The Last Fling

I think it's time to accept the fact that Summer is over.  Shucks.  I wanted to do one last fun thing during the day as a family before I go back to work, so we went to the Morton Arboretum today.  It was a beautiful day and we had a great time!

 We walked to the treehouse exhibit first.  Parker likes to carry the water bottle.

We stopped for a little lunchie and then headed to the Children's Garden.  He really liked playing in the water and throwing the rocks in.

He was always running from place to place.  Here he's yelling, "Come on Mommy," while running in the opposite direction =)

I just love going fun places as a family!  

My Mom and Dad were in the area and stopped by for a little bit before nap time.  Parker showed them how he rides his bike real fast!  Then Grandma read him some books for ni-night.

These pictures are from a few days ago.  Parker said he was riding his bike to school.  Do you think they'll let him in dressed like this when the time comes?

Oh Parkie

I'm pretty sure I've said it before, but this summer home with Parker has been so fun and I am so thankful for every day that I've spent with him.  Here are a couple of stories from the past few days that have pretty much melted my heart.

On Saturday, Parker and I ate breakfast together and read LOTS of books.  He would get a book from the shelf and he knows the title of almost every one of them.  I had some classical music on while we were reading and it was really nice, relaxing time together.  Then I was doing some work in the kitchen and he was "reading."  Earlier, we were reading a story that says "I wish I had wings.  I wish I had a tail, etc etc."  He grabbed the book, sat on the couch and said "I wish, I wish I wish."  Then as he looked through the pictures, he made up the rest of the sentence to go with the pictures like, "I wish I ride a bike.  I wish I sit by mommy.  I wish I go ni-night."  Looking at books and making up a story to go with the pictures is something I teach and encourage in KINDERGARTEN!  It was so cute.  He was also singing "Bingo have a name-o." And clapping as he said "B-I-N-G-O."  When we were singing Rat-A-Tat-Tat before bed, he sang "Here come the cows, here come the horsies, here come Parker's owie."  It's so funny what he comes up with for that part.  One night he said "Here come the horsies, here come the cows, here come the horsies....again."  And one time he said "Here come the tractors."   He gave me probably 100 kisses before I put him in his crib, going from cheek to lips to other cheek and back again.

He also likes to call Papa now and say "Hi Papa, how's the Ranger?  How's the tractor?  How's the combine?  How's Gwama doin?" Etc.

Today, Joanie and Kathleen Smith came over and Parker ran right up to Joanie, who was like a second mom to Ryan growing up, and gave her a big hug and cuddled with her without even ever meeting her before.  It was really special...almost like Parker knew that's just what she needed to start her day.  We had such a great time with them.  Parker took a nap later, but he woke up after about an hour.  I went up and got him out, and then he fell asleep on me on the couch in a variety of unusual positions.  We would try to move him to a more comfortable position but he insisted on these.  It lasted for over an hour!

I haven't taken a nap with him since he was a few months old, so I wasn't complaining. I was just trying not to laugh when his head was on my stomach =)

Golden Birthday

My golden birthday was a few weeks ago.  Ryan, Parker and I went to the splash pad in the morning (after picking up my free Grande Caramel Mocha from Starbucks) and had some really fun family time!  Parker jumped in right away and Ryan and I basically sat on the side while he ran back and forth to us.  We came home and took naps and then went couch shopping!  We have had either my parents' old couches or Ryan futon from college in our apartments over the years.  Both of which we were very thankful for, but neither a which were very comfortable.  I knew I wanted a couch with a chaise and had done some research the night before, so we looked at The Room Place and Ashley Furniture.  We ended up ordering the one from Ashley a few days later, picked it up a few days ago and absolutely LOVE it!  Thank you Ryan and our parents for my super-sweet-awesome birthday present!

Later that night, Ryan made me his firehouse-famous caramel corn.  Then he let me sleep in the next morning and made me pecan flax pancakes for breakfast.  Isn't he just the sweetest?

Katie Borst and I have birthdays five days apart, so we finally celebrated together last weekend.  We went to the Saddle Up Saloon to do some line dancing.  I borrowed some boots from a friend and Ryan had some sweet belt buckles for us to wear.

It was easily one of the best nights of the summer.  Line dancing is SO much fun!  I tried to catch on to almost every dance and would finally get it on the last chorus and then it'd be over.  I can't wait to go back again!

Boundary Water Couples Trip

If you have had more than a handful of conversations with my husband, you know that he LOVES the Boundary Waters in Minnesota.  He started going there in high school and has gone 11 times since then.  And, he's always wanted to bring his wife.  Well, it's officially checked off the bucket list because I finally went!  Usually Ryan goes with a group of guys, but this year we switched it up and did a couples trip with two of our closest couple friends - Dave and Joei Martinez and Nick and Katie Borst.  Dave and Joei had been there before, Nick went last year, and Katie and I were rookies.  

After Ryan and Dave had stayed up all night Saturday night packing, making foil dinners, and giving each other haircuts, we set out at 7am.  Ryan was sleeping and drooling on his pillow five minutes in and Dave was struggling to stay awake.  I was laughing.  We picked up Katie and Nick and later met Joei in Appleton, WI.  We stopped several times for gas, took a few detours, saw a double rainbow, stopped for pizza (and met up with Ryan's friend Phil) and finally arrived at the outfitters at 11pm.  We slept at the cabin for a night (Ryan had a crazy dream on the third bunk and Joei thought he fell out of bed). and got on the water first thing in the morning...which happened to be Katie's 25th Birthday!  Probably one she won't forget ;)  The forecast for the week was not promising - chance of thunderstorms everyday.  Have I mentioned I HATE thunderstorms?  It poured the entire night before and the morning was gloomy.  (One of the things I was most excited about for the trip was the incredible tan I hoped to come home with).  I started mentally prepping myself for a miserable week and no tan.

