And…. We’re Back!

Sorry for the long blogging break.  We’ve had a busy last week or so.  Here’s what we’ve been up to…

Last week Monday through Thursday, we took a little family vacation to a hotel/waterpark in Duluth.  Not the most exotic destination, I know, but after last year’s somewhat disastrous spring break trip, we decided to keep it simple and affordable by avoiding air travel and limiting the trip to four days.  And what do you know, it pretty much worked.  There were some melt downs and Alethea started asking to go home a full 24 hours before our departure, but over all, Peter and I agreed that it was one of the best family vacations we’ve had since Alethea and Lydia arrived on the scene.

Naturally, the waterpark was the highlight of the trip and the yellow slides were the highlight of the waterpark.  It did take the girls three trips to the pool before they worked up the bravery to duck under all the falling water to access the slides, but once that was done, they were interested in trying nothing else.

The Friday morning after our trip we took it easy at home and tried to do a post-vacation decompress, but that evening I went out with some friends for a ladies night out at a restaurant/bowling alley in Minneapolis.  Unexpectedly ran into my brother-in-law there, hanging out with his friends, which made me feel good to know that I’m at least cool enough to frequent the same establishment as people who are still young and childless.  Maybe I’m not SO old?

Let’s not dwell on that question… So, Saturday we took the girls to a local Easter egg hunt.  There aren’t too many places in the world where hundreds of people would show up in 30 degree weather to pick up plastic eggs out of several feet of snow, but Minnesota is one of the few.  And yes, Alethea did choose to wear a dress and yes, she was quite cold.

The girls both enjoyed gathering eggs, were thrilled to discover that they contained candy and afterwards, Alethea was even brave enough to have her picture taken with the Easter bunny.

Lydia was not so confident and actually twitched nervously every time the bunny moved, so I have no picture to share of her snuggling up to him.  I did get a good one of the girls hugging each other though…

Sunday was church and afterwards a friend and I stayed to do some painting.  It was supposed to be a couple of quick walls, but then we kept finding more to do, so I arrived home late in the evening, quite sore, and not at all ready to jump back into our regular routine on Monday morning.  Oh well!

So now we’re all back to our usual stuff: playing with stuffed animals, going to work, reading books, teaching piano lessons, doing dishes and lots and lots of laundry.  Oh and planning Alethea’s birthday party, buying her present off Craigslist (she’s getting a bike, it’s pink and has streamers on the handlebars), prepping for Easter dinner (we’re hosting) and tracking down stuff for the girl’s baskets. And dreaming of spring… always, always dreaming of spring… sigh…

What have you all been up to lately?

8 thoughts on “And…. We’re Back!

  1. Didn’t go on vacation. That’s next month. I did go to St. Charles Senior Center on Wednesday for our prayer service and Easter party. I tied second place for the hat parade. Like you I am hosting the family Easter dinner so I’ve been busy shopping. I have to make eight baskets for the grands. One is in college and won’t be home. I will prep everything on Friday, cook on Saturday.Very little to cook on Easter after church. Total number of guess forteen. Four of them always hungry teenage boys. HAPPY EASTER to you, Peter and the girls.

    • Congrats on the 2nd place finish. I miss St. Charles so much! Wish I could have been there to see it. Hope you had a great Easter!

  2. We did a waterpark, too! But unlike your daughters, mine did not want to do ANY slides. and then when we finally convinced her to go down with paul, they told us it was one at a time, and there was no way she was going down the big, twisty slide by herself. Oh well! Waterparks are kind of nice this time of year. We thought it was fun, too. Although, we’ll have to check out the one you guys went to. It looks like they had more kid-friendly slides.

    We’re getting ready for a quiet Easter at our house, and secretly hoping baby arrives before then ;-)

    • I definitely think an indoor waterpark makes for a good vacation with small children at this time of the year, although the girls probably would have warmed up to all of it sooner if there hadn’t been so much water falling from above them. I swear the park was designed by a single man, because no mother would have included a giant bucket that periodically dumps a deluge over the entire zero entry pool area. Fortunately a bell rang before it dumped, so the girls got out of the way, but I think it would have knocked them off their feet if they’d gotten caught under it. Still, I think we’d go there or somewhere similar again because it sure is nice to do something that’s not weather dependent in the month of March.

  3. Your girls are so adorable! I remember when I insisted on wearing this pretty pink frilly thing to our Easter Hunt here in Ohio. Now to explain a little Ohio weather is… strange. In the last month we’ve had 70 degree weather for two days then had an ice storm. Then we had tulips then we had a snowstorm. Then we had freezing rain and two days of hail. So when I was younger my parents never quite knew what Easter would bring and wanted to be sensible about our Easter Best. I of course wanted the pretty pink dress. Came to regret that REAL quick when I woke up and there was three feet of snow on the ground the Saturday before Easter.

    I hope she doesn’t get sick. But since you live in Minnesota she has to be at least somewhat accustomed to the cold.

    Happy Easter! I hope your family well.

    • Haha! Great story!

      Easter is generally on the cold side in Minnesota, but the stores sell the same frilly lightweight dresses they stock everywhere else. Never quite understood that!

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