother them, but then I decided that it was too crazy not to. What a small world! If you want to check out her blog, it's at Once Upon A Time. She has the cutest boy/girl twins who are almost 2 months older than Noah, and I'm pretty sure she needs to be nominated for "most fun mom ever," if such a thing exists. 

Aside from all that, we spent time with Uncle Kevin and Aunt Erin, and great grandparents Jack and Nancy. We also played around the house a lot, blew bubbles outside, and enjoyed the sand/water table. My in-laws live on a small pond, so there are a lot of dragonflies and frogs around, both of which Noah enjoyed trying to catch. 

On our very last day with them, it was a cool, autumn-like day and we finally ventured to the neighborhood park.

Up next, our time with my parents!