For the Grandmas, Sue and Sue,... and all the other family too!: Duluth vacation

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Duluth / The Great Power Outage of 2013:

Here is our video diary entry for Duluth fun. :)

This video was taken in the cafe area of the Duluth Whole Foods, where we went to get some allergen-friendly food and snacks (thank you Whole Foods for always coming through for us!) and charmed people with Finn's hat and Layla's twirls. ;)

Playing in the Swanstrom's great yard, and on their deck by the hot tub.

Checking out just one of the MILLIONS of caterpillars that were crawling around up there. Yuck.

*Side note: Finn is scared to death of bugs. I'm not sure where he gets this. Layla for sure isn't that scared, although she doesn't like flies for some reason. In fact, she delights to stomp on bugs after "petting" them. ;) Anyway, one day when we were up there Finn was on the deck barefoot. A caterpillar crawled up on his toes. His blood-curdling SCREAM lasted for about 30 seconds and he wouldn't calm down, even after I brushed it off, for about 30 minutes. Seriously. He was freaked.OUT. Turns out he is equally as scared of black flies and mosquitoes who are biting him. He sees them, freezes, and SCREAMS while they bite him/suck his blood. I have to go sprinting across the lawn to smack a mosquito on his arm. Yeah, we'll see how long I am motivated to do that. *eye roll* I keep trying to teach him to brush flies away and smack mosquitoes, but so far, no luck. So, we used LOTS of natural bug spray from the Honest Company this weekend. :) It also doesn't help that both my kids react pretty severely to bug bites--of course, right? ;) Massive, big red welts for each and every bite. Sigh. Sensitive skin stinks. :(

Layla splashing her legs in the water, from the dock. The water was FREEZING, so no actual swimming happened. Poor girl--it's only her favorite thing in the entire world to do. :)

Playing with big sticks that washed up on shore from the storms:

Playing with the Dora and Diego toys in the shade...

This is what "rest time" looked like in Duluth: Siblings in bed with snacks and a movie in the room with AC. :)

A few videos of our pontoon ride. Finn insisted on wearing his hat and bringing "Bucky"--his bucket in the shape of a duck--everywhere with him, so of course they came on the boat. I wasn't worried if the kids fell off the boat--they had life jackets on. But I was VERY worried about losing that stupid bucket and his hat! ;)

And one more, playing on the lawn. I think this is the next day, but you would never know that based on how Layla dresses. Yes, SHE dresses herself. I have little to no say in the mater, other than clean underwear. ;) Finn also threw a fit this day and had to change his shirts. Where did my kids get this?? :) I mean, I know I hated tights as a kid--and what kid doesn't??--but that's about it. Right Mom?? ;)

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Our family vacay to Duluth:

When I planned this trip I didn't exactly have in mind the weather conditions we had. I guess it was a good thing we went here, then: The Edge Resort and Waterpark in Duluth. We didn't really end up caring much about the weather since we spent 90% of our time at our hotel, BUT...it's still hard to drive through rain, snow, sleet, and hail...on April 22nd. ;) It kills the soul just a little bit, one drop and plop at a time...

HOWEVER, we had an absolutely wonderful time, from start to finish!

Finn, pre taking off, in "Papa's chair." He weeps when he is removed. When Jonas got to the car Finn had the wipers going, the blinder on, and the hazards on. And he was furiously turning the wheel.

You can see the ran we experience on our drive there on the window. Blech.

Day 1:
We left home around 10:15 and got there about 12:30-ish. (I can hear you right now: "Greeeeeeeeeat. Is she really going to give us THIS much detail on stuff we don't care about this whole post?" Yes. Yes, I just might. Deal.) ;)

We couldn't check in until 3:00, technically, but I was told we could start using the water park anytime after 12:00. Jonas went in to get our wristbands and all, and when he came back he had upgraded us to a 2 room suite with a lake view, and we could check in immediately. Yesssssssssss. Always send Jonas in to do the check-in. ;)

We basically checked things out, got in our swim suits, and spent the rest of the day swimming in 2 different sessions with a break for dinner. I didn't take any pictures during this time because I wanted to actually BE THERE and enjoy it. :) That was a really good choice on my part.

