Minnesota Family Trip

We had a wonderful trip to Minnesota with tons of family!  Aunt Deedee has had a cabin on Elbow Lake, outside of Cook, MN, for over 30 years.  We spent time there when we were Kali and Sabrina's age and it was an amazing treat to get to take our girls there this year.  Cook is quite a drive from Minneapolis, so it was a long day getting there.  Thankfully we had Nana flying and driving with us, and we all survived despite several stops on the way, but I'll never forget Sabrina clawing at her straps on the carseat the minute she saw Poppy at the lake and as we unclipped her, she leapt out the WINDOW of the car, into his arms, stripped down naked and jumped right into the lake.  We had arrived!  It was classic. The setup couldn't have been better.  We had two cabins side-by-side, right on the edge of the lake.  We were about a 5 minute walk to the lodge where they had a small restaurant, a bar, ice cream (!!), and a swimming beach and dock.  Also, half-way to the beach was a great swingset which, for reasons still unknown to us, Sabrina nicknamed "her office" and she had to spend LOTS of hours at the office during the week.  One day she even "hired 6 coworkers"...where does she come up with this stuff?  We had Grandma Gail and Grandpa Rich in our cabin with us and Nana, Poppy, Tim, Erica and Baby Lindsey were in the other cabin.  Deed bounced back and forth from her cabin (about one mile across the lake) to ours.  We spent one full day out at Deed's cabin where we fished, canoed, napped, read, swam, and pumped water!  Sabrina loved pumping water and we got several great pictures to add to Deed's collection of all of us pumping water at the cabin when we were Sabrina's age.  Great continuity!  We spent one rainy day driving into Ely where we had lunch, played at a park, and shopped around the cute little town that serves as the gateway to the Boundary Waters.  Most of the other days we let the little babies wiggle on a blanket, we went swimming at the beach, we went out on the boat (Deed's boat and one that we rented) and enjoyed the down time.  We didn't do great fishing on this trip (pretty skunked, really - you can see the photos) but Grandpa Rich brought Sabrina a Dora fishing pole and they had a few good sessions down at the dock.

Sabrina made more progress on her potty training while we were there - and impressed us all by doing a great job without diapers all the way there on the plane and in the car.  She held it while driving, ran to the bathroom right when we stopped, and didn't have any accidents all day.  Phew.  We had a few accidents throughout the week so we're not quite there yet, but making progress.  Sabrina slept great there too.  This was our first trip since she's been in a big girl bed and she had a twin bed in her room and she didn't miss a beat.  Just jumped into her bed and fell asleep on the first night.  She did wake up once in the middle of the night and woke EVERYBODY up she was crying so hard.  Poor girl couldn't figure out where she was!  But other than that, she did really well.  

Kalira turned 3 months old while we were there and is SO close to rolling over!  Lindsey was moving all over the place so it was fun to see where Kali will be pretty soon.  It was really great to see the two girls together - they grabbed each other's toys, grabbed each other's hair, punched, swatted and kicked each other - I see a lifelong friendship ahead.  :-)  Can't wait to get them together again soon.  

We also had a great night and morning in Duluth at Deed's house before we flew home.  We saw the Aerial Bridge, we visited a beach on Lake Superior, Sabrina and Deed baked cupcakes, we cooked a wonderful meal at her house, watched the Olympics, then spent the next morning on a boat tour in the Harbor of Lake Superior.   Our drive back to the airport and flight home were long, but thankfully we had Nana and Poppy with us for that trip so it made it easier.  We all came home happy and tired with great memories from the Land of 10,000 Lakes!  Thanks for a wonderful week, Aunt Deed! 

Now we are looking forward to another trip to Seattle next week...without grandparents!...I hope we can manage.  

Minnesota July 2012

Goodbye Maternity Leave and Happy Anniversary

The last week of my maternity leave has been great - today Sabrina, Kali and I really enjoyed ourselves as I said goodbye to my days at home with the girls.  We started at a local farm where we can pick our own raspberries and buy fresh produce that's just been picked there.  Today the black raspberries were in season so we mostly focused on those.  Sabrina is getting fairly disciplined about not eating every berry that she picks, but..let's be honest, eating is the best part.  Today she decided it's best to lean in and eat it right off the bush without any hands.  Not a bad idea with all those thorns on the bushes!  The farm also has several dogs running around, about 5 chicken coops with a lot of chickens in each one, and the owners who were out there picking as we were so we got to talk to them.  Sabrina even got the first cucumber of the season!  It was small but delicious.

She also learned how to do a "nature pee" and instead of having an accident (like last time we were there at the farm), she is getting good at going in the grass but it's still tricky not to pee on herself!!  Definitely a learned skilled...we're working on it!  I never thought about this aspect of potty training.

