Three days before Christmas, our little Beanie Baby decided to be born. She just was not going to wait until the Christmas fun was over.
All Sunday morning, I felt pretty miserable, in fact I dropped all my responsibilities and left church an hour early. There was nothing that I could point to and say, “it is definitely time to go to the hospital,”but something was going on. We took all the kiddie pies to Grannies house and hung out with family while I tried to decide whether this was the day or not. Grannies house has the added benefit of being 15 minutes closer to the hospital. Finally at about 6:30pm, there was no doubt our Christmas baby was on her way.
I was a tiny bit worried (okay a lot worried) that she would come faster than the 45 minutes it takes to get to where the doctors and drugs are, but we got to the hospital just fine and at 9:28 pm, Nina arrived. And yes, I got the spinal block I wanted, and it was a good thing, and the DH is converted to the awesomeness and calm that is provided by the drugs before mentioned.
(After 4 not so calm deliveries without the drugs before mentioned. Not that he doesn’t let me have whatever I want, just that he seemed a little like, “but you did it without before” and my attitude was of the “and that’s why I don’t want to do without this time.”)
Anyways, our little bright eyes was
9 pounds 15 ounces
20 1/2 inches long
Yep so glad about that spinal. What a Fatty McFatsville.
Baby Dumpling, who is now 2 and henceforth shall be called Banana Cream Pie, is having a rough time with the transition of not being the baby anymore. She doesn’t want any of her new Christmas toys. She just wants to hold the new baby. However, she came down with stomach flu on Christmas Day, so I haven’t let her hold the baby since then. Her second choice is for me to hold her, but I’m mostly needing to hold and feed the new baby and not strong enough to be carrying Banana Cream Pie around. So life isn’t much fun for her right now.
Yesterday morning, I woke up (after not much sleep) to a very stinky flu mess in someone’s bed. I felt pretty sorry for myself while I cleaned all that up.
But today, having not had to clean up any nasty messes, I am back in Happy New Baby Heaven. We will see how I feel in a week when all the big helpful kiddie pies have gone back to school and the DH has gone back to work and I am home taking care of the 5 year old and the 2 year old and the new baby all by myself.
2 weeks before Christmas, our computer decided to turn itself off and has refused to turn back on again. Just when I had glorious home internets back again, too. Sad Day.
I am reduced to posting from my phone, which is way more annoying than I originally anticipated.
So I have not finished posting all about our fabulous trip to the Great Lakes , you’ve missed out on hearing about 4 birthdays and whatever else I was going to blog about that happened this fall. I don’t even have the pictures to remind myself of what needs posting.
But I will try to keep posting, because I like to write and I love reading you all’s posts and fair is fair- you give me fun things to read, I should attempt to return the favor.
Hope your Christmas was merry and filled with love & peace.
Banana Cream Pie turned 2 nine days before our new baby was born.
Her favorite food is “oatmilk,” which is raw oatmeal and milk in a bowl. She wants to eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. She also likes Raman Noodles, chocolate chips, and cheddar whale crackers, which she calls “fishy crackers.” Despite this list of processed food, she is a very good eater and eats things other kids rarely will, like chick peas and green peppers and mushrooms.
She loves to throw things away in the garbage for me.
She likes to watch Dora the Explorer. Her favorite movies are Ponyo and Tarzan.
The most common things she says:
“Hold You” (by which she means pick me up and hold me.)
“I want some more.” (Food)
“Read it me.”
“Sing it me.” (Favorite song: old mcdonald had a farm)
First thing in the morning, we crossed Mackinac Bridge and started down the East side of Lake Michigan. This was the most beautiful countryside of the trip, I thought. We drove through lots of picturesque little towns and saw lots of fruit orchards. We reached our destination, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, at about noon. We super duper lucked out and got the very last campsite available. It was a “hike in” campsite, which we have never tried before, but it turned out to be awesome. It was more secluded than drive-up campsites and closer to the bathrooms to boot. Plus the “hike” was less than 200 yards.
