Gemma speak

We are at a restaurant yesterday after spending the late morning at a festival. Everyone was hungry and the waitress stopped by to take some drink orders. I told the kids they could choose between white milk and chocolate milk. The two big kids quickly chimed in with their chocolate milk requests (as expected, but they like to make a choice on their own). Gemma continued to color on her coloring page. I knew she heard as she was sitting close to the waitress. I tried again.

Me: Gemma! White milk or chocolate milk.
Gemma: no response
Me: Gemma! What kind of milk do you want?
Gemma: no

The waitress started laughing. I tried not to and failed.

Then I ordered her chocolate milk and she happily drank it.


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I was helping Gemma into her dress for church this morning. She was very specific about what she did NOT want to wear. She did not want the first 5 or 6 options she was presented with. They were "too cold", "too wiggly" ( I have no idea what this means), "too yucky", and "too wrong". Her rejections were not helpful as you can see as they didn't provide much guidance about what she was looking for*.

I finally pulled out a pretty green dress with some pink smocking on the front. She clapped her hands and accepted. As I pulled it over her head, she declared: This dress is yove-ye. That would be Gemma speak for lovely. Where does she get words like that?

*three year olds, especially this 3 year old, are anxious to have some control over their worlds. My world is a lot nicer if I can find places to allow her to make some decisions.

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All the kids

This picture was kind of a challenge to put together! 6 kids 8 years and younger isn't an easy task. But, it doesn't matter- my parents are so proud of their grand kids and existed to finally have a picture of them al together!

Meeting Henry Thomas

Poor Megan.

This post should be all about my sister's family's new home and all the beautiful things about it.

But it isn't.

Only because WE GOT TO MEET BABY HENRY! It was such a big deal that we didn't take pictures of the house, although it is very very nice.

Each of the kids got to hold their new cousin and there was quite a line to get hands on him. You can see by their faces, they are very proud of be the big cousins!

Next stop: Gaedke's

After enjoying a little of the sate park, we hit the road again, this time to the twin cities to spend a little more time with my best friend and family. We ate dinner, the kids played, and we chatted with our friends. It was delightful. The kids were especially charmed by getting to hold baby Cal again- he is really the sweetest little guy!


We love getting to spend time with these friends, but we had an ulterior motive. My sister-in-law was in town with our newest cousin.

This auntie LOVES a new baby and has been trying to patiently wait to get our hands on this little guy!

My sister graciously offered to host lunch the following day at her new home in Minneapolis. The baby would be coming for lunch song with his mother.

WPA architecture

After our short foray into the forest, we came back to find a WPA era lodge and small museum.

Duluth day #3

The third day in Duluth we only had a short time before we had to leave. We looked at all the options and decided on a nearby waterfall/hiking adventure at Manitou Falls park.

The falls were a quick walk from the parking lot and beautiful. The kids had fun and we enjoyed getting out in the forest a little. Until one little person had to use the restroom!

Water park

The pool was an indoor waterpark! When we came back to the hotel and although it wasn't as big as other places we have stayed , the kids still had a lot of fun.