Minnesota Family Vacation (part 2)

 Fishing with a View

The adults were able to go fishing all day on Sunday, while grandma watched the kids.

 Getting onto the lake.  We paddled across one lake, portaged over land, and finally got to our destination.

Ryan on Crocodile Lake.

 Fishing with no luck what-so-ever.  We didn't get any bites at all:(
It has been a really long time since I've been fishing.  At first, I thought I was just terrible and Ryan was better than me.  But then we switched poles and it turns out I am pretty good!  The pole really does matter.

We were also able to hike to several vantage points with great views.

The Palisades.

 Annalise, Carissa, Ady, and Asher.  Such fun cousins!

 My favorite hike and view:

 Honeymoon Bluff.

 I love all the lakes you can see and just the shapes made by trees and water.

 Melanie enjoying the view.

 

Asher at Honeymoon Bluff.

 Here's a view from the 'beach' at the Lodge.  I love being on the water.

 We took a trip to High Falls right on the border of Canada and the US.

 

High Falls.

 Crockett Family Photo!

 Annalise and Asher with Grandma and Grandpa Haddock.

 Annalise and Asher were just so cute together!

 This photo makes me laugh.  Ady didn't want to smile, so no else did either:)

A view from the dock at Clearwater Lodge.

Still more to come...

Minnesota Family Vacation (part 1)

 In the beginning of the month we traveled to Minnesota to visit my sister and brother-in-law's Hunting and Fishing Resort, The Clearwater Lodge.  My entire family (except my little brother who is deployed) met there for a week of family fun and outdoors activities.

 The Historic Clearwater Lodge.  It has a lot of amazing history to it and was a really amazing place to visit.  Here's a link that will let you find out more: http://www.clearwaterhistoriclodge.com/

 Here's the cabin we stayed in:)  My idea of camping!

 It had 2 bedrooms and this great kitchen and family area.

 The screen porch where the kids ate their meals.

 We could see down to the dock from our porch.

 Asher was loving the bear rug.  He immediately put it on and started chasing people around.

 What a fun little boy!

 We had a moose sighting on our first outing!  We stopped and were able to get some pictures (sometimes I wish I had a better camera).

We went hiking to a moose viewing platform (though we didn't see any other moose).

 Asher and Ryan hiking.  Notice their green shirts?  My mom made these awesome family shirts for the vacation.  Asher has a blue one from our family trip to Disney land also.  I plan to make them into blankets for the kids when they are grown up so they can remember all our family trips:)

 Me and my kids.

 My dad took them Geo-caching.  Asher was so funny because he was excited to see what was in the box, but had to put everything back before we left.

Asher with his grandparents.

There's more to come...

Vaden is 1!

 We celebrated Vaden's 1st birthday a couple weeks ago.  It is hard to believe she is already 1!  She has gotten so big.

 Vaden's stats:

Weight: 21 lbs. 8 oz. (75%)

Height: 30.5 inches (90%)

Head Circumference: 18 inches (72%)

Some of her favorite things to do are:

 Climb stairs!

She loves to climb things and is always crawling at full speed to the stairs anytime we leave the gate open.  She also starts to climb faster anytime we go to get her.  She just laughs the whole time.

 Eating!

Yes, our little girl loves food!  She gets so upset if she sees anyone eating and she doesn't get any.  Even if she has had all of her dinner, she can still eat more.

 She loves attention!

She loves to have people play with her and hold her. She is still very much a cuddler.  She is usually happy to let anyone hold her, though she prefers her mom.  She has started crying anytime she see me leave, but she usually calms down as soon as someone holds and cuddles her.

 Asher!

She gets along great with her big brother.  She loves to be entertained my him.  She doesn't like when he tackles her or tries to ride her when she is crawling though.  But for some reason I get the feeling that Vaden is going to be the ring leader in getting them into trouble.

 Playing!

Vay just loves to play.  She loves climbing all over her toys and learning how to play with new toys.  She is pretty good to play by herself (until Asher bugs her).

 

Walking!

She can't walk on her own yet, but she pulls herself up on thing and walks while holding on.  She loves to hold on to our hands and walk whenever we let her.  She still crawls to get around on her own and is getting pretty fast.

Happy Birthday Vaden!

 

Opening presents from Grandma!  Thank you to both sets of grandparents for sending Vaden birthday wishes and gifts.

 

Vaden is usually a pretty happy baby.  She still isn't sleeping through the night though which doesn't make me very happy:)   She still wakes up once.

 

 Vaden has 4 teeth now.  Her top 2 teeth just came in a few weeks ago to join her bottom 2:)  Of course this is bad news for Asher because she is a biter!  Whenever she gets mad she will make a sort of muffled scream sound and try to bite whoever is in her way.  She's gotten Asher a few times.  Of course, Asher never learns and keeps getting in the way.  He is usually just trying to play with her and doesn't realize he's making her mad.  Though she keeps it fair by occasionally biting herself on accident! 

 She is getting bigger and better at everything she does.  She likes to turn the lights off, climb the slide, take baths, be outside, wreck Asher's block towers and train tracks (she makes a great Vayzilla!), watching other kids, take baths some more, play at the pool, and cuddle.  We love our little girl and are so glad she is in our family.  She is the perfect friend for Asher and the perfect baby for Ryan and me.

Summer Fun

 This summer has been a lot of fun so far with our 2 kids (and not being pregnant)!

Asher loves to get into everything and have me play with him ALL day.  He loves when he has everyones attention.  Here he is singing and playing the piano.  I have hopes that at least one of my kids will be musical:)

 

 Going on walks is one of our family favorites.  Asher loves to walk himself, though I prefer when he stays nice and quiet in the stroller.

 Vaden loves to discover new toys.  One of her favorite things to do is to put her arm through things.  She especially loves the rings.

 Having a deck is wonderful.  We finally have a place the kids can be outside.

 We got a little pool for the kids and they LOVE it!  It's great to send them out for half and hour or so to splash around while I finish dinner.

 They are doing so well to play together.

 Though Vaden usually doesn't appreciate Asher's help!

 Relaxing together in Daddy's chair.

 Asher is such a tease.  He loves to play hide 'n seek.  He'll cover himself with a blanket and ask, "Where's Asher?"  Then about a minute later he will finally come out.  He also likes to put baskets, bags, etc. on his head and walk around.  Funny kid!

 Vaden is just as funny.  She loves to puts anyone's shoes on her hands and crawl around.