After Lunch, we headed to the beach for several hours of great fun.
I think I must have an affinity for water/beaches because all my favorite trips and moments include water.
This first beach was a 1.2 mile hike from our campsite. I’ve forgotten it’s name, but we were the only people there. It was so peaceful. The sand was so fine, it squeaked under our feet when we walked in it. A little old woman came along the beach picking up smooth stones. She stopped to tell our children the Legend of the Sleeping Bear.
Long ago there was a great fire on the far shore of the lake, where Wisconsin is now. The mother bear and her two cubs swam across the lake to escape the fire. There is the mother bear, she said, pointing to the beautiful sand dune cliff to our right. She is waiting for her cubs. You can see them just there, that little island and beyond it is his brother. The mother bear sleeps while she waits for her cubs.
After her story, she gave each of the children a stone from her bag as a special gift before she continued on her way down the beach. You can’t buy experiences like this!
Our second day at Sleeping Bear, we drove up around the scenic loop that was supposedly so good. it was 45 minutes of driving through trees. We stopped at overlook points and looked out at trees. Was there something beyond the trees that people used to be able to see? who knows. what i do know is that 6 children who have been inside a car for most of a week watching trees are not entertained by being stuck inside the same car yet again to watch more trees. there was much complaining and fighting and i have a special hatred in my heart forever for that scenic loop and the pArk planners who made such a big deal of it on all the signs.
We finally escaped from the hell of that scenic loop and drove over to the giant sand dunes. The kiddie pies and the DH ran up and rolled down the dunes for over an hour. I stayed down at the bottom in the shade with Banana Cream Pie. That was the kids’ favorite bit of the whole trip.
We tried out Glen Haven beach. It was super crowded and the water seemed colder. The girls buried each other from the waist down and spent hours creating elaborate mermaid tails with rocks from the lake. I have beautiful pictures of them trapped inside the broken computer.
We cooked dinner at the picnic area there and then started our journey home. We had planned to stop at a hotel for the evening, but none had vacancies, so we kept driving. We were tired and cranky and not at our best.
Finally at about 1 in the morning we found a hotel with an open room. I will not speak of the nastiness we found inside that room. I will only say that we did not bring any of our belongings inside, nor walk on the carpet with our bare feet. We showered and slept about 5 hours. Woke up the kids and got out as fast as we could.
The sun rose and miraculously everyone was cheerful and pleasant again. Home we drove past Gary, Indiana, and Chicago. I called ahead and ordered Pizzas from Pizza Hut for lunch, so they were ready to be picked up as we drove through some little town between Chicago and St Louis.
Attempting to avoid road construction landed us in East St Louis, yikes! But we managed to get out again without being shot at. If Matt and Cegan had been home, we would have spent the evening with them, but they weren’t so a few more hours driving, and we were home sweet home at last.
It was our most epic road trip yet. The DH drove close to 8 hours most days, longer on some, as we hurried to hit the next high point. I did no driving at all, just handed out snacks, navigated, and tried to keep kids happy and quiet.
As we were leaving town, we saw a large, dinosaur-like statue of a monster. Then we saw the monster again on the water tower. “What is up with this monster?” we wondered. I googled “Rhinelander monster” on my phone and we found out about the Hodag. The legend of the hodag was one of the funniest things we have ever heard, and we deeply regretted missing the opportunity to take a picture of the family with the hodag statue. We vowed to research local legends of the towns we stay in on family trips from now on.
After about a 4 hour drive on the highway and an intense hour of driving on unmarked logging roads out in the boonies of Northern Michigan, we reached the top of Mount Arvon. I wasn’t too worried because DH was doing the driving. We almost got the van stuck in a huge pothole/mud puddle at one point. I think Mt. Arvon should probably have a sign saying 4 wheel drive is needed or park and walk the rest of the way up. The “road” is extended from the parking lot most online sites describe, so you can pretty much drive to the top now. But like I said, consider walking the last bit if you are in a large vehicle or don’t have 4 wheel drive, especially if it has been rainy.
