summer vacation

We just got back from our end-of-summer vacation to Minnesota! We had a really good trip and the kids did such a great job traveling!

Since mommy and daddy had brought all of our bags with and packed them in the car, Ethan made sure to bring his bag with too.

Since it is a 13 hour drive to my dad's house in northern Minnesota from St. Louis, we decided to make our first stop about halfway there at Wisconsin Dells. On the way Ethan mostly entertained himself and Eloise slept a lot.

We stayed at the Polynesian ("dated" with early 90s decor, but totally great for toddlers!) and enjoyed some pool time!

Eloise and I stayed mostly on the pool deck. Could she be any cuter in her little swimsuit?

She even took a snooze in the baby bjorn.

An attempted shot of our family of four!

One of our biggest challenges on the trip was getting our rambunctious and very curious toddler who no longer sleeps in a crib, to fall asleep in the hotel bed. During our night at the Dells we tried letting him just explore the room a bit, thinking he would wear out eventually and go to bed. Unfortunately he seemed only to be revving up and so after an hour or so we made him stay in the bed, which he majorly protested, of course (read: lots and lots of high pitched screaming for about an hour). What seemed to finally calm him down was when I started to sing the "Amen" chorus over and over and over again.

Eloise woke up at 4am (per usual) to nurse that night and so did my sweet Ethan. He jumped out of bed and started throwing all of our trash in the trash cans. He then grabbed all of the leftover parmesan packets from the pizza we had had for dinner and started arranging them on the bed. Needless to say, he was up for the day.

After some morning pool time we headed out for our second stop of the trip - Eau Claire, WI for our friends Andrew and Katie's wedding. Thankfully Ethan managed to sleep for a bit in the car!

And the wedding? Well, we saw about 10 minutes of the hour-long ceremony as the kids were quite loud and antsy.

And then we were off to my dad's house for the rest of the week! My dad and step mom got to meet Eloise for the first time and we enjoyed a week filled with lots of time relaxing and spending time outside!

Eloise and Grandma Bonnie.

Checking out Grandpa Todd.

Eloise got to try out a new bathtub bucket.

Taking a snooze.

These two are just too cute!

Time with Uncle Corey.

We also were there to celebrate Grandma Bonnie's 50th Birthday! Ethan enjoyed some birthday cake.

Eloise spending time with my Auntie Kim.

After spending a great week with my dad we headed to the Twin Cities for the weekend. After our hotel experience in the Dells I knew it was going to be a rough couple of nights, but we survived! We were able to spend some time with my uncle Rob & auntie Gail and the cousins on Saturday night.

Ethan wore the cousins out I think! He was running inside, outside --- outside, inside --- everywhere! Grace was especially a great helper to her little cousin.

And, just before we were ready to head out, Ethan fell and bumped his head. We had made it the whole week without an owie so I suppose it was bound to happen! Jack helped carry the patient back to mommy and daddy.



And after surviving another night in the hotel, we headed out bright and early Sunday morning back to St. Louis. We were all pretty tired after having such a fun vacation!