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!

Glory's Two!!!

My baby is TWO!!! Can you believe it? We celebrated her day with a bang! Literally!! We bought a few fireworks which are legal in Minnesota. The kids did snappers and sparklers. At dusk, we did other ones. We ate Dora soup, watched a couple Dora shows and got a couple calls on the telephone from grandparents. (She loves to talk on the phone) For gifts, we bought several Dora and puppy things which was 7th heaven for little Glory-Lory! She was a very happy girl!

Love ya girly!

Happy Birthday!!!!

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 Vacation Ever: Hill City

As if the Resort wasn't fun enough already, there were lots of other thing to do there. We checked out equipment and did a little family Tennis. We are NOT good at it but we had a lot of fun!

It was a little rundown but they did have a Mini-Golf course (and a 9 hole Golf cousre but we aren't Golfers) that we enjoyed. It turned out to be kind of a joke cuz everywhere we stayed ended up having Mini-golf. Too funny! The kids and I had a good time while Brett and Glory took a nap. Like I said VACATION, people!

 

Even though they didn't plan for it, Brett and Justice and Victoria decided that they couldn't let this lake vacation pass without doing a little fishing. They bought a license and a couple of poles to get up early and go fishin'. It was perfect. They found Hill City Park which was 5 minutes down the road and fished right off the dock. They caught tons! After their early morning excursion, they took the rest of us back later for an encore. Justice got really good at unhooking them. Glory LOVED the fish. She would hold them and carry them and give them a drink and then let them go for a swim. She had a blast! It was a perfect day for fishing and the beach. I had to drag them all away! Even wth my eye-rolling, we ended up freezing and bringing home three of them. Gotta love the non-fish-eating fishermen in my family!

At the park, they had a fun playground that Liberty loved. She wasn't too hip on the fishing expedition. She dragged Glory away from the fish for a bit and they had a blast. The two little ones LOVED the beach and splashing in the water. Unfortunately, goose poop was all along this shore so we had to keep an eye on them. But it was still tons of fun!

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.