Mount Arvon
On the way down, DH had a headache from the worries of transporting the family through such unfamiliar territory with mostly unmarked roads. When we got to the nearest town, L’anse, I suggested we stop at a park to relax for a bit. We stumbled upon this little playground right on the shore of Lake Superior and spent 20 of the most glorious minutes of my life playing in the sunshine and breeze. Every time since, when someone says, “picture the perfect place” or “Picture yourself on a beach,” I imagine myself back in this little park.
Mom! Watch! aaand cue Chariots of Fire soundtrack: Dun Dun da-Dun Dunnnn daaaa….
We planned on camping at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. We got there at about 5 pm and all the camping spots were taken. Online had warned of this, but we have always been so lucky to get campsites, that the DH assumed we would find one. We did not. After lots of frustrating driving around, we found a picnic spot, and I cooked dinner while the kids played on the beach again. We should have just gone ahead and visited the pretty places there at Pictured Rocks that we wanted to see, but we wasted all our daylight looking for a campsite. Hind sight is 20/20.
As our trip progressed, we learned the hard way that the Great Lakes are a popular attraction and you should book ALL of your campsites/hotel rooms 6-12 months in advance.
After dinner, we checked all the local hotels. No Vacancy. So we started driving along the route we had planned for the next day. I googled hotels all along the way on my phone and called ahead looking for a place to stay. We finally found a room in St. Ignace, Michigan and stopped to get some rest at 12:30 a.m. in a lovely little motel called Bay View Motel, right on the lake. It was low priced, clean, and rustic. I loved it. I also loved getting some sleep. It was our good luck spot for the trip.
Eagle Mountain in Minnesota was high point #6 for the kids and I, and High Point #7 for DH. It was a 7 mile hike and most places online say the difficulty of the hike is about the same as Harney Peak, South Dakota, which we hiked last summer.
I guess that is accurate. The DH and I were both in better shape for hiking this year than we were last year, so it was easier on us in that way. I have never hiked on such a rocky trail, though. And when I say rocky, I mean the trail was full of big rocks that you had to step from rock to rock–like crossing a stream, only no stream. The rocks were close together, but we had to watch every step carefully or twist our ankles and fall.
Cutie Pie was almost 5 years old and hiked much better than she did last summer in South Dakota–She motivated herself without much input from me for 2-2.5 miles before insisting on being carried. When the trail got very steep for the last mile, she climbed willingly. The DH carried 18 month old Baby Dumpling until Cutie Pie needed help. Then 13 year old Blueberry Pie carried the baby and DH carried Cutie Pie. I got out of packing an extra baby, since as you can tell from the picture, I was carrying one anyway.
We ran out of bug spray as I was applying it to the kiddie pies that morning, and the mosquitoes were fierce on the mountain. DH and Blueberry Pie swell a lot when they get bit, and they were really suffering. We bought more bug spray that evening, but the mosquitoes were never as bad as they were that day on Eagle Mountain.
We stopped at a Lake about halfway up to enjoy some scenery and have a snack. Some of the picture files on my computer seem to have become corrupted, so I no longer have those pictures of the lake.
Here we are at the top of Eagle Mountain. Blueberry Pie is letting us all know how hard he has worked, packing a baby halfway up the mountain.
While we were hiking, we passed several groups of other hikers. Often they had on sweatshirts or t-shirts that gave away what state, or at least what college they hailed from. It was really fun for me to know where people were from, and I’ve decided to get a Missouri t-shirt so people can know where we are from when we hike high points. I learned that the Minnesotan phrase of choice when greeting strangers on the trail is “How’s it goin’? ” This seems a little more friendly than the Missouri phrase of choice, which seems to be, “Hey.”
The day was fairly cool and I wore my most comfortable and most favorite maternity pants every– my old army maternity BDU’s.
First off, these sweet pants have pockets, a rare thing for maternity pants. Second of all, they stay where they are supposed to stay and do not require constant pulling back up when I am hiking, walking, and moving around. A second rare thing for maternity pants. Thirdly, they are very comfortable and fit me perfectly, something I have never encountered elsewhere in maternity pants.
