road trip

Saturday was such a beautiful day here, 78* and sunny - you really can't beat that!  We road tripped to Taylors Falls, thought we'd check it out as we've never been there before.  We went to Interstate State Park to do a little hiking and got to watch some pretty cool rock climbing, and had a picnic lunch as well.  

Taylors Falls and their neighboring city, St. Croix Falls, WI were having their annual Wannigan Days celebration (had to look up what a wannigan was - a wooden box that you store food in when you're on a canoe or sledding trip, good trivia for you).  Of course, the fire department was there in full force.  Somebody sure liked shooting the fire hose :)

Oh, do we love these beautiful summer days!

big boy room

Henry made the transition to a new room (down the hall) with BLUE carpet, new bed, new everything a few weeks ago.  We talked it up around here for quite a while before the big day.  In theory, he was loving the idea of a "big boy room" but I still prepared myself for him NOT being a fan when the day finally came to make the move.  I took the sheets off the crib, got rid of them, and closed the door to his old room.  I told him we had to get that room ready for the new baby now.  He's been absolutely great in his new room, which honestly has been a bit of a shocker to me.  There's only been 2 escapes out of bed, once in the middle of the night when he came sprinting down the hall in a panic (maybe he fell out, not sure??) and the other one the next morning when he came into our room and said "Mama, you forgot to come find me, so I came and found you!"

I've been singing "You Are My Sunshine" to him every night for as long as I can remember.  Thank you Etsy for this canvas print :)

America's birthday

Henry's Old Papa and Great Uncle Matt were in town for a couple days around the 4th of July.  Henry couldn't get enough of "man-time" with the guys!  I say this every time he gets to see his Old Papa, but he is so lucky to have a Great-Grandpa who gets down on the floor and really plays with him :)

We were supposed to have a boat parade that was going to go through our lake, so there we were, sitting out on the deck for an hour, it was 90* outside, waiting for this parade of pontoons to come through.....and nothing!  Apparently, we found out later that there were only 4 boats in the parade and they skipped our lake all together, it was a big bust, oh well.  

So, off to the VFW for lunch we went.  Burgers and dogs at the VFW on the 4th of July, how patriotic!

After a good nap, we headed over to the Hausmann's for our annual 4th of July party, complete with lots of water fun and great grilling as always.  It was a hot and sunny day out there, perfect for the water slide!

Jed certainly put on quite a show with his fireworks display in their backyard.  Henry was loving stomping on the snaps the most ("snaps" may be a NoDak term, not sure what they call them here in MN).

By the time we made it home and visited with the neighbors who were out lighting their fireworks, I don't think Henry got to bed until 9:30pm that night, probably the latest night of his life - party animal!

water lovers

Now that summer has officially arrived, it seems like all of our play-dates have revolved around WATER!  We have to take advantage of these water-days while we can :)  

First up, swimming at Baby Izzy's pool.  Izzy is going on 6 months old, and was an absolute trooper hanging by the pool one morning when we came to visit.  A week later, we upped the ante when Phil came with us this time and we had a pizza party on the deck with the Nelson's.  Does it get much better than swimming and pizza, probably not?!

Owen made a trip to visit us at our Blaine beach and splash pad one morning.   Yep, Henry sure is trying to drink from the splash pad here, I know, gross.   

Ben & Kate also came to check out the Blaine beach one day, too.  Kate was such a rockstar, broken arm and all, kept that thing out of the water and played the whole time!

We met Harrison at the Maple Grove beach last week, which was SUCH a nice beach (and they have a huge park nearby too, but we didn't have time to check that out on this visit), it's even chlorinated, which I don't understand how that's even possible.  I would definitely come back here!

Henry sure loves his snacks while he's swimming.  We aren't in the water more than 30 minutes and the boy is "soooo hungry for snack!" 

3 year doctor's visit

Henry had his 3 year visit this morning with Dr. Sakkal.  It was full fledged big-boy physical this time.  He checked out as healthy as a horse!  Height was 38 inches and weight was 32 pounds, both of which are just over the 50th %ile.  They don't measure head circumference any longer, and instead they check his blood pressure (or an arm hug, as she called it), which was 84/42.

