Naturally Optimistic

I had a great idea for today. We have a gift certificate that my folks gave me (early) for our anniversary for a "Rose Garden Picnic Basket lunch" from Valentini's (located, right by the Rose Garden)....AND we have passes to area attractions which expire tomorrow. I asked Steve if he'd like to go to Glensheen with me & the kids & do the picnic thing and he said - yeah, sure! So, the plan was go park at the Rose Garden, bike with our picnic lunch to Glensheen, tour the mansion & gardens and then head back for our picnic along the Lakewalk somewhere. I called the restaurant this morning to see if we could get a basket, what comes in it, etc. They're not open on Sundays. WHAT? I checked their website...they're not open on Sundays at all in the Summer (hi! They're RIGHT on the LakeWalk....) or in the Winter (makes more sense). I would've never thought a restaurant would be closed on one of the busiest Sundays in Duluth! Ah well...on t...

Daddy, Dahlia & August at the main falls- August was trying to get away! Yesterday started off iffy. I was feeling really lousy from my cold. Our house is a disaster- I can barely keep up with the laundry & dishes, let alone tackle anything else. The toys are every where (we have yet to buy a storage cabinet with our rummage sale money); the kids were being crazy monkeys. Steve & I were getting really crabby with each other. It could've turned out poorly (to say the least). Mama &Dahlia at the Upper Falls August exploring the rocky shore. We tossed around the idea of driving up the shore; then we nixed that...then talked about going to Park Point (me - not enough energy for hiking in the sand); Brighton Beach (but we had just gone there last week); nothing - stay home work on projects & cleaning (blah). Finally we decided to go ahead & drive up the shore. Thank goodness we did! It seems to be the only place where & when both kids will nap...

Dahlia loves to go outside on these beautiful spring days and color the sidewalks with chalk. She got a huge box of new ones for her birthday (December, we've been waiting to use them!). They're so fun because there are so many colors. I probably have as much fun, if not more, than she does. And August likes to eat the chalk. Oy vey. She calls it "chalking" & I love that. We are going to go chalking after she gets up from her nap. :) Yay spring!

Two weeks ago, Steve & I went away. It was heaven. We originally were going to drive to Minneapolis on Sunday to drop off our kids with my parents...but since the big storm was coming we all decided that traveling on Saturday was a better option. So we packed up & drove down on Saturday. We met my sister & her family & did the swap-a-roo with the kids. I tried really hard not to cry after leaving them, but it didn't work. I'd never been away from August before & all the usual irrational Mama-feelings started coming out: "what if he doesn't remember me when we get back?" "What if he's mad at me & won't come to me?" "What if something happens to him?" Dahlia? She can hold her own, I know this, but my little baby August? You get the idea....Luckily I started to feel better as we pulled into IKEA. Because what makes me feel better than child-free browsing at IKEA? Again, our original plan was to go up to Bluefin Bay ...

Steve & I always like to try to get up the shore around our anniversary. We often dream of a multi-night getaway from everything (kids, house, mice, house projects, etc) but those don't always happen. This year we drove up for the day & it was spectacular! We hiked at Oberg Mountain which is a spur trail off the Superior Hiking Trail. It is just a few miles north of Tofte. 2.3 official miles (although my pedometer tracked us for just over 3 miles), it's a rocky & rough trail (in places) with dramatic views of Lake Superior & the surrounding forests. Maple, aspen, everygreen - they're all present & we hit it on the peak weekend. It was stunning. Simply stunning. The trail was packed with others out enjoying the beautiful fall day & colors. In fact I'm not sure I've ever seen so many people on the trail. It makes me quite happy to see so many out enjoying the beauty of the North Shore. Dahlia & August were constant recipients of comments re...

We put up Dahlia's slides/climber thingy last Sunday and BOY was it a big hit! She was doing laps around us in excitement as we tried to assemble it. She was climbing on it when Steve & I were just holding it together. I know that over time some of the excitement will wear off but right now she is all about her slides. The first thing she asked on Monday morning was if her slides were still outside & if they were still put together. Now to get some sand for the sandbox!

