Here is a family picture of all us ont he top deck of the boat... It was a lot of fun...

Duluth Cruise

SCRUFFY (BRUNO)

This here is Scruffy, really his name is Bruno but if you remember a while back, I wrote about my kids finding a poor lost homeless dog - they called him. So we brought him home for 1 night until the owners got a hold of us. turned out we went to school with the owners, I cheerleaded with her, and Rick graduated with her, they go to our church too... when they came to pick him up we asked them if they ever needed a sitter we would love too! well, they went on vacation yesterday and we get little ole' scruffy for 1 whole week. Kids are just loving it. I think he is ALOT of work! I thought he would be perfect for cleaning up my messy floor with kids spilling food, but I see tootie fruities still laying there...?? he's cute... so here is a picture of him and the kids.

Last night before coming home

Have mentioned I will need a vacation after this vacation? It's been alot of fun, but man I am exghusted! I think all of us are.. Rick isn't use to hanging out with the kids 24/7 so i think he is pretty much ready to go back to work too. We spent hours at the waterpark this morning, did some out door swimming, out door golfing, Tiki Tom's had a jumping air thing for the kids today, I have to say this place really caters to the kids... It's awesome. We then went and played some Arcade games, rick hit the jackpot so we all chipped in our winnings and chose a stuff Dolphin for Erica. she is always doing nice things for her siblings. We came back to the hotel and got ready for our cruise... we were really nervous about this becasue Brooke hates riding on boats.. But she did great, I think it was big enough to where she didn't even really notice at first or mind.. The boat cruised us around and we had a buffet of pizza, and yummy Sundaes, they had a DJ the kids enjoyed some dances too. came back to the hotel crawled in our jammies and ordered MORE pizza, we are gonna hang out watch some t.v. and I hope go to bed early... It's like plain torture for these kids to be in a place like Tiki Tom's EdgeWater and have to stay in the room! If I wasn't so tired I might just feel bad about making them... but we have tomorrow until noon here... It's been a fun vacation, but next year we decided that we ware going to rent a cabin... some place where we are sitting, fishing, swimming and just spending time together... Duluth is great but there is so much that you can do! and you almost feel like you should do it all!
O.k. off to relax!

OOH SHOOT I FORGOT

at the Air port they had a garage and a bunch of buisness sat up little stations, The Marines had a table and also they had a chin lift bar for boys to do as many pull up as they could, and the girls to hang with a chin up for as long as they could. I am so very proud of my muscle man Nicholas... he won himself a poster.. and then Brooke felt left out so she had to do it too!

Nicholas' reaction to Blue Angels...

HOW BROOKE FELT ABOUT THE BLUE ANGELS

SUPER DUPER FUN DAY

Woke up this morning with excitement in the air! cleaned up the villa, loaded the truck up and headed for the hour and 1/2 ride to Duluth to watch the Blue Angels. If I had to describe watching the Blue Angels in 2 words it would be "BLEEPING AWESOME!" It was really neat to watch the little plains but something about when those boys come out, your heart starts pounding and you can feel the excitement rise in your throat... I am so proud of them, and I don't even know them... I have pictures of a couple of our kids that you can see the expression on their faces of on what they thought of it... Scared them Poopless. we were walking back towards the car hoping to beat the traffic (which we did not!) and those guys came out of no where and flew what seemed about 100 feet from our heads! My knees were knocking... it was nuts... They are just unbelievable... After that the princess had to have her RED LOBSTER.. ooh I am princess.. that was really yummy and the kids got to touch live lobsters.... Then we were off to EDGEWATER, This place is pretty amazing too. Big water park, with 2 slides, a lazy river, a few different pools, climbing things for kids, little water park for kids a little bar for grits and smoothies...... out door mini golf, basketball, play ground, we have a balcony that over looks lake superior and the outdoor pool.. can't ask for much more except maybe an extra pillow... this place is great... Kids are in bed now trying to sleep so they can get up early and swim! Tomorrow is a day of swimming, playing and then at 5:30 PIZZA CRUISE... Not sure how brook will do with that, we can't get her into our little boat... ooh well. update tomorrow! MOM- We are coming back home Tuesday... Boohoo.

Temperance River...