Dr. Sakkal asked if I'd like him to try the vision and hearing tests as well.  He said they usually get about 20% success rate at this age, but it would be worth a try if he was having a good day (which he was); otherwise they'd do it again anyways at the 4 year visit.  I couldn't stop giggling during the vision test, it was just too stinkin cute!  

The girl would ask him questions like, "What do you see?"

"A clown!" 

"What is the clown pointing to?"

"A flower!"

"What color is the flower?"

"Lellow (yellow)!"  "Mommy, you wanna play the game too?"

By the time the hearing test came around, I think we'd lost his interest.  It was the good ol' 'raise your hand when you hear the beep' test.  He kept saying "Mommy, I can't hear the music yet" as I'm sure he was expecting to hear some Pearl Jam like he listens to with his headphones on Daddy's iPod.   The nurse and I were both giggling this time.  She would remind him multiple times, "Henry, every time you hear the beep, make sure you raise your hand for me," then he would proudly raise both hands as far in the air as he could when there was no beep to be heard :)  

Like I said, they checked him out from head to toe.  Yep, they even asked for a urine sample from him. He sure thought that was cool, going potty in a cup!  

On a side note, I had my 24 week prenatal appointment today as well.  Baby's heartrate was 144.  Everything looked good.  Dr. Nadeau tried to externally feel if he could tell what position the baby was in, but no luck, baby's too small to tell.  That was it - quick visit :)    

Gull Lake

A couple weeks ago, we took a little summer (ok, maybe spring?) vacation up north to Gull Lake, and stayed in a cabin at the Grand View Lodge in Nisswa, MN for a few nights.  I'd heard great things about Grand View Lodge from friends before and recently read about it in "The Best of...MN" where it was voted "Best kid-friendly resort in MN!"  Very true, very kid-friendly, certainly didn't disappoint!  

The Chocolate Ox, the lovely candy store located right on Grand View's property.  Yes, I'm pretty sure we (ok, maybe I) visited this place twice each day - once in the afternoon for gummy candy (peach rings for me, please) and then once in the evening for ice cream.  

It did rain a couple days, but we also had some great sun for a couple days as well.  While the lake water was a bit too chilly to swim in, the beach sand sure was a big hit with Henry (and all of his construction trucks that he brought along - he said they were working on building a Buffalo Wild Wings on the beach, now that's my kind of construction project)!

We took a paddle boat out on the lake one morning.

Thank goodness for the water park on those rainy days, well, actually everyday for that matter.  We managed to get some good swimming in every morning we were there.  Good swimming sure makes for good naps (Henry in his bed and me out on the porch).  

We found some local attractions to hit up in the afternoons as well.  Here we are at Paul Bunyan Land in Brainerd.  Henry was a little too freaked out to get near giant Paul Bunyan for a picture.  It was pretty cool when he welcomed Henry to the park by name though.  

Pretty sure we were one of the only families there that afternoon, which meant Henry had his pick of carnival rides.  First thing we did when we got there - rode the motorcycles.....

.....then onto the ponies.....

.....then down the bouncy castle slide.  

We checked out the Pirates Cove in Brainerd for a little mini golf action as well.  Henry just couldn't quite get the concept of hitting the ball, then actually leaving the ball on the ground where it landed, then hitting it again.  It was a tough concept to grasp.....next time we'll get it.  We did manage to get though 18 holes!

We certainly put down our fair share of pizza on this trip, hitting up the 2 pizza joints, Zorbaz and Rafferty's, mmm mmm good!

It was a fun little getaway, probably our last vaca with just the 3 of us :)

Henry's 3rd birthday, a day in review

This year, Henry's actual birthday fell on a Monday.  We started an ECFE class (Early Childhood Family Education) that morning, which Henry calls "school."  The teachers were so sweet.  When we got there and told them who we were, they knew that it was Henry's birthday that day, made him a birthday crown, and we sung to him as well.  It was a very nice welcome!  Our first day of "school" went great, looking forward to next week. 

Phil & I got Henry a new big-boy bike for his birthday.  We got him a balance bike, no pedals and no training wheels, his feet are his pedals.  It'll take some practice to get used to, but he'll get it!

He chose his favorite restaurant, McDonald's, for his birthday dinner - cheeseburger and fries, please!  No complaints from me, as I love me some McDonald's burgers and fries too.  I did manage to talk him into going to the Big Dipper for ice cream, where he enjoyed a scoop of 'birthday cake' ice cream.