Duluth

After looking at all of Matt's days off between now and when the baby is due to arrive-- yesterday was the only day we had with no plans/ appointments, etc.... We haven't been to Duluth since before Levi was born and I thought we should go up there. We finally decided we'd just run up for the day-- see some boats coming and going and spend the day carefree and have some fun.

We left our house about 9 am-- I was very crabby and didn't feel very good-- I'm on Terbutline (sp?) to keep me from going into labor right now, but it makes me really shaky and feeling kinda gross. So, I was just trying to get out the door, etc... We began driving, things were going fine. Matt commented that when we got to Grantsburg we'd put gas in the van. I thought that was fine-- I didn't have a map to look at so I was just waiting till we got to a gas station to get a map. After we went through Danbury we realized that Grantsburg is on a different road and so we wouldn't be getting to Grantsburg. By this time we were down to less than 50 miles left on our tank of gas, and knew we had more than 50 miles till the next town. So we were holding our breath-- finally with 20 miles left on our tank we see a little station. Whew!

We continue down the road about 10 miles to arrive at Pattison State Park. We paid our entrance fee and went to park to look at the waterfall. Matt flipped on the blinker and I noticed something sounded wierd. By the time we were in the lot I noticed that the clock was off, the computer module was off, the spedometer was off, the fan blowers were off, etc.... So I told Matt that it looked like our alternator had gone out on the van-- UGH!!!! He shut it off, and yep, it wouldn't start again. We got someone to jump us, and started driving up 35 toward Superior-- the van was chugging away and right then there was a service place-- WHEW!

We pulled in, the owner came out and he had us pull up to the garage and had a guy come pull the alternator out. It's about noon by now, so Levi is CRABBY (naptime) and we hadn't eaten lunch yet. They got us squared away in under an hour so we were happy about that. Unfortunately, when we left for the day I had looked at our checkbook and told Matt we had $305 for the next two weeks.................. he went in to pay for the service and it came t $340. Eek. So he had paid for it out of our checking account and so we left feeling a little sick.

We finally arrive in Superior and then into Duluth-- and Duluth was a disaster. There were people everywhere-- it was unbelievable how it could be that busy on a Tuesday afternoon!! Levi fell asleep in Superior-- so I told Matt to get to a beach and he and Addison could go swim and Levi could stay asleep for awhile. Of course by the time we got to a beach and got ready-- Levi was awake. We let the kids play in Lake Superior for awhile, but they were too crazy, we thought we'd try to park in Canal Park once more. It was too crazy there, so we gave up and left Duluth. Went bckto Pattison, let the kids swim and play there and then looked at the waterfall.

By the time we got home last night I think we were a little less crabby-- but it was a maddening day to go for a FUN day-- to come home BROKE for the next 2 weeks and really didn't get to do anything we had wanted to do. Grr.

Pretend

Levi has started a new important thing in his life--PRETEND. To be honest, I don't remember when Addison started pretending things, but am so suprised that Levi has already started it. Addison pretends things all day long-- everyday so I'm used to it-- and I know that it's a positive thing they need to do.
On Sunday we were playing outside at the playground at church and I saw Levi walk over to the picnic table and pretend to grab something to eat-- and then stick his hands in his mouth and chew up the pretend object. He walked away, turned around and went back to the table over and over again to continue eating it! Since then I've noticed him doing lots of pretend things. Yesterday Matt was flossing his teeth and Levi was watching and pretty soon had his hands up just like Matt has his and was doing it too. :) Age 1 is a lot of fun, they learn more and more every day.

Hunting

While we were driving around Estes Park we noticed an Elk Crossing sign close to our campground. Matt was telling Addison that we were looking for Elk-- to which she started saying "there's an elk, there's a deer....." and you know she's just making it up-- she does this at home too-- she'll stand at the window with binoculars and say "there's a bear behind the pond"....

So Matt said to her-- "Addison you'll have to come hunting with me cause you see so many animals...." she said "I can't go hunting daddy, I'm just a little girl..... I can only go hunting when I'm a daddy."

It was the cutest thing!!

Update

Looks like it's been over a month since I posted anything.... so I'll give a little update of where we've been this month, etc....

On June 19th we left on a trip to South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado & then home.... We had 10 days to do this trip, and it was WONDERFUL!

