Been on Vacation- Finally Done Posting

UPDATE: All done posting about our wonderful vacation. Now onto more Fargo Partays. The fun just never stops 'round here! LOL!

 August 14th- We've been on vacation to the wild, wild West the last couple weeks! When I have sorted through my 800+ pictures, I'll get some posts up! (You might think I'm kidding about the + well unless you know me! LOL) This might take a bit! ;)

Utah Vacation: Heading West

Every other year, our little Fam packs our bags and heads to the wild, wild West to visit our extended family. It's a long 16 1/2 hour trek (more like 18 or so for us.. we need potty breaks, don't ya know) across the flatlands

and into the Rocky Mountain desert. (Brett LOVES the mountains!)

This year, we decided to take it slow and stop overnight at Bozeman, Montana. We stayed at the C'mon Inn. It was fabulous- soft beds, hot tubs, pools, pets (well, stuffed ones at least)! We think we might live there. (In the Hotel that is! LOL)

We got to check out the native wildlife...

and did a little swimming and eating and oh yah- a bit of sleeping as well.

We had lots of fun!

Best Family Vacation Ever: Itasca State Park

For the last day of our fabulous vacation, we made our way to Itasca State Park (http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/itasca/index.html) to see where the Mississippi River has it's humble beginning. It was only like a 40 minute drive so it was great for the kids. Actually except for the 1st initial drive- which was only 3 1/2 hours- all the rest were 2 hours or less. That made the trip ever better for the kids and the mother taking care of them. :) AND the sun began to shine as we got close to the park. So yeah for us!!! An absolutely gorgeous day, I must say!

We made our 1st stop at the Jacob V. Brower Visitor's Center. It was way hands-on kid (or grown-up kid) fun! There were displays and puzzles and stuffed animals and Firemen and poles and bears...... oh my! (Trust me--It was all Haylie! LOL) Oh, I mean dressups and listening stations. Tons and tons of things to do.

Next was the Headwaters. Over a bridge and through the woods, it's off to the headwaters we go... At the end of the trail, there's a marker that reads, "Here 1475 ft above the ocean the mighty Mississippi begins to flow on it's windin way 2552 miles to the Gulf of Mexico". Pretty amazing! We all took a little jont safely across the slippery rocks. Well, not really---first, we lost Victoria to the water. Oops! Oh and there goes Justice. Double oops! Oh and little Glory decided she wanted to do it on her own. Oops! Oh well, right? What's a little wet clothes in the grand skeem of things. Once we got over the initial crying and complaints of wet pants- we had a blast splashing and playing in the river.

This whole trip, we were really amazed at the beauty of this Earth that God has created. Truly remarkable! We got to see an eagle and a family of ducks. More of HIS amazing creation. What a great way to end the trip.

Before we headed home, we stopped in the little cafe for lunch and a Mommy-Only Stop in the gift shop. Yeah for Mommy! I found a few souvenirs along with an awesome "Sh'mores" Game! A little reminder of our vacation. Anyone up for a round of S'mores? We got it if you're up for the challenge. LOL!

Thanks to Matt & Haylie for joining us. We just adore you guys and are so glad that you're a part of our fam. We have to do it again soon. Luv ya!

And thanks to my wonderful husband for forcing his black rain cloud wife out on a very enjoyable vacation. I love you so much, Honey! Thanks for being such a patient and loving head of our household. We would be lost without you!

And last but not least to my AMAZING Heavenly Father and His magnificent creations that we are able to enjoy. Your world is just beautiful!!!

Truly- the Best Family Vacation Ever!! (or at least so far! :)

Best Family Vacation Ever: Bemidji

Another purpose of this vacation was to enjoy the things there are to see while we are living in the Midwest. One of those things is Paul Bunyan and the Headwaters of the Mississippi. So, we found a little resort on Bemidji Lake that had 3 room cabins. Perfect for sharing with our extended family, the Ironroads. Matt & Haylie met us in Bemidji to finish out our vacation with us. YEAH for Matt & Haylie!

