Duluth

For Memorial Weekend this year, we spent a coule days on Duluth. We decided to go for a number of reasons. I was missing a bachelorette party for an awesome friend (so this was a nice distraction), Shawn and I used to go to Duluth / Lutsen every year for our anniversary (no kids), and we had the long holiday weekend. But to the kids, it was all about a 'vacation'.

The boys were so excited because they love Duluth and looove hotel stays!

Our first stop was showing the boys Spirit Mountain where Shawn skied a ton in college.

Then, onto Canal Park Brewing for lunch. The huge bonus here was the kids could climb on the rock pile nearby while we finished eating in peace :)

We spent lots of time throwing rocks into the lake and trying to teach the kids how to skip rocks. They would do this all day if we let them.

We also got to watch the scenic train drive right by us from the lakewalk.

The kids were troopers with all the walking, so they were treated to ice cream both nights :)

Eating ice cream with a view.

Watching the shipping boats come in and out of the canal...

Lots of time walking to dinner and to the hotel along the lakewalk...and stopping to throw rocks...

Hiking Chester Creek...

Ryder pretended he was mountain biking on the trail the whole time, just like daddy used to in college (below)...

Hiking Enger Tower and enjoying the park...

On Saturday, the kids logged just about 7 miles of hiking!! Good training for our upcoming Tahoe trip ;)

Vintage thrift store find :)

On one of our nights, we received an upgrade to a suite! That made bedtime a lot easier (able to close the bedroom door) and meant we had a jacuzzi! 

You know it was a successful weekend when the kids pass out moments after being in the car on the drive home :) 

Creativity

'Mom, I know I'm not supposed to do this, but I made our family on the bathroom mirror. It's really cool - you should go look!'

Our toothpaste family by Ryder Billing.

Baby #3 - 18 Weeks

Last week's photo. (I know, I need to take these somewhere other than my bathroom. But this is the one place I can get away for a few seconds...)

18 Weeks - Reflection in the window at the Spirit Mtn Chalet. At this point, I am feeling the baby move everyday. It's pretty awesome. I think I have also felt baby move from the outside. Super excited for Shawn to feel him / her.

With the ultrasound less than 2 weeks away, we're still planning on not finding out the gender. My only hesitation with that is having to do a gender neutral room. As of now, this is what I'm liking, but I haven't figured out how to have the room ready without committing to a gender.

Either way, I'm pretty excited to paint a neutral herringbone accent wall behind the crib (middle pic). 

Boy:

Girl:

Mischief!

I posted this on Instagram, but have to post on the blog for our family album as well.

Logan helped me unpack all the groceries and told me he'd go put my shave gel away upstairs. After he was gone for a while, I went up and checked on him....

Little stinker ;)

Tub Time

Usually, getting the kids into the tub takes a bunch of convincing, but it also takes a bunch of convincing to get them out!

'Mom - leave me here. Can you cover me up?'

'Thank you'

Silly kid!

Billing, Party of Five!!

On this Mother's Day, I'm happy to announce that I am becoming a mother again!

Billing Party of Five! (Taken during last weekends' Mnpls stay-cation via timer & tripod)

Some random facts about this pregnancy so far:

- I am currently 16 1/2 weeks & baby is the size of an avocado

- Baby's due date is October 21st

- We are not going to find out the gender (right Shawn?!?)

- We have no idea on names...at least none we can agree on...

- Ryder and Logan are super excited! They seem to actually understand this time around. Based on a tip from a friend, Shawn actually videotaped us telling them the news and it was so sweet. I may have to upload a segment to the blog.

- Cravings: with both boys, I'm pretty sure I craved sweets. With this one, it's all about citrus...and pickles!

- I think I felt the baby move at 12 weeks! Which seems crazy, but I think I've been feeling periodic light movement ever since.

- No nausea during my first two pregnancies; pretty intense this time around. On the bright side, I've had less fatigue.

- This will be our last baby, so I am trying to savor all of it - the fun parts and the hard parts!

Baby's profile at 12 weeks :) 

And...super huge thank you to Shawn for spray painting the letters F-I-V-E with glittery gold spray paint the night before our trip downtown!! P.S. Your Sanuks look nice with a little sparkle, too ;)

Minneapolis Stay-cation

Last weekend we savored the awesome weather with a little Minneapolis 'staycation'. Shawn had some Hyatt hotel points that were about to expire, so we thought we'd take advantage of them and make a fun weekend out of it. We had breakfast at home and then headed to the St. Anthony Main area first.

I love this area for photos and wanted to snap a few shots to remember Logan as a THREE year old :) More of these photos to come in their own post.

The boys also loved riding their bikes along the Mississippi

 

Next, we hit up Scratch for lunch near Target Field, where everything is made from scratch, including the furniture. The boys got to do a short little ride on the lightrail to get there and loved it :)

 

Next up was the main attraction for the weekend: the Twins game. We almost didn't bring Logan on this little adventure because we were worried about how he would do, but we made it all the way to the 7th inning with only a couple walking breaks. He really wanted to walk right down on the field...or as he put it 'beside the field'.

Ryder intently watched every play...just like his first game at two years old...

Logan was on the lookout for our mascot (TC Bear) and was entertained for quite a while by the way the chairs folded up on their own ;)

It's not a baseball game without ice cream in a hat! (Note Ryder's ear plugs! He loves the game, but hates the loud noises!)

One of our little walks to burn some energy

With the game being from 1-3, Logan missed his nap. He decided to take it anyway. I should have videotaped it - Shawn actually checked into our hotel with Logan fast asleep on his shoulders. He didn't wake up until we tried to transfer him to the bed.

 

We had dinner at Brit's Pub, which worked out well because everyone was watching the Kentucky Derby (or at least there drinking on behalf of it!). That meant that everyone else was much louder than our children. For once :)

Before bed, we took a sunset bikeride on the Stone Arch Bridge. I love this place. I spent many days running over this bridge and in the St. Anthony area in college.

 

We must have wore the kids out good because they slept great and slept until 6:30. Which is about as late as they ever sleep, so we appreciate mornings like that! And then they were able to watch cartoons and let us stay in bed a little longer (cable cartoons!)

After breakfast in the Regency Lounge, we took the boys swimming. Ryder was able to swim the width of the pool (narrow way) all by himself! There was no shallow end, so I couldn't take pictures - each of us was watching a kid very closely.

Kids chill out, letting mom and dad shower and get ready

Since it was such an amazing weekend from a weather standpoint (80 in May!), we decided to take the kids to Minnehaha Falls. They rode their bikes most of the time. I have a couple shots of Logan bombing some ramps on his Skuut that I'll have to add. I think he pretty much has it down after only a couple weekends on it.

Our last stop was lunch in Uptown. We tried somewhere new: Libertine. It's not really a place for kids, but they did have banana bread french toast topped with bananas, Nutella and whip cream! Ryder said it was the best lunch ever ;)

We definitely took advantage of the beautiful weekend and free hotel stay (thanks Shawn!). It actually felt like a vacation even though we weren't very far from home.