The Parenthood Ride

The ride of parenthood...like a rollercoaster...ups and downs, but exciting and thrilling all the way!Call it lack of sleep, or being cooped up in the rain for the last 3 days, or just being 7, but...Carter was less than thrilled when Mommy won two rounds of Guess Who in a row ("unfairly", in his opinion).  When she came upstairs from picking up, here's where she found him - sleeping on the chairs in the 3 season porch (at 6:00 PM) with his blankie, teddy bear, and pajamas.  We found out later that his plan was to move next door as soon as he saw them get home.  Mommy's sure it will be the first of many attempts to run away, but we hope you don't follow through with any of them Cart!
"Toes" says Amelia!  Look carefully and you'll see the pretty bright pink hue to her toenails!  Mommy painted them for the first time and she is in awe over them and their color.  Ask her where her pretty toes are and you'll be met with proud wiggling of her tootsies!  Get ready for those nail polish aisles, Mommy, because it looks like she'll never have naked toes again!  (P.S. Not sure if it'll show up in the small picture form on the blog, but her hair looks VERY auburn-y red in this picture!)

Weekend Wrap-Up

We had an awesome time on our mini-vaca (don't we sound California teen-y from the 90's) in Crosby!  Here's how we rounded out the weekend:Carter had his friend Avery here for a sleep-over on Saturday night.  They boys played rough and tumble for a while, and them the teacher in Mommy got them settled down for a game.
Movies, popcorn, and popsicles until midnight for these two boys!
Although the sleeping part of the sleep-over didn't happen until so late, they were up bright and early the next morning.  Mommy woke up to the two of them playing DS on the couch!  Thanks for coming over, Avery!  Sleep-overs are so much fun!
The hotel that Daddy manages has an outdoor pool, and when it was just Carter and Mommy, we made it a weekly event to swim there in the summer.  Last summer was crazy with a newborn, and we just haven't gotten there this summer.  So, Mommy promised a swimming morning on Sunday.  Of course, it was cloudy and 70 degrees outside, but did that stop the 2 little fishies?  Of course not!
WAY too cold for Mommy, but you two had a great time...for half an hour at least!  After a quick DQ lunch, Carter asked to stay at the hotel and "help" Daddy work for the rest of the day.  Lucky for him Sundays are pretty quiet!

A Northern Vacation for 4

Before the summer expires (tear, tear) and school revs up again, we wanted to make one final trip up north to Crosby.  Although Grandma and Auntie Anna were heading to North Dakota for cousin Kelly's birthday party, they let us crash at their house anyway!  So, it was a little mini-vacation for just the 4 of us!

We started the weekend with passes to the new indoor waterpark in Brainerd.  Filled with water slides, a lazy river, pool basketball, and a squirting shallow kiddy area where Amelia could walk, it was so much fun.  We spent 4 hours in the pool.  Thanks, Daddy, for thinking ahead and making sure we were there at 10:00 when it opened so that the place was nearly empty!

After water fun, we spur of the moment decided to go mini-golfing.  After Mommy got over the stress of being out in the sun without sunscreen or a hat for the little ones in the 90 degree day, it was great!  Amelia got her own little plastic club and thought it was fun to scoop the ball into the hole.  More often than not, she simply hit the ball, picked it up, and dropped it into the hole.

Friday wrapped up with a yummy fried dinner at Gary's (which, to Carter's amazement, has its own game room attached) and play at the nearby park before heading back to Grandma's for the first Vikings preseason game.

It was an exhausting and exciting day!  Notice, though, that this was a whole lot of typing and not a lot (well, actually, NO) pictures.  Mommy forgot her camera at Grandma's house for the day.  Much to her disappointment, bless Daddy's heart for pointing out that she should spend more time living life instead of just taking pictures of it...
Splish splash in the sink after a long day of dirty play!  Amelia's never had a bath in the sink at home and she thinks it's the silliest thing!
Carter brought his Pokemon sticker book along to hopefully get the rest of the 600 stickers on their correct location - a project that began last Christmas.  Now, all 600 stickers are officially in and Pokemon characters are placed alphabetically according to type.  
Who would've thought there would be such a beautiful beach right in the middle of Crosby!  Serpent Lake was a hot spot when Daddy was growing up...maybe it was because of this cool serpent statue!  Anyway...this was our Saturday destination before heading back home to the big city.
"Daddy, there's no beach here.  It's just a bunch of grass.  Where's the sand?"
"Hey, boys.  Wait up.  My legs are little!"
Such fun in the sand...but I'm not sure if we left any at the beach as buckets and buckets (well, OK not quite that much) fell out of swimsuits and swim diapers when we left!
Right into the water for Carter.  Throwing rocks out into the water as far as you can is such a boy thing!
Daddy taught Carter how to look for the perfect "skipper" rock!
After sticking to the sand for a while, Amelia decided to venture into the water.  She was in amazement at the fact that the sand blends into the water.  It's a lot different than the pool-life she's led thusfar!

Carter spent over an hour searching for "seashells"!  He would find them, clean them off in the water, and add them to the bucket.  It was so much fun to watch his engagement in this classic beach activity and made us realize that we spend too much time at a pool and not enough at a lake!  While water is water, there's so many other fun nature-y things to do there!
As soon as Daddy would build a sand structure, Amelia would be right there to poke her finger in it and knock it down and laugh hysterically!  

Collecting shells all the way down the beach...
These two are like two of a kind!  Carter says that when he's bigger, he'll definitely be able to throw as far as Daddy!
4 years ago when we went to Daddy's cousin Terri and Delwin's gigantic lake house for a week of vacation, we have a picture that's exactly the same...Daddy and Carter walking down the dock hand-in-hand!  It's fun to see how oh times have changed but yet stayed the same!