I don’t wear them very often outside my house, because cammo isn’t really my style. But I knew they would be the hands down best choice for this hike. I have a dark brown maternity shirt that is about the color of those old army t-shirts and I was feeling like a fashion genius in my hiking boots, brown shirt, cammo pants, and pig tails.
pigtails
The DH seemed a little like he didn’t love my look, which is funny to me since he loves his own uniform so much.
As we were on our way back down the mountain, we passed a family who were just starting. The father and son were a little ahead and hiking in pretty normal, adequate hiking clothes. Behind them came the mom and little daughter. The mom and daughter were blinged out for a trip to the mall. Jewelry, cute hoodies, and sparkly manicures to match their sparkly flip flops. As I passed them, I was thinking to myself maybe I should have worn some makeup or something a little more girly–perhaps I had gone too far to the practical side in my choice of ensemble for the day
About 5 minutes later, I wanted to go back and warn that mom and little girl that there was no way they could make it up the mountain in flip flops. The flip flops would rip apart on those rocks and they would end up having to walk the rest of the way bare foot. I wondered if they had actually planned this hike, or if they had just been driving by and were like, “Hey, look, the highest point in Minnesota, let’s hike it. Sounds quirky and fun.” I really have no idea what they were thinking, and women who are that sparkly are very intimidating to me for some reason, so I didn’t go back. (Plus I was ready for the hike to be over and didn’t really want to add to my fatigue just to go back and try to talk sense to someone who thought hiking a mountain in flip flops was a good idea.)
To be fair, we have been on 4 high points that would be doable in flip flips: Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Michigan. It is possible that there are several out east that would also fit in this category. So maybe that family was from one of those states.
After our hike, we went back to camp and ate something yummy and easy to cook, possibly it was Spinach Parmesan PastaRoni and fried Zucchini.
Then we went drove a little ways down from our campsite to the shore of Lake Superior and relaxed and let the kids play for as long as they wanted.
Baby Dumpling thought it was hilarious every time someone threw a rock into the water Blueberry Pie Pumpkin Pie finds a perfect rock. Cutie Pie cannot possibly narrow her collection down to one perfect rock. Peach Pie posing for the camera.
Baby Dumpling tries out rock throwing. DH has as much fun as the kiddie pies.
I found this friendly little leech attached to Pumpkin Pie’s pinky toe. After she was done freaking out and able to stand still, I pulled him off. Blueberry Pie and Cutie Pie went immediately into the water and got their own friendly leeches on purpose. After pulling the third leech off Cutie Pie, I announced that I would not remove any more leeches, so they had better not “catch” any more. Pumpkin Pie remained grossed out by the leeches for the entire trip. A point that Blueberry Pie capitalized on by “just happening” to mention the word leech constantly.
Cherry Pie shows the perfect skipping rock she has found.
We finished off the day with hot cocoa around the campfire. It was a good day.
Day 3 we packed up camp and headed down the shore of Lake Superior towards Wisconsin. We stopped at a lookout called P__ Point and the fog on the lake lifted enough that we had some great views and got some great pictures. This is the only surviving picture. The kids loved scrambling over the rocks.
Blueberry Pie sampling Betty’s Raspberry Peach Pie
Then, following the advice of DH’s online backpacking friends, we stopped at Betty’s Pies and sampled the world famous pies to be had therein. We tried Raspberry Peach and French Banana Cream. I come from a family of fabulous pie bakers, so I am always skeptical of pies which can be purchased. Usually, people say they are good because people have never had a good pie to compare it too. However, Betty’s pies really were good. The raspberry peach tasted as good as pies my Aunties bake, so I didn’t feel like my money was wasted. The French Banana Cream was one of the most heavenly things I have ever tasted. The “french” part was that the cream on top of the pie was like a whipped cream cheese cake. I just kept eating lactaid pills and pieces of pie all day long. (I paid for that later. Even lactaid pills can’t handle everything.) But Soooo tasty!
