Adventure Dinosaur

We took a day trip to Milwaukee this weekend to visit the zoo. Aaron and I hadn't been there since we were kids, and this was the first trip for the boys! It was a great but very warm day! They had an exhibit going on called "Adventure Dinosaur" featuring animatronic dinosaurs that Liam was super excited to see. He even got to ride on a T-Rex!

Max thought the dinosaurs were very cool as well.

Dr. Liam, Paleontologist

Dr. Max, Sand Eater

Liam was alternately terrified and amazed at the life-like T-Rex. It's eyes even moved to follow you around! I think once Liam figured out the dinosaur wasn't going to come and grab him or anything he relaxed a bit!

We kept joking that we spent the majority of our time at the zoo looking at fake animals! We did see some real ones, though...more to come tomorrow!

Quickly

Work is just killing me lately. I had a three day weekend and even that didn't seem long enough to recover from the training I've been doing. I'm just feeling exhausted, overwhelmed and exhausted again. We did have a fun, albeit busy, weekend that I will recap tomorrow, hopefully. The zoo, Artstreet, church...it was fun!

Cute

"Mom, that is an armadillo. And that is Diego. He's an animal rescuer. Once he saved a baby main wolf."

Some cuteness for your day. It's all I can muster this morning...horrible night at work, no sleep and a very early morning with Maxwell. Please come soon, weekend...

Liam's Funny Faces

Camp Recap

My aunt Brenda took some adorable pictures of the boys at Uncle Dave's!

Thanks, Auntie Da!

River at Dawn

The view from the deck at Uncle Dave's one morning.

It's the most perfect place I know...

Liam's Shopping List

Liam held up a receipt he'd found and told me it was his shopping list.

"Oh, yeah? What are you going to buy?" I asked.

"Well, we need more juice and more toys, ok?" he said.

Smart Aleck...

Inevitably, after say, 6pm each evening, Liam will announce, "And I'm READY TO START THE DAY!"

Nice try, buddy. You're still going to bed.

Streets of Gray

Liam continues to try and convince us that he really doesn't need to go to heaven. He is perfectly happy here, thank you very much! For one, he can watch shows here. I keep telling him things that you often hear about heaven: that it's beautiful, it's a happy place, the streets might be made of gold! At camp last week he told my mom that he doesn't like streets made of gold. He likes his streets gray.

Hahahaha!

Baby Blue

Ahoy There!

We went to the Tall Ships Festival on the river today!

Uncle John drove up to join us and we had a great, but sweaty, time!

Liam had a great time touring a "real pirate ship"!

He was most excited to see the cannons and really wanted to try and shoot one.

Max was a little overwhelmed by everything, but behaved well for the most part.

Daddy and Uncle John, pining for a turn in the bouncy castle...

Figurehead

Sauna Aika!

Max loved "sauna time" at camp!

Here he shields himself modestly while his mother takes

pictures which she'll bring out to show future girlfriends.

We Are Family

My favorite thing about Uncle Dave's is spending time with my family. We don't often get that much time together, so a week-long vacation was a great opportunity to catch up. The boys are pretty popular with everyone, and they get very excited to play with grandma and grandpa and aunties and Uncle Jay! Auntie Doris, Uncle Grass, Auntie Da and Kelsey even came for a few days! It was a full house, but we had a ton of fun.

Week, please be over now...

*Update: I was able to switch my schedule to Sunday instead of tonight. Hallelujah!

We have a teething baby (all 4 molars) who refused to sleep last night. Aaron and I are beat. I have to work this afternoon and I'm using all the strength I have left not to call in sick. I hate days like this. All I can think about is sleep and the one thing I really can't do is sleep.

In other news, I told Liam yesterday that he had to stay little forever and could not grow up.

He said, "NO, MOM! I have to grow up!"
"But, WHY?!" I asked.
"Because, I need to. Otherwise the tooth fairy won't come!"

I like that line of thinking! Ah, to only have to worry about whether or not the tooth fairy will come...

Beach Baby

Uncle Dave's Camp

After our anniversary weekend, I spent the week in the U.P. at Uncle Dave's camp with the boys and my family. Aaron had to work, but he drove up the following weekend. We had great weather, even though it wasn't particularly good beach weather every day. There was little rain, so we spent a lot of time outside. The boys loved digging in the sand on the beach and throwing rocks in the water.

Liam had quite an imagination and played in the driftwood for hours making "forts", finding treasures and waging battles.

We had a wonderful time! I'll be posting pictures all week!

5 Years

Thank you to my sweet husband for his anniversary post! I'll add a bit to it by outlining our wonderful celebration weekend! We drove first to Sault Ste. Marie, Canada to attend Finn Grand Fest with my grandparents! It's a celebration of Finnish heritage that they attend every year. I am interested in learning more about my Finnish heritage, and Aaron was chosen to be St. Urho in March, so we decided to check it out. We had a great time visiting with Grandpa Richie and Grandma Karen, attending seminars and a dance, doing a little shopping in the Tori and just seeing the city.

From Sault Ste. Marie we ventured west to Au Train, MI for a night at a beautiful bed and breakfast on the Lake Superior shore. Pinewood Lodge was the perfect respite for us.

The Lodge is a huge log cabin with six comfy, quiet rooms overlooking the water. The proprietors were very friendly and the grounds were so quiet it felt like we were the only people there for the night!

The view from our room was beautiful!

The beach was deserted at sunset, and we spent our evening wading in the water and walking along the shore.

The weekend was perfect. I sometimes forget how great it is to be with Aaron when it's just the two of us. We have great conversations and Aaron is quite the romantic, although he may not admit that! I'm telling you...if he looked at you the way he looks at me and smiled that smile of his...you'd marry him, too!

But, sorry ladies...he's taken.