Although it was a cloudy and windy day, it was warm enough for us to enjoy a 2 hour stint there!  And, as par for the course, Carter was quick to make friends with another little boy there.  And, believe it or not, guess what the other boy's name is...Carter!  It was funny to hear them calling each other Carter all morning!

MMMOOOOOOOOO!

It was one of those weeks without "anything to do" (aka no camps or clubs or classes scheduled), so on account of Amelia's new excitement about farm animals, we trekked out to the farm at the Minnesota Zoo.  It was a HOT day and Amelia was still not 100% from her virus, but we all had fun anyway!On our way out to the farm, we had to stop at the new playlot!



There's nothing like getting SOAKED upon arrival at the zoo and needing to walk around all day in wet clothes!  Mommy kind of forgot about the sprinkler pad (well...not exactly forgot...but thought she could steer the kids away from it...what was she thinking) or she would've brought extra clothes!  Oh well...it was a hot day and they dried quickly!
"MMMMOOOOOOOOOOO" says Amelia!
"Unk, unk" says Amelia!
Yes, Amelia was part of the farm experience even though we are sans pictures of her.  She was just not too perky today and opted to cruise along in the stroller.  We'll go again soon, baby doll, so that you can touch and really get a good smell!
Gotta stop at the park on your way back from the farm!
Will they always love each other this much?  Yup...they'll always love each other but we have an inkling that they may not like each other from time to time!
A snow cone to end a super day!  Gotta love living the teacher's dream and having all summer to hang out with these two great kids!

Hey now...you're an ALL STAR

During the school year, Carter was recognized by his teacher as an "Academic All Star" for his achievement.  The Center for Academic Excellence (who sponsors the program) holds an event called "The Gathering of Champions" for all of the all-stars in the state.  It was held on August 7 at Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America and there were LOTS of people there. We think Minnesota must have the smartest kids around!
As the kids received their awards, they needed to say their name and where they live into the microphone.  And, when the kids were called up to the side of the stage to line up, most rushed in a stampede.  Bless our little guy's heart...he hung back and was nearly the last one of almost 150 kids in line!  How patient you are, Cart!
You truly are an ALL STAR!
All of the kids who participated in the ceremony signed a poster that will hang at the Center for Academic Excellence for the year until the 2010 ceremony!
As part of the prize package, we received discounted ride wristbands for the park.  Well, needless to say that on a Friday evening, the place was PACKED (plus Amelia was on the first day of a 4 day fever virus).  So, again, our patient little man was very reasonable and agreed to wait for going on rides until the following Tuesday (when we could arrive earlier, have more time to ride, and not have very many people to battle with).  Plus it helped a little that before we left the MOA on Friday after the ceremony, we made a pit stop at the sports store and found a 100 pack of only Twins player baseball cards (which Carter has become infatuated with...hey anything that isn't Pokemon is music to Mommy's ears).  Who said bribery doesn't work??!!  Anyway, true to our plans, we headed back for the rides a few days later and didn't have any waiting for lines at all.  We really made the most of those wristbands!
How lucky Amelia is to have a big brother who will ride on the "little kid" rides with!  Not only does he ride on them, but he talks to her like it's the best thing in the world.  You're the best Bud
Finally tall enough to drive the bumper cars by himself!  It's a proud moment!Thanks, Daddy, for riding on your swing backwards so that we could have some great pictures of Carter in action!  It was worth the nausea, wasn't it?!
How many times can a toddler ride the carousel before she no longer screams when the ride is all done?  After twice in a row and a too-dizzy Mommy, we didn't find out today!
Leaving the fun at 10:00 PM and still 2 smiling kids!  Gotta love the summertime!

I Said a Boom Chicka Boom

"You can't ride in my little red wagon.  The axel's broken and the wheels are draggin.  Sing, sing, song, verse...a little bit louder and a whole lot worse."  Carter spent his first week at camp = Camp Kota.  It was a week-long, all-day camp in Bloomington at the lake.  He had SO much fun and boy have we been blessed with all those old camp song favorites from Mommy's 4H Camp days!  It's great to know they're still around!  They swam, they sang, they did art projects, they went on some field trips, they hiked, and they did other nature stuff.  Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of the actual camp day itself.  Carter declined to bring along the camera and document his daily happenings...it's like he had so much other stuff to do, right??!!  

Camp Kota is a day camp, but there is a Thursday night overnight camp-out.  The kiddos come back to the camp site (that they set up during the day) with their families for a picnic and then a camp program (filled with more of the camp song performances and many silly skits).  Then, at the end of the program, the parents are asked to reapply bug spray, roll out sleeping bags, and say good-bye.  Mommy was a little leary and thought for sure they'd receive a call an hour later to come and pick Carter up, but he was THRILLED to camp out (especially when he learned that his tent would have only 4, 7-year-olds in it and NO counselors)!  As Mommy was constantly nagging him with last minute reminders before they left ("Carter...your bug spray is in this pocket."  "Carter...make sure you put the extra sweatshirt on if you get cold."  "Carter...call if you need anything."  "Carter..."), he had all he could to to pacify us patiently before saying "OK you can go now" and running off with his tent-mates.  And, even though it rained virtually all night and they woke up with soaking wet pillows and sleeping bags, he roughed it the whole time!  Mommy, on the other hand, paced the house for hours before finally trying to sleep.  We're so glad that you had lots of fun, Cart! 

Here's Carter's group from the week performing their skit "The Ugliest Man in the World".  Too cute!
Thanks counselor Abby for making this such a great week for Carter!  He has already asked if he can go to Camp Kota again next summer!