Quick up date

Today was pretty uneventful but it went way to fast. Time flies when your having fun! woke up very late, had a huge breakfast and the night before we promised the kids if they went to bed good we would take them to the pool, so we went swimming for about 1.5. came back got ready for our adventure to Temperance River... it was very cool, the way I remembered from our honey moon. we didn't even spend more then 20 min there, Rick just didn't want to be around there with kids... so I was a little bummed... we did hike 2 paths, one led us down to a bunch of wild pack of kids who scared the crud out of us older folks, one pushed the other one off the edge of a cliff and fell into the mouth of lake superior, everyone was scared, we thought someone seriously accidentaly fell in... but then the other one that pushed the one kid off jumped in him self... they came up off shore laughing... there were alot of mad people...Nicholas was even pretty upset and called them idiots. after that we went back to main lodge and the boys golfed and us girls walked around shore and played games in the resort lobby.. nice and quiet. came back and had some burgers & dogs, and headed to shore for a camp fire and smores.. It was a very nice day that went way to fast... tomorrow is a big day... going to watch the Blue Angles, we have planned the whole vacation around this event! can't wait! OOh Michlyn had another upsetting episode... we were at the resort taking potty break, I was in the next stall over and she starts screaming bloody murder that the door is stuck and will not open, I rip up my pants jump out the door because I am scared she is going to have staff running in, and it turned out all she needed to do was open the door the way she was suppose to... pull... instead she kept pushing out... we had a good laugh about that... always something with her... the other day she was stuck in the pool rest room cause she couldn't open the door... cried and cired and heard about that all night...

It's been such a long day, but a fun one. we got up and went to Grand Maria - shopped around got some souvenirs for the kids... Nicholas got him self a shark tooth on a neckles, Erica and Mike got a sequence hat that looks really cute, Brooke got a slinky, I got a toe ring that broke in the pool And Rick got a cool looking train conductor looking hat. We then went to GunFlint trail and seen a whole lot of trees. We asked the kids, so what do you think? and Erica said it is SO VERY TREEY!! We then went to a 16 course mini golfing which was super fun. Picked up a few groceries for some grillings tonight... Came back to the Villa and did some more swimming... There is a band playing at the main resort we thought of going to watch but decided we spent enough money today, so we are now sitting on the deck listening to the beautiful lake Superior lapping on the shore, grilling some pork chops, and listening to some tape that Rick put in... ooh and the beer taste good! Tomorrow our plan is to go to the Temperance River.. can't wait.

ALPINE SLIDE!!!!

HERE I AM, look close you might see the beaver!

Kids thought it was awesome to feed the seagulls that Big rock is where Michlyn slipped in.. closer to the shore.

Here we are at the Poplar River...

What a day, we're beat!

That is me and Rick are beat, kids could keep going, like the energizer bunny.... This morning woke up around 8:30, made a pot of coffee, sat out on the deck listening to the Superior wave up on the shore... Made a big breakfast for the family, we headed to the main resort and walked the shore, Nicholas caught a sucker fish from shore... we walked on the bridges over Poplar River - very cool.. Rick was to worried to go any further then the bridge, such steep slopes to scary to think what could happen with one of the kids if they fell. We decided to hit the Alpine slides, but right when we got there Michlyn thru up in the car... I am not sure if the steep drive up the mountain made her sick? We were just gonna turn around but she reassured us that she was feeling much better. At the start we decided Rick along with Brooke was going to stay back and watch Me, Nicholas, Erica go down the slide, we got up to pay for this and Erica and Nicholas chickened out... they were scared of the chair lift height. So I went by my self, it was peaceful looking over tree tops and it was even more fun coming down, it wasn't what I was expecting it was more pleasant. I was thought I was gonna be in for a shocking ride... but you can go as fast as you want or slow as you want.. The only part I actually got scared and even screamed at was when I got to the very bottom and a stupid crazy beaver or something came running towards the slide and scared the crap out of me... I guess other people where saying that too.. was the Beaver trying to tag us? I have been wanting to do the Alpine slides for a long long time, so I am happy now I can say I did it! kids would have loved it if they weren't so scared to try it. After slides we came back to the Villa and went swimming.. Then we went back to the main resort and brought the 3 older kids to a KIDS NIGHT OUT movie and pizza... Rick, Brooke and I went and had Dinner in the pub, had a couple of beers, played a game of shuffle board. Brooke loved the alone time with mom and dad. After dinner and the kids' movie we took a drive up Onion Drive - A LONG ROAD TO No Where, but it was beautiful. Came back to the villa went out to the shore and watched the Lake again and skipped Rocks. Off to bed now for another fun day in Lutsen!

