We've Never Been on a Family Vacation

Our children are 9 and 5 and we have never been on a family vacation. 6 months out of the year we go up to our family's cabin every chance we get and the other 6 months of the year I feel are spent just getting through birthdays, holidays and sports.

Most of the reason why we haven't been on a family vacation is because of money.. the other reason is because it sounds overwhelming as heck to travel with children. Especially two high energy boys.

But, we feel confident that our children are at wonderful ages for traveling and we've finally made it a financial priority for us.

[Drum roll please] WE'VE BOOKED OUR FIRST FAMILY VACATION TO PUERTO RICO!

And you guys, it's going to be a VACATION - 8 full days in 85 degrees and staying right on the beach.

We went to Puerto Rico back in 2015 but only for 3 nights for our honeymoon. We had never been on a trip together and we hadn't been that far from our kids so we made the trip short and sweet. But man did we ever fall in love with PR! We've been itching to go back ever since.

We've had this trip in the forefront of our minds for about 6 months now. Since hurricane Maria hit we've been keeping close tabs on their progress in getting things back up and running. The populated areas like San Juan are good to go - it's the center of the island in the more remote areas that are still without power, water, etc. I would love to find a service project that we can do with the kids while we're there. Even though traveling there in itself is great for their situation it would be even better if we could lend an extra hand in any way possible.

Another exciting part of this trip is that we're taking my mother-in-law with us! She goes south every winter so by the time she gets back and we go on this trip with her it will have been nearly 3 months since we've seen her. It will be really nice to get that quality time with her.

A trip we'll remember forever!

When I Said, "We Are Never Doing This Again" While On "Vacation"

We have never been on a family vacation.

We have never flown anywhere or driven a great distance to stay overnight in a hotel and sightsee in a new place for days on end with our kids.

We did it once together for our honeymoon and absolutely loved it! I would travel every other week once a month if I could.. and I might even want to take my kids if I'm still promised peace and relaxation!

My maternal grandparents have a cabin in the middle of the woods up north in Minnesota on a little secluded lake. We're there as much as possible. So, this really takes the place of an actual vacation for us.

Within the last year our oldest, Levi (8.5), has really picked up on how often all of his classmates are gone on vacation.. ACTUAL vacations.. flights, hotels, sandy beaches, sunburn.. the whole kit and caboodle! It's given me a bit of guilt for not giving our kids an experience like that yet.

When I think of going on a real vacation a few things cross my mind..

• Would it even be fun?
• How many times would I get mad and yell?
• Would the kids even appreciate it?
• Would I like them all when we got home?

So when spring break rolled around last week and we realized we had both time and money to spare we booked a last minute night away in Duluth. Baby steps! 

We had a lot planned and I was confident in how I had timed everything out to work just right. We got out the door without too much stress and we were FIVE MINUTES AHEAD OF SCHEDULE! This was a good sign! 45 minutes into our 2.5 hour drive though Rex's video monitor stopped working.. [deep breaths.. we can do this] luckily we had their tablets and plenty of snacks so we got through it just fine. And in case this might be crossing your mind as you're reading I'll just come out and say it: no, kids these days don't just look out of a window at their surroundings and feel content during a long car ride. 

We drove up on Duluth and when Levi first saw the views of the lake he said "This is the best place ever!" Our first stop was Enger Tower. We had never been before and it had such amazing views of Lake Superior that it will always be our first stop into the city. Then, we hadn't even gotten into our second stop in Duluth (the Train Museum) when Rex started saying he wanted to go home.. this kid would ALWAYS be home if given the choice. He would never go anywhere and he would never put clothes on. I was still really patient at this point so I was able to calmly explain the layout of the rest of our trip.. and that we would be home right before bed TOMORROW. 

After the train museum we had lunch at Burrito Union (SO GOOD!) and then landed at our hotel. We had a nice view of Lake Superior and it had a fun mid-sized indoor water park there. Rex and I hung out in the little kid area of the water park all night and I lost count of how many times he went down their little water slides. There's this HUGE bucket of water that fills up and spills out over the little kid area (not the best idea in my opinion) and before long Rex had it timed out that he could go down the water slide 4 times before the bucket spilling. So after that 4th time down he'd run to the edge so he wouldn't get splashed. Levi and Andy spent their time on the BIG water slides. After 3 hours there the first day we called it a night and got pizza to bring back to our room. 

The 4 of us sleeping all right next to each other in a room we aren't used to was pretty hellish. I initially thought that the boys would take one queen bed and we would take the other but that quickly changed when Rex wanted to snuggle and watch TV with me. Rex and I then took one bed and Andy and Levi in the other. Rex fell asleep with the TV on, I was dozing off and I knew Levi wouldn't be able to fall asleep with the TV on so I had to give the guys a lights out warning. Once the TV was off we realized how loud the heater in our room was.. I seriously thought it was a motorcycle going by at first. I was so tired I asked Andy to get up and check on it. I heard him pressing buttons and then eventually he gave it a little punch and it quieted down some. The good 'ol punch trick! Andy crawled back into bed and before I knew it Levi was getting after him because his "cell phone light was keeping him up".. before I knew it I had 3 snoring boys and a loud (but now somewhat quieter) heater that was kicking on every 10 minutes. Somehow I managed to fall asleep but man did the morning come quick! 

After breakfast we went back to the water park and it was my turn to experience the water slide. For some reason Andy insisted that he and Rex watch me come out at the end.. it was when I entered the water slide I knew why.. IT WAS PITCH BLACK INSIDE! But so, so fun because you went down on either a one person tube or a two person tube. I much prefer going down a water slide in a tube vs just my body. I'm always paranoid I'm going to shoot out of the end and my bathing suit will fly off. Levi and I did the tube a few times together afterwards and man that kid is nuts! I had to use my feet to hold him down because I swear I thought he was going to cause himself to fly out of the tube. He was bouncing up and down throwing up peace signs.. he ALWAYS had the peace signs thrown up when he came out of the slide. That's my boy!

We packed up and were out of the hotel by 11:30 and started making our way farther north to hit the main tourist spots: Split Rock Lighthouse, Gooseberry Falls and Palisade Head. I thought this would be our easiest, funnest day since we were 1. prepared with lunch in the car 2. the weather was perfect 3. the kids would be getting a lot of exercise and 4. WE WERE ON "VACATION!" 

At Split Rock Lighthouse the boys were running around like they hadn't gotten any exercise in days.. at one point Levi literally did a running push off jump off of the freaking lighthouse. WTF! That's when I started to lose it.. they couldn't be trusted around monumental objects so off to the trails of the falls we went. 

Levi had to go to the bathroom really bad as soon as we got to the falls. Luckily there's a nice restroom and gift shop area. I didn't really think about how nervous I could be with my kids around the falls.. it hit me once we got down to it. My kids can both be absolutely crazy nuts but at least Rex is fearful. Levi is not. I literally had to hold onto Levi's sweatshirt a couple of times because I couldn't trust him to stay back far enough. So then there are the trails around the falls and most of it is right next to a steep drop off with only a little wooden fence "protecting" you. I lost track of how many times we had to tell Levi to slow down and be careful and a couple of times Rex pitched a fit because I was holding his hand too tight.. 

We get towards the bottom of the falls and this is where I saw us spending the most time. The water is calmer and there are a lot of rocks the kids could throw in. But then Levi had to go to the bathroom AGAIN.. It hadn't even been an hour yet! We were at least half a mile away from the restroom and gift shop but there were so many people around that I didn't have the guts to try and hide him and let him pee outside. So he and Andy went running for the bathroom while Rex and I made our slow trek back.. and man was it slow! He picked up every decent sized stick he came across, stopped to examine it and then had to search out the perfect place to throw it into the woods. At one point he even stopped without warning and just laid down on the sidewalk.. while I'm waiting for him to start walking again I'm realize how far we've already walked and how much more we have to go and I'm thinking to myself that there's no way Levi made it to the bathroom on time. He either peed his pants or Andy caved and let him pee in the woods. We finally make it to the gift shop and Levi did in fact make it on time [huge sigh of relief]. It was here that I learned we should never let our kids wander around in a gift shop if we don't intend to buy them something.. I eventually just had to walk away and cross my fingers there wouldn't be sounds of a tantrum behind me. 

I got to the car and said "We are never going on vacation again" .. mama had hit the end of her rope. But little did I know, the best part of our trip was coming up! I just wanted to get there, get it over with and start heading home. 

We had never gone to Palisade Head before. I really didn't know what to expect. When you pull up there's a little parking lot at the bottom of a narrow road leading up a hill. No one was around so we pull into a parking spot and think "this is it?" .. we couldn't tell if we could drive up that road or if it was meant to be more of a paved walking trail. We hadn't been parked for more than a minute though and a car came behind us and drove up the road.. that answered our question! This road is so narrow that the whole time you're going up you're hoping no one is coming down. When you get to the top there's a bigger parking lot and there were a handful of cars parked but we never came across anyone while we were hiking there. You feel like you're on top of the huge hill at the parking lot but there's actually a whole lot further to climb if you really want to be at the top.. and we did! There's no clear path up so you need to find your own way though you can definitely tell where a lot of people have gone before so we tried to follow the beaten down grass/brush as best as we could. It was nerve-wracking at first hiking up because you're near the edge but once you make your way up the hill there's less of a fear of falling to your death and more of a fear of making sure you can find your way back. We really, really enjoyed working together to get to the top and the views were absolutely amazing! And then we found our way back to the car just fine. 

We got back on the road and made our way home but we had just one more stop - Jay Cooke State Park. It was our first time there and when you get off of 35 and you're heading towards the state park you're literally driving through neighborhoods and then all of a sudden the road turns into the state park.. it's just weird! I had no clue what to expect and for sure was not expecting the most amazing view of a river I think I've ever seen in person. You can see for miles up and down the river and over the woods surrounding it. I still can't believe this place was just tucked behind a neighborhood. It felt like we were stumbling upon a secret. You really have to visit if you haven't been! 

We got home right before bed and right on schedule. Everything really did go as planned and we were able to hit all of our destinations without feeling rushed. And now that I'm a week out from our little "vacation" I can say that of course I want to go on vacation with my family again! The memories we made and the things we were able to see and do made much more of an impact than a few stressful moments. 

Love It or List It

About a month ago we found out our neighbors a few houses down were going to be selling their home. Their house is beautiful and would be perfect for us so we thought that it wouldn't hurt to see if we could afford it and what we could sell our own house for.

Well, we found out that no, we cannot afford that specific house but it wouldn't be a bad idea to upgrade right now. We bought our house 3 years ago for $144,900 and could list it within the next couple of months for $199,900.

But in order to list our house for sale here are the updates needed:
Painting the exterior of the house/garage
New kitchen floor
Updated light fixtures (DONE)
Finish basement
Replace some windows

I'm all about getting feedback from others and so during our backyard bonfire this weekend we were talking about all of this with our family and friends. Well, it got our wheels turning a little bit. What if we were to remodel our home instead of move?

If we were to stay, here's what would need to happen:
Kitchen addition to allow for more counter space and room for an 8ft+ table
1/2 bath in basement
2+ car garage
Dormer on upper level with 3/4 bath (this is if I dream BIG)
*In order of priority

We enjoy our neighborhood. It's close to everything (shops, restaurants, downtown, our family), it's on a quiet street, we can walk to two parks as well as the library and grocery store, we have great neighbors, etc. etc. But it's really important for us to have a space ideal for entertaining our family and friends. If we move we would stay in our school district and go 10 minutes from where we currently are.

We could really use the Love It or List It team in our lives right now..

The transition to our home

The first night in our home was kind of chaotic. We had family over until after 10:30pm. They were such a huge help in us putting things together and at one point I realized they had completely taken over my kitchen putting contact paper on all of the shelves and I was sitting at the dining room table relaxing! Yes, they really are that amazing! Not to mention my mom came by unannounced with all of the fixings to make pancakes in the morning and had even gotten us our favorite beer and a bottle of champagne to celebrate. My aunt and my grandma also made a run to the store for us to get last minute supplies and brought pizza for dinner. We are so incredibly blessed to have them in our lives and for them to take such wonderful care of us!

Levi went to bed just fine that first night. It took me 4+ attempts to get Rex to sleep though. I was finally able to rock him to sleep and put him in his crib without him waking up at 10:30pm. After that I got Levi down for bed and I had no energy to do anything so I went to bed myself.

Rex got up in the middle of the night every night for the first several days. I always put him in bed with us when he woke up to comfort him. He was so content this way but I do not sleep well with him in bed with us. It was rough. He also went from breastfeeding 1-2x/day down to not wanting any interest in it at all. It was very sudden. I wasn't going to force it on him. I had made it to my goal of breastfeeding for 12 months and told myself that we would be done when he wanted to be done. This was it. He breastfed for 16.5 months and I'm thrilled about that but it was really hard on me at the same time. This baby making phase of my life has officially ended.

There have been a few times (even today) when Levi gets upset about the house and says he doesn't like it here. He misses our apartment a lot. It breaks my heart that he feels this way and that there's really nothing I can do to make it all better. I try to list all of the good things about the house and I tell him that I miss things about our apartment too. We are going there tonight to say our final goodbye and turn in our keys. I'm preparing myself for many tears from him. I thought of sending him to grandma's when we go and do this because I know it will be hard but I think it's best for him to get the chance to say goodbye. To get closure. I hope that eventually it will help him in knowing that we really can't go back there, it isn't ours anymore and someone else is living there. It might be harder for him right now knowing that it is still ours and we still have the keys.

All in all it's been a rough few weeks. Moving, getting settled, our long to-do list, finding our routine, the end to breastfeeding, getting fired and not to mention the awful frigid winter we're having. Things are getting better though. Rex is sleeping through the night (knock on wood), we have a pretty solid routine to our days and Levi is making friends in the neighborhood and playing outside as much as possible.

The fog is lifting and I'm starting to get really excited about our future and all of the memories we'll make here!

My favorite place to be

I was blessed to be born into a family with a cabin. My great grandpa built it when my grandpa (my moms dad) was just a kid. It's a small cabin on a private lake. There are only two other cabin's on it and we have the only one right on the lake. I don't think it could be any more peaceful!

I was the only child in my family for 9 years so I didn't have any play mates up there. As a kid I loved running around with a butterfly net to catch frogs and toads. I'd collect them all in a bucket and before too long would let them all free. There's a pile of neatly stacked bricks that I would imagine was my castle and there's a tree I could hang out on for hours. I stayed up late with the adults and learned how to play poker at a young age. I never minded getting dirty and I can't remember a time when I wasn't okay with taking my own fish off the hook. Thanks to my time at the cabin I have never been afraid of spiders and (if it isn't huge) would kill one with my bare hand. My grandma would always let me sit on her lap once we got to the private dirt road that leads to our cabin and steer until we got there. Once I was tall enough to reach the pedals I got to switch spots with her and drive it myself. It was hard to hide the smile on my face while I was sitting in the driver seat. It was inevitable that by growing up at the cabin I would be shaped into the person I am.

Now, when I say it's small I mean that it's small! There's a room for a kitchen that can really only comfortably fit one person if they're busy cooking. The bathroom is a decent size (because it used to be a bunk bed room when we were allowed to have a working outhouse on the property) and then the rest of the cabin is one room. A twin bed, love seat, bunk bed and couch with a hideaway bed all sit along 2 walls with a dining room table in the middle. If everyone is seated at the table it's almost impossible to walk around it without someone needing to move to squeeze you through. There's been a trailer up there as long as I can remember for extra sleeping but back when I was a kid the cabin was perfect for fitting everyone. Now that my mom has three more kids, my aunt and uncle have three and we have two (plus my grandparents) it's impossible to fit us all in there at the same time. Someone always needs to pitch a tent and what if there's bad weather? Well, we have to keep an eye on the forecast before heading up there. Bad weather means we don't go.

Our little family (Andy, Levi, Rex and I) really enjoy going up there but we hate pitching a tent and I can never sleep good when I'm so easily accessible to the forest creatures and bad guys in the world. So, we had some money saved up and decided to buy ourselves a used pop up camper a couple days ago. We got the okay from my grandparents to park it somewhere at the cabin and we couldn't be more excited. Now we have our own little space up there and don't have to worry about where we will land when it comes time to sleep. Plus, we have odd weekends so it can be used by other people when we are not there. I plan to go up as much as possible this summer and can't wait!

My hope is that my kids will become shaped from their time at the cabin like I was. I want them to go on adventures in the woods, spend their weekends covered in dirt, sand or wet from the lake, learn how to start a campfire, bait their own hook, take fish off their own hook, catch frogs, learn how to drive a car and a boat and most importantly to unplug from technology and just be a kid.

The Story of Rex - Part One (Finding out we were pregnant)

I wrote this when I was 6 weeks pregnant with Rex!


Back in September 2011 Andy and I decided we were ready to start trying to have a baby. I went and got my IUD taken out and starting the end of September we were on the "we're not trying but we're not preventing" approach. Since I had my IUD for 3 years we didn't know how long it would take for this to happen. The only person that knew this was going on was my Mom. I had to tell someone!

Fast forward to December. Part of me was hoping we wouldn’t get pregnant this month and the other part was hoping we would. My period was due on Christmas! My thought was that if I wasn't pregnant then I could drink for all of the holiday festivities and we could try again in January! Because in the previous two months I had taken pregnancy tests early and gotten a negative result (basically throwing money down the toilet) I decided not to take a pregnancy test Christmas Eve. My mom also helped this decision because she said “even if you are pregnant and have a glass of wine on Christmas Eve it won’t hurt you”. So, I didn’t take a test, had a couple glasses of wine and smoked cigarettes. I didn’t feel pregnant and had no thought in my mind that I was.

At 6a Christmas morning Levi woke up to pee. After taking him to the bathroom and putting him back to bed I realized I needed to go myself. I had pregnancy tests stashed under the sink and I thought “what the hell?” If it were positive then Andy and I would have a quiet moment to enjoy the news together without having Levi up and running around. And if it were negative then I could just go back to bed and look forward to watching Levi open all of his gifts and being able to drink at the festivities. As I’m sitting there about to pee on the stick I all of a sudden can’t pee and my heart starts RACING! I finally get up the courage to take it. I’m watching the stick, heart racing and slowly but surely I watch two solid blue lines appear.. meaning I’m pregnant! Tears started flowing and I started to sweat. How do I tell Andy?! He's sound asleep! I crawled back into bed and just laid there for a few moments in complete disbelief. Finally I started kissing him and gently waking him up. When he started to come to I said “Merry Christmas! ..... I’m pregnant!” His response was, “Are you really?”. We just laid there snuggling together and enjoyed the first few moments of knowing we were going to have a baby.

We go back to sleep and Levi wakes us up around 8 to open Christmas presents for the last time together as a family of 3. I was really kicking myself that I hadn’t taken the test yesterday because we had been with my entire family and we could have told them all in person at the same time. I had to have my Mom be the first to know but we were so busy that day that there wasn’t time to stop by her house and tell her so I gave her a call. She was so excited! Andy wanted to stop and tell his Mom since it was on our way to my Grandma’s house that morning. We decided to tell her by wrapping up the pregnancy test. It took her a few moments to realize what the stick was telling her. She looked at me and said “Is this you?”. I nodded my head, started tearing up and she just started gleaming! She almost couldn't contain her excitement!

At my Grandma’s I had another test wrapped up and gave it to my Dad in the middle of everyone opening their gifts. I just quietly watched him open it from across the room while everyone else had no idea what was going on. He looked at it and instantly tears started welling in his eyes. He walked across the room, gave me a hug and told everyone “Emma’s pregnant!” They were all very excited for us!

When we got to celebrate with Andy's family for Christmas later that day we had two pregnancy tests wrapped up for each of his sisters to open at the same time. His younger sister got hers opened first and when looking at it told everyone “it’s a pregnancy test.. and it’s already taken..” and just looks at me. With that said his older sister realized that it meant I’m pregnant, said “oh my gosh!” and got up to hug me. His brother in law (who was in the kitchen) had no idea what was going on but when he realized it he shouted “Are you f******* serious?!” Completely shocked. Probably the best reaction we had!

All in all everyone is really excited and happy for us! It’s nice to be experiencing a pregnancy that is planned, that everyone is thrilled about (without feeling stressed) and that I have the support of my partner through.

[Right away I knew that I didn't want this baby's birth to go the way Levi's did. I had different plans for this time around and I couldn't have been happier with the decisions we made and the way everything went when Rex came into this world!]