four favorites

We are home after spending 8 nights in Duluth this week!  We had a lot of fun, with just a couple not so fun, run down, tired, crabby kid moments.  It will be interesting to see if the kids can quickly get into a "back to school" routine and whether or not it was wise to take a long vacation right before school starts!  They traveled well enough, considering they are not good travelers, ha!  It's only about 5 hours (or less) up with a potty stop.  On the way there, we stopped at a couple of Wisconsin State parks.  That was really fun.  I have over 2,000 pictures to sift through, but hopefully I'll get more up soon.  Here is just a peek at some of the kids favorites things we did......

 Lemurs at the Zoo, the water slide at the hotel, the river otters at the aquarium and capturing the elusive "Snowball" at Tom's Logging Camp for Emily.

 Driving a large piece of driftwood like a ships wheel in Lake Superior, counting how many seconds he can hold his breath under water in the Twin Ponds, hitting crashing waves with sticks and of course, the water slide at the hotel for Luke.

Playing "choo choos" at the Duluth Children's Museum (or wherever had a train table!), playing in the wading pool at the hotel, going down the fun tree slide at the aquarium and playing on the rocking bumblebee at the Zoo playground for Logan.

t-ball

 T-ball is done for the summer and I only took pictures of Luke during 1 night!  Park & rec went about pictures funny this summer, no cute individual and team pictures like the past.  Just some random shots they took that you could purchase.  Nothing enticed me enough to buy them though.  Luckily, it was a night that he really seemed to enjoy it.... I don't think I've ever seen him pay close attention and hustle like he did, ha!  He complains often of his legs hurting (growing pains already?) and he walks inward some so we have a doctor appointment set up to talk about those things.  So, he's not my big runner to say the least!

Lark Toys

 Logan and I met up with Nana, Papa and the kids at Lark toys a week or so ago to get them from their week in Cambridge.  I think they sure miss Logan when they are apart, especially Em :)

Logan loves to cuddle soft things... a kitty and a golden eagle here.

Logan's first carousal ride!  He was certainly not a fan.  No tears, but lots of Mommmmy!

fast and furious

 Waiting (not so) patiently for fireworks to start!  It's hard keeping track of a quick toddler in the dark.  We went to the Goodview Days fireworks last night.  They are good.  Really good.  It's a close, fast, intense show.  There were a few times where you have that "Was that supposed to happen?!" thought, combined with thoughts of whether or not we should bail, ha!  I may have if Logan freaked out, but he was fine in Em's lap, ears covered during the especially obnoxious ones.  They even had these huge ground level fireballs, we could feel the heat!  Crazy.  Only complaint would be the end (the last picture).  It was an earth shaking loud, insanely bright mess of fireworks, not the usual brightly colored, light up the sky "grand finale" that is usually done at a fireworks show.  It left most everybody wondering if they were done or not.  Either way, we'll be back next summer!

Goodview Days parade

 We finally went to our first Goodview Days parade!  I guess I never really think of going when it comes time for Goodview Days, but this year the WinFins were invited to walk with the WinHawks high school and the Wizards swim teams.  Em was walking on the opposite side of us so we couldn't see her very well!  She had fun passing out freezies to kids though.  Luke was impressed with the candy:kid ratio.  Much better than the Winona parade this summer.  I think we'll go again!

 Waiting for the flag guy....

 Beep, beep!

 First taste of tootsie roll!  I was asking him what was in his mouth .... :)

 Lots of freezies too!

 Luke says "Hey, the Kwik Trip cow....maybe Daddy is on there!"  Haha, I think Daddy would have given us a heads up if he was in the parade.  Funny how they think.

 Logan dancing to the marching band.  I need to get a video of him dancing sometime.  It consists of a little bootie shake and he moves his fingers.  That's it.  And it's adorable.

 Em joined us for the end of the parade!