Beautiful Lutsen

Our long awaited vacation has begun... Seem like it has taken us all day to get here... but we slept in, cleaned up the house and was on the road by 11:00, We finally arrived around 4:30. We are sitting in our nice cozy Sea Villa. A one bedroom on the main along with a kitchen, dinning area and little living room with a fire pace, Nice little deck that over looks lake Superior. We un packed and had taken a walk along the shore looking at all the cool rocks, I got some real cute pictures of the kids. We were just about to head back and Mike tried scooping up a rock and she slid on some slime and went right in the lake, and it was FREEZING... I know this because I had to jump in and rescue her. Every time she would try crawling up the sloped rock she would slide further down... Her brown little eyes pleading to me to save her! I am a hero today.
The resort has lot's of fun activities going on. Kayaking, golf, swimming, a nice restaurant. Tomorrow it looks like it's kids camp from 1-4 Rick and I are seriously thinking of sending the kids there and having a few hours to our self...
We just got back from swimming and hot tubing... it was great... now we are going to relax eat some pizza and start a fire... talk about tomorrows adventure! Hopefully get the kids to bed peacefully...

July 4th weekend

Thurs. the 3rd, we went up to Rick's mom cabin that is close to Milacs lake. It was a really nice relaxing time. Nicholas walked the shore lines and found treasures - eggots,shells,clams, fish skulls & crayfish... He also found a telephone and some other junk. Nicholas could careless to swim, he just loves to hunt for treasures... Friday 4th of July was a beautiful day. we took the boat out went for a ride and fished for a bit. The kids couldn't believe the size of Milicas lake they thought we were in the ocean. Brooke would not go on the boat, she hates it... she stayed back with Grandma, we thought great we should have a nice time fishing without crying kids not wanting to be there... well, we only got to fish for a while, before the kids started wining about getting back to grandma's. I think we can either get rid of the boat or Rick and I just need to find a sitter if we ever want to do some serious fishing. The kids love riding in the boat but just don't like to sit and fish if nothing is biting... we did go out to a rock pile where seagulls, and other birds sat around and squawked, pooped, flew around... the kids thought that was pretty cool besides the stink. We then went to this sandy part of Mi lacs, where you could walk out forever and the water never gets high... kids swam for a while, we ended up going back that evening to hopefully catch some fire works. we did see a few but nothing like we were hoping... we just weren't in the right spot. but it was still fun, and I got lots of good pictures. went back to grandma's and lit a couple fire works of our own & called it a night. Next day we got up helped grandma clean up the place, packed up and headed home... It sure is nice to go and get a away for awhile for something different, but it also so nice to come back home... we unpacked, and kinda lazed around.... then we were invited to friends for dinner... that was awesome to not have to come home and cook, we had nothing in the house anyway since we were gone for the weekend. Yesterday we got Nicholas all packed up and ready to go for his first week away at Big Sandy Camp. I am not sure he will want to come back.. he is so excited... and I am so happy he is excited... He says he can't wait to go, because he finally won't be bored all the time... I hardly could get a kiss and a hug out of him, he just wanted to GO!
O.k. better get back to day care kids...

Brooke the Booger & Erica too!

I wanted to post this up so I can remember this very special day. Sat. Rick took all of us to Broadway Pizza, we had an awesome pizza meal, all the kids looked absolutely cute and I was so proud of how they were behaving. Shortly after we got our Pizza another big family came in and they were also well behaved, and I thought hmmm, I betcha we look just like that... I am so happy my kids are being so good in public. Rick seen a couple friends and went over to say hello, left me alone with all 4 kids.. we sat there talking and enjoying each others company - and Erica out of the blue tells Brooke to yell My Mommy FARTED! just so you know - I DID NOT!!! I heard Erica say that to her, and it was slow motion sorta, while I was in denial, Brooke got out of her seat turned to everyone and started yelling LOUD MY MO - that's about how far she got I totally panicked - shot out of my seat and tried to scream over her so that know one could hear her, but I chose to say SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!! but by the time I realized what I was saying to her, I kinda quieted down and she finished FARTED!!! I was so embarrassed! Erica sat in her seat laughing so hard tears streaming down her face... I grabbed those kids so fast and ran out... How can I go back and tell all these people Really I didn't FART! I would have looked even more dumb. when I think about it now, I can still get worked up and embarrassed.. Erica - you just wait! Soon you will be a teen and not want to be seen with your mother! BUT YOU JUST WAIT!