WIN: I found a slide/climber thingy on Craigslist last night. Retails for $399, I got it for $150 (I'm channeling my inner pregnancy-twin-Sarah ) I'm so excited. Dahlia is loving climbing & sliding these days & to have something right out our backdoor this summer will be great. I was able to pick up all but two of the pieces this morning. Two very odd shaped pieces just wouldn't fit in my car. Oh well. We weren't going to put it up this weekend anyway. LOSE: While Steve was packing his car for his overnight camping trip this morning (! I know - brrrr!) the glass patio table top, sitting a considerable distance from where he was & totally unmolested, touched, stacked upon or otherwise disturbed, SHATTERED. *sigh* It is now in a million pieces & I am now searching Craigslist for a (cheap) picnic table for our backyard. You win some, you lose some....

One more picture from our beautiful fall bike ride.

I was afraid I wouldn't get a chance to take Dahlia outside & enjoy FALL with all the leaves, bright blue skies and temps that didn't require a snowsuit. Luckily the past couple of days have been nothing but gorgeous. On Friday I worked from home and mostly spent the day hanging out with her. It was great. We played, we read, we had snacks, we jumped in the leaves, we looked at bugs, we napped (well, she napped). It makes me want to stay home with her every day. I need to figure out how to make that happen. Last year she *liked* the leaves but didn't really play in them. This year, she LOVED them! She shrieked & squealed & had a fantastic time.

Or camping with toddlers! Our northwoods adventure started last Saturday. Of course it took us forever to get packed up and out the door, as it usually does. We didn't make it to the Ranger Station in Tofte til 4:45pm! (they close at 5pm). It is so frustrating and no matter how much we try to pre-pack and be more efficient it gets worse instead of better. I felt bad for Dustin & Anna (hi Anna!) who were ALWAYS waiting on us. Hmph. The hiccups on this trip started when I realized on the way out of town that I forgot my glasses. Yeah, that sucks. And I have nEVER done that before. It's not such a big deal during the day, as I wear contacts almost exclusively, but at night before bed, and in the middle of the night/morning it's a real pain in the ass. 2nd hiccup came on the washboard like conditions of the Sawbill Trail. My oh my do they need to grade that road. It was terrible and while driving along it I thought the dashboard of the truck would fall off. It didn't, t...

So another weekend has come and gone. And BOY was it a great one. (I am being sarcastic). It wasn't necessarily "bad" it was just...."meh." Friday night: Um....I got home late from grocery shopping so therefore we ate late and had a very hungry & crabby baby. Fun! I then made 2 pans of lemon cheese bars for Steve's Uncle's memorial service on Saturday. Saturday: Rush rush rush! Try to get all three of us clothed, bathed, fed, bars cut, FIL picked up, etc for said memorial service. Spent most of the day there and you know what? There are no ramps from the parking lot to the entrance at Marshall School (the memorial was in the chapel there). There is handicapped parking on top, but if you're like me and just have a stroller, you're f'd. And there's lots of snow & ice in the parking lot and if you're also like me - you're carrying 2 pans of bars, a platter on which to put them, a baby, diaper bag & purse. Your husband is...

On Saturday after Kate left we packed up and headed to my favorite vacation spot. Gordon, WI. Sometimes its hard to discern sarcam in the written word, I was using it in the first sentence. Just to clarify. Steve's Dad owns some property down there and a small little "cabin." We try to get down there once or twice a year with his Dad & Trudy as they LOVE it. For me? It's not that great. I'm scared of swimming in rivers (and lakes) so that's no good (yes, I have issues, I'm aware). There's no hiking. An overabundance of ATVers & shitty little red-neck bars and it usually rains when I'm thee. So Saturday was HOT hot hot. And we had to take the non-air-conditioned truck because we were town a trailer with some fence posts for Steve's Dad. Awesome. Nothing I like better than sitting in the middle of a hot hot hot truck (stick shift mind you) while roasting my ass off. It's awesome! We did stop at Culver's for some frozen custard wh...