• The first day (Friday, 20th) we drove to Interior, SD and stayed at a dumpy little campground. After 500+ miles of promising a swimming pool to Addison, we pulled into the campground and she said "There's the 'cool'"-- Matt and I looked over to find it was empty...... She was a trooper and just kept saying "Sorry there's no 'cool' mom".... :) We made the best of it-- played awhile and went to bed.
• The second day (Saturday, 21st) we over-did it and went to Badlands, Wall-Drug, Custer State Park & Mt Rushmore, after all those things we drove through Deadwood on our way to Spearfish. Just a LONG day. From Custer to Mt Rushmore we took the "Needles Hwy"-- which was a lot of switchbacks, etc.... and then Levi threw up. Poor baby. Stayed at a nice campground, went swimming, did laundry, Addison got to feed a baby goat at the petting zoo, etc....
• The third day (Sunday, 22nd) we went to Devils Tower, WY. After seeing the tower started a LONG drive south-- into nothing! We drove all day and past 8 pm to finally arrive a another dumpy campground on Exit 2 of Wyoming. Again, promising a pool all day and again not getting one! Addison was still a little trooper and just apologized to us about the lack of a pool. What a sweetheart!
• The fourth day (Monday, 23rd) we drove into Colorado and swung through Windsor-- just to see if I could find CBC-- we did it first try, which I was amazed at-- the town is COMPLETELY different. But we found it. After that we headed down to Colorado Springs to find the cheap hotel I had booked. After we headed into the neighborhood of the hotel-- Matt stated "I can see why you got this place so cheap"-- it was a creepy neighborhood and a creepy hotel. :) Oh well, we survived, and it had a pool, so the kids were thrilled! We hooked up with Jenny Moriak that evening and took a tour of Garden of the Gods and then went to the Air Force Academy. It was a nice evening.
• The fifth day (Tuesday, 24th) we drove to Estes Park-- by way of Grand Lake and across Rocky Mtn National Park. Arrived at our campground (Jellystone)-- and it was TERRIBLE!! We got set up and decided that the next day we were going to leave-- even though I had made a 3 day reservation. It was so steep that I couldn't walk up it with the kids-- and Levi couldn't walk around cause he'd fall down. Addison & Matt swam for a little bit and we went to bed
• The sixth day (Wednesday, 25th) we wokeup to a rustling noise-- Matt went to see what it was and found a bear licking Levi's booster seat-- broke it. :( The bear ran off and after the kids got up I packed up the camper and Matt went down to cancel our reservation. We left by 9 am and drove down to Elk Meadow Rv park-- it was just before the entrance to RMNP and gorgeous! We got a site and set up camp. We all went for a swim in the pool and had a great day hanging out. That evening we went into town (Estes) and looked through shops, etc.... Just a nice day.
• The seventh day (Thursday, 26th) we drove into RMNP and found a spot to eat breakfast. We ate breakfast at a "Christmas Table" (as Addison calls a Picnic Table) and went to look at the river by where we ate. We drove some more as Matt wanted to get up to the Continental Divide that day. The kids slept through most of it-- but we saw dozens of elk as we went. It was a nice drive up the mountains. After that we went back to our site and relaxed-- of course then it rained the whole rest of the day, so we were stuck in the camper the whole day. We had our first ever "family movie night"-- and put in Madagascar to watch-- Addison was asleep within 30 minutes, Levi stood in his pack-n-play to watch and would have watched the whole thing if we didn't turn it off and make him go to bed!
• The eighth day (Friday, 27th) we packed up camp-- did our laundry, washed the dishes, emptied the sewer, etc... and headed into town. Matt wanted to go to a couple more shops-- he wanted to buy a rock and then to look at some carcasses at a shop. We did that, ate lunch and then headed down the road. The kids both fell asleep right away and we drove down to Loveland and then drove through Ft Collins and then to Windsor. We got checked into our dorm room and unpacked some stuff. Lori & Jason were already there-- greeted them briefly and got ready for the weekend! Sarah & Roy arrived next, followed by Adam & Stephanie, Megan & baby Jack, Sara & Matt, Kathie & Sam, Suzanne, & Chad... We saw others throughout the weekend as well. Had a relaxing evening catching up with old friends.
• The ninth day (Saturday, 28th)-- we stayed on campus all day and relaxed. It was a nice day. Had supper out with everyone and came back and had a bonfire.
• The tenth day (Sunday, 29th) we headed for home. We left Windsor about 9 am mountain time and arrived home shortly before 2 am central time. The kids were great and we were able to drive and drive and drive! :)

It was a great trip. We unpacked on Monday when we got home and cleaned up the truck & camper, returned it to mom & dad and worked on getting back to life-as-normal. The following Friday (3rd)-- I took the kids to LBBC for family camp and came home on Sunday (5th).... now we're all tired and paying for it!

What a great summer it has been so far! The baby is scheduled to arrive on August 20th, which gives us just over 5 weeks to get everything ready. When we got home on the 5th, we moved Levi's crib to Addison's room and they've been doing great sharing. :)

WHEW! That's the update for now. Will post a couple funny stories in a minute!

Funeral

Today we attended the funeral of Lucas Smith. Before leaving for the funeral I was trying to decide how much to tell Addison, because I was afraid that she'd blurt out things that she shouldn't say, but didn't want her completely confused. I thought I'd start off by just telling her we were going to see Donna at church at the funeral. (Donna is Lucas' mom).... So I told her that much and she got very excited and said "Donna is my friend!" So I said yes, she's your friend make sure to give her a hug. The next thing out of her mouth was "Will Lucas be there too?" And then I didn't know what to say.

On our way to the funeral I told Matt about our conversation and told him I was afraid she might ask Donna if Lucas was going to be there or ???? So I thought we should tell her SOMETHING about where Lucas was. Matt took a stab at it-- we told her again that Donna would be there and she was happy about that again and again asked "Lucas too?" To which Matt just replied "Lucas is in Heaven now", all she kept asking is "what took him to Heaven"-- we replied "God did" and then she wanted to know "Does Lucas work in Heaven?" (Because the only reason to NOT attend church or other events is because we're at work!) So we told her yes, Lucas works in Heaven.

Once we got to church we went up to hug the family-- and the casket was by Donna of course.... Addison caught a glimpse of the casket and the man in the casket and wouldn't look away. Once we got to our pew to sit down she asked "What's that man doing lying in bed?"..... again, how to respond?!

Just a tough thing for a little girl to grasp-- and don't want to say too much and have her confused like by saying "Lucas died because he was sick"-- I've heard then kids will think every time mom & dad get sick they might get worried and think we'll die too......... :(

Baby

This pregnancy Addison is much more interested than last time. She asks everyday where the baby is growing and will pretend to feel the baby-- although I really don't think she has ever felt baby kick she claims she has.

A couple months ago the local hospital sent out its publication and it shows pictures of all the babies that were born there throughout a period of time.... Addison was looking at the pictures with me and kept pointing at different babies and saying "lets get that one...." I thought I explained then that we didn't get to pick out a baby, but today she saw me looking at baby pictures of friends' babies on Facebook and again-- she was picking all the babies she wanted us to get at the hospital. :) Then she kept asking "is this a Levi baby?"..... I'm really not sure what she thinks is going to come out of my belly this fall!

Poop

Sorry for the gruesome title on this one-- but it's all I can smell and think about right now......

The last two days have been DISASTERS here-- and I'm not sure why. Addison had 2 accidents yesterday-- one on the couch and one on the living room floor.... not like her at all. Today was going a little better, except at naptime choked (really) on some candy-- Matt got it out, she threw up on her floor a little, but then napped 3 hours (a RARE thing these days). I finally went in and woke her up cause she was sleeping too long.

We had an enjoyable evening..... well, earlier in the day went out to lunch at the Pizzeria-- Levi pooped up to his shoulder blades there.... and pooped 2 more times throughout the day. I assume he's teething.

Now onto today. It was going better after nap time.... we played Candy Land (bought it at a garage sale today)-- Addison beat me twice. Tried to play with our train set, but Levi takes it apart as fast as we put it together..... SO-- after supper Addison got ready for a bath (while in the kitchen)-- I told her to run to the bathroom and go potty..... off she went-- then yelled that she had an accident-- right in front of the toilet she went.... so, cleaned up that mess while the kids were in the bath.

Got Levi's pj's on and we were watching "ding-ding"(wheel of fortune)..... she was cooking in her room-- telling me it's where she works-- and Levi too. She said that tonight Levi was a princess and she was a cook. Okay, whatever. She shut her door and me & Levi were watching Wheel of Fortune. Finally I'm curious what she's been doing in there for more than 5 minutes without talking-- I open her door and there is poop EVERYWHERE.... she had it on the carpet, the walls, her kitchen set, the rocking chair, the stool and the dresser......... she has NEVER done this before. No, I didn't take pictures-- I couldn't bear to. So now, after an hour of scrubbing poop out of everything she's quiet in bed and I'm still grossed out. GRR.... Can't wait till Matt's off work again!!!! We have a date for Monday-- it's his birthday-- so hopefully I'll feel a little more sane and human like again after that. We'll see though.....

Bugs...

We brought Addison with to Levi's dr appointment on April 6th. (1 year check-up)... The nurse is asking us all these questions about what Levi does and things. Addison was just sitting with Matt listening to the questions and all of a sudden blurts out "Levi eats lots of bugs.... especially at Grandpa & Grandma's"

Everyone laughed and laughed and laughed. :) But it is true, Levi does eat lots of bugs-- he sees Asian Beetles at my parents house and he goes nuts to get them in his mouth before we catch them!! YUCK!

Flowers or Olives?

I told Addison a couple days ago that we'd be eating at Olive Garden in a few days.... The next day we were talking about going to McDonalds for lunch and she came over to me and said "I want to go to the Flower Garden"-- which I just smiled and said, "Oh sweetie, there aren't any flower garden's right now....". But Matt figured out what she was talking about-- she was thinking OLIVE GARDEN.