As part of our evening, we made a trip to say hi to the big man himself-- Paul Bunyan, that is and his Big Blue friend. We got a good laugh over the HUGE statue in the OPEN of Paul and then the Indian statue hidden behind the trees and in the cage. We LOVE ya Matt! LOL!

We got there too late to go to the Visitors Center but in fine fashion there was a Mini-golf course that we got to walk around. Yeah for the vacation famous for Mini-golf! :)

http://www.visitbemidji.com/bemidji/paultales.html

The weather turned out to be a bit chilly and rainy so the beach playing at our cabin was more of a quick walk. We stayed at a family run resort called Ruttger's.  http://www.ruttger.com/index.htm Very peaceful! They had great screened porches on the cabins so the bugs stayed out but we could watch the rain along the lake. Quite pretty!

We did a little BBQing in the rain. Well, the men did while Haylie & I took the kids swimming in their indoor pool. The kids had a great time. The Pool house was great as along as you watched out for the slippery tile. It was a death trap. OUCH! Back at the cabin, dinner was fabulous as usual! After dinner, we put the little ones to bed and played a mean game of Sequence. OK, in Ironroad terms- it was very tame. LOL! We are yet to be broken in to the real Ironroad Game nights. Someday, though, we hope to be! ;) We've heard CRAZY things! With all thekids tucked in bed, we were going to watch a movie but Matt said he was good for only an hour or so so we opted to just visit. Well, Matt should have taken choice A cuz our visiting lasted longer than a movie. Oops! Sorry Matt! You can sleep when you're dead. LOL! We just love Matt & Haylie. They are fabulous!

The morning, we had a great FREE breakfast (I LOVE that about vacation) and did a little more swimming.
Are you swam out yet????? The weather was still a little overcast which was a bummer since the rest of the week was so beautiful so no beach play. Bummer! Good thing we had the Ironroads to make up for the icky weather. Thanks for coming guys!

Best Family Vacation Ever: Goodbye to Hill

For our final Hur-rah in Hill City, we rented the Pontoon. (and of course took one last swim) It was perfect! We were like the only people on the lake. All the kids took a turn driving and had a blast! The weather was great! What a fabulous way to say goodbye to our little hideaway! If we are here next year, we totally plan on going back and taking people with us! Yeah for Quadna!

Best Family Vacation Ever: More Duluth

The family choose to spend most of our Duluth time in the Waterpark but we HAD to make it down to Lake Superior once at least. We walked across the Hotel Walkway over the freeway and down to the shore. We went down on the rocks and had a blast playing there. Everyone had to take turns throwing rocks in the water. Brett says there nothing like throwing a humungous rock as far as you can to make you feel like a real man. I'll take his word on that one! LOL! We even got to see one of the big ships so it was perfect timing. It's was just beautiful!

Before, we headed back to Hill City, we made a stop at Olive Garden. When school got out, we told the kids we'd take them there to celebrate their great school year for some Zuppa Toscana. We are very proud of you, Liberty & Justice on what a great job you do at school! Way to go! Luv ya!

Best Family Vacation Ever: Edgewater at Duluth

On one of Brett's vacations (oh, I mean work trips :), he stayed in Duluth, MN. He had mentioned since we'd already be half way there that maybe we should go. I found this awesome Waterpark Resort for a great deal so on Tuesday, we went for the night. It was so fabulous! We stayed at the Edgewater in the Tiki Suite. The kids had bunk beds and Brett & I were back in a King sized bed. YEAH!!! It was such a fun place. It had a walkway to Lake Superior, and outdoor pool, a basketball hoop, mini-golf, an Arcade, a continental breakfast and included tickets to the Indoor WaterPark. See it all here: http://www.duluthwaterpark.com/waterpark/index.php

The Waterpark was crazy huge! It had slides and dumping water buckets and a Vortex pool and an Animal crossing and a lazy river. Glory was way nervous and we discovered that she doesn't care for splashing water. But the rest of the family had a blast. We even ate at Tiki Tom's Grill right in the waterpark. It was really reasonable and yummy!