After about 6 hours, we got to Timms Hill, Wisconsin. We all hiked up to the top. It was like a steep hill.
Then the big kids and the DH climbed the lookout towers and I went back down with Baby Dumpling and Cutie Pie. We played on the playground at the bottom of the hill until everyone else came back down.
That evening, we stopped in Rhinelander, Wisconson, ate cheese curds at a Dogs -n-Suds and spent the night in a hotel. Ah! showers and soft beds for everyone!
The day after the last swim meet, we left for our 2013 family vacation.
I had voted for anyplace that included a beach (after last year’s mostly primitive camping vacation, I wanted cushy!)
The DH has that goal to summit the highest peak in every state. By visiting the Great Lakes, we could summit 3 state high points and spend lots of time on the beach as well. We were pretty excited. Not to mention that when people ask what your summer plans are, and you say, “We’re driving around the Great Lakes,” it just sounds exciting and impressive.
We drove straight from home to our first campsite at Tettegouche State Park, about an hour north of Duluth, Minnesota. That was a 14 hour drive and Baby Dumpling was not happy for a large part of it. I don’t know if she had a stomach bug or was just car sick, but we had to stop 3 times so I could clean her and her car seat and rid the car of vomit smelling things. Then she just got tired of being in her car seat and got downright fussy. Having a crying baby makes everyone in the car tense and cranky, especially DH & I. We finally stopped around the Iowa-Minnesota border, and I broke the Sabbath to buy her this barking doggy toy to hopefully help her be happy. She was happy for about 30 minutes. Beginning a road trip on a Sunday was not the best idea we’ve ever had.
Duluth was beautiful. Driving through it was like driving through a Better Homes and Gardens magazine. I think DH would seriously want to move there if it weren’t for the mosquitoes. (More about those buggers later.) In Duluth I finally used my iPhone to play a Woody Woodpecker cartoon for Baby Dumpling. Ahhh, peace in the car. Next summer, we are buying DVD players for the car BEFORE our trip. No question, no argument, done deal.
When we finally got to camp, I sprayed everyone down with bug spray. Then, I fired up the camp stove and we had taco soup with chips ready to eat by the time the DH & kids had the tent set up. I’ve visited Minnesota once before in my life and I warned the DH about the mosquitoes–both their enormous size and sheer numbers. He thought I was exaggerating, but I think that night he began to believe I wasn’t joking. The next day would show him just how right I was. Something he should not have been surprised by, as I am always right….
Clara, Rebecca, Rebecca, Connie, Paula, Bev, and Connie. I love these ladies!
At the end of July I got to go to Mary Kay’s 50th Anniversary Seminar. It was so fun and a nice break for me. Plus it was pretty huge, being the 50th anniversary and all.
While I was so sick in the spring and early summer, I pretty much quit fixing my hair or putting on makeup. I was so nauseous that I couldn’t bear to even look at myself in a mirror.
At seminar, I had 4 days to myself, and, let me just tell you, I pampered myself. I pulled out the facial mask and the Microderm Abrasion. I did my nails and put all kinds of product in my hair. It was nice to take care of myself and remember how good it feels. Mary Kay always gives us some of the new products in our registration packet, so I tried some new colors and just had fun hanging out with my girlfriends and learning new things about makeup and myself.
I love learning!
My Sales Director and her husband (who is part of an award-winning mine rescue team) and me.
We always go eat at Joe’s Crab Shack while we are in Dallas. MMMM… I do love coconut shrimp!
For awards night we had a huge party. Everyone wears their formals/ball gowns this night. I was really wanting a new dress, since my black maternity dress has already partied at MK Seminar 3 times. (Twice on me and once on Clara, cause sharing is what we do!) I found the perfect sparkly navy cocktail dress at Ross’s for only $19. Not only was it sparkly, it wasn’t black, and it had enough room for my starting to show baby bump. Here is a terrible selfie pic.
Marvelous Pigs in Satin 