After that we met up with Cara, Casey and Cody and went to the pool.  We had a fun time with the older girls and the babies there.  Sabrina is so comfortable at our pool now, it's just wonderful.  I feel like I've finally gotten to the point of being there with both girls without too much worry!  Kali does great in the pool, so I can hold her with one hand and still have another hand free for Sabrina so we can play together.  Of course, it's best when Nana shows up, as she did today, and then Sabrina can really have some fun.  She loves to jump off the stairs into our arms, jump off the side of the pool and even go into the big pool now.  And, she always end a good pool session with a soak in the hot tub (even when it's 90 plus degrees!).  Thank you to my wonderful hubby who worked while I stayed home these past 3 months.  It's been a treat.  I'm so glad I married him four years ago today!

Tonight, we are off to a Colorado Rockies game in Denver with the girls to celebrate our anniversary.

Kali at 10 weeks

In the black raspberry bushes

Walking through the farm

Making friends with the dogs and chickens

Pool time with Casey - good sandwiches, Cara!

Pool tummy time

Taking a rest after a great day in the sun

Happy Fourth of July

Our Fourth of July celebrations started early this year with an invitation to our friends' private lake in Firestone, CO on Saturday.  The gravel pit of Karly's dad's cement plant has been turned into a lake where they have created quite the perfect set up.  Karly's husband, Christian, is from Argentina and roasted a lamb on the beach, similar to an Argentinean asado.  Karly's parents showed up with their speedboat and took us out waterskiing which was a really fun treat for me and Brent.  We haven't done that in years and we both managed to get up and take a few laps around the lake.  Unfortunately I wasn't in the boat when Brent skied so I missed photos of him but he got a few good shots when I was skiing.  Karly's dad also had two huge sand deliveries come over from the cement plant to lay a new beach for us so we had pristine sand for the kids to play in.  The water was perfect, the food was wonderful and plentiful, and we loved having a little beach vacation right here in CO!  It also gave us a chance to get Sabrina excited for the week in Minnesota when we'll be staying right on a lake.  She's getting so much more comfortable in the water this summer, so we're really excited for that week!

On the Fourth, we participated in the 17th Annual Drexel St. Parade - which only goes around our little block...twice...and only has people from our block in the parade.  It's wonderful, tiny, and perfectly manageable for us these days.  Nana and Poppy came over so Nana could "spectate" with me and Kali (and Pongo), and Poppy could participate in the parade with his motorcycle.  Sabrina decked out her tricycle and did a great job pedaling.  Brent helped Sabrina along, ever so slightly.

That evening we had a BBQ at our house with the Baumgartners and the Carmichaels.  It was a great impromptu event!  While the fireworks for the Fourth of July were canceled all over Colorado due to the recent wildfires, we still managed to have a very fun holiday.

Doctor Check Up and Potty Training

Kalira has shocked us all by weighing in at 12 lbs 10 oz at her two month appt. yesterday!  She is 22 5/8" and has a 16"noggin.  That puts her in the 90th percentile for weight (!!), 50th percentile for height and 80th percentile for head size.  Wowsa.  She is doing very well and is right on target with all of her developmental milestones at this early stage.  She's holding her head up now, she loves to "stand up" and look around, and she's very social now.  She smiles and coos and has laughed a few times.  Her most reliable actions right now are smiling at the moon that Dante made for her (which hangs above her changing table) and responding to my voice.  I can often get a smile out of her!  It's really fun.

She's also been sleeping in her co-sleeper in Sabrina's room for about 2 weeks. The heat has been incredible in Boulder this summer (we had 14 consecutive days above 90 degrees, and most of those were above 100!) so we bought an air conditioner for Sabrina's room and moved Kali's co-sleeper in there.  It worked great!  The girls slept wonderfully together and shockingly never woke each other up! Tonight we put Kali in her crib in her own room for the first time and, assuming the monitor is working correctly, she's sleeping quietly as I write.  Big girl!

Speaking of big girls, our other big girl is almost completely potty trained!  For about 2 weeks now she's been out of diapers except for naptime and bedtime.  Her biggest challenge is still #2 on the potty, but she's done it right several times now.  Unfortunately, she's mostly going on a poo strike and not going for up to 3 days sometimes, but she does eventually go and two out of the last three times, it was in the potty.  Brent had to deal with that 1 out of 3...not fun.  We're very excited for this particular phase to be over but she's making great progress.  Hopefully we'll be back to a 1-kid-in-diapers-family soon enough.

Our big hurdle in the next few weeks is going to be my return to work on July 16th.  At the same time, Sabrina will move into the preschool at the Cottage which will come with new teachers, a new playground (she's very excited about that) and a return to being with some of her good friends at school.  All of her friends moved into that classroom awhile ago so we're excited for her to be back in the group with them.  She's very attached to her current teachers, Kelley and Justine (she's been with Justine since she was barely 1), but Justine just had a baby today and will be out for awhile, and Kelley will stay with the younger kids.  It'll be a big transition for her, but hopefully she'll roll with it.

Kalira is going to spend one week hanging out with Nana instead of starting at the Cottage before our trip to Minnesota.  This way she will start at the Cottage around the beginning of August.  It gives her a few more weeks to strengthen her little body before she is exposed to lovely daycare germs.  Thanks Nana!