She's free!

We decided to finally move Alia to her "big girl" bed. We tried to hold this transition off as long as possible because Avery was a nightmare at bedtime in his toddler bed. It took months (okay years) to get him to actually stay in his bed. She did an amazing job this summer whenever we traveled, sleeping in beds without bars so we thought we would give it a try. She has actually stayed in bed and gone to sleep each night. The other day during nap, she came out and said, "Mom I have to go to the bathroom and then I'm going to lay back down because I'm super tired." And she did just that! I am surprised and relived that transitioning her to a real bed has gone so well.


Not to worry, we wouldn't take the bed from the dogs and make them sleep on the floor! Scott made a few quick modifications on the crib and they were set. We got a lot of use out of this free crib!

Georgia Camping Adventure

Since having kids we have only tent camped once. It was fun but didn't turn out quite as we had hoped. You can read about it here. Now that the kids are a bit older we thought that we would give camping a second try. Thankfully, when we moved to Georgia, my sweet sister bought us this book. It was the perfect book for us to find a nice place to camp and explore. After a quick flip though we found our place. The camp seemed perfect, less than 2 hours away, on a lake and free! The only catch is that it was rustic, no water, no flush toilets, and no power.



This was our site. The Spanish moss gave it a fun creepy feeling, like the swamp monster episode of Scooby Doo.



We had a beautiful site and our very own swamp monster! Look carefully. Avery and Alia were very excited to see a wild alligator.



I'm pretty sure he wanted to eat Maia because he kept swimming by and watching her. Luckily he stayed in the water. We have heard of bears attacking people in tents and started to wonder if this guy was waiting for us to go to bed to get us. Luckily we were not the casualty of the first ever alligator tent attack.



There were actually two alligators. Here Brandee and Alia check out the little one.



And here is the big one.

We picked this campground not only because it was free and on the lake but because it was only a couple miles from one of Georgia's most unfamous state parks "The Grand Canyon of Georgia" (Providence canyon state park). In Georgia, that means the big ditch that was caused by farmers not being able to keep our barren soil from eroding. After 150 years of uncontrolled erosion you have this.



That's a big ditch.

It was actually a ton of fun. The washout was 150' deep and created 9 separate slot canyons. We spent the afternoon exploring a couple of them.



We had a lot of fun exploring all of the nooks and crannies of the canyon. Alia kept running around looking up saying "Oh, coooooaaaal" It was fun watching them explore.



After a brief rest, we were ready for more exploring.

After all of that exploring we came back, made a fire, ate dinner and made a bunch of smores.



For future reference, 3 jumbo smores are too many for a 2 or 5 year old.



This is how to take a bath when at camp. Alia loved it. We kept them up late thinking that they would be so tired that they would fall asleep fast. The 3 smores had a bit more influence than we thought. They bounced off the tent walls for what seemed like hours. Tent camping was fun though. We had a full moon and fell asleep to the sound of two owls calling to each other.

I think camping is back on our agenda, especially now that fall is here and being outside feels so good. Georgia just got a little cooler.

Fun sandal time

Several months ago I was looking for a pair of sandals for the summer and came across these.



My Luna sandals instantly became my only summer footwear. I loved them but felt bad for everyone else that had to either wear shoes or flip flops. I was working on making my own shoes for an upcoming race (long story) and had some extra material. At the same time my dad gave me some super soft deer hides (thanks dad). I decided that I wouldn't be the only one to enjoy these fine sandals. First, I made Alia a pair because she runs with us every night and didn't really have a good running shoe.





I made her a cute pink pair and she loves them.

Not to be left out, Brandee received two pairs. The first one was ok, just an average brown, but I went all out on the second pair and made them purple.



Comfortable, versatile and stylish. Enjoy your sandals girls.

Avery was sad to not get a pair because I ran out of material. Luckily he loves his zebra shoes and didn't feel too bad. I'm planning on using Brandee's brown sandals and converting them into a bright yellow pair for him.



Avery and I having fun with his zebra shoes on.

Creepy Crawly Things

It seems lately that we have run into a lot of slithery, slimy, creepy things.

We enjoyed a movie at our outdoor theater the other night and to pass the time before the movie, we were able to see The Reptile Guy.


