Anniversary weekend. ...ahhhhh.

Steve and I had the chance to getaway for our anniversary this year. I had planned for us to go see Randy Travis at the Grand Casino in Hinckley on Thursday night. He kinda had it all figured out before hand, but I wanted it to be a surprise. oh well. My parents came for the weekend to watch the kids for us, they had to get them off to school on Friday as well, and then Sat. afternoon they took the kids to Nelson Farm in Litchfield, and had a blast.
Everyone kept asking us, why Randy Travis??, he's boring, he's old, he sings like he has his nose plugged, it's country..... well, I guess not everyone has the same taste in music, is all I gotta say. We went to a sold out show, and there was a mix of people there young and old and we really enjoyed it!! I could have listened to him all night, but the concert seemed short at about 1 hr and 45 min.
Steve has liked Randy Travis since I've known him and, it's because of Steve that I like country music at all. It's grown on me, and he tends to sing about love, so I thought it was more than appropriate for our anniversary. We sat on the side of the stage, 7 rows back, with seats towards the beginning of the long rows, so we had a good view, but becasue of our angle, the lighting gave Randy a nice glow on my most of my pictures.


We headed into the casino after the concert, and walked around for about an hour taking a chance on some the machines. Lost some, won some...we were pretty conservative and came out about even. We had an ice cream treat, and then left there to head to our hotel which was about another 1/2 hr north in Moose Lake. Got to the hotel about 11pm or so. We had a nice room at the AmericInn that I got for 1/2 price
not to mention it was the "honeymoon suite". King sized bed, fireplace and jaccuzzi. ahhhhh.





We got up Friday morning and headed to Duluth for the day. It was a georgous day, warm but not too warm, esp that we were down by Lake Superior, there were times when it was perfect.






We took in the Great Lakes Aquarium, walked around the lake area near there, ate lunch at Grandma's Saloon and grill, in which we became aware quickly it was Oktoberfest weekend, as the polka band played by the bar....heck I even enjoyed that. We had a beer at the bar as we waited for our table. We had a light lunch and then headed on out towards the North Shore. We made a stop at Tom's Logging Camp, and took a nature walk/tour of the replica logging camp, it was interesting. We then went to Gooseberry Falls State Park, and spent a good deal of time catching every angle of all the falls. Steve always had to be daring, and get to places on the rocks, that I'm not sure people should be.....he left me behind in my flip flops, as I wasnt' going where he was....he always came back to me :)







We finally made it to Split Rock Lighthouse, about 5pm. (they closed at 6pm) Our final goal. It was a georgous site and I'm glad I got to see it. We were in a lighthouse in Florida once, very tall. This one was shorter, but beautiful sitting out on the cliff. We took the walk down to the lake, where the tram-way was built to haul everything/supplies up to the cliff from the lake to build the lighthouse and then took a trail back up to the top again. Beautiful scenery. Leaves just starting to turn many colors. We watched the informational movie on the building of the lighthouse, and then started to head back.






We made it back to Duluth, and had supper, we were both hungry for Chinese, so that is what we found. We took the bridge over to Superior, WI, and then another big bridge back over to Duluth, and then headed back to the hotel. Talks of storms were said to be coming, but it held off until we got to the hotel, just real windy beforehand. Ended up to be just some rain overnight. We relaxed in the hotel room that evening then, and watched some of the Twins game and later some Larry the Cable Guy.....he he. We were both exhausted from the day and both had about 10-11 hours of sleep that night. ahhhhh.

Saturday was our anniversary then, kind of the most uneventful day. We just drove home. uugggh.
Steve was on a mission to just get home. I was thinking of a movie, and an anniversary dinner later, but he stopped at McDonalds on the way home at 2:30, when he probably couldnt' stand the hunger anymore, and said he just wanted to go home....how romantic. We were home before 3:30pm. I decided to forgo the McD's, and ended up with the kids and my parents at Pizza Hut instead...how romantic.

All in all we had a very nice weekend and I didn't want to come home as much as Steve did, I wanted it to last a bit longer, one of those weekends I just really didnt' want to end. aahhhhh.

check out the entire photo gallery of our trip at address below and click on slideshow.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?UV=511984186940_886064604307&collid=40315674207.998679504307.1222735736893&page=1

My beautiful boy

Keaton--14 yrs.
Just testing out my photography skills. I love taking pictures of kids, animals and flowers/scenery.

a night out with the Beatles

Last night Steve and I got a chance to go out. I don't even remember the last time when we got home at 2am!! The kids and their cousins were being watched at Steve's sister's house, by a friend of theirs.
We went out in honor of Steve's dad's 60th birthday, which is this coming Thursday. He is a Beatles fan, and his mom saw that a Beatles Tribute band from the area was having a concert, so she invited the immediate family for a night out. Steve was late, of course, and had to meet us at the restaurant. We ate at the new remodeled restaurant called "Roberts", formaly known as Rascals, at the Medina Entertainment Center. We all had a good meal & intersting conversation, followed by the "Beatles" concert up in the ballroom. It really wasn't the atmosphere I expected, as I envisoned more of a concert scene. The ballroom is large and the maybe 150-200 people there, seemed more like just a few, since everyone was so spread out. There was the dancers on the dance floor and people like us who just sat back and listened for the most part. They were pretty good, as most music to me is refreshing and fun. I learned some things about them, as I never paid much attention to the deatils of the band, but still reconginzed most of the songs. My dad is also a big Beatles fan, so I'm surprised I didn't know more than I do.
The band was called "Rubber Soul", and they had 3 outfit changes to match the years of the songs they were singing. In the last set, Jen,(Steve's older sister) had arranged a head of time to have her, Jes and Steve sing with the band the "Ob la de, Ob la da" song up on stage for their dad. It was quite the entertainment and so neat to watch. Of course I forgot my camera last night, but there were 3 other cameras there, so I hope to get some pictures emailed to me to remember the night by. Jen and Nancy finally let it all loose towards the end and decided to dance a few songs. With all the ballroom dancers, and just plain goofy dancing out there, I decided to lay low. I've never danced to the Beatles and wasn't even sure where to begin, so I just tapped my toes in enjoyment.
By the middle of the last set then the crowd was more scarce, people were leaving already, so at about 12:30am or so we also left thinking it was almost over, but they played about 7 more songs after we left apprently. It was just as good that we left, as the evening was quite long already.....way past my bedtime !!!

We picked the kids up about 1:30am and finally settled into our beds about 2am.
It was a memorable night.

Hannah & her friends

The last of the birthday festivities. Hannah has been asking all week how many more days, then yesterday, how many more hours?
We invited 9 girls, and 3 weren't able to make it....never heard from Kendall and her sister and cousin Brynna wasn't able to come.
First they enjoyed cupcakes and then Hannah opened her presents, and then they all had fun swimming, and really enjoyed the hot tub.

Some pictures of the day.




Hannah and Madaline


Elizabeth, Lydia, Hannah, Mileka, Madaline


Audri


Madaline, Mileka, Lydia, Elizabeth, Serena, Hannah


Serena, Mileka.....Hannah and Madaline in the water.

medical mystery

My grandpa, as I have mentioned before in my blog, has not been feeling well all summer, since coming back to WI from Arizona last May. It's been a long summer of struggles, many doctor visits and just wondering if grandpa will be ok. It started out with flu like symptoms, developed into pneumonia with a short hospital stay, and continued on with extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, and his heart rhythm has been off. The many tests he has gone through, has only shown up some minor problems, but not the specific cause of what the real problem is. It has been frustrating for the family not to know what is going on, as obviously some thing is not right. The doctors have been baffeled. His cardiologist did find a small blockage, and his heart rhythum is off, but he didnt' think those things was the inital concern.

Finally I think we are on the right track. A friend of my grandparents, who live in Arizona emailed my mom after she was filing them in on grandpa's health and the frustrations of all the testing and no answers. She asked if he has been tested for "Valley Fever", it's a common disease in Arizona. It's a spore that lives in the soil in warm desert areas. Grandma now remembers just before leaving AZ, grandpa was digging in the soil and planted a rose bush and another bush.
Doctors in this area are not too familiar with it and will not think to test for such a disease. My mom printed off all the stuff she found on the internet, and my grandpa now has a appt. with his regular Dr. on Tuesday. My grandma also dropped off all the papers on Valley Fever to the clinic, so they have a chance to research it, before seeing grandpa. We are almost postive that this is our answer. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

To read more about Valley Fever, go to:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/valley-fever/DS00695/DSECTION=symptoms

A concert to remember.

Bailey has been working on getting some sounds out of his trumpet. When he first got it, without any instruction as to how, he was frustrated that he would never get it. I kept telling him to just wait until your taught how.
He's had a few group lessons at school so far, and Tuesday afternoons at 1:45 is his individual lesson for 15 min. He is pulled out of math that day for his lesson, although they only tell the kids their band lesson time, but apparently don't remind them to go when it's time. Yup he missed his lesson on Tuesday. He just said he forgot to go. (I'm sure it was because math was so exciting)
Well even though he missed his first individual lesson, he is able to get some real trumpet sounds out now. He has group band 3 times a week, and they are working on their first song, sounds impossible with 85 kids in band, several types of instruments that the kids are just learning and one instructor. Bailey said he's learned one note so far for the song. The first concert in Dec 4, so I guess they got some time.
Should be a concert to remember.

God's birthday gift to Hannah

While driving to St Cloud Saturday afternoon, it started to sprinkle. The sky got dark to the east, while it started to clear up where we were. Other than that brief period of time it was a nice day.
We got to see a beautiful full rainbow spread across the sky. It was also Hannah's birthday, so I told Hannah that God sent that rainbow to her for her birthday. She seemed impressed. It was pretty and I had my camera with, so I captured it the best I could.
We were headed to Hockey Zone to take back leased skates and get new ones, but as we arrived around 5pm we found out they closed at 4pm. uuggh!!
So....we went out to eat at Space Aliens for Hannah's birthday, and had a wonderful supper. Then she had birthday money to spend and what better place to spend it, than at Toys R Us. I also had a $5 off coupon for there from her birthday club.
She was overhwhelmed with all the choices, any other time when we don't have money, she wants anything and everything. So now she has the money and she can't decide. She ended up happy with her purchase though, after an hour of searching, and bought none other than her favorite thing..... a stuffed animal....but it's not any ole stuffed animal it's a "Nintendog", a golden retriever puppy, that howls, barks, shakes it's head and wags it's tail and comes with a certificate of adoption.......OH MY!! She loves her new dog as she does each and every one of her "animals". She also loves playdoh, so she found a unique play set, to make ice cream cones, and can even add sprinkles and toppings.

RAINBOW PICTURES






HANNAH AT SPACE ALIENS



THE ALIEN--NOT THE GREATEST PICTURES. WAS TRYING TO GET A GOOD SETTING, BEFORE HE WAS GONE.

Happy Birthday Hannah

Hannah is 7 today. Lucky 7 !!
I took the traditional holding up fingers picture that I have been doing with the kids since they were about 3 or 4. I also took some 7 yr old pictures. I plan to take more, (he he), but here are the ones I took on her birthday today.