A LITTLE VA-CA

Today marks the last day of my vacation! The kiddos and I had a great week but man am I tired! I told Jeremy, next time I decide to take a week off, I will make sure to plan a "me" day! I learned a few things this week as well! I learned how much my 3 year old has grown up, I learned what an exhausting job it is taking care of two kids 24/7 ( I now have a new appreciation for stay at home mom's...and a better appreciation for my job!) I learned how much fun it was to play all day with my kids and not worry about housework, laundry, etc! Now back to reality tomorrow!

Here are the highlights of our week! Tuesday our plan was to go to the aquatic center but it was pretty rainy and cool, so plan B was a movie. I took Carter to see UP. Super cute movie! We had lunch at the mall, shopped for some new running shoes for mom and by that time the sun had actually come out. We checked out a little park on the east side called Union Park. The have a carousel, a super fast rocket slide and a wading pool equipped with fountains and sprays. It was super fun! I can't believe we had never been there before but will definitely be going back.

Wednesday, Jeremy took the day off and we took Carter to Adventureland while Claire hang out with her friends at daycare. Carter was super brave on all the rides. His favorite were the raging river where he got COMPLETELY soaked!! I was so thankful the boat turned just as we were heading under the waterfall otherwise it would have been me! He really liked the bumper cars, the frog hopper and the Underground ( roller coaster in the dark) I rode the tilt a whirl with him and literally felt sick for the next 6 hours!! UGH

Thursday we were suppose to head up to Minneapolis to see my friend Jeri and her kids Jaiden and Abrie, but Jaiden came down with a case of croup so we decided to stay away. We were planning to visit the Minnesota zoo, but had to opt for the Blank Park Zoo. We watched a very cool bird show and got to ride the train this time. That night Carter and I went to our local library for pajama story time. TOO FUN!

Friday, the kids and I headed back to mom and dad's for a couple of days. We helped grandma weed the pumpkin patch that is getting ENORMOUS, went fishing with aunt Darcie and Jill, visited great grandma and grandpa Mehlmann and Carter helped Darcie and Jill work on grandma's new deck. We ate tons of good food and enjoyed some very cool weather! We headed back home Sunday afternoon. Daddy made us a welcome home supper complete with movie night and popcorn to follow. My grandparents have this great pond at their farm. All you do is throw your line in and start reeling. All Darcie got done was putting worms on and taking fish off for those of us who refused to touch anything!

Aunt Darcie showing how to set his line.

His first fish! A pretty good sized bluegill!
We caught 16 fish in all..not bad for an hour and a half! We decided to throw them all back to let them "grow up" as Carter would say. I was pretty proud of my germaphobe son, he got brave enough to FINALLY touch a worm and even a fish. By then end of the day he was even breaking the worms in half for us. We could never convince him to kiss a worm for good luck though.

This morning Carter asked me if he could go to preschool! I was telling about what his class was doing this week and he decided going to Backyard Adventures sounded like more fun than hanging out with me another day. Back to work tomorrow!