Our Vacation in Michigan

On Saturday we got back from our vacation in Michigan. We went to Elk Rapids, which is near Traverse City, to visit my aunt. My sister came with her two boys and we had a lot of fun. We rented a pontoon boat for a day just like we did last year. My aunt has a big yard and the kids just loved playing different games outside. Alec learned about baseball from his cousins and as I type this, he is hitting a ball around the room with a spatula! Alec also enjoyed badmitton, golf and especially frisbee (which he pronounces "fwibee").
After we left my aunt's house, we went camping in Pictured Rocks in the UP. We stayed at a site that was right across from a beautiful beach. The sand in Michigan is amazing! I love the North Shore of Minnesota, but nothing compares to Michigan beaches. Annika seemed to enjoy camping more than Alec did. She was perfectly happy playing with sticks on the campsite, while Alec just wanted me to hold him and was pretty whiney ("Hold, Mummy, hold"). I think he would have enjoyed it more if we hadn't already been away from home for several days.
We stopped at some beautiful beaches on the way home and I was very sad when we crossed back into Wisconsin. This is a trip we plan to do every summer with our kids. My mom used to bring me to the UP every summer because that's where my grandparents lived. I have some great memories and hopefully my kids will too.



Alec and Aunt "Saysa" wearing matching shirts





Keith skipping rocks in the sunset.





Alec and Annika walking hand in hand on the beach.

Back to School for Mommy!

It's official- I'm going to be a college student yet again. I will be attending UW-Superior starting in September and I will be pursuing my English secondary education degree which means I want to teach either middle or high school English. When I first decided to major in English 10 years ago (yikes!) I wanted to go into publishing. Now I have a different view on life and also a new view of the economy (double yikes!). I feel that I am in a really good place in my life to go back to school and I have motivation in the form of my children to really kick my butt into gear. Keith's new schedule really helps, as I won't need daycare every day that I am at school. In fact, I may be able to "daycare swap" with a friend who's child I watch right now a couple days a week. That would really be ideal. I realize that it is going to be difficult to balance my time between my family and school, but I think it is going to go well. Wish me luck!

Baby Pics!

So I'm getting a little nostalgic about the baby days since my babies are going to be two on Thursday! When I was cleaning out my china cabinet today (a task long overdue- jumbled dishes and strangely enough, cigars, do not a pretty display make)I found a memory stick from my old camera that had pictures from my pregnancy and the first few weeks of my babes' lives. It was almost enough to make me think, oh my pregnancy and those first few weeks weren't so bad. But alas, they were incredibly difficult. I was very lucky to have a fairly smooth pregnancy compared to other twin pregnancies, but still eight months of not being able to breathe very well (gestational diabetes had that affect on me) and three months of bed rest and boredom were no fun. Follow that up with two needy newborns, one of which had a noisy breathing problem and the other who had problems nursing, well let's just say that I am SO HAPPY to be celebrating their second birthday. Moms of twins have told me all along that it gets so much easier around age 2 and it really does, for the most part. But let's take a trip down memory lane and remember what it took to get here.


Taking pictures each week sounded like a good idea at week 12.



I thought I put up a sign that said "No pictures of beached whale please!"



My babies together again.



I love this picture of my little girl.



Alec was showing us his personality right away.

A Choppy Fourth

Keith's dad and his wife came to our house for the fourth of July weekend. Keith had to work both days, but Saturday night we took the boat out to see the fireworks. Annika does not like to go fast in the boat. She kept saying, "No go Daddy. All done boat." But she loved it when we got there. People on the hill were setting off fireworks before the actual fireworks started and Annika was thrilled! "More! More!" Then when the real fireworks started, she was in awe. "Ooooooh! Wow!" Alec took in the whole thing as if we did it every day. He had his "I'm too cool" look. One thing we didn't like about watching the fireworks from the boat was how the boat rocked with the small waves. We were all a little seasick. The kids fell asleep in the cuddy cabin as we motored home and I layed in there with them. I did not want to see how we made our way back down the river in the dark. The kids woke up when I took off their life jackets and they screamed all the way home. I don't blame them one bit, poor things, getting woken up at 11:30 at night.

We enjoyed the holiday weekend and now we are having a hard time getting back into the groove of everyday life. Alec and Annika turn two next week and then we will have their party the next Saturday, so we will be busy getting ready for that. I love having family come over, but then I am always bummed when life continues as usual. Oh well.

Summer is Here!

Judging by the way my air conditioner is chugging along tonight, summer is definitely here. I had my doubts that it would actually come this year. Two weeks ago it was in the forties in the middle of the day. Then today, WHAM! 88 degree weather. We bought the kids a plastic pool today so we could all get some comfort from at least dipping our feet in. Alec and Annika have enjoyed the sprinkler that the neighbor bought for them. I do feel bad that we were blindsided by this heat and have not installed a fan in the kids bedroom yet. In fact, I'm sure Keith wants to put an air conditioner in their room this year.
We are headed to my dad's house in Lodi on Monday morning, following our trip to Spooner for Father Andy's going away party (our welcoming party!). My grandparents from Arkansas will be there so we couldn't pass up the opportunity. I have packed plenty of sunscreen, swim diapers and life jackets as my dad lives on a lake and the kids will live outside while we are there.
Here are some pictures of the kids enjoying the start of summer. Keep cool!

Back in Business (sort of)

Ok, well at least you can read this now, although I am not thrilled with the background, but I don't know how to change it. Maybe a tech savvy reader can help me. This is the last night of Keith's first 4 days of shift work and it has been hard on both of us. As I write this, Annika is still crying in her room, although I put her to bed 45 minutes ago and have checked on her many times. They don't like to have their routine changed, that's for sure. This evening I took the kids for a bike ride down our street. This was my first time hooking up the trailer to my bike. I was a little nervous about whether I did it right or not, so we stuck to our street. Our neighbors were out on their porch, so we stopped by for a visit. They were thrilled because they love the twins and the twins were thrilled because they got treats. It is so nice to live in a neighborhood that has such great people. We are really blessed. Exciting news from my friend Brianna. My fellow in vitro user had her baby boy on Wednesday. Everyone is healthy and I am so glad she had such a great in vitro experience just like I did (although she had three embryos implanted and had one baby and I had two implanted and had both!). I sing the praises of in vitro for allowing people like us to have the opportunity to have biological children and I am ashamed of people who abuse it and give it a bad name (Octomom). I know it is a hot topic for many people but I am thankful thankful thankful to have my precious babes. Off my soap box now. Disappointing news for our family in Spooner has turned into good news for us. Word has it that Father Andy from the Catholic church in Spooner is going to be the priest at the cathedral in Superior. We already drive to Duluth for church, so we will have no problem driving to Superior. We are so happy to have him nearby because he is a dear family friend. He married us and baptized our children and although it is sad that he will no longer be in Spooner, the family will still see him when they visit us (and maybe they will visit more!). So this means we will be leaving our church which is sad in a way because we liked the choir and the families there. But Father Andy is like family to us and we couldn't imagine not going to his church. That's the news for now. Speaking of Spooner, it looks like we will be going there the next three Sundays for basement cleaning and parties. June is a big birthday month and we need to get Keith's mom's basement finished. Enjoy the beginning of summer everyone!