COMING HOME

I'm here - I really am. Just busy with the day to day grind - and I must admit, I am having an incredibly hard time getting back into the swing of things after our vacation.

Vacations are always so hard for me. I look forward to them for months and months, daydreaming of sleeping in, sipping fun fruity drinks with umbrellas in them on the beach, shopping, relaxing, and pretty much not having a care in the world. Then once I actually get on vacation my brain goes into don't-make-this-ever-end mode, and I constantly find myself pouting because I only have 5, 4, 3.... days left before it is back to reality.

And let me tell you, getting back to reality this time around was as hard as ever. It's been a week since we have been home, and I am very slowly starting to feel myself come around. I think it has helped to tell myself that vacation is just that - vacation. An escape from the day to day fighting, crying, tantrums, homework, play dates, dance, hockey, and doctor appointments. All for a very, very for a short period of time. Everyone has to come back to the daily grind, whether you like it or not.

As much as I would like to keep droning on and on about how hard it is coming home, I need to go console Liv Grace - while I was attempting to type this Anthony decided to attack her with a light saber. Needless to say she is crying uncontrollable tears [which may or may not have something to do with the fact that she refused to take a nap today.]

Ahhh, returning from vacation is so much fun....

ADIOS, MIS AMIGOS!

In just two short days, I will be on one of these

On my way to this little piece of heaven

to soak up some much needed sun, sleep in, be lazy, have some much needed down time with the Mr. and spend some time with good friends.

And I can't wait.

See you when I get back!

NORTH SHORE

Our little get away to the North Shore this past weekend was nothing short of amazing. And I have to say, I was amazed by how amazing it really was. [You think I used the word "amaze" enough there?]

I had never been to the North Shore, and I admit, I never really had any desire to go there much less any other place in Minnesota. I always thought, Oh, I live in Minnesota, why would I want to go on vacation in Minnesota? Boooooring! Give me hot, sticky, sunny weather, a beach and a cocktail in my hand -that is what I call vacation. Which meant take me to Key West, Florida, Hawaii.... You know the places.

I admit, as we were driving through Duluth to our final destination, I was still feeling a bit hesitant. Not knowing if I would be bored out of my head and desperately looking for the nearest beach or happening bar/restaurant to entertain myself at by people watching.

But when we arrived, all my worries melted away.

The Mr. had taken care of all the details, and I have to say, he did quite the job. We stayed at the Grand Superior Lodge in Two Harbors. He decided the regular rooms in the lodge were not good enough for our last-little-get-away-before-baby-arrives, so he went and rented us our own little one bedroom cabin over looking Lake Superior.

All I can say about this place is.... perfection. It was the epitome of what I had asked for - a peaceful, relaxing, romantic getaway, just him and I.

This was the view from our patio,


The patio that the Mr. enjoyed sitting on each evening while enjoying an adult beverage after a long day of exploring. I would have to say, he deserved it after bringing me to this little piece of heaven.


We did our fair share of exploring The North Shore - one of the most amazing places we stopped at was Gooseberry Falls. The waterfalls were nothing short of unbelievable. The crazy thing was that us tourists had free reign of the place, you could walk right up - I mean right up- to the side of a waterfall and look down. It was as if you were in the middle of no where on your own little adventure - like LOST. [I may watch too much T.V.]

Here I am standing a safe distance away from one of the waterfalls. I would not dare to get much closer, as I have to admit, I am pretty clumsy, even more so when I am pregnant. I would be the one they would be telling the unfortunate story about on the local news station. Top news today: A pregnant tourist plummets to her death after tripping on a rock and falling down a waterfall at Gooseberry Falls today. Yep, I can see that happening.


We even managed to get a picture of us together next to the Falls. This is never an easy feat, as both the Mr. and I feel weird about stopping complete strangers who are enjoying their day to take a picture of us. But I figure if we did not do this at least a few times on this trip, we would not have any pictures of the two of us together, and I would be kicking myself.

So, we stopped a lovely couple who looked as if they were on the same sort of romantic little get away as us, and asked them to snap a quick picture of us. This time we were up higher, where they had built a wall so that no one had the ability to plummet to their death. That is unless they were trying to.


Here we are inside the visitors enter looking at this wolf. Apparently this breed [would you call it a breed? Heck, I don't know] is no longer in existence, so this one they stuffed and put on display is pretty special. We thought the kids would enjoy the picture, so here I am, posing with the big fella.

I got a few shots of the Mr. hiking down the trails toward other fun things to see.


Here he is feeling how cold the water was. At this point I was ready to lay right on those rocks and let myself be covered in the freezing water I was so hot. Being 8 months pregnant and hiking up and down stairs, dirt paths, and rocks is not so easy. Not to mention it makes you hot. Really hot. Like sweat dripping from your forehead down in to your eyes hot. No jokes - I felt as if I were 16 again and had just spent an hour running up and down and up and down the soccer field playing a game. Sad thing is now at 33 all it takes is a bit of hiking to get me to sweat like that. Oh the joys of getting older, being out of shape and being pregnant.


Here we are in Grand Marais checking out the view.


Right after this little sight seeing expedition we happened upon a shop called "The World's Best Donut's" and decided we had to stop in and have one. In deed they were very yummy. Would I call them the world's best donut's? Not so sure about that, but I can say I could have eaten a dozen of them.

Outside of this little shop was a fun place to stick your head for a photo. Of course, I had to have the Mr. take a picture of me. I look pretty good, right? An obese woman with yellow pig tails, holding a tray of donuts. Nice.



