places we've been

A collection of 648 posts

places we've been

flashback friday to 2011

Braden and I have done a big boat trip before. In December 2011 we took a 3 month leave from work and sailed our boat to the Bahamas. Back then we didn't have the girls, but we took our cat Ethel. During our trip we made 3 stops in the

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throwback thursday (march 23, 2022)

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throwback thursday (march 9, 2022)

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tooth fairy?

Every one of Emma's adult bottom teeth have come in behind her baby tooth. This one was no different. Usually it doesn't take long for her tooth to get loose once the new tooth starts coming in, but this one is all the way in and her tooth still wasn't

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rides rides rides

We spent President's Day at the Mall of America riding rides with our friends. Lots of rides. 6 hours of rides. It was a long day. Olivia is just at 48", which meant she can finally do every ride. That includes the Sponge Bob ride that goes upside down. This

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happy valentines day

Braden and I celebrated Valentine's Day a day early with a fancy wine dinner with some friends. Some of these dishes sounded kind of gross, but everything was delicious. Our favorites were the 3rd and 4th courses. It was a good thing we did because after that everything went downhill.

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tubing

Remember when I said Olivia has become fearless? Last year she wouldn't tube at all. Today she went the full 2 hours... and didn't want to leave when our time was up.

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great wolf lodge

The girls didn't have school Thursday and Friday, so when our friends asked if we wanted to spend a night at Great Wolf Lodge we figured why not. This is one of those places that every time we go we say we're never going again... but after a couple years

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throwback thursday (february 9, 2022)

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daddy daughter dance

Olivia has been looking forward to tonight for weeks. The daddy daughter dance! The dance was fairy themed, so she wore her wings... and a crown, of course. Braden said Olivia usually does a little dancing, but she really just likes to do the crafts.

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reptile show

Who knew we would be the people attending a reptile show? But here we are... I was expecting this to be like any other expo. We'd walk around, look at stuff and that was it. I didn't realize just about every vendor booth would be offering to let the girls

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chinese new year

In 1st grade the kids learn about Chinese New Year. They end their lesson by making a dragon for the Chinese New Year parade through the school. They all got to pick 3 jobs they would like to do for the parade - head, body, dragon tamer, banner holder (Emma

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lots of snakes

The girls didn't have school on Friday. A few days ago I saw that the place with the YouTube channel where Emma got her snake was going to be doing a program at our library. So... of course we had to be there! He brought a lot of animals we

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throwback thursday (january 12, 2022)

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out and about

We've been spending a lot of time at home with Emma not feeling well. Now that she's feeling better (not 100% yet... but way better than she was) I was itching to get out of the house this weekend. On Saturday we ended up at REI. We have a huge

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sledding

We got a lot of snow yesterday, but at least it was warm enough for us to get outside and enjoy it... and by warm I mean over 30 degrees! It was perfect sledding weather. Our neighbor friends have the neighborhood sledding hill in their backyard, so we headed over

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winter break: day 8

We've been taking it easy, but really needed to get out of the house. No one had any stomach issues for over 24 hours, so we thought the grocery store would be a safe outing. Turns out we weren't in the clear yet. Emma ended up getting sick in the

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throwback thursday (december 29, 2021)

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winter break: day 6

Sometimes plans don't go the way you want... Monday night I think I got maybe 3 hours of sleep. Emma didn't sleep at all and was up all night running to the bathroom. Olivia slept through everything, but Braden and I did not. We tried to make the most of

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winter break: day 5

We always take the bus to Duluth over Memorial Day weekend. Last year we decided we wanted to check it out during the winter. Braden ended up taking this week off, so we decided to take a 3 day trip up to Duluth again during the girls winter break. This

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winter break: day 2

I can't remember the last time we've been to the zoo (I feel like I say that every time we visit). With the girls in school and so many fun no school day places to go we really don't get to the zoo that often anymore. Before we moved to

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what a day

I've been mentally preparing for this day for weeks. It started with Olivia's last basketball game of the season. I'm so glad she tried basketball. She really had fun doing it... and she's pretty good. We had to leave the basketball game at halftime to get to our next event.

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peanut butter

Emma started following this local place's YouTube channel over a year ago, and since then has been asking for a snake. Surprisingly she knows a lot about them - all the different kinds, what they eat, how to set up their habitat. I've been against it. Mostly because I don't

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happy thanksgiving

We loved spending Thanksgiving in Wisconsin Dells last year, so why not do it again? This time we surprised the girls with the trip... and we brought some friends along. The last time we came the girls really wanted to drive the go carts, but Emma isn't old enough and

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throwback thursday (november 24, 2021)