Minnehaha Falls

I have wanted to take Linnea to Minnehaha Falls for a while now and finally did it! Chris wasnt feeling too well Friday night so we got out of the house for him and headed to Minnehaha Falls for an evening walk and picnic. Tried to find a "mail/letterbox" but couldnt, plus trying to do it with a toddler alone isnt always easy. So we just walked to the Falls from where parked to find the letterbox. There is a small old and I mean old playground there so Linnea swung a little bit before heading to the Falls. By old I mean, all metal and a very steep staircase to the top of the slide. L managed to do that but I was nervous the whole time! She thought the Falls were really cool and there were lots of dogs and people to watch too. I think it was one of the last nights of music and movies in the park. Next year maybe we will make it to some of those! We also saw some of the surrey bikes we rode in Duluth and she wanted to do it again! We had a nice date, me and Linnea, but hope daddy can come next time :)

week of Mon. August 29- Fri. Sept. 2

The plan was to bring Linnea to daycare on Monday after our trip to Duluth and then Chris and I would go spend the day in Stillwater. But since the poor girl still had diarrhea we had to keep her home. Turns out I had a meeting at work from 9-12 anyways. We ended up bringing Linnea in to the Dr. Monday night because her BM's were just not getting solid. It wasnt awful. She was overrall still making it to the potty chair or just doing it in her pull up (we decided underwear wasnt a good choice this week, and she thankfully was okay with it). The doctor said it was just a virus and until she has a solid poop we should keep her home. Well that took until Wednesday night to see one! Poor girl! so anyways, I got to stay home with her all week. Even though she was sick for half of it, it was great and made me miss being a stay at home mom even more. boo. Someday maybe we will make enough for that to work out. But for now, we will just continuing loving our evenings and weekends together. Since she was well most of Wednesday we kept super busy on Thursday and Friday and through the weekend.
Thursday we went to Como Zoo and met Maggie, Rylie and new baby Hank! Maggie is Linnea's Godmother and Chris's cousin and just so fun! She had two other friends and their kids with and everyone got along just great. It was quite a bit hotter than we wanted so we were outta there around noon after our picnic lunch. Linnea and I did stop and ride the historic Carousel on our way out and it was a blast! Way faster and higher than any we/she had been on so that lead to a huge grin from ear to ear. I wish I would have brought my camera.
I did however bring my camera on Friday when we went to the Minnesota Zoo (I know two zoos in two days and if you include the Lake Superior Zoo, it's 3 zoos in 8 days, oh well, we have an animal lover on our hands). We met Brooke, one of my best friends from high school along with her new baby Annabelle! Brooke's cousin and her cousins daughter were also there. It was a great day! Still a little warm but more tolerable. We made it through most of the animals and Linnea even walked most of it! That was a new experience for me. She generally wants to ride! So we will have to figure out how to keep her on track a little better :) It was great to catch up with friends and see the new penguin exhibit. We hadn't been to the MN Zoo yet this summer so it was perfect. We are hoping to find a free pass at the library for Chris this fall and go ride the monorail to see the fall colors. We have a membership but just for me and Linnea this time. We didn't do a guest because we only used the guest twice last year. So it did get paid for, but barely.

Enger Tower

We packed up Sunday morning after another great free breakfast at the hotel and headed out with my parents to the Enger Tower to find two letterboxes. And we found them! Hooray! We also found a beautiful view of Lake Superior! Linnea made it quite a ways up the Tower too. She also decided that letterboxes were mailboxes and said, lets go find that mailbox! cute! There were beautiful Japanese Gardens and flowers all over the place. I would highly recommend doing this tourist attraction in Duluth! There was a peace bell that Linnea enjoyed ringing and ringing and ringing. From here we started our long journey home. It was already lunchtime so we stopped at a little playground in Superior for a picnic and then continued on. We tried to avoid 35 as much as possible since there was lots of construction on it but this made for a much longer way home. Thank goodness Linnea had her dvd player and we had lots of kids music. We had to stop a few times for bathroom breaks but finally made it home in time for dinner and a little unpacking. It was a wonderful trip overrall, even with a sick kiddo. We did almost everything I wanted and had planned on doing. I am still wishing I would have remembered our letterboxing stuff when we were on the Wheels of Fun! Oh well...Im sure we will be at the Lake Walk again someday and can do it then. Chris and I are looking forward to continuing our anniversary celebration with a trip (just us two) to Arizona for a friends wedding at the end of October.