No, this is not the only pictures we took. There are many, many more that are still sitting on my camera. I just thought I would show a few of the highlights from our trip and leave it at that. Not to mention this post would be about a mile long if I were to have uploaded all of our pictures to see.

So there you have it, our trip to the North Shore. It was amazing [there I go with amazing again], beautiful, peaceful, relaxing, and perfect in every way.

Thank you to the Mr. for planning it and making it so special - our last little get away before our little peanut arrives in 6 weeks! I love you, love you, love you. You are the best.

VACATION

The Mr. and I are away on a fabulously peaceful mini vacation on the North Shore. We are staying on Lake Superior in our own little cabin overlooking the lake.

Sleep and relaxation are in abundance here, and I am loving it. I would have to say that The Mr. did a perfect job in planning this trip.

Our Family Vacation

I have finally resigned myself to the fact that I do live in the frozen tundra - otherwise know as Minnesota - and that I will have to simply savor the warm climates when I am lucky enough to go on vacation. (insert loooooong sigh).

On a positive note, I can always look back at the beautiful pictures and remember how truly wonderful it was in paradise. Laying by the ocean, sipping cocktails with colorful umbrellas in them... Ahhhhh, remembering actually makes me want to hop on a flight right now back to that place called Cayman Islands, take a job as a bartender and live the simple life.

My four kids (whom I love dearly), are unfortunately are holding me up on making this dream a reality. Darn. I sure do love them though. They were just perfect on the flight down there, which surprised me as I thought we would have some "issues" - meaning strangers feeling the need to strangle my lovely Anthony on the airplane. Not the case!

Arriving at the airport was a bit hectic with 4 kids, stroller, backpacks, car seats in tow. We managed to get through customs, grab our baggage, and get out front without much trouble. Ron and Brian ran off to get our rental cars, and this is when we first noticed there was an issue. This is the mini van (at least what Caymanianas call a mini van) we were provided with to get 4 kids, 3 adults and all of our crap to our condo. Really?

Really. Best part of it is we actually managed to squish everything into it, passengers, luggage, car seats, strollers and all!

Once we got to the condo and settled in everything was great, better than great as this was our view from our front patio door.

After unpacking we did not waste any time getting our swimsuits on heading out to the pool. Where the kids pretty much stayed the whole vacation.... As you can see, Livi was very excited to be at the pool relaxing in the hot sun.

Here she is in her other swim suit, the bikini. A woman always has to have two swimsuits - the one piece and the two piece. My little fashionista.

The rest of the kiddos took turns swimming in the pool with Daddy. Which was much to my enjoyment as that meant more relaxing in the sun for mommy which makes me happy. Like they say, "if momma ain't, happy, no ones happy", right?

I got a much needed day out with the girls - Cindy, and Diane on Monday. We walked up the beach,cocktails in hand and found a nice place to lay out, enjoy the sun and have lunch. This was the day Auntie Cindy was a bit "overserved". :) I was jealous to not be right there with her, but I unfortunately had to watch my alcohol intake as I am still nursing Olivia part time. Darn it. I do have to say she was quite fun company that day!

While we were gone Daddy and Grandpa took the kids to the turtle farm which I heard they just loved. They saw AND got to hold all kinds of turtles. Lucas very much enjoyed holding this one.

Yikes those are some big turtles.....

Daddy decided to stay back on Thursday to take care of Olivia, Anthony and cousin Lucia so that the rest of us could go to Sting Ray city to swim with the Sting Rays. Let's just say I was a bit hesitant about this as I am deathly afraid of the ocean and everything in it. I can barely swim right out in front of a beach without worrying a shark is going to come and bite my leg off, or worse, swallow me whole. I know, I have watched Jaws a few too many times.

Anyway, we took a catamaran ride out to Sting Ray City which was enjoyable as it had a stocked bar which I thought would help in easing my fears. Not so. We arrived and the boats captain told us all about the Sting Ray's and what to be careful for. All the while I was looking overboard at the bottom of the ocean. It was filled with HUGE black Sting Rays -EEEEW!!

I tried to keep my composure so as not to freak Ava and Lucas out, and I think I did a pretty good job. It turns out they were deathly scared of the Sting Rays as well. The three of us got back onto the boat after about 10 min. At least we tried, right?

Cindy, Grandma and Grandpa had the most fun at Sting Ray City. At least a few of us got something out of this little adventure. Notice all of the sting rays swimming behind them?? Again, EWWWW!!!

We also took the kids to the butterfly farm on our last day of our trip. They were intent on getting a butterfly to land on their arm and all were unfortunately unsuccessful. UNTIL... at the end of the tour one landed on Ava's leg. She was simply tickled pink....

On our very last night in Cayman Islands we hung out at the pool - more specifically in the hot tub drinking cocktails and relaxing. All 10 of us (Brian and Ron did not venture in), it was quite a crowded hot tub.

All in all we had a fabulous, wonderful, sunny, warm family vacation. We all got a much needed break from the worries of this terrible economy, the constant stress of work and this terrible cold MN winter. Most importantly we all got a time to reconnect and spend some much needed time together as a family, which is most important in life. Many, many thanks to Ron and Diane for making it possible for us all to go on this trip!!

Back home, and not really loving it....

We just left paradise,




For below zero temps, and snow -





Why??





I think I need one more day to wallow in my sadness. By tomorrow I am sure I will have accepted the fact that we live in MN and be able to resume life as usual. Then, and only then will I be able to write all about our fabulous Cayman Islands family vacation, adventures, mishaps and all.

I know, a bit dramatic.

I just really, really loathe MN winters....