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Tuesday, September 04, 2007
 
Well, that was a lovely holiday weekend for us. I hope yours was good too. We headed up north for the weekend. Before we could though we headed to Grandpa Dan and Marcia's house on Friday night. We had to pick up some mail for Auntie Krystle before we could head out of town with her and Pierce. It was such a nice night out too. We even took a little walk across the street to tour some of the new houses being built there. James showed them all of his new tricks (crawling, standing, cruising furniture, etc.) and Annika just showed off. She's such a ham. She danced for us and ran around outside just having fun.

Saturday morning we finished packing up the truck and were headed north by 9:30am. Luckily James went to sleep right away and Annika watched a video so Kris and I had a nice, quiet trip almost all the way to Duluth. About twenty miles outside Duluth James woke up so we stopped for some lunch. And then James cried almost the entire rest of the way to Duluth. Nothing we did made him happy. He just wanted out of the car seat. We stopped in Duluth to spend some time down at Canal Park by Lake Superior. Annika had a great time climbing the rocks, chasing the birds and running around. James had a great time just being out of his car seat, sitting in the grass and crawling around. After about an hour there we got back in the truck to finish our journey. James fell asleep again and the rest of our ride was pretty uneventful.

We stayed at Caribou Highlands in a 2 bedroom Poplar Ridge Home. It was so nice! One bedroom had a king sized bed and private bath that Krystle and Pierce stayed in. The other bedroom had a queen sized bed and two twin beds for us to stay in. We also brought the pack 'n play for James to sleep in. We didn't do much that night but hang out together. The next morning we packed up and headed a bit farther north to Grand Marais while Krystle and Pierce headed out to do some hiking. In Grand Marais we walked out to the breakwall. Annika had fun walking on the rocks (with Mom or Dad having a firm grip on her at all times). The water was choppy since it was fairly windy out. We were walking on the cement breakwall when out of nowhere this huge waves comes crashing down on us! I literally looked up and saw this huge wave of water coming straight down on my head. The breakwall is only about three feet wide on top at this point so I buckled down and held on for the onslaught. I also had a pretty good hold of Annika or she would have gone flying off the wall. James was in the backpack carrier on Kris's shoulders and he was strapped in tight, thank goodness. We all got completely soaked. Annika started crying from the shock of it all while I started laughing hysterically. Kris just turned around, muttered "We're done here." and started walking back to shore. After a while my laughing turned Annika's crying into giggles too. James cried once after it happened and then he was fine too. Luckily I had a change of clothes for the kids in our truck so we headed back to get them changed. Kris and I weren't so prepared though. We found a local shop and bought me a cheap t-shirt to wear but I had to stay in my drenched jeans. Jeans are heavy when they are wet! They were so heavy the were falling off me. Eventually we all dried off of course and we didn't let it ruin our day. Krystle and Pierce joined us for lunch at Sven and Ole's Pizza. We walked around a bit more before we headed out for a hike of our own. We went to the Cascade State Park and did about a two mile hike. We were lucky enough to borrow two backpack baby carriers for the kids (Thanks John & Michelle and Jon & Michelle!). Kris and I both really like that hike. It's not too difficult and it has some really pretty waterfalls too. After hiking we headed back to our lodging, changed into our swimming suits and headed to the pool. Annika loved the pool, absolutely loved it. She had her life jacket on so she was free to move about the pool a little bit. At least she didn't have a parent holding on to her the whole time, we were just within arm's reach mostly. James though, well, he hated it. The water was too cold for him and he just cried and cried when we tried to bring him in. Auntie Krystle ended up sitting in a chair holding him for most of our time there. Thanks Auntie Krystle! Annika would jump off the side of the pool, roll to her belly, roll to her back, doggie paddle around the pool, etc. She was having a blast. When she would get too cold, she would get out and go to the spa to dip her toes. Then when she was warm again she would jump back in the big pool. That night we were all tired from the long day. After our yummy steak dinner (which we grilled on our private deck - it was so nice!) and the kids went to bed, we sat around and watched a movie before calling it a day. Yesterday we packed back up and headed out. After breakfast we drove down to Gooseberry Falls for more waterfall sightseeing. Annika again had a great time climbing around on the rocks. We walked around for a while and then Krystle and Pierce left and we got our bike trailer and bikes out. We were hoping to go for a little bike ride but James was having none of that. He cried and cried and we gave up and got in the truck to drive home. Poor James, he was so tired. And he just doesn't like the bike trailer. I'm hoping next summer we have better luck with that. Anyway, he slept all the way into Duluth and woke up just as we were heading onto the freeway for home. We stopped so I could feed him some lunch and then got back on the road. He was fine for a little while and then got upset again. He wanted out of his car seat again. Poor James cried for a good portion of our drive home. Kris and I took turns squishing between the car seats to play with him, feed him some treats and generally try and distract him but we weren't always successful. It was a long drive home, that's for sure. But, we made it and of course James fell alseep again about 30 minutes from home so when we did pull in to the driveway at his bedtime, he woke up and was up for another 45 minutes. At least he was in a happy mood this time, being able to crawl all over the house.

And now we're back to the routine. We do have an exciting week coming up though. Tomorrow James turns 7 months old and Friday is Annika's 3rd birthday and her first day of preschool. That's going to be a big day for her! And Saturday is her birthday party. Oh what fun!

Annika has been cracking me up lately with some of her language. Saturday she said "Come on guys!" when she wanted us to hurry up and go to the pool. And tonight she was calling James a "silly munchkin" which is something Kris and I routinely call her. And she is (usually) so sweet to her brother. Last night James fell down (on his butt) from standing and started crying (um, yeah, he was tired again) and Annika came racing over to me while I held and consoled James. She kept asking over and over if he was all right. I assured her he was. And tonight James was fussy while in his high chair while I was getting dinner for us so Annika scooted closer to him and fed him some of his crackers. And James thinks Annika is just the funniest and routinely laughs at her silliness. It is so great to see them interacting and playing with each other.

Posted by Kristina at 9/04/2007 08:22:00 PM



Comments:
Wow, that was an amazing trip! I feel for ya with the long car trip and the not-so-happy infant. I keep trying to imagine the wave and it is so hard. I'm glad no one was swept away.
 
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