Florida 2021

With each of the girls, we told them that the summer they graduate from high school they get to pick the family vacation.  Rachel chose to go to Colorado the summer of 2019, and Emma was SO excited to go to Mexico, which is her favorite place!  And then Covid-19 hit.  We discussed different options, and at the end of the day, what she really wanted to do was chill on the beach by the ocean.  So we looked around and decided on Treasure Island, Florida.  We had the BEST time!  It was the same area I was in late January for my girls trip.

We chose a Wednesday-Saturday and it was the perfect amount of time to be gone!  Brad and I started the morning off with a screw up at the airport, our flight left at 7 am.

Brad found an amazing condo right on the beach in Treasure Island.  It was PERFECT!  It had a full kitchen/dining/living room, and two bedrooms and two bathrooms.  Our balcony looked out to the ocean.

As soon as we got unpacked, we headed down to the beach, such a perfect first sunset!

We really had no concrete plans except for a dolphin sunset cruise on Friday.  We enjoyed getting up super early to walk the beach (mom and dad), sleep in (the girls and Jackson), and eat the best food!

Friday we drove into Johns Pass to walk the boardwalk and check out the shops.

Notice how lobstery red Rachel and Emma were!!  Someday they'll listen to their mama....

And more beach time.

Saturday night we had booked a dolphin sunset cruise and we could not have asked for a better night!  Our captain was AWESOME!!!  Seriously, he made the whole night!

We got to see several dolphins out swimming around, so cool!

Love, love, love this picture of Mouse!

One of the best breakfasts we've ever had was at The Frog Pond, we had eaten here on our girls weekend as well, soooo good!

And we got to celebrate Rachel's birthday a day early too!  And yes, they did finish all those crab legs!!

It really was such a wonderful, relaxing vacation.  I am so glad we started this tradition, so many wonderful memories with our girls!

Emma #18

Today our beautiful Emma Jo turned 18 and I cannot believe she is officially an adult!  I can say that this is certainly not the senior year we had planned for you, but you have definitely made the best of it!

This is probably my favorite picture of Emma, so sweet and innocent, HA!

When the girls were little, I had this stupid goal of getting them helium #18 balloons on their 18th birthday, thinking of all the amazing photo ops.  When Rachel turned 18, there was a helium shortage, say what???  For real.  So when Emma turned 18 I was SO excited to get her the balloons.  I got everything set up before she woke up, took a quick picture, then accidentally popped the 8.  I almost lost my crap.  So now she's left with a 1.  I just told her that meant she's #1!!!

Emma has decided to go to St. Cloud State University here in St. Cloud which makes my momma heart VERY happy!  There was a bit of a snafu with the roommate situation, but I think she has it all figured out.  She is planning on going for nursing and is so excited to start her new adventure.  I was just so happy when she said she couldn't be too far from home, so sweet.  Until she said she couldn't be so far away from her dog....

Emma has always been my more sensitive one, but the older she gets the more outspoken and independent she gets haha!  She started working at the nursing home and I love how much she loves her residents already.  She has such a funny (and dry) sense of humor, she cracks us up on the daily.  I just love her spirit, she is fiercely loyal and loves her family so much.

And her dog.  She might love her Josie most of all.

I wish the last year looked different than it did but she adjusted so well and just made the most of it.  I'm grateful that she will get a prom this year and that we will get to be there for graduation.

Emma is crazy artistic, she made two of these signs for the coffee shop at Scheeles she does all the hand lettering.   Definitely gets that from her Grandpa Lynn!  

My biggest prayer for my girls is that they will find Jesus and discover their own faith.  Emma has grown so much in her faith over the last year.  Love it when my girls get me to go to church with them instead of me making them go!  One of our favorite Friday night things to do is jam out to our favorite Christian music.

Emma, we are so freaking proud of the young woman you've become!  Your love for Jesus, your family and your friends is so special and I cannot wait to see what God has planned for you.  I think if this last year has taught you anything, it's to go with the flow and make the best of everything.  You have had to make so many changes and adjustments and you've done it with grace!

We love you more than you will ever know...

North Shore Trip 2020

The end of June we decided to take a trip up to Duluth with our good friends Jim and Melissa (The Rothsteins) and we could not have asked for a more perfect trip!  The weather was unbelievably gorgeous and everything truly was just perfect.

We left Thursday morning around 9 and made it to Duluth right at noon.  I called around to see if places were making reservations and we decided to eat at The Silos right off of Canal Park.  The restaurant is attached to a hotel that was built a few years ago.  We were able to sit outside and it was actually very hot!

After lunch we walked around Canal Park and stopped at Grandmas Saloon for a drink.  We decided to head to our resort which was about an hour and a half away,  We stopped on the way at Larmont Cottages resort for a drink.  We loved this place, the views were gorgeous and so were the cottages.  We decided to mark this resort down to come back possibly next summer.

We stayed three nights in Beaver Bay at Cove Point Lodge.  This pic was take from a point that we hiked to every morning.  We really liked this resort, but with COVID, things were definitely different.  There was no housekeeping service, so we took all dirty towels and garbage into bins in the hallway.  They would leave us a bag of toiletries and fresh towels every morning.  There was also no air conditioning, which normally would be ok since you typically get a cool breeze from the lake.  Not this week, it was HOT and not much of a breeze. 

Every morning Brad and I would be up around 5:30-6, we'd make coffee and head out to sit by the lake.  You can see the point that we would hike out to in the mornings.

The sunrises were amazing.

The North Shore is my happy place.  I would rather come up here than anywhere else.  This is where we vacationed when I was growing up, where Brad and I honeymooned, spent our 10 year anniversary, a couple trips with our girls and when I surprised him with a 4 day trip in January a few years back.  There is something magical about the North Shore and Lake Superior.

Of course I found my heart!  Not sure if I've blogged about this before, but a few years ago I was having one of those "weeks" where everything seemed to go wrong times ten.  I finally sat in my room and cried out to God asking if he ever listened to me.  I walked outside and right in front of the door was a leaf in a shape of a heart.  Ever since then, I find hearts EVERYWHERE!  And the best part is that the girls and even friends will find a heart and text it to me.

On Saturday we decided to drive up to Grand Marais and do some hiking/shopping.

We took a 2 mile hike to Devils Kettle just beofre Grand Marais, and it was incredible!  The hike there isn't too hard, but there are about 200 steps, so the way back was ROUGH!!

Devils Kettle is 2 waterfalls, the one of the left actually goes into a hole that I believe empties out in a river down the road and into Lake Superior.  It's so freaking cool!

Melissa and I got lots of compliments on our "MinneSorta Nice" tshirts!

After the hike we drove into Grand Marais and had lunch at the Gunflint Tavern which we had eaten at in the past.  This time was a bit different as there weren't any waitresses, so we ordered food online and had to pick it up.  It was a bit of a cluster, but the view made up for it!

Coming back from Grand Marais we found a winery in Lutsen, so of course we stopped!  You did need reservations, but we were able to grab a table for 45 minutes.  The wine was delicious and again sat outside and it was just gorgeous.  After the winery we stopped at the chalet in Lutsen for a drink, but service was terrible, so we left after one.

We got back to our hotel and ordered pizza and ate in the lobby by the fireplace and enjoyed a few glasses of wine.

These 4 days were absolutely incredible, and I'm SO grateful we were able to make it work!

Fathers Day 2020

We had a beautiful day for Fathers Day and celebrating Brad's birthday (which was on the 19th).  In the morning Brad and I took Josie to the lake down the road from us and Brad enjoyed fishing and I read.  Josie was mesmerized by the water haha!

Rachel ended up meeting us at the lake and coming in the boat for an hour or so.  Brad was in heaven!

We got home and started getting ready for his family over to our house and stayed outside for the most part.  My great niece's enjoyed the pool and hot tub and it was just nice to be around people.  

Everyone left shortly after supper and the girls wanted to have a photo shoot with their dad, I just love how these turned out.

What We've Been Up To

Well, I really thought with being in lockdown for 180 months I would have really upped my blogging game.  Apparently I was wrong.

I think we're feeling what everyone is feeling right now which is a lot of this:

  We're all hanging in there, but it's definitely changed since my first few posts when COVID hit. 

The pool went up the beginning of May which has been nice, I'm pretty sure the water temp in this pic is about 65 degrees.  Yowsa.

We've been spending lots of time with close friends of ours, taking turns making suppers which has been fun!  We haven't really been going out to eat or bars much.  I think we've been to the bar twice and were able to sit outside.  It's all just so weird...

My birthday was April 15th and since we were in the heart of quarantine, Brad made burgers at home.  Right before we started eating, the Rothsteins showed up to surprise me, it was such a great surprise!  

Brad got me this insulated wine glass for my birthday.  It's 1000% me.  I am all up for people coming over and having drinks, but they all know that mama will be in bed by 10 haha!

Cinco De Mayo the Rothsteins (our quarantine friends) came over for supper, I made a huge Mexican spread and she brought ships, salsa and margs from our local Mexican restaurant.  

Still gotta decorate!

Mother's Day was awesome!  Typically we have my mom and her husband over for brunch, but, COVID.

Brad and the girls still made a huge brunch and it was just a really great day of relaxing and reading.  Sure do love these girls of mine.  #howdemmagetsotall.

Work is still busy as ever, nice for me to have that normalcy even though I know Brad's going crazy.  Girls are still hanging in there, but this is affecting everyone.  Emma is now a senior, and we're so hoping she will have somewhat of a normal year, I'm just not too optimistic about it.

Some of these memes are hilarious.  And yes I know this virus is serious, but sometimes ya just gotta laugh...