I took a few pictures on Day 1 when we were back in our hotel room, so here they are:

Cleaning up before dinner. Oh, my poor baby Finn. His skin was almost DESTROYED by that pool water. I felt so bad for him, but other than scratching he seemed to be fine. It just looked AWFUL. :( So, every time we came back from the pool they took a bath. With juice boxes. Because it was vacation! ;)

Layla never takes naps anymore. When she gave them up before her 3rd birthday she just never went back. She never falls asleep in the car, never falls asleep during her quiet/rest time daily, etc. Well, folks, let me recommend swimming as the cure-all for the non-napper!! Haha! She was SHOT. This was after our first session. She then woke up, we went for dinner, and then went swimming again. Unfortunately, she was up far later than normal, so I'll keep my non-napper who goes to be at 6:45/7:00 p.m....thank you very much. :)

The view from our window. Large boats and ice on Lake Superior.

I think Jonas and I thought these were way more impressive than the kids did.

Wrestling on the bed with Papa.

Finn needing a hug.

Layla getting tickled.

Day 2:
On Day 2 I brought the camera and Renee's Flip (yeah, ours is totally dead, BUT my brother Greg has offered to sell me his, so I think I will likely take him up on that! Thanks Greg!) with us to the pool for a bit, then brought them back to the room so I could relax and not worry about them being stolen. :)

Layla was, of course, in total heaven the entire time. She loved every single minute spent in the pool. She tried out the kid section of the water park (including two different water slides) on the first day, but she mostly wanted to stick with her first love: swimming wherever she wanted in the pool. So, we did!

Finn was funny to watch. He was SO scared on the first day. He CLUNG to me and refused to wear his puddle jumper at our first morning session. However, by our second time in the pool on day 1 he was warming up to a lot of the basics about water and swimming? By day 2? He was almost a pro! It was so crazy to watch! :) He still is a little too small to wear his puddle jumper--actually by 5 lbs, which is really more of a big deal for things like this. He hasn't quite figured out the balance of it yet, but he was okay floating on his own for a while and would initiate jumping off ledges to Jonas and myself. He was even okay with splashes, getting water in his mouth, etc. So great! :)

Finn's biggest fear of the water park: the huge tub of water that would tip over and dump water on the kids section of the slides, etc. He never even got CLOSE to it, but when he would hear it tip over he would yell "Was ZAT??? WAAAATER!!!!" Here he is watching it with Jonas. :)

Love her...and her cute suits from Aunt Renee's collection.

Zero fear.

Heaven for Layla.

More watching.

No one does the "concerned / fearful / unsure" look better than Finn.

Heading back to safety zone.

Watching big kids play with balls.

Proof that I was on this vacation. Jonas took this picture from far away. :)

Very serious swimming concentration. :)

Sitting and watching the big bucket.

Here it is starting out.

Full impact. I would have HATED that as a kid!

Fear and awe.

Papa and Finn on the Lazy River. :)

Day 2, Part 2: Duluth Canal Park:
We checked out at noon on Monday, then headed right down the road to Canal Park for lunch. We ended up at Fitgers brew house, and right when we got there Finn fell asleep. He got up at 6:00 that morning, and had been swimming his little heart out for 3 hours, so I felt he needed a rest. Jonas took Layla in to get some fish and chips for us while I stayed in the car with sleeping Finn.

Jonas brought the fish and chips back to the car, where we ate with this as our view. We were in the bottom of the Fitger's parking ramp.

To our left:

To our right:

Baby and puppy got a chance in the driver's seat.

...and Layla's car seat.

Finn woke up after lunch, so we headed back to the heart of Canal Park to walk along the boardwalk for a while. The kids really love throwing rocks in the water, so we were searching for a place to do that without walking through miles of snow.