Little Road Trips

We've been hitting the road to find adventures!

We visited Lake Elmo Park Reserve, it's a man-made beach/pond - basically a chlorinated swimming hole. It was a perfect way to spend a steamy afternoon.

Barbie road-tripped upstairs in the Barbie Camper and our living room has taken on a Barbie Dream House look. Hadley has spent sooo much time setting up the house and camper and changing Barbie's clothes. I totally laughed (on the inside) when I caught Big Brother playing too...

...he was even combing Barbie's hair. (He would die of embarrassment if he knew I took this picture).

Finley's Valley Stars team had their last game of summer baseball.

W/ games two nights/week, I'm kind of OK w/ it being over. He really enjoyed the summer season and pitching was definitely his favorite part.

I feel so bad for their team, not a single win all summer. You can see the disappointment on their faces. The boys were good sports and never complained, but after playing so hard for so many games, I wanted them to win just one game. Regardless, Finley's already looking forward to baseball next spring.

Back on the road to Willow River State Park for a hike w/ friends.

It's a twoish mile walk to the waterfall.

My kids are generally cautious (him more than her) which is awesome in a place like this. They crawled around the rocks and believed they were the biggest rock climbers ever.

Of course there was a little pouting.

Picnic lunch.

And a nature scavenger hunt to keep them all distracted on our walk back.

After all of that hiking, we deserved ice cream before our drive home.

He's seriously one of the messiest eaters I've met, every meal he's a mess.

Not a road trip for us, but our caterpillars turned into painted butterflies and we released them.

We had a baby for an evening! Hadley was so so so so excited for K to visit, unfortunately, Baby K didn't share the same love. (K is actually a very happy baby, but I think she was hungry and tired and a little unsure of her new environment). We want her again!

Yes, please.

Patrick and a crew from M&J took a trip down the river in a Dragon Boat. I didn't attend the Dragon Boat races last year, this year I watched, and next year I want on a boat! It looked like so much fun.

The final heat for the championship was a photo-finish...

...we won!

Our family was the game-day sponsor for the CV Predators football game, no pictures except of these two nuts.

Spencer's baseball team road-tripped here for a tournament, it was fun to watch him play.

This picture has nothing to do w/ anything, but Allie's mom posted it on FB from their playdate a couple weeks ago and is too cute to not post.

Kayaking and swimming at Grandpa & Grandma's.

I was asked to participate in a commercial for the EC Marathon, w/ the Olympics on TV and increased viewers, they wanted to get a jump-start on advertising for the 2017 ECM. As I read the text, my heart started to race, this is so not my kinda thing. I quickly tried to think of an opt-out excuse. I came up w/ nothing, so I texted back Sure?! I also needed to prepare a voice-over on why I run. More racing heart because Chocolate cake and pizza didn't seem like the right answer. I opted to use a portion of my running bio that was posted on the ECM FB page last spring...I run because it makes me feel good. It sets a good example of health for my kids. I run because I can.

Even w/ my text approved, I was still trying to think of a way out of the spotlight - maybe my kids could run WITH me in the commercial? So I asked, Could my kids be in it w/ me? They're part of the reason I run? The reply - We love the kid-idea, we'll use them for our spring commercial for the Kids Fun Run, but we'll just need you for this spot.  Ugh, crap.

I quickly called on some friends and within a few hours had 20 kids that were ready to help out w/ the kid-footage for spring.

The kids had a blast filming and Cheri even popped into the picture as an arc of light shining down on them.

On opening day of the Olympics, I was emailed the final product. Oh I'm not liking me, but the overall commercial turned out OK. The kids ended up making the footage and I got to share my moment w/ another woman that runs, eh it still makes me nervous when I see it (and believe me, we've watched it over and over and over in our house), but we're like kinda famous around here ;) And thankfully I did NOT trip on this road...

And finally, the kids took one more road trip last night - to Auntie's house! They are staying w/ her while they attend day camp w/ Nolan & Spencer. Finley went last year and had a blast, this year Hadley is old enough too and she couldn't wait. She's been counting down the days for two weeks.

Auntie & crew survived the morning and everyone got off to camp! I hope the week goes well for both the kids and Heidi!

Now I'm off on my own trip - down the river in a tube w/ a friend and a drink :)