August Wrap Up

August was a busy month full of adventures. We celebrated two birthdays in our house, had a visit from Nana and PopPop, went to Duluth, introduced the girls to "camping" and finished getting ready for Ellie to start school. Here are a few pictures of the rest of August!

 Ellie finished up her first season of playing soccer!

 We played at lots of playgrounds!

 Mommy turned 34! We went to the Spaghetti Factory (A favorite of mine growing up and visiting my grandparents in Nashville! It was my first birthday without them, so it was nice to go somewhere that reminded me of them.) and I got a new bike! 

I also got to spend time with my little ladies and their Dad!

These girls are my best buds! I always said being a Mom of girls seemed too daunting for me, especially after working with middle school girls for so long ;), but I knew God had a sense of humor, and many years later here I am a Momma to 3 girls! I would not trade it for the world! They are my sweets, as I like to call them, and are my partners in crime! They are up for anything I want to do and I am always up for doing what they want to try. They challenge and stretch me to be better everyday. I love living life with these 3 and it gets better everyday! They keep me laughing and bring such immense joy to my life! They have been more than they could ever imagine for me in this past year as God has used them to give me such comfort and encouragement. I am an immensely blessed Momma and my cup definitely runneth over! Looking forward to another year watching them grow and experiencing life with them and their Daddy!

 Best pic I got of these 3 at the restaurant!

 Our Birthday Girl!

 I made Mia's birthday banner and Ellie and Quinn each made their own for her as well!

 Birthday Morning!

 Quinny helping feed Mia her birthday breakfast!

 Blessed to spend my days with these two!

 Ben made some furniture!! WooHoo! He does an amazing job and loves to do it, finding the time is always the challenge. He wanted to make the bed for the guest room and I am always up for him making furniture. He knows the style I like, so he finds the plans and shows me the pictures, and most times I completely like what he has chosen. We paired his new creation with our bedding we previously used in our guest room many years ago, which is actually mine from college and I still love it, with a table from my grandparents house. I love this table! I don't know what it is about it, but I have always loved it and it has always been in their house for as long as I can remember. My PawPaw had it next to his end of the couch when I was young and in their last house it was in their den. I love having family pieces in our house, so I was so excited this was perfect in there. Just a few details, like paint and curtains and this little space will be complete!

 We introduced the girls to "camping"! Ben and I love to camp and a family at church told Ben about these great little cabins just 20 minutes from our house. The little cabin has the basic necessities: beds, a table for eating, a nice hammock on the porch and a counter for food prep. You have to use an outhouse and cook your food on the fire. We are on the brink of being able to camp in a tent. We want Mia to be out of the pack and play before we tent camp, but the girls wanted to experience camping and we wanted them to. We booked this little place for two nights and it was great! The girls had a great time and it was great for Ben and I to be able to share with them something we love!

 We visited the Minnesota State Fair! Ben and I love a good fair and went growing up, so we were excited to take the girls for the first time. It was super hot and we wanted them to have a taste, so we did a couple things and ate some good fair food. It was a great taste of what the fair is like!

 Ellie loves these things!

 We completed everything on our summer list! We made our list at the beginning of the summer and checked everything off! It was great to keep me trying new things with them this summer and not get stuck in a rut, but also was super simple as they wanted to do things like family movie night and play at the playground mixed in with going to the fair. They came up with the list completely on their own, I was just the recorder of the information. Some things were super easy and some were more planned, but all were so much fun!

Family Travels

I LOVE to travel! I love adventure and could travel all the time if money was no object. We are right at the cusp of great family travels with the age of our girls. We try to go somewhere each year on vacation and the past few years that has been the beach, but watch out world because we are raising some travelers! The girls are constantly asking me about places and if we can go there some day and I am all about it! Now that we are in a different area of the country we want to explore the area we are in for as long as God has us in this area as well as the areas beyond. We started with our first family trip to Duluth! We were so blessed that our friends The Meyers Family offered their lake house for us to stay at and we could travel to Duluth to explore the city and even travel up the North Shore of Lake Superior a little ways to enjoy the sites. (That was probably one of our favorite days, just driving and hopping out along the way to explore. I grew up doing that, as we always took the scenic route, and I loved it, so I was excited to do it a little on this trip. You never know what kind of adventures you can have when you explore!) Duluth was a city that we were able to enjoy at all ages and that was key in choosing a destination with our girls. We were able to see and do so much and we are so blessed that our girls are really good at traveling and exploring with us. With kids our ages there are always moments, but overall it was a great trip filled with lots of new adventures.

 Daddy taught the girls checkers at the lake house.

 View of the lake from the living room window

 Found two otters swimming around the aquarium!

 Quinny was steering the boat and Mia photo bombed her!

 She achieved the goal of her boat holding all the figurines without tipping!

 Lighthouse at the end of the pier in Duluth

 Duluth

 This bridge lifts up for boats from all over the world to come out of the harbor after dropping off and picking up shipments.

 WE got to see it raise up and a boat over 1000 feet long come through! it was a pretty amazing sight!

 Going to the candy shop is a must in this family when you are on vacation! These ladies requested their first candy apple! It was mighty delicious!

 Doing a little shopping in Duluth!

 Have to hit the swings when we go on vacation at this age!

 We visited the train museum and rode the train. The girls had a good time exploring, but it was a huge place and the girls were ready to move on after a bit. They stuck it out with good attitudes as I told them we have to do things for Daddy too since he has to do a lot of girl things around here! They are pretty well rounded in doing and liking things Daddy likes, so it works out well generally.

 It was a great place to go! There was a lot to explore and Ben loves trains! Both of my grandfather's loved trains and had model sets set up as I grew up and would have loved this place. My Pepaw even worked on trains until he retired and seeing these trains made me think about how it must have been for him for all those years.

 I thought the mail train was so cool!

 Riding the train!

 WE climbed a tower in Duluth that gave the best views. It was a beautiful park with little gardens too!

 Ringing the bell in the Japanese Garden.

 Mia and I at the top of the tower!

 The tower

 Lake Superior (We all made sure to stick our toes or hands in to see we touched Lake Superior!) This was the day we spent driving up the coast of Lake Superior a little bit and hopping out to explore.

 We walked out to the end of one of the piers at the lighthouse.

 Hiking Gooseberry Falls

 While eating ice cream sweet Ellie lost her first tooth! At the beginning of the trip she discovered it was wiggling and every day and multiple times a day she let us know she had a loose tooth. She was worried it would hurt when it came out and wondered how it would feel. In the end she was eating ice cream and swallowed it. She only noticed it was gone when I pointed it out to her when she was talking to me a few minutes later. It was a bummer she couldn't see it, but a blessing because now she knows it doesn't hurt and sometimes you barely notice it is gone.

 We made sure to leave the Tooth Fairy a note!

 The Tooth Fairy kindly wrote back and left a dollar shaped like a fan! The Tooth Fairy is still leaving the same thing she used to leave me all these years later! ;) PopPop must have contacted her!

 This lighthouse is one of the most visited around here, but we saved the money and viewed it from afar.

We ended our trip by taking a boat ride on Mr. Kent and Mrs. Joan's boat! At this stage of our girls life we have all ridden on planes, trains, automobiles and boats! We had a great time and are already looking forward to where we want to go next summer!