Northwoods Vacation, Part 1

Wow, it's been awhile since we were on this vacation, but back in August we took a week to visit the northwoods of Wisconsin and Minnesota.  Here are the numerous highlights.

We started the vacation by stopping at a perfectly timed and placed WI falconry picnic.  The kids got to see a lot of birds, and the highlight was this golden eagle.  Kayla wasn't too happy about getting her picture taken, but they both enjoyed seeing the birds.

After the picnic, we headed further north and made camp at Amnicon Falls State Park where this goofy, squishy-faced picture was taken.

The silliness continued at the restaurant too.

And on to the campfire...can you tell these kids were excited about camping??

Kayla loved having campfires each evening.  One night she said, "Put that white bottle on the fire to make it bigger!"

Going for a hike.

We visited Duluth a few times and couldn't pass up see the big ships go through the canal.  They loved watching them but you couldn't tell it from this pic.

Kayla was all about getting her picture taken that day.

In between ships, we played a little pebble-filled beach, which the kids spent the entire time throwing rocks into.  Come to think of it, every beach/river/waterfall we visited that was always the first thing they did.

Love those kids.

We quickly learned on our trip that the only way to get a nice photo of everyone was to allow the kids to have a silly face photo first, then a nice one.  Silly face.

Nice face.

Unlike previous vacations, Colin did a very nice job of sleeping in this time around.  There was only one morning that he got up way too early, so Daddy and Colin took a nice hike.  Unfortunately, Colin came back with more than several mosquito bites, so that was the end of  morning hikes.

Next stop, Minnesota.  Most evenings, while I was putting Colin to bed, Daddy would take Kayla out for a walk or to a playground so Colin didn't have any distractions and I could have a few minutes of quiet time.  Here's Kayla playing on the beach watching the moon rise over Lake Superior.

We stopped at a local donut shop, which started the kids insisting we have, as Colin calls them, 'doonuts' for breakfast every morning.  They may have gotten their wish a few times.  :)

Kayla then insisted on getting her picture taken under the giant fish.

Our little world travelers in Canada!  It was a first for the majority of us.  : )

We learned a couple of things while we were visiting Canada.  1) We should have planned to spend more time there; it was beautiful!  And 2) we forgot swimsuits.  I don't think either of them minded though.

Having fun at the playground, eh?  I am not kidding...Canadians really do talk like that!

So this was a little un-nerving.  We are standing on a platform that goes out beyond the cliffs, so there is nothing below us for several hundred feet!  Colin was actually a little scared, but Kayla thought it was pretty neat.

Canadian hike.  We had a pretty cute line leader if you ask me.

Remember from above...silly face.

Happy face.

Way to go Daddy!  He had to carry two tired hikers part of the way back.  I wasn't good enough for some reason.  : )

Well that's half our trip.  One of the highlights was seeing a wolf on the drive home from Canada, so the kids talked non-stop about being chased by a wolf the rest of the time.  Colin still thinks a wolf is following him on a daily basis.  More to come soon!

More summer updates!

We recently cut Kayla's long hair (more on that later), but before we did that, we tried on some funky hairdos.  Here's Kayla blowing bubbles in her piggy buns!

Here is Colin in an outfit that Jordan wore when he was little!

Being silly with Mommy.  Do you notice his eye?

Somebody is super sensitive to mosquito bites like him Mama.

Luckily, Colin took it in good spirits.  Didn't seem to bother him too much.

This is a typical scene of Colin going to bed.  He knows he's going to bed, so he gets super cute and goofy in an effort to delay going to bed as much as possible.  Tons of silliness coming from this little kid.

Speaking of silliness, who is this bubble-bearded girl?

Kayla's bedtime routine is to have one of us cuddle with her, then she hides for the other one to come find her.  She is always quite determined to find a new spot each night, and trust me, there are only so many spots one can hide in her room.  However, if you can imagine the room with only a night-light on, this spot got me pretty good.

Look at me, I'm Daddy!

We went to the state fair for the first time, and here's Kayla as a panther!

She then put her brave face on and went up and down this slide all by herself.  She definitely thought this was the best part of the fair.

Driving the big Kubota at Daddy's work.

Kayla was really interested in taking dance classes this year, so we signed her up!  Of course, on the first day she was one of the only girls who didn't wear a tutu or dance shoes.  So we bought her dance shoes for the rest of the lessons.  She really seemed to enjoy them but at the end, when we asked her if she wanted to do more, she was quite against anymore dance lessons.  Good think we still get to see her dance at home.

However, I do believe this little guy would have jumped at the opportunity to take dance classes.  He LOVED watching Kayla dance and joining in from the sidelines.  Once he turns 3, he'll probably be the only boy in the class, but you should see him dancing up a storm.

Piggyback ride on Daddy!

Taking Colin for a spin on her 4-wheeler.

Kayla with her ladybug and new haircut.  She was super excited to get her hair cut and when we went to look at different styles, she looked through all of them and then picked a short boy's cut!  She wasn't kidding when she said she wanted all her hair gone!  I told her she should pick something a little longer, so she picked a long boy's cut!  I told her she could pick any cut she wanted but it had to be on a girl.  So she chose the shortest girl's cut she could find and voila, this was it.  We all think it's super cute, and I'm glad it didn't go any shorter cause she's now looking forward to growing it out so we can do fun things to her hair again.