5 Year Anniversary Date!

My parents arrived at the hotel around 4:30 or so to watch Linnea for the evening while Chris and I went on a date to celebrate our 5 wonderful years of marriage! I cannot believe it has been 5 years! They have flown by and we have had so much fun and cant wait to see what the 5 bring. We ended up eating at Fitger's and loved it! We tried a few different kinds of beers and each had a burger. Super yummy! Id love to go back...they have a good menu!We then shopped a bit and walked a bit to find a letterbox but it got dark much quicker than I thought it would so we didnt find it. We also walked through the rose gardens which were beautiful! We stopped to get some ice cream on the way back to the hotel from a place called The Malt Shop (I think). Linnea had fun with her grandma and papa swinging at a park and watching some shows since she still wasn't 100%. We played a game of scrabble with my parents before all hitting the hay.It was a very nice anniversary.

Park Point Beach

Saturday morning we took it easy to figure out how Linnea was feeling. When we decided she was good enough to go on an easy adventure we packed up and headed to Park Point Beach. We had heard great things about this place so we drove back through downtown Duluth and over the liftbridge and kept going and going! When we thought we had missed it we found it! It was a bit warmer than we thought so we just lasted a little while at the playground and playing on the big wooden ship. Then we headed to the beach! It was a beautiful sandy beach but far too cold for us to enjoy swimming and Linnea seemed to not be feeling so well. So we took some pictures and headed back to the car to go back to the hotel for lunch and naps. Yup, naps, we all took one!

Wheel of Fun!

Friday morning we used one my groupon coupons and rode a big surrey bike along the lakewalk. Linnea was so excited to go on a bike ride and proud to be in her cute helmet! It was a great way to see Lake Superior and the shops, hotels and restaurants along the way. We stopped to dip our feet in the Lake and look for rocks but it was mighty cold! So we got back on the bike and continued on our way. We rode out to a lighthouse and then swung into eat at a Grandma's stand at which point happy Linnea was turning into tired and somewhat crabby Linnea so it was time to be done. We loved the activity though and hope to do it around Lake Calhoun here since we have another coupon!

We were able to check in early to the Marriott Residence Inn where we would finish our stay and Linnea got to take her nap and Chris and I did too! Chris unfortunately had to drive back to the Inn since we forgot a part for the computer :( Linnea woke up while he was gone and she didn't seem quite herself. She wanted to try to swim in the hotel pool anyways though so we got our suits on and went down but the water was way too COLD! So we headed back up to warm up, have a snack and watch some new shows we checked out from the library for the trip. She fell in love with stories on dvd which is fun. But she still wasn't her peppy self. Lots of cuddling and then she was getting warmer and warmer. We forgot the thermometer but I knew she had a fever so I gave her some motrin and we snuggled til Chris got back. He returned and Linnea seemed a bit better and was adamant about going to a park. I had one in mind from my searches for things to do in Duluth so we headed to Bayfront Bay playground which was lots of fun. We ended up ordering food to be picked up at the Texas Roadhouse up the road from our hotel and we just ate in our room after Linnea went to bed. She started to feel icky again by the end of the playground time and pretty much hit the hay as soon as we got into the hotel room. We enjoyed our food and were happy that a new to us True Blood was on HBO! Usually when we have HBO in a hotel nothing is on that we want to see but we lucked out this time. Overrall it was an AWESOME Friday, if only squirt didnt feel so icky.

The Inn on Gitchi Gummi

We were happy to get to our cute little Inn on Lake Superior after the zoo. Linnea was pretty tired so she rested on the couch a bit and we looked at the beautiful flowers all around the Inn. We were hoping to order pizza but couldn't find anywhere that delivered to this place so Chris drove back to Duluth to pick up Pizza Luce. In the meantime, Linnea and I took advantage of the whirlpool in our room! She looked at it as swimming in bubbles and even used her her lil tube! It was pretty fun. We got out just in time for daddy to arrive, put Despicable Me and ate our pizza and L danced a bit of course too.
As you can see there was just one room with one VERY high bed! We opted not to put Linnea up so high and we thought the mattress of the pull-out couch was terribly uncomfortable so we just used the cushion from the love seat and stuck it on the floor at the end of the big bed and she slept there. All night! way to go Linnea! It's so nice not to have to bring the pack and play or have a third person in bed with us sleeping horizontally!
Once we got squirt down, Chris and I played some scrabble with the mosquitoes on the little patio until it got too dark. We finished the game inside and then watched a lot of Man Vs. Food on tv before reading and hitting the hay. I got up and ran with Linnea along the Lake before our homemade breakfast. When I made these reservations I was not aware that they made breakfast that is why we bought Tobies Cinnamon rolls on the way up. Oh well, it was a super sweet surprise and I still had a roll with my omelet and Chris didn't like his omelet so it was good we had them. Linnea had her own special pancake with her name on it! fun fun fun!
We liked this place but next time would pay a little more for a bigger room if we have Linnea with us or just go the two of us. They did have a swing for her as you can see in the pictures and a slide. But the slide was very rickety and when I went down with her we both almost went over the side. So we only did it once!