Tag Archives: Beth

09
Apr
2013

New Traditions

By: Megan

Living a 10 hour car ride from my folks and a 7 hour car ride from Tim’s folks makes it hard to travel for every Holiday. Especially holidays that are celebrated on a Thursday or Sunday. Turkey Day Thursday means Tim and the boys missing work/school on Wednesday since travelling to family is a full day event. Same goes for taking Easter Monday off. All those extra days add up quick. We really like to be able to take a good chunk of time every summer to “Staycation” in the cities and we love having an extra long Christmas break so we hoard Tim’s vacation days. Because of that we have not traveled for a Thanksgiving since moving to the cities and this year marked our second year of not travelling on Easter. You know what? We kind of like it.

Don’t get me wrong family but there is something exciting and wonderful about celebrating those holidays as a small family unit. We are putting our own stamp on the holidays and are slowly building our own family traditions. We haven’t cast aside all the family traditions that we grew up with by any means. Turkey Day will always be about the Macy’s Parade and the Purina Dog show (we were not a football family) just like it was in my family. The Easter Bunny will always visit our home (also my family). We will always get dressed up in our Sunday best for Easter services (both our families). But now instead of painting on egg shells we actually eat dyed hard-boiled eggs. We made Birds Nest cupcakes. Will we do these every year? Time will tell, but it is fun creating our own traditions.

Not travelling on the holidays makes it more relaxing. Is it as fun? Sometimes. It is always great to see our kids play with their cousins, especially now that all the kiddos are getting older and the age gap doesn’t seem as big, but it is also great to not have bags to pack clothes, prep snacks for car rides and to answer “How much longer?” all the way from Albertville, MN to Hillsboro, ND at which point we have lost our patience and force them to start playing the quiet game. We love late night board games when the kids go to bed but watching the new Game of Thrones was good too.

Here are a few photos from this years Easter. My folks live 10 hours away but Auntie Buff only lives 2.5 hours away. She has become like a third parent to the kids. I will never be able to express to her what having her in my kids life in such an active way means to me. The kids respect her and love her. She is fun but isn’t afraid to discipline. She has been such a wonderful Aunt.

they turned out super cute but Elise quickly discovered that eating them proved to be more than a little challenging.

And some of the coldest family photos I have ever forced the kids to smile through.

 ”Smile and we can go inside.”

 ”Smile nice and we can go inside.”

“One with Mom and Dad and you are done.”

more photos here

03
Feb
2013

Bulldog Game

By: Megan

image

The Bulldogs didn’t win. They held their own for quite a while then the thrid period happened… Michael asked, “Can we start cheering for the Gophers? Want to know why I want to cheer for the Gophers? Because they always win.” I said no we cheer for the Bulldogs because Auntie Buff works for the Bulldogs (not to mention we already have all the Bulldog gear!).

 

image

Patrick played on Tim’s phone for a while when the Bulldogs stopped scoring.

image

image

 

image

Elise loved sitting two rows behind the Bulldog team. She spent most of the game trying to get Beth’s attention. She beamed sunshine everytime she caught Beth’s eye.

image

image

image

 

image

We all had fun but it would be nice to see them win just one game!

05
Jul
2012

Independence Day 2012

By: Megan

It was so hot that my camera lens would literally steam up. Does any one else watch Parks & Rec? We recently started watching it and got addicted. There is a character in the show played by Rob Lowe that whenever he says, “Literally” I laugh. Now I can not type or say “literally” without thinking of him. I watch too much TV!  Anyways… the heat… It was HOT! The heat made outdoor picture-taking rather difficult but we did manage to get a few good ones. But before I share them with you, you need to watch this. It is literally the funniest!

with context here.

Okay… And here are some photos. We have taken 485 in the past 30 hours. I pared them down to about a third of that. Most of the pics are of Elise’s hair because I was finally able to get it in braids!

Here is a good example of how steamy-hot it was and how cute Elise’s braids were.

Good thing we had the pool to keep us cool. It was over 95 degrees with a heat index over 100 all day long.

The boys are now swimming across the pool with no problems. I really need to get some video up.

I can’t get enough of the braids!

On the way back from buying fireworks we stopped at the same park we took Easter Sunday photos at to snap a few 4th of July family photos. Thanks Beth!

This was my favorite of all of us.

The kids ate home-made pudding pops that we had made the day before. Incidentally, they were not able to be eaten as planned because one of the boys (neither of whom will admit) turned down the temp on the fridge and everything was half thawed when I went to make breakfast. It was a great way to start the fourth. “SHUT THE FRIDGE DOOR!” was shouted a lot that morning yesterday.

The boys ate theirs so fast that I didn’t get too many photos but Elise took her time and savored every bite. She takes pudding eating very seriously.

Then there was more pool time.

Then some grilling.

Then some eating.

Then blowing stuff up.

Elise liked the pops.

