Our Vacation...part 2!

Vacation Day 2 brought us to the North Shore Railroad, a train that travels along the shores of Lake Superior on a site seeing adventure. There are many tours to choose from, and we chose a 90 minute excursion that took us to Lester River, and back. The air conditioned cars were wonderful. Here, Brendan shows off his new dorky grin he does when we ask him to smile (he's sitting in the air conditioned car waiting for the train to leave the station)...


The train also features a large open-air car, where we spent most of the ride...

The two munchkins side by side, enjoying the ride...
Friday night we had dinner at Holly and Steve's house with family and friends. Brendan was fascinated by Steve's State Patrol squad car. Steve made his day by allowing him to get into the car, push a few buttons, talk through the megaphone, turn on the lights and blare the siren!

Since we didn't have time to tour the train museum (where the North Shore Railroad boards) on Friday, we went there on Saturday morning. They have TONS of actual trains there for viewing. Some of which you can climb up into! Here Brendan is stading inside a locomotive...
And, here he is looking out the window of the same locomotive (sorry the picture is so dark!)...


His excitement over the day is plain to see!


Halle lounging in her stroller, posing in front of a huge snowblower...


Next to the Depot is a Children's Museum, so we spent a little time there, as well...

Next up: Colin's wedding (8/12)!

No work, all PLAY...

...makes for one GREAT week! Cary and I both took last week off from work, and had a wonderful time together, and with the kids.

The week started off with much excitement, as Monday brought a visit from Grandpa David and Grandma Connie...

Grandpa David and Grandma Connie babysat the kids on Tuesday night so Cary and I could go on a Larson Allen charted Paddlewheel Boat on the Mississisppi River with his coworkers...

Then to a bar afterwards (we stayed in a hotel in Brainerd)...

Thursday morning, it was off to Duluth...first stop, the zoo!

The Lake Superior Zoo has a train that goes around the premises, so of course, we took a ride...

With temperatures soaring to 100 degrees, it was all everybody could do to stay cool...

After sweating buckets at the zoo, we wanted to do something, anything, on the water. We ended up going on the Vista King, an hour and a half boat ride that goes out into the bay, and along the shores of Duluth. It's a narrated tour and was very interesting.

To be continued...

A visit to Grandma Carol's...

The weekend before last we ventured to Grandma Carol's house for a visit and some fun in the lake...

...some good eats...(here Brendan removes the corn husks from sweet corn - quite the helper!)
...and some much loved fun with Grandma Carol's "super cool" Lego village...

The view of the lake from Carol's living room...it's beatiful!

Check out her eye!

Here are a couple of pictures of Halle, the day after being bit by a mosquito right above her eye...looks awful, doesn't it??! She got bit Thursday evening, the 20th, while we were taking a walk in our pasture, and woke up Friday morning with her eye swollen competely shut.

She was quite the trooper, though, and didn't fuss or cry but took her limited sight in stride...



And here she is 2 days post-bite -- still swollen, but definately better! We couldn't believe she could have that reaction to a mosquito bite! Crazy!

Fun in the sun...

With temperatures soaring to over 95 degrees today, and not a cloud in the sky, the beach was definitely calling our name! We hit one of the area public beaches and had a great time cooling off in Lake Belle Taine.

The water was perfect, warm and calm...Here, Brendan shows off his new "flotation swimsuit" - it looks goofy, but works great!
Halle loved kicking back in her floatie...
She looks so cute in her little swimsuit!

Silly girl! She loves the water, and had a ball swimming and walking along the beach...
What a great day!

What an awesome playground!

Montevideo, MN, has an absolutely wonderful new playground - complete with a castle motif, tons of activities, a "Tot Land", and a Mini Town - that our kids had a blast playing in this past weekend.

Grandpa Lee encourages Brendan across the "bridge"...
Halle had a great time on the swings - swinging is one of her FAVORITE things...

The entire weekend was a lot of fun in getting to see aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends we don't get to see all that often. Thanks to everybody for the good times!! :) And a special Congratulations to Audrey and Roger as they celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on June 27th!

Dancing Queen

This past Friday Cary's cousin, Nicole, got married in a private ceremony and we were invited to the wedding reception and dance. Though Brendan is usually our dancer, this particular night it was Halle that was the "Dancing Queen."

Our little dancer - she's the one in the yellow - busting a move...


Really getting into it...


Halle geting a hug from her cousin, Kaden - so sweet!

My Boys...

looking suave in their shades - which are a necessary when taking a ride in the dune buggy (can't be gettin' bugs in your eyes, now can you?)...

Another Sunday "Fun-Day"

Last Sunday we decided to check out our local mini-amusment park, Evergreen Adventure Park, located about 12 miles from our house. We arrived later in the day, and were one of 3 families at the park, so we got free-reign of everything the park had to offer. Nice weather and no lines - gotta love that!

Our first family "adventure" - after Brendan jumped around in the HUGE bounce house - was a ride on the little train that cruises around the park...

Brendan absolutely LOVES trains so he was, of course, enthralled...

Next stop - GO CARTS!



Cary and I took turns giving Brendan a ride (Halle was too small to go) - he loved it...

After going on the go-carts we hit the bumper boats, but due to the splashing water, we elected not to take the camera into the boats, hence - no pics!

Finally, we ended the day with Brendan's first attempt at driving a Hummer - at first he had a bit of difficulty...
But, in no time he was cruising around like a pro!

She's Off....

......and WALKING!!!!!!!!! It took awhile, but Halle officially started walking today! She has been taking 4 or 5 steps - walking from one of us to the other - for MONTHS, but Thursday night we walked into the living room to find her standing up in the middle of the room all by herself, and we knew we were getting close to having another mobile child! This morning she took off - and while she'll still drop down and crawl if she has to get somewhere quick - she's standing up and walking tons!! YAY!! :)

Buh-Bye Baby....

Hellooooooooo Toddler!