Adventures with Nellie

Some of you may remember Ned.  He was Hunter's preschool's class bear that went home on the weekends with the students to get a glimpse into their life at home.  Well this year, Hunter is in the morning preschool class and they have Nellie, Ned's sister.  This past weekend, it was Hunter's weekend to bring Nellie home.  And let me tell you, we had quite the adventures!  Take a look at what we did!

After school, Hunter, Nellie and I went to Mi Mexico for lunch.  Hunter enjoyed a quesadilla, fries and my rice.  He tried to feed Nellie, but she must not have been too hungry.  After this we went over to Caribou to visit Auntie Melissa who was working.

That night, we baked cut-out Halloween cookies.  We had bats, cats, haunted houses, ghosts, pumpkins and witches!  They were quite the helpers!

 Saturday morning, we hit the road at 8:00 AM and headed south to Iowa.  (See, Nellie picked a good weekend to spend with us).    We drove, and drove, stopped for some lunch and continued to drive arriving to Craig's project site around 3:45 in the afternoon.  We found out that Nellie is a great traveler!  And so were the boys.  We only stopped 3 times. 

At the site, they were just starting to put up the nacelle of the turbine.  So we drove over there and watched the crane bring it to the top of the tower.  They were going to hang the rotor (blades and hub) but the wind picked up and they were unable to.  Either way, it was fun watching the crane and seeing a little dot poke up from the top of the tower now and then directing the crane.  The little dot was a person.  Not sure I would like that job and I made my husband tell me he is not doing that. 

We got a tour of the site, checked out some turbines, went to Craig's office, checked out their wind turbine pumpkins and then went to the dirty hotel Craig's apartment.  Don't worry, he keeps his place pretty clean, but the first time we were there, the halls were dirty and Hunter called it the dirty hotel.  So that's it's name.  We went to Pizza Hut for supper and then hung out at the dirty hotel.  Brody had a rough night and didn't want to sleep.  We finally got him down around 10:30 which is late for a little by who is usually in bed at 7:00-7:30.

Sunday morning, we decided to skip church since they were up and at em at 6:00!  Short night!  We got on the road around 10:00 to head to Omaha, NE.  We had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory-yum!, and then went downtown to the Children's Museum.  The boys had a blast.  So did Nellie (Ok, so she just stayed in the car...it's hard enough keeping tabs on 2 boys).  But we did take a picture of her and Hunter outside of the museum before leaving.

Monday morning, we woke before the crack of dawn at 5:30, packed up and were on the road at 6:30 AM.  We drove and drove again and finally arrived home at 2:00.  We changed into costumes, took pictures to send to Target, then began our trick or treating adventure.  And all 3 of my "children" for the weekend were in costume: Mario, Luigi and a cheerleader.

Nellie came trick or treating with us around town to see our loved ones.  She  helped me hand out candy while my brother, Andrew took Hunter around our neighborhood and Brody stayed home and ate supper and went to bed. 

 It was a fun weekend and very busy.  Hunter was very excited after school because he was able to share what he did with Nellie.  Mrs. Roste told him that Nellie had never been to Iowa or Nebraska.  Lucky bear!  He told me the kids liked the pictures too and told me they said things like, "Whoa!  That is so cool!"  "Neat!" "That looks fun!"  He is proud of his daddy and was happy to share some of the things with his classmates and to actually be able to see the project.  Even though this isn't a typical weekend for us, we still had fun and it gave Nellie a glimpse of how wild, crazy, and adventurous our life can be.

Why Tennessee?

Every time I told someone that Craig and I would be heading to Tennessee in October, the most popular response I got was, "Why Tennessee?".  Well, why not?  Craig drove through on a band trip once and said it looked gorgeous and that he always wanted to check out the Smoky Mountains.  And I had always heard that Nashville is so much fun with lots to do.  So after googling the areas and a little research we decided that TN would be the perfect place for us to go on a little get-away.  After seeing our pictures, you may just want to go to TN too!

I knew we had made a great choice as soon as we got off the plane in Nashville.  Dierks Bentley even welcomed us to Nashville!  How cool is that?  Ok, so it was just over the loud speaker, but still, I think I can say that he welcomed us.  Him along with Tim McGraw, George Strait and Kellie Pickler.  We got our rental car and it was gross.  Scratches everywhere, stains inside, and I thought it was an ugly car.  So, we decided to complain and got ourselves a Chevy Malibu.  Much nicer!  We hit the road towards Gatlinburg as we would spend most of our time near Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  We had rented a cabin for our days there and from the pictures online, it looked cute.  But sometimes pictures can be deceiving.

We were not disappointed when we pulled up to this cute cabin!  It was just as nice as the pictures and totally beat a hotel.  It was completely secluded being surrounded by trees on a slope of a mountain.  It was amazing.  And complete with a full kitchen, living room, washer/dryer, pool table, air hockey table and hot tub on the back deck.  Pretty amazing and the price was right!  We were tired from a day of travel, but also a little hungry, so we headed to downtown Gatlinburg, had some food and walked the strip.  After relaxing in the hot tub, we hit the hay so we were ready for the adventures that awaited us the next day.

The next day we head to the park.  We had seen the mountains in the distance and they were beautiful.  We couldn't wait to head into the park and do a little exploring.  This was at the first spot we pulled off at.  There was a hint of color in the trees and it was breathtaking.  And even the drive was great.  The majority of the time it was like you were in a tunnel of trees and every now and then there would be a clearing with mountains surrounding you.

We drove just a little further into the park and came across a trail to hike.  We grabbed our water, a couple snacks and set off.  The only thing we read on the sign was that it would take 2-3 hours round trip and it was 2 miles up and 2 miles back.  No big deal, right?  Oh no, it was exhausting!  If you are ever at GSMNP, and decided to hike the Chimney Top Trail, make sure you bring plenty of water, some snacks, good shoes and be ready to get your heart pumping, make multiple stops to catch your breath, and feel burning in your calves and thighs.  Seriously.  Apparently we didn't read the sign completely, but once we returned we discovered we had just made a 1,700 foot elevation change and that it was a difficult trail.  We learned that really fast.  A trail that had rocks and tree roots as your steps.  A trail that was super steep.  A trail where you had to climb over rocks in some parts.  But it was totally worth it!  The view at the top was beautiful and there were manys streams and a few small waterfalls along the way.

At the summit of Chimney Top.  We didn't go all the way due to our shoes feeling slippery on the rocks that you had to climb.  And since we wanted to live and see our boys again, we decided why risk it. 

After that, we headed back to the cabin, changed and headed to South Carolina for dinner with my cousin and her husband.  So fun to see them, see where they live and have many laughs with them.  We drove back that evening but could hardly stay awake.  We ended up pulling off at a rest area about an hour away from our cabin and slept for about an hour.  After that, we hit the road and got back around 2 AM.  Talk about a long day!  But lots of fun!  The next day we headed back to the park because we had hardly seen any of it.  We did a lot of driving, hiked part of the Appalachian Trail and went to see Clingman's Dome (the highest point in the park with a great view).  We also saw some elk in a meadow that evening.  The part of the park we explored that day brought us into North Carolina. 

 On the Appalachian Trail.

 Clingman's Dome.

View from the Dome.  Hints of color in the tree tops.

After a day filled with hiking, taking in the sights, we headed back to Gatlinburg for supper.  We were completely exhausted, but walked up and down the strip (as if we hadn't walked enough that day) and headed back to the cabin.  The next day was our last full day in Gatlinburg so we decided to get up early because there was still park of the park we had wanted to see, called Cades Cove.  We had read that Cades Cove is the best place to see wildlife and I told Craig that we couldn't leave until we saw a bear.  I was determined.  Well, lucky for me we did.  We were at a cute little cabin and some people had asked us if we had seen the bears up the trail.  We hadn't gone on that trail, but instantly I knew we had to.  After all, I did come to see a bear, right?  They told us there was a mama bear with her two cubs high in the trees.  They said we would hear them rustling in the tree tops.  So, we meandered our way up the trail and sure enough heard them.  But we couldn't see them.  We waited and waited, looked and looked, but nothing.  The forest was so dense it was hard to figure out exactly what tree they were in.  And was that rustling really from the tree tops?  Or were they now on the ground?  Kind of an uneasy feeling not knowing where exactly the bears were, but knowing you can hear them and that they are close.  But finally, my husband with his great vision spotted them and pointed them out.  They were high in the tree tops and we were only able to spot one cub.  We decided it would be wise to skedaddle since we hadn't seen mama bear yet, and we all know mama would do whatever it would take to keep her cubs safe.  I was satisfied, but was still hoping to get a picture of a bear.  We continued to drive and came across a congested area.  Everybody was out of their cars looking at a bear!  It was nestled in a tree, and kind of hard to pick out.  It looked like a little black blog.  I took a picture, because we were running out of chances.  A few yards up the road though there was a little black bear hanging out in the tree.  I snapped a picture as we drove by.

Isn't it cute??  We continued to drive and drive and did some hiking.  Saw a really neat mill, another bear and finally decided to head out of the park because it was 1:30 and we still hadn't had any lunch.  We thought Cades Cove would be a quick couple hours but somehow turned into somewhere between 4-5 hours.  But it was really neat and we knew we could have seen a lot more if only time allowed it.  After a great lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, we went to Cooter's to get a picture of the General Lee for Hunter, get Hunter a couple souvenirs and played some mini-golf.  Kind of a disappointing course but still had fun.  There were a lot of neat courses, so next time.  We did our touristy shopping, enjoyed some ice cream and then went to the moonshine distillery.  Who could refuse free samples?  It was neat seeing how they made it and fun trying it.  We were able to try 6 different flavors-apple pie, grape, hunch punch, a cherry soaked in white lighting, and 2 white lightnings-one strong one and then an even stronger one (which I couldn't do).  The apple pie was our favorite hands down so we bought some to bring home :)  Yum!  I guess we might just have to have a moonshine party one night so you can try a little sample.

