Category Archives: outdoors

Hot and Steamy (weather, that is).

Oh that time of year when it’s so hot and humid outside that stepping into an air conditioned room or car feels like its freezing and you put on a sweater even though it’s over 70 degrees. I remember the first year we were here and I was completely unaccustomed to humidity of any kind coming from southern Colorado and the dry desert heat. On the plus side, it means the kids can go outside as early as they want to because it’s actually pleasant out.

These pictures are from a few weeks ago when we filled up the little pool on the deck. We need to do that again… the kids (and I) had a blast. We chased each other around with squirt guns and they gained up on me viciously. The water was ICY cold, but Phoebe didn’t care. Enzo was a little more cautious when it came to getting in the water and I was good with dipping a toe.

They may not always get along, but they will quickly side together against any opposition – which means it was me against them in our water fight. I can’t imagine a better way to spend a morning, though. Sometimes I forget how fun it is to be a kid and having kids will definitely keep you young. I can’t wait to introduce them to water balloons one of these weekends. It’s on!

The rest of the weekend…

Both kids were very excited to go to the “beach” on Sunday morning. It’s really just a man-made swimming pond, but it’s really nice and has a huge shallow wading area for little kids. We also go there early enough to grab one of the big umbrellas; however, within an hour we had people plopping their stuff right down next to ours despite their being a ton of open space everywhere. Apparently everyone was doing that (crowding for shade) and we were not the only ones perturbed by this. I assumed first come first serve? I would never invade someone’s space like these people were doing, which is also we bought our own sun shade – for when the umbrellas are already taken. Okay, rant over. I just really hate having my personal space invaded. Okay, rant actually over now.

The weather could not have been more perfect with a nice cool breeze now and then. Phoebe was completely in her element and refused to leave the water even when she turned blue and was shivering with chattering teeth and all. Enzo is still fairly cautious and would only go out so far, but he enjoyed himself nonetheless, especially since we brought the squirters.

Eventually, once it started getting busier and the lifeguards arrived we decided to eat a snack/lunch, get changed and head over to the playground, which also happens to be one of the biggest playgrounds I’ve ever seen. Perhaps next year we’ll get a seasonal membership and go swimming more often. It really is the perfect way to spend a morning.

Happy weekend all! We get to leave early and I’m taking Tuesday off, so it’s an especially long weekend for me!

More on our crazy busy weekend!

This past week was full of spontaneous decisions and last minute changes. We knew it was going to be hot and come Saturday morning the kids were already getting antsy. So, I figured we could stay at home all day or we could find something free to do indoors. We had all day, so on a whim we decided to drive 2 hours to see the new Spam Museum. Its Minnesota… how can you not love Spam? It’s interactive with a fun kids play area, so we really couldn’t lose. Until we went to buy Spam in the gift shop and Enzo wouldn’t stop touching and grabbing things and when I asked him to hand over what he had he did the dreaded wide open scream that all parents dread when shopping. So it was just me and Phoebe maneuvering the stroller while I tried to keep her from grabbing things and an oh-so friendly employee followed us around, probably worried that we were going to cause more trouble. Anyhoo, it was fun, but I think they’re still working on filling in some blanks. Also, because Josh was wearing his Spam shirt, we got freebies, which Phoebe pretty much ate all of.

While we were on our way to Austin, MN, we drove by the RAD Zoo and decided since we already out this way we might as well stop there too, so we made our way there next. They have a large variety of reptiles and amphibians, though the main draw is their massive alligator Big Al who is 12 feet long. It felt a tad over-priced, but it can’t be cheap feeding all of those animals. We didn’t stay very long mostly because there was no AC in this giant warehouse-like building and it was around 90 degrees outside. The kids seemed to like the turtles best… personally I liked the lizards.

Both kids were tuckered on the way home and watched a movie while we headed home. Amazingly we were scheduled to arrive home right at dinner time, which rarely happens when we’re being so impromptu.

On that note, this post has far too many pictures to even consider adding to it, so I’ll post about our beach time next. 😉

Potty Training: The update you didn’t ask for, and other random stuff

Oh the joys of potty training. Our bathroom seems to constantly smell like pee – just a warning if you come over and I haven’t had time to clean. It’s apparently not just a little boy problem because little girls also can make a mess when they’re rushing and/or too squirmy. Probably more than you wanted to know, but that’s my life right now. Potty training this time around has gone really well, though. Phoebe is still using pull-ups while sleeping, but has had hardly any accidents during the day time. We all cheer her on and even Enzo gets excited for her when she successfully goes on the potty.

I’m not ashamed to say that we did use some bribing as an incentive to go on the potty. It worked with Enzo, and they reward kids with an M&M at day care, so we figured we’d roll with that. I remember being irritated when we found out they were using candy as an incentive when Enzo was potty training… but now? It’s a battle I’m not going to fight, so yes, here’s your M&M for making it to the potty! Just like with Enzo, we’ll start to phase out the rewards once she’s really doing good and especially once she doesn’t need pull-ups.

These pictures are obviously from before potty training as Phoebe is wearing a swim diaper under her bathing suit, which kept falling off. Thankfully she had her big brother to help her keep them up, though.

While he can certainly be bossy at times, Enzo is also very good at looking after his little sister. He means well, he just forgets at times that he isn’t the parent. It’s moments like this when my heart swells, though. He’ll take her hand to guide her somewhere, or help her get something she can’t reach, or help her keep her swimsuit on when mom buys the wrong size.

I think we’re making up for last year when we didn’t get as much water time, and also because last year we didn’t realize there was a… thingymabobber (technical term) on the outside water spout that messed with the water pressure making it impossible to use a sprinkler. Thankfully Josh managed to get it off this year and now we have normal water pressure for sprinklers and pool filling!

We also discovered a divot in the yard that made the perfect mud puddle. Good thing we had extra grass seed because that patch of grass was destroyed when they were done with it. Next on the list? Water balloons! I got some of those little water balloons that you hook up to the faucet and it fills up a ton at once. Seriously, why can’t I think of the words for anything? Friday brain I suppose.

With the temperatures rising tomorrow, it looks like we’ll be heading to the bigger pool in the morning and hunkering down in the afternoon watching out for hail and wind and all of that fun that comes with summer storms in Minnesota. Happy Weekend!

Dinosaurs!

The dinosaurs are back at the Minnesota Zoo and this year we decided to walk through with the kids. It costs extra, and I’m still not sure if it’s quite worth the extra cost. I think if it was just Josh and I we would have felt it had been a waste, but the kids seemed to enjoy it and watching their reactions was worth it.

Enzo was stoked when we saw the first dinosaurs, but then his focus became more about seeing a T-Rex and only a T-Rex. We had a hard time getting him to slow down and not skipping everything in between. Phoebe took some warming up. We had to convince her that the dinosaurs were not in fact real, but because they were animatronic she didn’t quite believe us at first.

If it hadn’t been for the baby dinosaurs, I think Josh might have had to carry her the whole way through, but as soon as I saw one, she scampered over and was all, “Ahhh, cute!”

There was Jurassic Park music in the background and various facts along the trail that we didn’t really have time to read because… kids, but it was fun to walk through and not overly crowded or hot thanks to shade here and there.

Once we finally made it to the T-Rex, Enzo was excited for about 5 seconds while Phoebe jumped into Josh’s arms and had to once again be convinced that she wasn’t going to get eaten or anything.

By far the kids favorite part of the dinosaur exhibit was the end wherein they got to crawl in big dinosaur eggs and we all got Icees because it was so hot out. So, all in all the kids gave the dinosaurs exhibit a thumbs up, but more so for the Icees.

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures