Arboretum

I'm a bit behind on keeping up with our life!

I took a day off from work in November to go to the Arboretum with Natalie and James. We walked way more trails than I expected! We had Natalie in her bike carrier so we didn't have to worry about her getting tired out - there was however no bike carrier for me! Regardless we did quite a number of trails, went through a couple of their mazes and in general had a great day! A few pictures from the day...

The plant James donated to the arboretum:

Natalie in the bee hive:

Natalie in a tree along a trail:

On the St. Croix with the Qualleys

A little over a month ago I found out that Britt has never been canoeing - NEVER. So we planned a date towards the end of September to take a trip down the St. Croix.

Saturday was the day - the day started out quite gloomy and I was really worried we were going to get rained out of our fun day. But when the time came to put the canoes in the water there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It turned out to be a beautiful day full of laughter and turtles.

We did not do the long trip from Taylors Falls to William O'brien this time - instead we took out at Osceola which is 'just' 7 miles instead of 17. Needless to say the boys (and everyone else) were over joyed when we saw the Osceola bridge come into view.

Mason holding a baby snapping turtle:
The picture Gabe took of the cliffs along the journey:
Owen and Brian competing to see who has cuter eye brows - Owen wins, hands down:
A picture from the Captains chair of everyone (except of course the Captain - Me):
Britt, Owen, Gabe and Matt paddling away:

Wine Weekend

5 wineries, 45 different wines all in 2 days.

Wineries:
-St. Croix Vineyards
-Alexis Bailly Vineyard
-Cannon River Winery
-Falconer Vineyards and Nursery
-Northern Vineyards

Best part about the whole weekend - spending some much needed time with Mary Schuh!

Mary and Me at St. Croix Vineyards:


Mary and me at Falconer Vineyards:

Mary and me pretending to stomp grapes at St. Croix vineyard:


...I think my grapes are all stomped.


Evidently visiting wineries and tasting wine give you some abilities...
such as the ability to hold water fountains...


Or to squish bird houses with just your fingers...

Trip North

We had a nice relaxing weekend last week up north. We went to gooseberry falls, split rock light house, great lakes aquarium and canal park. James, Jeanne and Natalie came along which made it a great time. Our weekend was made memorable by all the 1 - 2 - 3 swings, searching for cool rocks, and playing in the hotel pool.

Can anyone really have too many beanies?

So growing up my mom had her own business making and selling dolls. Along with this business she also sold Ty bears, beanies and what not. So basically at the height of the Ty beanie baby craze my mom was receiving beanies by the dozens (literally). Her being such the great mom always allowed me to keep one of each....so here is the result - my husband wondering what the heck he got himself into and my pile of beanies:
Things like a mound of beanies really remind me of just how crazy awesome my mom really was. Honestly, I kind of forgot how much time we spent looking at beanies, collecting them or trying to sell them.. I think the best/worst was probably when McDonalds had the teanie beanies....ugh, I'm surprised that I don't weigh 200+ lbs after how many happy meals we ate. Image going through the drive through and ordering 10 happy meals for 2 people. ...it happened.

Our Trip to Tettagouche

We headed up to Tettegouche State Park for a few days with Sassy. It rained a couple nights and most of one day. I learned to Play Cribbage and skunked Brian - he calls it beginners luck, I think I'm just that good. Here are a few pictures from the trip, as you can see Sassy enjoyed.