Father's Day

Father's day began with homemade pancakes (Daddy actually cooked for us instead of the other way around). After a somewhat whiny and rainy morning, we headed to the Minnesota Zoo, where the troops were much happier.

Morgan was really into walking around and checking out all the animals. He is certainly becoming Mr. Independent when out in public. Gotta keep our eyes on him at all times. Morgan is a wanderer.
Aren't they cute?

There is a Dr. Suess tribute there right now and I got the grand idea to take a picture for our family Christmas card in front of the Grinch and Max. This was one of four photos a random man was nice enough to take for us. Unfortunately, the kiddos didn't realize what a great family photo op this was. Alas, I'm sure we'll be back at the zoo again to take another family photo...perhaps with some other important fathers and grandfathers in our lives. Seeing as this was the first "holiday" away from home, I think I handled it fairly well. Thank goodness for Skype! Anyone else out there have a Skype name that we don't already talk to? We know Grandma B is working on it and Tessa keeps requesting to see Anna via Skype. Hint, hint!

How did you celebrate Father's Day?

Hyland Park

A view of (a small part of) Hyland Park play area.

The inside of one of the climbing ropes.
A view of the lake at Hyland Park, just to continue the lake theme throughout Minnesota. I thought it was pretty cool we lived so close to a lake until I realized that everyone lives close to a lake.
I have resigned myself to thinking of this year that I get to stay home with our kids as an extended vacation before I return to teaching, so we are definitely using this "vacation" to explore our new city. Today's outing included a trip for a biometric screening to the Target Clinic (where for the first time ever, Nate is "healthier" than I am; apparently my cholesterol is too low?) so that our deductible for insurance is lowered, a family lunch at Panera, and a quick trip to Hyland Park Reserve, which for directional purposes is in the same city as the Mall of America.

I read about this park in a book my friend Julia got for us and it is known to the local kids as "Chutes and Ladders" due to the immense size of the ladders, stairs, and more importantly, slides. And Chutes and Ladders it was! The first picture doesn't quite do it justice. This was about half of the large playground, and there were two smaller playground areas as well for the younger kids. The second picture shows what the climbing was like - lots of ropes used for climbing. And the size really is crazy for slides. So big, in fact, that Tessa wouldn't even go down the slides by herself at first. She had to ride the twirly ones on my lap, though I did eventually cajole her into going down the silver slide on the right by herself with Daddy waiting at the bottom. All in all, a fun trip, though we probably won't return any time soon. Tessa is still a tad young to venture the ropes on her own; she was a little too scared for my own comfort. And with Morgan in tow, forget about it!

Splashing and Story Time

My theory on survival in Minnesota is to stay busy, so we are doing just that. The local library had a pajama story time last night, complete with cookies and milk. Morgan may not have worn his jammies, but he certainly ate a cookie and he definitely "explored" the library.

Tessa, on the other hand, prepared her jammies the night before and was very excited to wear her skeleton pajamas from Halloween. She thoroughly enjoyed the bedtime stories, cookies and milk, and balloon animal (the story time was led by a clown).
Earlier in the day, we headed to the MN State Zoo for the second time, this time accompanied by a friend of mine from high school. Surprisingly, both kids warmed right up to Julia and had a great time seeing the animals, feeding the goats, and playing in the splash park.


I was thankful to have an extra set of hands, as the kids were definitely soaked after all the splashing!

Bruiser

Morgan is officially a walker. I would say he is walking about 95% of the time now, which seems crazy, as he was crawling or cruising about 95% of the time a week ago. With the walking has come some new bumps and bruises. Unfortunately most of our outdoor areas (driveway and backyard) are on a slight incline, so he has been having some difficulty with that. Fortunately, he is tough. Morgan recovers quite quickly from his falls and barely cries. Much different than Tessa.

