Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

After finally getting a Christmas off together for the first time in a few years, we all relocated to Alexandria to celebrate the holiday.  As you can tell, my mom had been to the dollar store again for the festive hats.  I think they lasted 3 minutes this year.  Wishing you, blogstalkers, happy holidays and an exciting new year.  

Enjoy the Weekend!

Mercer and Milo hope you can relax and enjoy the weekend a little bit.  After all, why would God make those days if she didn't want you to nap through them?  

Happy Friday

On Halloween, we stumbled upon Pink doing a free concert on 5th Avenue in NYC.  We had great seats and had an awesome time.  She really is still a rock star!

Be Careful Piglet!

Here's Piglet in Times Square last weekend.  I told her to watch her wallet, but she was too excited by the lights and chaos.  I believe this was actually taken on Halloween.  What a mess!

Thank My Mom!

That's right kids.  My mom and I were in NYC last week and this is Piglet, aka Mom, at the Stock Exchange Building on Wall Street.  I think she had something to do with the dow being up over 500 points today.  

Left out.....

And because Mercer Mayer was left out of the Halloween bonanza, we have included a nice photo of him doing what he does best......resting.  Keep up the good work, Mercer!

A Belated Happy Halloween

We had a devil and an angel at our house for halloween.  Too bad the costumes only lasted for a total of 3 minutes.  We would like to take this time to thank Auntie Terry and Uncle Jorge for bringing these delightful October costumes when they visited earlier in the month!

End of Summer Photo

Look at this awesome action shot I got at the end of the summer of a humming bird in my mom's garden.  It was pure luck that it happened to fly by while I was snapping some shots.

Rest In Peace

On Thursday, November 6th, 2008, the world lost one of the great Labrador Retrievers.  Sadie Lynn Bonds was 15 years old and was a great hunter, sister, and friend.  She will be greatly missed by her human family, but we know she is enjoying many dogger bones and open fields to run in.  

On the road again and Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday To ME!

Well kids, just wanted to let you fellow bloggers know we are on the road again and off to Gloucester, MA for a few days.  Hopefully the hotel has wireless internet, but no guarantees.  If so, we'll be doing some daily blogs.  Hope everyone has a great weekend.

PS.  CJ turns 38 years young on Friday, so send some good birthday thoughts his way!

The last day

The last day was a long one, but probably something that most of us won't forget for a long time.  We originally were only going to stay until Wednesday, but then saw in the paper that some sailing ships were going to be coming into port in Canal Park on Thursday, so we extended our stay to see the ships on the way home.  Below is one of the ships we saw from the rose garden in Duluth.  Absolutely beautiful!

Here is that same ship going through the bridge in Canal Park.
There were four ships total that came from the East Coast and they were amazing.  
The biggest and final ship even shot off it's cannons when it came through the bridge and my grandma ducked like someone was shooting at her.  
The ships were fun, but made for a long day of standing in the sun and getting a super sunburn to my nose.  After the final ship came through the port, we all went out separate ways back home.  I had to work at midnight when we returned, so like I said, it made for a long day.  All in all though, we agreed that it was one of the best times we had all had in a long time.  
Thanks again everyone for the great time and here's hoping that we can do something similar again next year!

Day 3....Back to Two Harbors

We had such a great time watching the ships in Two Harbors that after we ate dinner at the Black Woods, we decided to head back over to the port to see if any more ships were coming or going. What a beautiful and calm night.  It really seemed like heaven on earth.

Day 3....Continued.....Canoeing

Well, in between naps, we decided it would be a good idea to take the complimentary canoes out for a test ride.  This was the view of our place from the water.  Again, our place was on the right side and if you look to the left, you can see Grandma Dee and Piglet safely watching the canoe trip from the banks.  Lucky Ducks!

Here are Tim and CB paddling hard against the waves.  
As fun as the canoes looked, they were a lot of work.  And even though the waters looked calm, there was a slight wave to the water that made me sick real quick into the trip.

Needless to say the canoeing didn't last long for any of the parties in the group!

Day 3-Just hanging out!

Wednesday was a nice day of hanging out at the house with an average of two naps each.  Who knew that vacation could be so tiring?  Here was a rock family that someone had left on the beach in front of our house. 

Here is another rock sculpture by the house.
This is a view of the house that we rented from the beach.  We actually only had half the house and our deck is the one on the right.

Here are the "best friends" of the trip...Timmer and his bestie, Grandma Dee.

Day 2.... Continued

On Tuesday evening, we drove into Two Harbors to watch a ship go out and another go in.  This whole ordeal took hours, but was worth every minute.

Here is a huge ship going out.
And after that ship went out, another ship came in.  I think we all would agree that one of our favorite parts of the trip was watching the ships.
Another fun day followed by grilling out back at the house and a bon fire.  

Gooseberry Falls-Day 2

Day 2 brought a short drive to Gooseberry state park to check out the falls.  Here is the crew after trecking to the top of the falls.

After doing a slight hike, here is Megs, CJ and CB on top of the world, or at least the falls.
CJ and Megs inside a little cave.
Here are the boys, always doing the daring stuff and hiking off the beaten path.
And here is Piglet, with the falls as a back drop.  

Day One...Continued

We finally took the scary gondola ride back down to the base of the mountain and the boys decided to ride the alpine sleds.  Here is CJ and CB on their way up to the top.

 Here is CB sliding down the mountain.
That blur is CJ using his mad skills to navigate the slide.

After some convincing, even Timmer took a ride on the slide.

Another tough day on the "slopes", but a fun day had by all.

North Shore...Day One

Here was the crew with a view from the top of the mountain.

We decided that today would be the day to drive to Lutsen and take the gondolas to the top of the mountain and check out the views.  After waiting in line for about 30 minutes because the wire "came off the track", we were all a little bit nervous about climbing on board, but we did get on and had a fairly uneventful, but beautiful ride to the top.  CJ was real nervous.

Piglet and Grandma Dee also had their share of fears and were hanging on to the doors for dear life as I took the pictures.

Here is a photo on the first morning drive and the second breakfast of the day, for half of the crew.  

The North Shore

Well, it's time for another trip to the North Shore.  Here is the gang on the summer 08 trip....Grandma Dee, CJ, Timmer, Piglet, CB, and Megs (the photographer).  Here we are in Canal Park in Duluth, which is one of our favorite areas up north.  This was only the first stop to our final destination past Two Harbors.

CJ and I met the rest of the family in Canal Park and just happened to watch this huge ship come in.  It was a great start to the trip.

After another 1.5 hour drive north, we finally made it to our destination at the 3 bedroom house we rented at Grand Superior Lodge.  CJ was real tired and needed to rest when we got there!
After some swearing and a lot of newspaper, Tim and CB finally got the fire going.  We all agreed that lighter fluid would have been a nice thing to have.