Big Fall Family Vacation

Just yesterday, we returned from our family's longest vacation yet! We had extra timeshare points this year, so we headed out on a big adventure. We left home on September 26th and returned on October 11, for a total of 15 nights and 16 days.

We started by going to New York to visit Niagara Falls. From there, we headed up into the Vermont mountains and stayed there for 3 nights. Next, we drove down to New Jersey and headed across the street to visit Times Square and Central Park. Then, it was onto Williamsburg, Virginia, for what was supposed to be 3 nights, but ended up being only one night, thanks to the hurricane.
Luckily, we were able to make a few changes, and arrive in Marco Island, FL a couple nights early. We spent 8 nights there, and finally worked our way back home, stopping in Kentucky to rest one night.

During the course of the trip, we were able to visit 26 different states (MN, WI, IL, IN, MI, PA, NY, NJ, OH, VT, NH, ME, MA, CT, MD, DE, VA, NC, SC, GA, FL, TN, KY, IA, MO, and RI), we also made it to Washington D.C., and boated across Canadian waters on our Maid of the Mist tour at Niagara Falls. We traveled 5,500 miles!

Peter has posted a lot of fun pictures on Facebook over the past 2 weeks, but I have some others that I will share here as well, or if you don't follow us on Facebook.
Of 300+ pictures I have from our trip, here are a few of the highlights.
Spending time with my family is the absolute best thing in the world!

Niagara Falls

Maid of the Mist boat ride at Niagara Falls

First day in Vermont

Riding the Green Mountain train in Vermont

Times Square

Central Park

Hiding from the rain in Williamsburg, VA

Tigertail Beach in Marco Island

Swimming in the Gulf of Mexico

Swimming in the pool at the resort

Qwirkle on the screened porch at the resort

At the Bird Gardens of Naples

Playing in the ocean at Sanibel Island, FL

Watching the sunset over the Gulf of Mexico

Coffee and board games on the porch

Floating in the pool

Catching another sunset at the Naples Pier

Naples Pier

Riding scooters around a lake in Marco Island

School Started (a month a half ago)

Well, I just realized that I never shared our first day of school pictures, so I will make a quick post to share them.

We started school on Monday, August 31 this year, because we knew we were going to be gone for 2 weeks on our family vacation and we didn't want to fall too far behind.

Logan's first day of 3rd grade

Marshall's first day of Kindergarten

Brady's first day of 5th grade

Cinnamon rolls for breakfast

Logan' writing his spelling words

Recess at a nearby park

Playing outside after school

Brady and Logan working on making a map of MN together for Social Studies

A typical school day

Art time in the basement

Marshall getting ready for his first bus ride to speech



Marshall's first bus ride

Operation Right Front Tooth Continued

The story of Brady's right front tooth continues...

Yesterday, the tooth was finally down far enough to get it's own bracket!
This morning, it was amazingly almost completely in already.

Here are some of the progress pictures so far.



10/14 Right front tooth missing since surgery on 7/13.

5/15 The day of surgery to attach chain to pull tooth down.

6/15 Tooth has moved slightly, but there is still a large space.

 

8/15 If you look carefully, you can still see a big hole where the tooth belongs.

 

9/15 No bracket on the tooth in this picture, but if you look really close, you can see some of it.

Today, 9-15-15, a day after getting the new bracket on the right front tooth.

Today, 9-15-15, a day after getting the new bracket on the right front tooth. Complete with Vikings colors!

We are very pleased with the progress so far. It has been over 2 years since Brady has had a front tooth on the right.

End of Summer

Besides going to the MN State Fair for the first time with the kids tomorrow, we have pretty much wrapped summer up :(.
It won't feeling like summer is over next week, since the temps are going to be high, but we'll be officially starting school again on Monday.
Summer was amazing this year. The weather was perfect, the boys were friends, we got a new basketball court, and it just felt really relaxed and long---until now. Now it suddenly feels as if it just started yesterday.

Here are a few of our "end of summer" pictures before I post back to school next week.

Logan, playing at Stoney Creek

All of us in one, big van.

Waiting to ride the train at Stoney Creek



Picnic lunch at our cabin

Tired Brady at Stoney Creek

My 3 "Knights in Shining Armor" at Como Relays

Evening basketball on the new court

Summer Part 2

Wow, we're already almost halfway through the month of August.

We have done so many fun things this summer and we've enjoyed so many beautiful days. But, no matter how much we take our time to enjoy the summer, it always seems to get away too quickly.

I never tire of walking outside barefoot, eating meals outside, going for warm evening walks, or having free time everyday.
This summer has been wonderful, and I am sad to see it coming quickly to an end.

I wanted to share a few more of our summer pictures.
In just over a week, we'll be doing our yearly family camping trip to Stoney Creek, followed by the boys' first time to the MN State Fair (with the free tickets we won!), and then school starts up again on August 31. Crazy!

Swimming before the water warms up is COLD!

Warming up and drying off on the court

The Super Mario Brothers

Dakota County Fair

Ice Cream at the Dakota County Fair

Brady had his first picture taken in the can when he was 1.

The Luigi Brothers at the Como Relays