All but little Glory took a turn on the HUGE slides. They were pitch black and super fast but way fun!

We enjoyed the Lazy River quite a few times. It was funny to see what kids avoided the waterfalls and which ones purposefully aimed for them.

The Edgewater also had an Outdoor Pool which was way more up Glory's alley. The day was pretty nice and there weren't a whole lot of people so it was like a personal pool for the Seamons. AND they LOVED the hottub!

We couldn't pass the chance to do a little family mini golf. It didn't turn out like we had planned since the kids made it into a Speed ball game and were done before Brett & I finished hole 2. Too funny! Justice thought the big Tiki man in the middle was where you put your balls when you're finished. Well....no! It took Brett like 5 minutes to fish the ball out with the golf club. Gotta love boys thought processes. LOL!

We were way excited because the Edgewater does S'mores at Sunset. Just right up our alley! We had a great time and there was a beautiful sunset in our honor!

Best Family Vacaion Ever: Memorial Day

Monday was Memorial Day. Being the Patriotic family that we are, we decided that we'd have to find something to celebrate it. We passed a Memorial in Hill City that we decided we'd make it to before the end of the day.

After some pool time and some naps (I told you it was a real VACATION for me this time. Thanks Love!), we made our way back up to Grand Rapids for a Movie and dinner. We went to Shrek Forever After. We all liked it. Even Glory sat through the whole thing.

It turns out that most of the lessons at church yesterday were about Missionary Work. The Branch Missionary Leader kept stressing that the members should sign up to feed the Missionaries so we figured we should listen. We contacted the Elders and met them for dinner. We went to a great Mexican Restaurant called El Potro. So yummy!!! Brett spoke Spanish to all the employees. They were very nice and even shared a quarter with Glory so she could get a treat out of the vending machines. It was great to visit with the Elders and to feed them. They were very grateful. The Elders always carry a special Spirit with them which I hope our kids can feel. We hope there will be people who will take care of our kids when they go on missions so it's always our pleasure to feed the Lord's servants.

We did stop by that Memorial on the way home. They had an awesome helicopter display. Unfortunately, the mosquitos were out so we walked quickly and did the Pledge of Allegiance and jumped back in the van. We are very grateful though to live in a free country and for those that have and do fight so hard to keep us that way. THANK YOU!!! We can't tell you enough.

Best Family Vacation Ever: Day of Rest

We were originally thinking we would have to drive 1 hour and 40 minutes to get to Church in Bemidji. (That's the last Branch in our Stake boundaries) but we found a little Branch in Grand Rapids which was only 25 minutes north. This was the first time I've ever been to a Branch so it was entertaining. It happened to be that most, if not all (I couldn't tell) of the Branch Presidency was gone and the Brother conducting was pretty dry-humor funny! They had combined meetings and he happened to be conducting or teaching them all. I haven't heard that much laughter and talking in meetings in a long time. Pretty funny. The material was really good though. They had no Nursery but all the kids did great. It also turned out that being the 5th Sunday they were having a Potluck so we even got lunch out of the deal. SCORE for us! They tried to recruit us to stay. We told them we actually were coming to recruit for ours and we were shown the door. (Not literally but he did joke with us about it) LOL!

We enjoyed the rest of our Sabbath day napping and watching Narnia and having a Firepit dinner. We love roasting hotdogs, BBQing corn on the cob and toasting marshmallows for Sh'mores (those are even better than your regular s'mores LOL!)  

Because of the gorgeous woods and tall trees, I thought about Jennifer Mausolf all week. Several times I was tempted to find a long red wig and run through them really fast. LOL! {Twilight fans will get what I'm saying.} I settled for a picture of me deep in the woods. LOVE ya Jen!!!

