Work conference

Summer Trip: Warm Up

What seems like forever ago, I was offered the opportunity (along with ALL of my coworkers, nothing special here) to go to the state wide Adult Education & Literacy (AEL) conference held at a nice resort about 3 hours south of our house. (why does that matter? hang on minute). Because I love stuff like that, I signed up right away and promptly forgot about it. Until I started working on putting together our annual trip to visit family in Minnesota and North Dakota.

Seems kind of crazy, but I love the yearly parade my hometown does every year during Rochesterfest (week long, summer celebration). We tried to catch it last year and were rained out (SO DISAPPOINTED). If I can make it work, we try to get to Rochester in time for that parade along with "Breakfast on the Farm" and various other, less important, events. The problem was the parade was scheduled to start at 6:15 on the same Friday as the last day of my conference for work.

Do the math with me:

3 hours from work conference from our house + 7 hours from our house to Rochester = 10+ hours of driving for a parade. More than once the idea was tabled, written off only to be brought up again. I REALLY wanted to attend this parade. That meant leaving the work conference around 8am in order to arrive in time.

Because I am crazy and my husband loves me (he may be crazy as well), we agreed to make the parade work.

Not only was the actual travel plans complicated, the packing was...difficult (I know, cry with me). Clothes needed for a professional conference are very different from a family vacation. Plus the weather in MN/ND could be 65 degrees or 101000 degrees. This makes it necessary to pack the summer wear, professional attire, AND at least a pair of pants and a sweatshirt.

The work conference was interesting and I gained some new ideas. Plus, I got to sleep in a nice hotel room ALL BY MYSELF for two whole nights. I lead an exciting life people. Pictures will follow in a seperate post. Because I am lazy.

All in one trip

7 bags to the second floor. Is that weird? I'm 3 hours away flying solo at a work conference for the next few days. Secretly, I'm most excited about sleeping all night and sleeping past 5:30am.

These boots are made for wqlikbg

Both kids begged to wear the cowboy boots today. So what if the temperature is 98 degrees?

Milestone

For some time now, Amelia's hair has been long enough for styling. However her patience and tolerance has not been long enough. Any type of hair accessory was immediately pulled out- if I even got that far. I'm happy to report that twice this week Amelia has requested "pretties" AND left them alone. Milestones.

Summer t ball

William is playing t ball this summer for the first time. He had his second game tonight - I almost hate to admit how much I am enjoying this after how much apprehension I had just a few weeks ago. I had a LOT of worries before the "season" started which have now been resolved. No one is competitive. There is virtually no pressure. No one is screaming. The other parents are low key. Everyone laughs at the antics taking place in the field. William's skills are within range of the other kids. There are appropriately frequent breaks for water. No one cares that William spends a lot of time looking at his shoes, the sky or playing in the sand. I take that back. I think John would like to see a little more focus (he is in black right behind William). Overall- a huge relief!

Summer Camping

High on my list of things to do the last two summers is: take out kids out to camp. In a tent. At a campground. Overnight. It just keeps not working out. The weather is a major factor - I'm not willing to have our first family camping adventure be during severe weather (or even just a run of the mill thunderstorm) or when it is 90 bazillion degrees out. So, late last week when it became clear that the temperatures were going to drop and become "campable" we started making plans quietly. We honestly didn't tell the kids what we were doing until we were pulling into the campground. We've planned a number of times before to have it not work out at the last minute.

So, it short, we camped! All night! In a tent! It was AWESOME and we're going to do it again, weather permitting (see: above). I am so happy it went well and everyone had a great time - although all of us are exhausted!

The kids napped in the car on the way there - the state park was about 45 minutes away. Not quite long enough for a full nap, but better than nothing! We arrived, checked in and then set out to hike, amazingly at William's request!

Our hikers! Note the total distance: 0.8
miles. Normally, this wouldn't be a trail John or I would consider. We're fans of the 3-6 mile length. However, this trip was about teaching the KIDS to love camping as much as we do. So, short trails were required. We even left the baby backpack at home purposefully!

Both kids did a great job hiking. Just a few minutes after I started feeling smug about the hiking stamina of our kids, Amelia demanded I carry her the rest of the way. She walked a little over half of the way. Which, means I carried her on my hip for .4 miles. Wish I would have had the backpack.

We really took our time stopping to examine bugs, flowers, fallen trees, and listening to the birds/bugs.

My sidekick. Why didn't we bring the backpack? Also: glad we didn't attempt the 2 mile trail we originally discussed.

William was so proud about hiking his first trail the whole way, he wanted his picture taken by the sign!

WAfter hiking, we went to the beach in the campground. This was Amelia's first time at a beach! She loved it!

So did William! The water was very warm after having such hot weather for the last week. I think the water was warmer than the air (80ish degrees)

We played at the beach for over an hour armed with only an empty yogurt container to play with (and an abandoned shovel found on the shore). It was lovely. The scenery was great, the kids were having a wonderful time and I was so happy! After the beach, we went back to our campsite and got cleaned up. The campsite had (warm!) showers and bathrooms, which we took full advantage. John grilled us some hamburgers while I cleaned up the kids. Dinner always tastes so much better when you are REALLY hungry!

After dinner we took the kids to the campsite playground to run around. Everywhere we went, we ran into families with kids. In no time at all, William was running around with another boy his age and having a grand time. Amelia was content to hang with me and occasionally yell nonsense at William and his new friend from the sidelines.

After playing, we came back and cooked up some s'mores. mmmmmmm.... Also, note behind me the giant dumpster. Not ideal, but there wasn't a whole lot to pick from close to the bathroom.

William helps Mama cook up a s'more

Amelia kicks back to enjoy her treat!

William's treat. I'm not sure I can describe how filthy the kids were after hiking, beach, park, campfire plus sticky marshmallow.

The kids were so excited about sleeping in the tent. Or playing around in the tent.

Amelia's spot

William's spot - look how happy he is! Also note: he is wearing his favorite socks. I can't get them away from him - he wears them ALL the time!

William thought he smelled a skunk. Then, it was a funny game. We read books and played Go Fish as a family in the tent to wind down. The kids finally fell asleep without the assistance from Children's Ben@dryl.

The next morning we woke up early to the ka-BLAM of someone throwing their trash just before 7am. Of course, the kids were ready to get going. We had breakfast and took down everything. While John and I were packing up, William found something to entertain himself. See who is watching him?

Monkey see, monkey do! Look at her expression! It is priceless!

William requested another hike - so proud! When we pulled up to the trail, we were greeted by this gorgeous stone structure.

Start of the trail. Amelia has already informed me she "can't" walk and needs to be carried.

Again, we did a lot of investigating along the way

True to her word, Amelia refused to walk at all, only allowing herself to be put down here for a quick picture.

William on the trail

William after hiking his 2nd full hike. See Amelia back there? She finally let me put her down right about then. She hiked until the end of the trail (where William is standing). We have some work to do with her!

Amelia finishing the hike....about 30 seconds later, she caught sight of the playground equiptment and RAN full speed towards it. Both John and I cracked up laughing at her speed after refusing to hike for the last 30-40 minutes! We played at the park before driving home!