More resort

There is a rule that only 3 photos can fit into an email blog post. Since there is no chance of finding the cord, downloading to the computer and composing actual blog posts is not going to happen anytime soon, you are going to be stuck with several more posts worth of resort photos.

After the beach, we usually followed up with some pool time. There were both indoor and outdoor pools here. I confess that we were never hardy enough to try out the outdoor pool, but it did look nice. It was a shady location and with the temperatures in the low 70's, were going to need some sun to keep us warm.

The kids have really improved their swimming skills over the last weeks with time in several hotel/resort locations. William even discovered he could swim on his own across the deep end of the pool. I am especially impressed as we have swim lessons on the books for when we return from our trip. Our last swim lessons were last year!

The last picture is the view of the lake and trees from the passenger seat driving in to the resort area.

Brainerd

On July 1st, we packed up and hit the road for a lake resort near Brainerd, MN. This was a last minute addition to our trip and we were happy to have grandpa, grandma, Megan and Z with us! More people is always more fun!

We stayed at Craguns resort on Gull Lake and enjoyed ourselves very much. I won't say it was relaxing, because there was a lot of running around as there were many places to run around to at this location.

I'm not exactly sure how to describe this, but even if it wasn't relaxing, the lake was very restorative or soothing to my soul. The water laps on the beach, birds call, kayakers float/paddle by and the leaves whisper in the wind. There are also screaming kids running up the beach, the smell of exhaust from the motor boats and someone has to go to the bathroom.

Overall, we had a lovely time.

The first picture depicts a form of Minnesota beach wear that one would don when it is chilly in the morning.

The second shot is out the window upon our arrival.

I attempted to make a pretty picture with writing in the sand. The waves had other ideas!

Grand forks

Just a few more pictures I came across from the grand forks portion of our trip. It's been so busy around here with fun things happening. I hope to catch up soon!

More North Dakota

William enjoyed the North Dakota joke book very much this time....hopefully he will have forgotten all the jokes before school starts again.

All the kids enjoyed grandma's dominoes. The big kids built all kind of creations and Gemma worked hard to knock them down.

Of course, the weather was cooler than I was expecting...I never get the packing right for the cooler summer weather in North Dakota when it is 100+degrees here.

Guess who...

Can tie their own shoes?????

She is so proud of herself!!!

Sleeping arrangements

Starting in Grand Forks, our family of 5 shared a hotel room. I was pretty worried about how this was going to work out as if one little person doesn't sleep, no one is going to sleep.

Even though they were bed hogs and slept in crazy positions, the kids did so well! They went to bed fairly easily and slept past 7:30am most days!

Grand Forks

We made the trip to Grand Forks last week to visit my grandparents. The great grandparents adore their great grandchildren so we try especially hard to visit at least once a year.

We have some top favorite things to do in Grand Forks and we were able to get to most of them this time.

The kids all love "digger park" with the scooping toy to dig with.

Mom and Dad love the Mexican restaurant, La Capana. It is so delicious, it doesn't even matter to me that we are far, far from the Mexican border.

Amelia loves when great grandma Nona reads the special Mickey Mouse book to her. If Amelia had her way, poor grandma would read it over and over again.

I always like to walk or drive by "wobbly park" at least once to remember playing there when I was growing up.

Occasionally we stay in a hotel and have access to a pool. Everyone is a fan of waking up and jumping in the pool!

This time Gemma was a daredevil. She loved to jump in and discovered she loved jumping in backwards and head first. She jumped without holding my hand or checking to see if I was ready.

When those tricks got old, she starting taking off. I would out her on the side of the pool to jump in and she would sprint away from me towards the ladder into the deep end. It didn't matter if I was there or not, she was going to jump in. Luckily, grandpa and grandma ran interference on the side of the pool which kept her out of the pool before we were ready.

This is a good reminder about why I will not be going to the pool by myself with all 3 of the kids.

William really started to put things together with the swimming. All of a sudden, he can swim. He was thrilled to be able to show off to the family his new skills. He was even able to prove he was able to swim back and forth unassisted in the deeper end of the pool where he wasn't able to touch. Last week, that wasn't possible! Great job William!!!