Home Again, Home Again

This past week's camping trip to beautiful southern MN was just what our weary working souls needed. Honestly, the campground was so perfect that I am hesitant to tell anyone which it was... in fear people will take my word and flock to it.

Okay, that isn't nice. It was Great River Bluffs State Park. And it was wonderful. Now stay away. It is all mine.

The weekend started out with some family member's joining our camping extravaganza, but all those poor suckers had to work on Monday, so everyone departed Sunday afternoon leaving my little family of three to ourselves.

The group, minus me. I figured I know what I look like, I didn't need to be in the picture.

I think I'll do a summary in pictures. The last five days have been filled with :

Hiking. A lot of hiking. More hiking we thought we were getting into when we began.

I only said "I told you so" three times. I think that showed a lot of maturity and restraint;

Geocaching;

Bug catching;

Product placement; (Dear HiC, our favorite is the orange flavor)

'Hotzee' playing;

Tesfu's homemade chipmunk boobietrap / drink protector;

Stale bread bird feeding;

Lots and lots of campfire eating /mustard licking;

Bike riding;

All around goofy...

...wonderful family time.

Ahhhh.... a breath of fresh air. Now, back to the grindstone.

(Already planning another camping trip to the same place for the fall!)

Peace.

Tes and family...

... are going on vacation.

See you in a week! Hopefully with some pictures to share of a very relaxed us :)

Peace.

Baseball, According to Tes

I was able to get two shots off myself before the camera was confiscated by the Little One.

My pictures :

Father and Daughter.

Two friends, before all the sugar hit their systems.

Tesfu's pictures :

Friend Kefelen. Excellent shot, Tes!

*Edited to Update - Now looking at this shot - it is vertical. Tes doesn't quite have the shooting skills to turn the camera... therefore I must have taken this one, too, and not remember it. That is what having a 3.5 year old does to your mind.*

Dueling cameras. This is Tes taking a close-up shot of Kef taking a close-up shot.

Brilliant.

I look good blurry. Takes the edge off.

Tes taking a picture of 35,000 of her closest friends.

Blue seats. Mom's knee. I am sure there is some sort of meaning here.
Or, our camera has a hair trigger.

We only made it through the fifth inning, but some day we will be able to go nap-less and stop leaving every event early. Some day... some day.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Peace.

Culture Unplugged Video

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

Sundress

She picked the fabric out herself. There is just a couple of things I am going to tweak on the next one, but all-in-all, not too bad. She likes it, the fabric was on clearance, and all together it only took a few hours from start to finish.

Plus, it is nice to have a creative outlet once in awhile.

I love it when my plans actually work!




Peace.

Because I just didn't learn my lesson the first time...

On the last holiday that rolled around, we let our Tesfu stay up far too late, and paid a dear price the next day. Why did I think July 4th would be different? Apparently I am slow to learn.
At least she is sleeping now.

It was still a wonderful weekend - In fact Friday was one of the best days I've had for awhile. Brad and I both had the day off of work, so we took Tes to a really fun new (to us) park and out to lunch at my favorite Chinese buffet. Yum! After becoming sufficiently hot and tuckered out from the park, plus full and drowsy from lunch, we all took a nap. It was delightful.

Saturday was a bit of a rollercoaster - A good morning followed by a frustrating afternoon to a good evening at Brad's mom's house to a bummer of a late evening during fireworks (she was not amused by them one bit) and a difficult night. Sleep finally came to Tes around 12:30, but she ended up in our bed not too long after that, anyway. Which never makes for a good sleep for anyone.

Today we all slept in until 8:30 and had a good morning visiting our seriously cute new 2 day old friend Eli with the yamika shaped bruise on his little head (Congrats Lisa & Steve!), but we escalated quickly and rolled into crazy town pretty much right after lunch. And stayed there. Yikes. Let's hope sleep (the magical cure for all that ails a three year old) works it magic again. Or I just may be baking some 'I'm sorry' cookies for the daycare lady in the near future.

Unfortunately I forgot my camera every single place we went this long weekend, so no pics. Ooops!

Some pics are going to be coming up soon of a little sundress I made for Tes - I was tired of none of her dresses covering her behind because she has grown so much since last year, but didn't really want to go out and buy her new dresses. Turned out quite cute, if I do say so myself.

Anyway, this wasn't much of a post, but I am totally wiped out tonight. Seriously, next year if you hear me talking about taking Tes to see fireworks, please slap me upside the head. Honestly. Please. You can refer back to this post if I try to call the cops on you for battery. Tell them I gave you permission on July 5th, 2009, and I am just really slow to learn.

Peace.

sleepy baby.