Best Family Vacation Ever: Quadna Mountain Resort

We had the most fabulous Family Vacation ever!!! ...YES, I actually said VACATION (which usually it's a family TRIP as far as the mom is concerned--- packing everything but the kitchen sink, several days of having 4 kids sleeping in weird places, lots of turning around in the car to help bored kids, having differing opinions of what the plan is, etc, etc--- Can you tell what I normally feel about family trips? but this time it was so great!!!).

BACKGROUND- In one of the first years of our marriage, we went to one of those TimeShare spills that give you a free dinner or something just for coming. Well, we got suckered in with the "good deal" they had that they only offered after we'd said no twice and ended up with a week of a timeshare in Wolfcreek Village II in Ogden Canyon, Utah. I think we've actually stayed at that resort once, if I remember right. Before we left Utah, we signed up with Interval International (a Timeshare exchange company) so we could bank our week and use it at other resorts all over the world. We've used it maybe a handful of times to send some fam on honeymoons or a trip here or there but nothing like we should be using it. Well, I finally wanted to talk Brett into selling it or giving it away BUT he thought we should start using it. I know, brilliant, huh?

So, for our trip this year, Brett found a little place in the middle of nowhere in the center of Minnesota called Quadna Mountian Resort. I have to admit, I was a little black rain cloud about the whole thing. According to the Internet, it was by nothing and had no swimming pool. AHHHH! What did he want me to do for a week with 4 kids and no pool in the middle of nothing? Well, I must repent!! It was fabulous! We made a few different plans for a couple of the days and the whole thing was so much fun! I think I took like 500 or so pictures so thank goodness for the Picasa collage thingy. Here's our Best Family Vacation Ever:

We got on the road late and stopped to help someone broken down on the highway in a construction zone out so I called and Luke, the front desk guy, (we're on first name basis here :) told us he'd leave the keys under the mat for us. Gotta love the midwest hospitality! We never even checked in until the last day when we rented a boat. (Too bad--We could have been like the invisible guests LOL!)  Turns out that we were the ONLY people staying in either the motel or mini-motel suite part. Translated that means in the two buildings by where we stayed-- it was only us! Too funny! We had a basketball hoop by our door, a firepit, picnic bench and BBQ grills in the woods across from us, a free laundry room, a bedroom with 2 queen beds, 2 bathrooms, a fold out couch and a kitchen. AWESOME! Such a hidden little treasure of a place. Check it out:  http://www.quadna-resort.com/

It turned out that Saturday just happened to be the 1st Annual Quadna BBQ Wars so we lucked out. Brett LOVES ribs!!!! It's his favorite meal. We got to try out the ribs and play at the private beach. Yeah for us! I even won a prize which Justice thought was very inappropriate considering it was a Vodka shirt and necklace. I wore it that night just cuz but got quite the reprimand. Too funny!

There was a great little hill that led down to the beach from the Lodge. They had a long slide that the kids loved! It took a good star-off and you had to lay almost all the way back to get some speed but it was perfect for the little ones.

We spent a far amount of time at the beach. We adopted a dog for a day. OK, not really but once again Midwest mentality sets in and someone left their dog down there during the BBQ wars. Justice played fetch with him for an hour or so. It was just perfect!

As luck would have it, it turns out that Quadna worked something out with the Townhouses on the Resort so we did get to use the pool. The kids LOVED it. We went there every day. Brett & I teased that we swam more these 7 days then we have in the last 10 years. Glory hasn't been in the water a whole lot due to not much around home to swim in and the cold last Summer so this was her first time she's got really brave and enjoyed herself. The weather was perfect and we had fun diving and jumping and sitting in the sun. We're still Vampire-white but we loved it!

Along with the water, the week was so wonderful because we almost thought we were in the Mountains. The trees were beautiful and the evenings had that crisp, cool air. There was tons of wildlife for us to enjoy. Our favorite was the tiny turtle that Liberty found just off the beach. We played with him for a long time. Also, on the beach were butterflies by the dozens. Justice enjoyed chasing them and even catching a couple. and don't forget the ducks and our dog. Lots of fun!