Yesterday, he was walking around the kitchen holding on to Tessa. These two are too cute together!
Another picture of yesterday's mishap:
And finally, the yummy chocolate-covered, dipped in sprinkles strawberries that I made yesterday. I joined the MOPS group here in Savage, MN (Mothers of Preschoolers) and today is the summer kick off party. Hopefully I will meet some people there, as so far, it is has been just me, daddy, and the kids. Don't these look good? And the best thing was it took about 5 minutes to make all of them.
We did go to the Mall of America this weekend. Tessa surprised us by having no interest whatsoever in the American Girl store and instead wanted everything to do with the rides. I'm very glad Nate was with us, as it is definitely a two-adult trip with two kids, especially since Morgan couldn't really ride anything. All in all though, definitely on our list for visitors. Speaking of, who wants to come visit?

Life in Minnesota

Let's just say that neither Nate nor I love the house. If you come to visit, don't expect much, and please realize it is NOT Charleston Park. The neighborhood is really nice, definitely one I would live in or purchase a house in, but the house is not super updated nor in super great condition. But for renting, it meets our needs and allows us flexibility to figure out what we will do next spring. But for all those who requested pictures, here they are. The kitchen:

Dining room (Looks kind of empty, but we didn't unpack the china since we'll be moving again in 9 months or so)
One of the bathrooms. There are three, all fairly similar.
The playroom/office furniture (crammed into one room). There are more toys in the basement as well, along with a laundry room.
The family room.
The back patio.

The view from our house to the park at the end of the street.

So all in all, pretty good. We are making progress unpacking and settling in. We've made it to the zoo. Mall of America is on today's agenda!

We're Here...

I have discovered several things in the past few days: 1) when traveling long distances with children, plan and take frequent breaks. Day 1 started off with us intending to drive until they wouldn't let us anymore. And after a 5.5 hour stretch they were D-O-N-E. And so we stopped, but meltdown ensued when we got back in the car and an hour later we were done driving for the day when Morgan cried so hard he vomited. Fun times. Day 2 included much more frequent breaks throughout and two much happier campers. In fact, they gave Mommy and Daddy a nice gift by both sleeping for the last two hours of the trip. Christmas in June!

Lesson #2: Pack so you can see out your rearview. Driving would have been much more an obstacle with more in the van. Yes, it was packed. Fortunately my parents are driving up to visit in a few weeks and will bring with them what we couldn't.
Lesson #3: Include kids in the packing. Tessa really was very helpful in the packing process and packed all her clothes, toys, books, etc. If only Morgan were three too...
Lesson #4: Find a playland. Of course, we tried really, really hard to do this and it was an epic fail. But this McDonalds somewhere in Wisconsin had video and touch screen games mounted on the wall. Not as good as a play land, but managed to entertain the troops for a brief while.

This is the second picture from Lesson #1: Morgan sleeping at the end of the trip.
Lesson #5: You can do pretty much anything with kids around if you are quick and distract them. Somehow, I managed to put the new patio set together in spurts throughout the day yesterday, offering them one distraction after another.



Ta-da!

Minnesota is very beautiful, I will admit that. It's not home, but it is pretty. There's a gorgeous marshland pond and city park about 7 houses down the street, so we've been going there everyday. It looks kind of like an Ohio park, but in addition to the basketball courts and baseball fields, there is also an outdoor hockey rink. And the wetlands/lakes...they really are beautiful. There is an extensive trailway/walking/biking path attached to the park and when the new double stroller arrives, I am looking forward to hitting it up!

OH my! Tessa is certainly growing up! She shocked us all by playing so independently at Grandma Bullock's house on Monday. She played on the slip and slide for hours and had a great time! I guess I will have to invest in one?

Meanwhile, Morgan took a nap inside. Since we didn't bring the pack and play, I bundled him in a blanket and he napped on the floor. After awhile, Nate volunteered to stay down there with him because we didn't want him to wake up and crawl up the stairs unattended. It worked out perfectly for Nate, who enjoyed a little nap too!
But as usual, he didn't sleep for very long before he was back up and at 'em. Morgan enjoyed his first cornhole match (against himself) and very studiously got every single bean bag into the hole. Isn't that a cute picture of him?

This will probably be my last post for a week or so. With the move, then the unpacking I'm sure will ensue, I think I'll be pretty busy. I'm praying for a smooth drive up there with little chaos. Very fortunate we have the DVD player in the minivan. I'm thinking it will come in handy :)