We decided to make our own snakes out of old wine corks. No, we do not drink that much wine- we found them in the recycling bin at Whole Foods.







I found him when I was weeding.


Avery spotted this caterpillar on our walk. A bird dropped him and Avery saw him fall. We also saw a salamander, but didn't get a picture. Avery tried to pick him up but he was really sticky.

Where in the world

Where would you go if you could go anywhere in the world? This was the question that I was faced with when planning our 10 yr wedding anniversary. I wanted to do something spectacular.



How about the Greek Isles?! Then I realized that would mean leaving the kids for an extended period of time. This was just too hard for us to do and I think Brandee would have let me go by myself rather than fly out of the country without the kids. Plus, it was August and the Greek Isles have nothing on the Apostle Islands.



No white washed buildings but I will take the ships, rose garden and lakewalk any day.

Now that our trip is done I have no regrets on going to Lake Superior. It helped that my parents were up there and that they were willing to take the kids so Brandee and I could get away for a night.



They really love grandma and grandpa and we knew that they would be in good hands.



We had great weather the entire time and the water was warm and soooo nice. We were able to make it out on the lake and really enjoy ourselves. The kids had the time of their lives. Grandma and Grandpa really spoiled them.



Fun on the four-wheeler



Campfire and smores, a summertime must.

We all had a great time. Brandee and I were also excited to get away for our 10 yr anniversary. We headed to Duluth with no particular plan but a nice bed and breakfast waiting for us. The local ski hill just added a new zip line which we decided to check out. It was as if we were going on a first date. Very exciting.





We weren't really sure what to do with ourselves so we started with a caramel apple on the lakewalk. We spent over an hour just talking and watching the waves crash on the shore. It was great to be able to talk without having to talk in 5 sec increments between the kids interrupting.



We ended our night with a nice dinner and another night walk along the lakewalk. We loved the old home and time together.

Here are a few other random pictures from the trip.



Alia just finished Grandma's amazing wild blueberry pie and randomly started talking in a robot voice. When we started to laugh, she laughed even harder which revealed her teeth which were covered in blueberries, making us laugh even harder. She of course loved the attention.



Alia loved playing with Laura's baby dolls and the picnic set. She had a picnic almost every day.



As always she gravitated to the "babies". They were tired so she was putting them to bed.



Shenanigans at the dinner table



Helping dump the compost bin.



The daily morning walk through the berry patch to eat berries.



They loved going fishing on Grandpa's boat.



Avery was diving for snails.



When we told Avery we were going to Grandma and Grandpa's he said he really wanted to play with his gun and talk on the hotdog phone. Wish granted.

Thanks grandma and grandpa, we all had a great time.

End of July Randomness

We found this little guy peering in at us last night from our window

What a great way for the kids to help make sweet potato fries!

We used cookie cutters and a hammer to cut out fun shapes

Avery and Alia were on stage performing a musical number for us

We shaved Maia for the summer

6 month photo update

Alia 2 years 6 months
Avery 5 years

Yogi Bear comes for a visit

We went back to Wisconsin last weekend to celebrate Gaven and Avery's birthdays.  We stopped by Amanda's house and Avery almost jumped out of the moving car to ride the power wheel with Jaycent. 

And....this is what happens when we let Avery drive.  He drove full speed straight into the bushes!

Alia had a chance to ride too!

We headed to Yogi Bear's Jellystone in Warrens to celebrate Gaven's 13th birthday and Avery's 5th birthday.  We rented 2 cabins side by side for the weekend.  We had so much fun riding the lazy river, eating smores, and going down the water slides.  Avery even went down big blue (the big solo water slide) all by himself!

When Alia saw Yogi come through our cabin door she clung to me.  Once Yogi left she wanted him to come back.  When I asked if she liked him she said, "Yes, Yogi says ....."  She then opened her mouth in a smile and was mute just like Yogi.  When I asked Avery if he liked that Yogi came to wish him a Happy Birthday he said, "I couldn't hear him because he was a guy in a costume."

 Alia had fun gathering rocks and organizing them.

 Austin loves catching bugs and frogs.  He kept finding these tiny frogs by the lake.