North Shore of Lake Superior

Happy Father's Day John!!! John and Luke standing on the rocks near Lake Superior
Mommy and Liam on the rocks

Luke IN the water at the aquarium (with his only pair of tennis shoes on)!!!

Split Rock Lighthouse

Picnic Lunch

Smores with Daddy and Luke, not sure who liked them more

The four of us

Checking out the waterfall

Playing with bouncy balls on the tile floor...entertainment for nearly an hour!

What a great trip!

We had a wonderful time on vacation and we are trying to get back into our weekly routine. We managed to produce around seven loads or so of laundry so John and I spent quite a long time folding and putting away clothes yesterday. The boys did wonderfully during the trip and napped, slept, played, and ate very well. They had great time. The area was gorgeous along the North Shore of Lake Superior with rocky shore line and lots of beautiful rocky cliffs. We visited a waterfall and a light house at two state parks. On one cloudy and cool day, we took the boys into Duluth to visit an aquarium and they seemed to enjoy that, particularly the "hands on" water display with little boats. The weather was cool and nice the entire week and rarely made it out of the 70's. We roasted smores several nights at the campfire where we stayed and I even got a latte or two on several mornings from the local restaurant and coffee shop. We spent many days biking and running on the beautiful trails. The primary trail is called the Gitchi Gammi and it runs several miles along Lake Superior. It was a wonderful trip and one that we will remember for many years to come! I am posting several pictures from the trip.

Vacation Here we Come!!!

Too cool for a pacifier (or maybe not)

Simply too cool

Liam loving on Mommy

We are very excited about our upcoming vacation to the Two Harbors area of Minnesota just north of the Twin Cities. It is supposed to be a beautiful area along Lake Superior with lots of hiking, biking, and outdoor things to do. This will be our first vacation with the boys (outside of those trips to visit family or vacations with extended family). We have rented a cottage on the lake with plenty of room for the boys to run around.

We had a busy week with play dates, trips to the fitness center, runs in the jogging stroller, and a trip to the zoo. The weather is getting warmer and it is feeling more like summer outside. Summer days are very long in Minnesota with daylight from around 5 am until 9 pm. I am posting a couple of pictures from the week. Enjoy!

Practice Makes Perfect

Luke learning to use a spoon and eat his yogurt
Liam practicing

Breakfast with the boys

We are starting to practice feeding ourselves a little bit more and we are trying to learn how to use a spoon. This can be a little on the messy side, needless to say, and we often end up with applesause in the hair, sweet potatoes in the nose, and yogurt everywhere. We only miss our mouths once or twice or maybe a little more than that. We do get very excited, however, about using a spoon and it also helps with our interest level in eating.

Although I keep forgetting to mention this, Liam is a full-time walker now. He is definitely walking more than crawling. It took him awhile and he still loves the push toys, but he is getting around and moves at a little faster pace than Luke. I really am chasing them as they walk in opposite directions now. It is often a matter of prioritizing which one looks like he may get into trouble faster than the other one and then going for that one!

Both of the boys learned how to say "uh-oh" this week and are using it frequently when they drop things on the floor. It is pretty funny to hear and they always laugh at themselves.