Upcoming Travel Plans

::crickets chirping::

But no, really! I suppose it's like that compared to previous years where we've really lived it up, but such is life with little ones and carseats and pack and plays to lug around: We try to stick close to home.

We're thinking about taking a trip to Seaside, Florida (or somewhere else warm!) this winter at some point, but I also really want to get out to see the newest addition to our family as my brother and his wife are expecting their new little baby boy on Christmas Day. We'll see where the year takes us!

Harvest is about to get underway, so I'm not really expecting to have much free time to be traveling soon. We do hope to get together with the Ropte family for our annual get together next month, but it's hardly a "trip" when it's just a couple hours away. We shall see!

I've also thrown out the idea for a trip to the waterpark in Wisconsin Dells, but I need to get Mark on board with that :)

Brainerd Vacation 2014 - The Lazy Loon

This post has been a long time in the making, friends. And I only sort of apologize, because here's the thing: I took a ridiculous number of pictures. and really, it's just exhausting trying to pick which ones to use not just once (on the blog) but twice (for digi-scrapping). And as a busy working Mom with two little guys at home, I just don't have the time to do both (and seriously - my house needs attention!). So I just made the executive decision to wait to post until I finished my digi-scrapping and then I could just post the pages instead of having to get creative with all those stinkin' pictures.

We had a great week just outside Brainerd on South Long Lake. It was great to have some time to unwind, relax and spend some much-needed time together as a family in the midst of a busy season of life.

We have made the switch almost entirely to doing home rentals off vrbo.com because quite frankly, the thought of cramming all of us into a hotel room makes my eyes twitch: We tried it once, and none of us slept. We have had nothing but incredible experiences with vrbo home rentals, and The Lazy Loon was no exception!

Here is a little recap of our time there :)

Part 1

Thursday: Traveling, St. Cloud, Kendrick standing
Friday: Fishing, Relaxing, Jet Skiing

Part 2

Saturday: Rainy Morning, Relaxing, Dad, Pam and Jess arrive, Fishing, Grilling, Tubing
Sunday: Rainy Morning, Paul Bunyanland attempt, Lounging, Rafferty's
Monday: Packing up, lunch with Don and Carol, relaxing

Part 3

Tuesday: Nisswa, Ernie's on Gull
Wednesday: Lounging and relaxing
Thursday: Packing up and heading Home

Brainerd Vacation 2014: Part 1

This is the first post of a 3-part series highlighting our week on South Long Lake at The Lazy Loon near Brainerd, Minnesota in late May/early June 2014. Click here for Part 2 and click here for Part 3.

Thursday, Day 1

We loaded up the Tahoe full to the brim and luckily caught the boys' naptime on the 4 hour drive up to Brainerd.

The slept until we reached Saint Cloud, where we stopped for pizza and a little park time. We finally arrived at the cabin on South Long Lake around 6pm, not a moment too soon. We were all a little stiff, so we didn't waste any time in getting out and exploring the cabin and the lake front.

I made a quick jaunt to the store to pick up groceries for the week, especially MILKIES for Cashel. We had a horrible time getting the boys to sleep that night - they were way too excited and a little warmer than usual (the place didn't have a/c, just fans), but thankfully we did finally get them down and we crashed shortly after.

Friday, Day 2

The next morning, Kendrick and I were up early, and the coffee never tasted so good!

About an hour later, Cashel and Mark joined us, and we relaxed for a while over breakfast before heading back outside to enjoy the gorgeous morning.

While Mark and Cashel worked on their fishing skills, Kendrick and I just really enjoyed rolling around in the grass and exploring the yard.

Melt my heart - this face!!

It was truly one of the most peaceful, relaxing days. The cabin was so perfect for our little family, and Cashel just walked around like he owned the place. It was so cute to watch him just soak in the beach and the water and the yard and the dock.

One of the coolest parts about our incredible view at the Lazy Loon was being able to capture stuff like this: 35 geese just hanging out in front of the cabin.

We also tried desperately to capture the loon that frequented the area, but the stinker would only come out just before dusk, and my lens isn't quite advanced enough to capture him in detail at the distance he was at.

Over nap time, Mark ran into town to register the jet ski (he had forgotten to), so I took it upon myself to do a little relaxing and journaling.

The boys took LONG naps (about 3 hours each), so it was truly so nice to just unwind and have nothing to do. This practically never happens at home, and when it does, I tend to have so many things on my "to do" list that I never just listen to the birds sing and feel the wind blow with the sun on my face.

Of course, almost the exact moment Mark got back with the jet ski, the boys woke up, and we decided to go put the jet ski in the water at the public access point a couple miles away. Cashel couldn't wait to get out there on the water!

He just couldn't WAIT to come and tell Mama all about his adventures :)

Kendrick was still a little too small to go on the jet ski with Daddy, but he did have to go check it out once they got back :)

The rest of the evening was pretty laid back and uneventful. We did a lot of playing and snuggling in the yard

I honestly don't recall what else we did the rest of the evening, although I do recall that the boys were once again fighting going to sleep, so we spent a lot of time trying to get them down to bed. I'm sure we ate something that I made, but I don't recall what exactly.

Once the boys FINALLY went down, Mark and I enjoyed a little quiet time fishing on the dock with the video monitor surprisingly reaching all the way out there. I caught a little rock bass, and Mark caught an enormous dog fish.

It was once again a warm, sticky night sleeping, but we were grateful that a storm rolled through in the night to cool the place off by morning.