We got all of our packs in the canoes and headed out on Round Lake.  The first portage was rough.  I thought I'd try to impress Ryan and carry two packs.  That lasted maybe 50 feet.  For some reason I still consider myself a fit athlete, when in reality I hardly every work out.  We hiked to the Missing Link Lake and canoed to our next portage.  This hike was over 1.5 miles...and we had to do it twice because of all of our gear.  Now that I'm back, I don't think it was that bad.  It was tough but everyone made it through just fine...except for Ryan.  He sprained his ankle 3 times.  We stopped for a beef jerky, fruit snacks and granola bar lunch break and then it started to rain.  It was a nice rain, no thunder or lightening, so we set out to find a camp sight on Tuscaurora Lake.  It cleared up pretty quickly and I got my first glimpse of the SUN!  The boys threw a couple lines in the water and Katie and I soaked up some rays.  This picture cracks me up.

We got to our camp sight, set everything up, and started cooking the foil dinners.

Delish!

I could not believe how well I slept!  Usually when I sleep in the tent, I wake up at 5am wondering if I ever fell asleep.  Joei woke up first and spotted a moose across the lake.  

We had oatmeal and coffee for breakfast and then headed out for a day trip to Lake Thelma to catch us some supper!  It was a beautiful day!  Blue skies...probably 85 degrees.  I was excited.  I even tried to portage with the canoe.  Bad idea, but it looks good in the picture =)

We fished for several hours and didn't get a single bite.  Ryan checked to see if there were any...

None

We took a little swim break and then Ryan and I headed back to camp while the others stayed out a little longer.  

Chillin in the hammock.

We were just about to start getting the spaghetti ready when the others came home with four Northern.  Hooray!  Good thing we brought the Martinez Duo because Joei caught three fish and Dave caught one.
  

The boys began filleting.

And we cooked up some chips and rice to go with the fish.

We got our first taste of the bugs, too.  They can bite through anything!  The girls at the tent.  It seemed like the bug situation got a little better, so we came out and made some s'mores with peanut butter. Yum!

Ryan, David and Joei woke up super early the next morning to go fishing.  I was really hoping they would come back with a day's worth of fish so we could play all day, but they didn't get a single bite!  Katie sooned woke up and we all noticed she didn't look quite right.  Her forehead was really red and swollen!  Sun? Bug bit? Spider Bite?  We had no idea what caused it.  She ended up wearing a cute purple hankerchief all day to cover it up.  She pulled it off quite well!  Her and Nick decided to relax at the sight for the day, so the rest of us crammed into one canoe and headed to Gillis Lake to do some cliff jumping.  For some reason the hiking is a lot more enjoyable when you don't have a 50lb pack on your back and 7 fishing poles in hands.  There was a ~40ft cliff and a ~10 ft cliff. Ryan was the only one to go off the big one, but the rest of us were more than comfortable with the smaller one ;)  

We stopped to take some pictures in the rapids on the way back.  Lookin' good guys!

Nick and Kaite had gone back to Thelma for a while to try and catch some fish, but they didn't have any luck.  Apparently this is not a good year for fishing!  Katie's forehead was still somewhat swollen and it was moving down into her eye.  We felt so bad for her!  She was such a good sport.  She laughed through it and made the best of the situation.  Way to go, Katie!

We had spaghetti for supper, and luckily it was a little windy, so the bugs weren't bad at all.  We also made some popcorn...and s'mores again!

The sunsets were gorgeous every night.

After another night of great sleep, we woke up to find out that Katie's swelling was getting worse.  We decided to pack up and head out a day early.  Now she was wearing sunglasses to cover her eyes AND a bandana.

We had to take a few pictures of the group before heading out.

Man I love these people!

We traveled back to the outfitters and got to take a shower.  Glorious.  Katie and Nick took a quick visit the Grand Marais ER, then we got pizza and met up with Phil again.  And guess what else?  Another double rainbow!

We knew we weren't going to make it to Betty's Pies on the way home, so we tried a different pie place in town.  It was okay, but it was no pie shake.

These two can take some pretty awesome pictures.

We drove through the night to Appleton, WI where Joei's brother and sister-in-law live.  We arrived at 5am, but from about 3-5am, Nick and Ryan were belting out Disney songs to keep them awake on the drive.  It was quite entertaining.  We were able to sleep in beds for a few hours and then Alicia prepared the world's GREATEST breakfast for us.  Apple pie french toast, eggs, bacon, fruit, rolls, potatoes and numerous pots of coffee.  Just what we needed to fuel us for the rest of the ride home!

All in all, it was a great trip.  The friends we went with were amazing, the weather turned out perfect, and it was so fun to be in a place that Ryan loves and experience it with him.  It was also nice to spend six days straight with him.  That's kind of rare now that he has a fireman's schedule.  I'm sure I will be going back again in years to come!

We got home in time to see Parker for a few hours before he went to bed.  He was happy to see us and tell us all about everything he did with his grandparents in cousins in the past week.