Lucy Eats Dirt

Minnesota & Ontario

So we went back to Minnesota and Canada this summer for a visit. It was so great to see our family and old friends there. In many ways Minnetonka feels like home to me. We lived there for almost 9 years, had our first three children there and LOVED our friends, neighbors, church, school, co-op... Guess I still miss it a bit. We decided to fly into Minneapolis and then rented a car to drive the 8 hours to Dryden. The car ride wasn't bad. We forgot how beautiful Minnesota is. We stopped in Orr at our favorite little hotel there. It's an AmericInn with a pool and really fun water slide. We all went swimming and had a great time! No trouble at the border this time and no moose or deer sightings on that crazy last 2 hour stretch. :)














We had a great time at Granny Turners. She set up Granny's boot camp in the basement for our boys and their cousins, Clint and Tyler. They had a ball. The weather was pretty awful and Jonah's allergies to the cats were pretty bad but we still enjoyed long walks, good talks, a few games of Quiddler, great food including Granny's blueberry cheesecake and Great Gran Brisson's rhubarb pie. Yum! The wedding the beautiful and Sara and Jonathon looked so happy. It was really great to see so many memebers of the Brisson clan- we even got a picture with a LOT of us there! Later that week, we took a freezing dip into lake Wabegoon (so cold I couldn't form words), enjoyed some kayaking and a great meal by Suzie and Rod. One of my favorite moments was when all the kids were rocking out to "Eye of the Tiger" on Noah and Olexa's Rock Band game. They were singing like they meant it.














We drove back to Minneapolis and stayed there for 3 days, catching up with old friends. Jonah was reunited with his 4 Kinder/1st grade buddies from Groveland. It was so fun to see how big all the kids have gotten. I LOVED seeing the hydrangeas on Vine Hill Road- absolutely amazing! We hung out at Wekota beach for an afternoon and spent a day at the Thomas' where of course we were fed well and had lots of laughs. It was good to get back to our own beds and out of a suitcase but dang- we miss our friends/family in the North.

4th of July

Kids, swimming, fajitas, glowsticks, candy, fireworks, friends... I love Independence Day!

Addicted. To. Baby Legs.

I found baby legs online while searching for comfy baby tights. They seemed they best idea! Easy on and off and no hassles while diaper changing. I'm not a big fan of baby shoes so that worked out too. I bought a couple of pair online and they are very cute but I wanted some other patterns and while searching around discovered a great tutortial on how to make your own. I saw these socks on sale at Target and had to have them! Added bonus: padding on Lucy's knees while she crawls around on the tile floor. Fashion and function!


http://everythingyourmamamade.com/2008/01/21/make-your-own-baby-leg-warmers/
Sorry, can't be bothered to figure out how to make that a link. I'll work on it later!!

Swim Team

Okay, so I am so tortured about kid's activities. I love sports and music and want my kids to have all those experiences. But it is so hard to schedule it all in. I see some families who are so overscheduled that they can barely eat together and I don't want that. I think it's pretty much inevitable once you have teenagers but at least while the kids are young I would like to have as much family time as possible. Curtis is a big fan of down time for the family. Just relaxing, playing games, reading, having a swim. Having said all that, we signed the boys up for swim team. It was insane. Practice 4 days a week for the last month of school and then every morning at 8am for the month of June. 5 or 6 meets that last for 4 hours (in the sweltering heat with a sticky, nursing baby- arghhh!) But towards the end of the season I found myself saying that maybe we should do it again next year. Swimming is such a great sport and the boys love to be in the water. It's one of those things you can still do when you are 80, which is pretty unique.

The hole in our backyard

We finally decided that since it's HOTTER than the sun here and you can swim 9 months out of the year that we should think about a pool. It was really cool to see it put in. When I got back from the weekend with Lisa, this is what the backyard looked like.





The kids were so excited to swim in the pool that we let them while it was filling up. Even Lucy had a bathe (I just finished reading "A Room With A View" and LOVED it. My favorite scene was the pond scene, same as the movie. :O)






Finally finished! The best thing about this pool is that it's saltwater. We hate chlorine and salt water is a completely different experience. We LOVE it!