Headed to The Lazy Loon

As I alluded in my last post, our Alexandria trip was dependent on the house still being available that we wanted to rent. Well, it wasn't, sadly :( So we hit vrbo.com again and found this place:


Photo credit: Dee Wietgrefe, Owner

We are THRILLED to be visiting the Lazy Loon on South Long Lake for the next week :)

Other than the fact that it's 2 hours further than the place we were considering in Alexandria, I think I'm even MORE excited about this place! The views are incredible! The thought that tomorrow at this time, we'll be loading up, and hopefully on our way out shortly after leaves me feeling giddy!

It's hard to believe that our last vacation was over a year ago to Hawaii, and that we've hardly gotten away since.

I'm a little shot with the planning process and trying to make sure we're remembering everything, but once we get on the road tomorrow, I'm looking forward to:

• Coffee and cinnamon rolls on the deck in the mornings while watching the world come alive.
• Doing a little fishing off the dock
  
  Photo credit: Dee Wietgrefe, Owner
• Exploring Nisswa
• Having nowhere to go in the morning
• Listening to the loons
  
  Photo credit: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com
• Being able to disconnect from the world with no wi-fi
• Exploring the gorgeous lakes and trails with our boys and watching them come alive
• Being able to enjoy some pretty perfect weather.

In fact, about the ONLY thing I'm not looking forward to is the flesh-eating mosquitoes! haha :)

I'll have a recap for you when I return, but for now, I'm checking out :)

Alexandria, MN

We finally decided on our summer vacation this year, and I'm excited!

We're planning to be gone a week just a few hours north of here to beautiful Alexandria, Minnesota! And let me just say that with our last vacation having been over a YEAR ago, I'm excited to get started planning!

We've decided to rent a cabin on Lake Andrew for a week, which gives us lakefront property (including a dock for our jet ski!), a nice yard, and a nice cabin (with bedrooms for the kids and a master for us) to spread out in for the week. We're still in the process of getting that reserved, but we're excited and REALLY hoping that it's still available like it says on vrbo.com :)

This will be the first time for us in Alexandria, and I've heard it's just beautiful! (Judging by the picture below, I'd have to say, I agree!)

Photo courtesy city-data.com

I'm looking forward to a lot of rest and relaxation, enjoying a beautiful view of Lake Andrew, exploring with our boys and taking lots of nice, long walks together :) I mostly am looking forward to having NO agenda while we're there. Oh, and the following nearby treats that we seldom get to enjoy while living in Windom: Papa John's, Caribou and Target lol

Close to Home in 2014

I haven't exactly been updating my blog too much recently, but I assure you it's for a good reason:

We haven't really gone anywhere.

Okay, maybe that's actually more of a bad reason haha But in reality, it's really a good one, because the reason we haven't been traveling much is because we added another little boy to our family at the end of August.

Our big trip of 2013 was to Hawaii in late March, and after that trip, we just realized that it doesn't really make sense to go through all the hassle of traveling for a few days of bliss. We figure one day, when we don't have to lug carseats and strollers and food and diapers everywhere, we'll get back on track and begin traveling again. But for now, if we decide to go anywhere further than a few hours' drive, we'll be doing it without the kids. And for now? We just like spending time with the kids.

SO...what's on our docket for travel in 2014? Anything close to home! Here's what we're thinking:

This is a little late for starting out 2014, but I'm including what we have already done and looking into the future :)

January

We spent a fun weekend together in Minneapolis at the end of the month to celebrate Cashel's 2nd birthday together as a family. We hit up the Como Zoo, enjoyed the hotel pool and visited to the Mall of America :) Cashel had a blast, and aside from a rough night of sleep for Mama and Daddy in a king bed with two kiddos, we did too :)

Recap HERE.

February

Mark and I enjoyed an overnight in Sioux Falls by ourselves to just kinda regroup (and hopefully do a fair amount of catching up on being lazy and sleeping. We were, unfortunately, sick the entire trip with some nasty colds, but we still enjoyed the time to rest.

Recap HERE.

My Mom's birthday was on the 23rd, so we went down to Iowa for a day trip to celebrate with her.

Recap HERE.

March

We made our way back down to Humboldt at the end of the month to help celebrate birthdays with our niece and nephew, who had a joint party.

Recap HERE.

May

Mark's cousin is getting married at the beginning of May in Mankato, but it will just be a day trip. We're only planning to attend the ceremony, as the reception starts at almost bedtime for the boys, and it's about 2 hours between the ceremony and reception. We plan to make a short stop at Menards to pick up a few things and will probably eat at BWW before heading home.

We also are planning to leave at the end of the month for a week-long trip up (which will go into early June to Brainerd to a cabin as a family, and we can't wait!!

September

We'll be celebrating 8 years of wedded bliss on the 23rd, and will likely do a long weekend away up to Duluth again. I still haven't mentioned it to Mark yet, so we'll see how that goes haha :)

That's just about it for this year! We'll be staying put most of the rest of the summer, and planning a birthday bash for Kendrick's first birthday at the end of August.

As usual, fall brings harvest, and then we're jumping right into Thanksgiving and Christmas, and then before we know it, it will be a new year.

I'm beginning to plant a bug in Mark's ear for a trip to Portland in early spring (i.e. when it's still snowing here but not there) 2015, but he is leaning more towards visiting his brother in northern California (LeMoore). With little ones underfoot, I tend to lean towards places where we can just go and stay that doesn't require much travel once we get there. We will see what the year brings!