Our DC Trip

This August E and I visited my sister and her family in Washington, DC. We spent three weeks there and I'm sure she was never so glad to see her living room floor again as the day after we packed up and left! :) I was able to help with some filing at her work and make back our airfare and more, which was nice. I think the amount of time we spent helped us to settle in and enjoy being there more. I get worked up about traveling- it takes me a day or two to settle down afterward, and I start thinking about it days prior to leaving again! Ok, maybe more. Aaaannyway! :)

E's first flight! She was uber excited and could barely sit still for the first leg to Kansas City. After that, the novelty wore off a bit. By the time we headed back she was over it!


She got a lot of quality time with Romi on this trip! It brought back memories, telling two girls to shush the nighttime chatter!


Great Falls:


E hanging out with me while I work on boxes. She was making our own version of our cartoon drawing game...we'd play that on breaks.


We went to Ocean City during our trip as well- we'd never been to the ocean before. Landlocked Minnesotans! I finally understood what Lyzzy was talking about when she'd say she much preferred our MN lakes to swimming in the ocean. All you do is stand up, get knocked over, rinse, repeat. The kids had fun though!

This ominous cloud greeted us on our way...we continued on though! We had an itinerary to follow and goals to accomplish!


We made it!




I'd include a video of them 'swimming' but Lyzzy would kill me. She's in all of them, trying to hold the kids up. :D

We saw an awesome van on our way home. E was quite excited...her Aunt Cassie had just gotten her hooked on this show:


I'm thinking they're used to people staring...any excitement has worn off:


At Union Station getting our postcards and dessert:


Goofing around chatting with Daddy on the phone:


This was on our last night at a pizza place. We were out with Aunt Vicki. We were laughing right after this- the waiter had complimented E on her drawing and asked how old she was. As he went back inside, Romi hollered after him- "And I'm three!". She didn't appreciate being left out of the dialogue!


On our way home- layover in Kansas City again. Don't count on lunch there if you're flying through...we made do with an $8 sandwich such as you'd find at a gas station. I figured they'd have a couple food places to choose from...no such luck!


Waiting for Daddy to pick us up. And waiting. Waiting. Haha- that's for you, J! :D


This is what I found driving our car to pick us up. Who is that??


He figured while we were away he'd try growing a goatee/mustache.


I wasn't a fan. Good thing he wasn't either- especially of the sparse mustache. That was done away with when we got home...he left the beginnings of the goatee for another week or two and then shaved that off too. Ahh- back to normal! :)

We enjoyed our trip. It was nice to be able to spend that amount of time there- I started to figure out where we were in the city when we'd drive around. I knew the way to her work, etc. Romi's pretty good with directions though- I'd just have to make sure she was in the backseat and she could point me the right way. Although I don't know if I'd trust her to get me to where I was needing to go...we'd probably mysteriously end up at Turtle Park or the beach! Lol.

I'll post again soon some pictures of Nana's garden from late this summer.

Summer Review

Update time!

I figured I'd share some pictures- a little of what we were up to this summer:

Mama-made suit:



Sundress with matchy doll dress:


New summer bed set with pillow I made to match (I can't remember the tutorial I used for the butterflies):


Short haircut!


Earrings for a birthday girl!


A brief vacation to Fort Sisseton in South Dakota:







While we're posting about Sammy...she had minor surgery this summer to remove some growths from around her eyes. She had to put up with the cone for a whole 10 days, but we spoiled her rotten at the apartment to make up for it!



Fall is in full swing here. We've started a new co-op every other Wednesday and are on week 3 of our own homeschool semester. Our favorite subject at the moment is Botany for science. We have plants and leaves and microscopes scattered about the house which suits E just fine. She's always collecting bits and pieces out on walks anyway, so we're just adding to them! J started a PT postal route along with the managing job and has been busy training in the past few weeks. We're settling into routines again and enjoying the cooler weather.

I'll post again soon with some pics from our 3 week trip to DC!

Camping

Forgot to take the camera out until the end of the trip so only a few photos:



Crumples final resting spot...our butterfly with the crumpled wings. Don't ask how long he sat in our little jar awaiting burial :P





Had a good time, although it was short. Was nice to get out on the boat for a good round of fishing, swimming, bonfires and whatnot. No time to drag out that blasted telescope though. It sits in our living room...mocking me. Ugh.

Might be a little while before the DC pics...I'll try and get them loaded and organized this week!

Up North

We went up to McGregor this last weekend for E's bday. Had a lot of fun- did a lot of fishing, played pool and ping pong, watched the wildlife (a loon just 10ft from our boat, a few beavers, geese and the like; pet a painted turtle...). Went mussel hunting from the pedalboat and got soaked and decided to dive in the lake to finish it off (cold!). The boat they have up there we use as a rowboat as it doesn't have a motor...and it slowly leaks which keeps it all exciting :) On the other lake is the old pontoon...definitely has seen better days, but the motor works and it's great for fishing and relaxing- being able to meander around. Some of these pics of J aren't the greatest...I didn't get very many either as our camera went through FOUR sets of batteries...I've no idea how! Grr.





Our last evening up there just at dusk E caught a northern with her little barbie fishing rod! He'd broken her line just before, but that time I was able to help her with the net...she was so proud of herself :D I've never caught a northern! He was a lively one. I caught a couple bass, kept one...and we caught a bunch of sunnies of course of which we kept three good ones. Catfish/bullheads we tossed back along with a little perch. During fishing Sammy sits in the back next to J to stay out of the way of swinging hooks...she'll perk up when she hears the crinkle of a bag of chips :)

E with the sunnies (2 she caught, 1 I did), and the bass...the smaller one we released:






E with her northern: