A lovely Mothers Day

Last Sunday was Mother's day.  I will admit that I a big fan of any day where I get celebrated and now that I have a little one, I get to celebrate too.

I should also acknowledge that I know this is actually a hard holiday for many people including women who have struggled to have a family or even worse those who have lost a child (I can't imagine the amount of sadness that would create).  It can also be difficult for people who lost their mothers and miss them on this day.  I feel like when we celebrate I try to be respectful of people in pain but I still think it is important to celebrate.

Also I have to say that I know mothers day isn't just about me.  It is about my mom, Luke's mom, Luke's grandma and all of the other women out there who helped raise us and are helping raise Marcus.  I think a better description of the day would be "mothering day" where we celebrate the behavior of caring, loving and mothering.

Finally, I want to say that I had awesome mothers day.  My boys (Luke and Marcus) let me sleep in a bit and brought me breakfast in bed!

Marcus was so cute and insisted in hand feeding me strawberries.  It was a bit messy but so darn cute.  Luke made an awesome breakfast of waffles with strawberries and whipped topping and LOTS of sides.  I was stuffed!

When we finished breakfast, Marcus and I went to church and when we got home I got my next adventure of the day.  I went on a long bike ride (16 miles) and Luke and Marcus met me at the other end with a picnic.

I was totally not on the ball for photos at the park (this is the only one) so you are going to have to take my word that it was a lot of fun.

Vonnie in a beaver's den

Overall the day was amazing.  I felt so loved and treasured by my guys. 


 

A busy weekend- Part 3- Willow River State Park (Wisconsin

As hard as it is to believe we are still talking about Saturday.  After finished our previous adventures we decided that we still had a lot of time and energy left.  So we headed to Wisconsin to visit Willow River State Park.  One of my high school classmates went hiking there a few weeks ago and posted some amazing pictures and that was our inspiration for the trip east now.

We got to the park around 5 pm leaving plenty of time to hike down to the water fall. 

Luke started the hike with us but quickly decided that his legs were exhausted from the long bike ride so he returned to the car and left Marcus and I to complete the hike. 

 

Marcus was pretty into the hike but at the same time he is a 3 year old little boy and acts like one.  He either was running far ahead of me or falling behind because he was dragging his feet on the dirt to make a dirt cloud.  He kept stopping to pick up rocks and put them in his pockets.


Marcus falling behind.

Marcus scuffing his feet.

It didn't take long for us to make our way down to the waterfall.  One thing I really appreciated about the Wisconsin State Park is that the trails frequently had signs posted with maps.  This isn't something you see in MN state parks.

Marcus was really excited to see the falls!  These pictures really don't show how impressive they were

When we crossed over the river we found a large staircase.  The stairs resembled the stairs at a fire tower.  I learned from talking to some one else that there were actually 171 steps to the top.  There was really no stopping Marcus, he was so excited and basically ran to the top of the stairs.  When we got to the top the first thing he said was "Mommy lets go down again" but I convinced him to check out the view and rest a bit before we headed back down.  This was a lot of work but the view as worth the climb.

When we were back on the ground again we spent a little bit of time exploring around the waterfall.

Since it was just me with Marcus I didn't let him get very close to the falls.

When we were done looking at the falls, Marcus was off and running again.  Man that kid is fast!

Rather than take the same 1.5 mile flat path back to the car we decided to take much shorter trail on the map.  Luke moved the car to make things easier.  Well that was really not the best idea.  The shorter trail was also pretty much straight up hill!  It was quite unpleasant.  To make matters a bit more difficult Marcus decided he was tired and needed to be carried.  I almost died!

End result-  This park is pretty and I think we will go back at some point but we will NEVER take the short trail back up the hill again!



A busy weekend- Part 2- The Vermillion Falls

On Saturday afternoon we drove down to Hastings (after picking Luke up from his bike ride in Cottage Grove) and decided to visit the Vermillion Waterfall.  This is an urban water fall located right in the center of the city of Hastings, the sign for it was really small and we almost missed it.

Marcus has been obsessed with Water Fountain and Water Falls for a long time, right now he is taking a break from that obsession to focus on other items.   But we still love to stop and look at waterfalls. 

I have been to this before but it was the first time for Marcus and Luke. 





The falls are actually pretty non descript from a distance and you can hear them before you see them.  But they are really pretty.  Marcus was very impressed.  Here are some of our pictures from the day.

 We spent some time hiking the trails around the falls.  Marcus found some big rocks to climb up.  I stood at the bottom watching (nervous mom).

 Marcus and look checking out the falls.

 



A busy weekend- Part 1- The Dog Walk

One some weekends we do an amazing amount of stuff.  Neither Luke or I are really the type to sit around for long so we are active and find lots of things to do.  This past week was even a bit busier than normal and it was also a lot of fun.  Here is what we all did:

• Friday-  Marcus and Mom went to the arboretum (it was a free event) and than Vonnie went out to an awesome event called "Light the Castle"
• Saturday- Marcus and Mom and Grandpa Harvey did the Animal Humane Society Walk for animals (which I am going to cover in this blog), Luke went on a long bike ride (over 40 miles) and we visited two parks with water falls (one in Hastings and another called Willow River State Park in Wisconsin)
• Sunday-  Mother's day.  It all started with a lovely breakfast in bed, followed up an awesome bike ride (Vonnie) and a picnic at the Carver Park Reserve.  We also spent some time hanging around the house.

So it was a busy weekend and lots of pictures were taken (not all of them great).  Blogs, well none of those got written, heck I was busy.  So it all starts now with the Walk for Animals.

On Saturday we completed the Walk for animals with the Animal Humane Society.  This event is huge and there are animals (mostly dogs) everywhere!  Luke and I have done this walk a few times with Sandy dog (he is a rescue from IDOG (International Doodle Owners Group) and it is a great cause.  It was also event 3 of year for the challenge my dad and I are doing (one a month) and we are a bit behind.  

Here are few pictures from the big event.

Marcus was really worried his stuff was going
to blow away so he kept leaning over to
keep it all in the wagon.

Proud Sandy Dog!

We divided the labor and switched back in forth between who walked with Sandy and who pulled the wagon.

 Marcus actually got out an walked for about the first mile.  After that he was tired and climbed back in the wagon.  I wish I had a taken a picture of Marcus trying to walk Sandy.  It didn't really work that well since Sandy weighs over twice Marcus's weight.  Finally, we figured out a solution and put two leashes on Sandy- one for Marcus and one for me.  I held the shorter one and controlled Sandy and Marcus helped walk him.  It was a huge success.

 Overall it was a beautiful day and a wonderful event for a great cause, and I would call it a success!