Sparklers for the boys with the help of a red Solo cup!

Yeah. His shirt is on backwards and inside out. That is how Patrick rolls.

smoke bombs.

Tim’s biggest fans!

And because we promised Michael last 4th of July that we would have s’mores again on the next 4th of July, s’mores! That kid has a memory like an elephant.

Then bath and bed.

And that was our fourth.

What did you all do to celebrate the 4th? Traditional BBQ and beer? Did you splash in a pool too? Who else ate s’mores? Please tell me I am not the only one who fed their kids the sticky sugary mess?!

Lots more pics here.

19
May
2012

Hawaii Day 5-9

By: Megan

I will let the photos do the talking for the bittersweet goodbye of our Kona Condo and our island hopping 30 minute plane trip. I will spare you the nauseating details of how Elise vomited all over herself and her car seat and the rental car on the 45 minute car ride from the condo to the airport just before island hoping. And I won’t share in too much detail of how the emergency Febreze we bought at WalMart didn’t mask the stench of curdled milk vomit on the carseat only added a floral scent to the reek of the van. Oh wait, maybe I didn’t actually spare you anything. What can I say? Misery loves company.

Since I already have you gagging at your computer, how about this. She threw up 3 times before we boarded the plane! Yeah vacation!

After an emergency carseat, vomited covered clothes rinse at the neighborhood Hawaiian McDonalds (who, I must add, advertised their “local breakfast” of Spam and Eggs with billboard sized signs all over the side of their building!) and the trip to WalMart for the above mentioned Febreze and a few more cans of spray on sunblock (every twenty-first century mom’s favorite invention) and a few more pounds of snacks we finally reached the airport.

A very kind airport luggage assistant earned a crisp twenty from me for helping Beth and me and the three kiddos move our 200+ pounds of luggage, carseats and carry-ons  from one end of the check in street (everything is outdoors at the Kona airport so the check in dock was just a long street filled with confused tourists) to the other end because of an honest ticket mistake made by Tim. Yeah I am sending out the blame on this one. Tim and the confusing scripted ticket are at fault. Whatever. The lady helped us. In fact she even made it possible for us to jump line (totally worth the $20) and helped us repack our over 50lb limit bags so we could actually check our luggage and not have to fedex it to the island a puddle jump away.

After we loaded the plane everything was better.

Oahu is incredible and we have 1,000 plus photos to prove it.

Here are a few of our favorites.

We stayed at the Aulani Disney Resort and this was the view from our three rooms.

The boys and Beth went down and enjoyed the water park while Tim bathed his vomit stench princess and I washed all the vomit covered clothes in the kids’ bathroom sink (travel tip- bring small container with liquid laundry soad when ever you travel with kids. This container took up little space and saved us from traveling with the stench of vomit! Yeah for liquid laundry soap!)

Beth ordered room service that night and stayed with a sleeping Elise while Tim, the boys and I went to the Hawaiian Luau welcome reception.

The following day we ate and swam and ate and splashed during the day while Tim was at meetings. That evening Beth and the kids went to a movie/fun night hosted by Disney characters that didn’t show up until after the kids went to back to the room to order more room service. While Michael enjoyed the spoiled life of food being delivered to his hotel room, I threw my diet and self control out the window when my formal dress zipped up (with room to spare!) .  Tim and I went out dressed to the nines and enjoyed an incredible dinner with loads and jugs of fantastic wine.

Make sure to check out how awesome my hair looked. I am feeling pretty vain about the job I did with a few bobby pins and a yard and a half of gold dress trim. And here I thought all those years of theatre were a waste of time. I never could have done that ‘do without all those hours of practice in the green rooms of theatre across North Dakota!

We did more swimming and eating and splashing and eating the next day. We even ate lunch next to the shark/manta ray pool and lucked out because it was their lunch time too! We watched a Marine Biologist feed the sharks and manta rays to the squealing delite of the boys AND Elise.  This time we actually ventured past the resort’s incredible water park and into the ocean again. We played there until sunset.

Even Elise!

Patrick and Michael participated in a duck parade.

Tim bathed the kids and put them down while Beth and I enjoyed a private concert and some fireworks (and a few drinks! Hooray for sister time!)

The following day (Day 8 and final full day in Hawaii) Tim and I went to Pearl Harbor which deserves a post all its own and maybe if you nag him enough Tim will do that for you all. After touring the Arizona memorial and  crossing the most interesting bridge to Battleship Missouri we came back just in time to splash in the water park for a couple hours and enjoy the Hawaiian sun. Big news on this day? Michael braved the water slide. It took 4 days of watching Patrick slide down with a smile the size of a slice of watermellon for him to work up the courage, but he did it. We were all so proud of him but no one was more proud than Michael himself.

The following day we said Aloha to Hawaii and headed home. It was time. The vacation was incredible but it was time to go home. We missed our beds and I missed my dog.

And here are the rest!