Outside of the distillery, there was an amazing bluegrass band called Monroeville.  They were great and it was fun sitting in a rocking chair listening to music.  We then headed to dinner at the most obnoxious place ever-Dick's.  I thought it was funny, slightly entertaining, but I could tell Craig may have been slightly uncomfortable.  It is a crazy atmosphere and we can definitely say it is a dinner that we will remember.  After enjoying our evening downtown, we headed back to the cabin to pack up so we would be ready to hit the road in the morning.

The next morning we headed to Nashville, TN!  Can I get a yee-haw?  Nashville was amazing.  We checked into our hotel, dropped off our bags and head to the Ryman Auditorium.  For those of you who don't know what the Ryman is, it is the old home of the Grand Ole Opry.  It started out as a church to begin with.  Many stars have performed there over the years.  And we were even able to go up on stage!  Pretty cool feeling knowing you stood in the exact spot as stars such as Elvis, Johnny Cash, June Carter, Dolly Parton.

I know we look pretty good on stage.  Star material if you ask me.  But you will not want to hear us sing.  Craig's ok...me, no way!  One guy told me that I beamed when I was on stage.  It was quite the compliment.  I assured him he did not want to hear me perform.  After the Ryman, we found some lunch at a great little BBQ place downtown.  You know it's going to be good when there is still a line at 1:30 in the afternoon.  After that we hit up Broadway and popped in and out of bars listening to some live music.  Then, it was time to head to the Grand Ole Opry for the performance that night.  We had a great time at the Opry and heard some amazing voices.  Some we knew of, others we didn't.  Either way, it was a great show.  Very entertaining and everyone sounded amazing.

After the 2.5 hour performance, we headed back downtown to see the nightlife of Nashville on a Friday night.  We found some food at Margaritaville and heard a great band.  We popped in and out of a few bars, but finally found a band we really liked at Legends.  We spent the rest of our night there enjoying each other and great music. 

As you can tell we had a great time in TN!  Many great memories were made and it was so nice spending some much needed one on one time with the hubby.  It was bittersweet to come home.  I didn't want our time to end, but was ready to come home to two little boys who missed us dearly.  Oh, and we missed them too :)  So, if you're looking for a great vacation spot with lots to do, head to TN!

Travel Sense

Hunter-"Mom, is the Great Wall of China real?"
Me-"Yes it is."
Hunter-"Why haven't I seen it then?  Are you sure it's real?"
Me-"Yes, it's real.  And it's really far away."
Hunter-"Well we can just get a hotel room when we go and see it."

Can you tell we have traveled a fair amount with this little guy?  He still doesn't understand that the Great Wall of China is really far away.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

If I could sum up our summer in one word it would be "busy"!  But I like it that way.  It let's us do fun things and makes the periods in between Craig's rotations go by faster.  Always a plus.  Our August has been very busy.  Here is a run down of what we have done:

August 1st-5th: Hunter had VBS at our church.  He loved it and it got him excited to start school this fall!

August 3rd:  Went to the American Idol concert at the Target Center with one of my best friends, Kiley.  We had a great day of shopping, eating downtown and going to the concert.  The concert was great with so much talent!  And I got to see my favorites from the season. :)  It was a fun show!

August 7th: Craig's cousin, Meghan flew in from Arizona.  It was great to see her again because we only see her for about a week every year.  Not enough time, so we make the most of our time together.  While she was here, we decided to take a road trip to the North Shore and show her a different part of MN. So, August 9-11 we went to the Duluth, Lutsen, Grand Marais area.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip up north.

 Love my boys.

 The boys and I at Gooseberry Falls.

 The whole group! Hunter, Meghan, Melissa, Brody, Heidi, Henry and me!

 Can you believe my 5 year old took this picture?  Impressed?  So was I! Hiking around Gooseberry Falls.

 Brody, me, Hunter and Meghan riding the Gondola at Lutsen.

 Brody on the shores of Lake Superior in Grand Marais.

 Throwing rocks into the lake.

 Hunter and the lighthouse keeper at Split Rock.  He asked him a bunch of questions about his job.

 Brody rock climbing on the shores by Split Rock

 Hunter being adventurous!

Meg and me at the Rose Gardens in Duluth.

On August 13th, I attended a going away party for Kiley before she left for law school.  Yes, she's very smart and in three years if you need a lawyer, I can hook you up.  We had a great day on the lake hanging out and finished the evening at the Garfield Street Dance.  On the 15th, I went to Grand Forks to help her finish moving in and watch her nephew while she went to an induction supper.  On the way, I said good-bye to Meghan when I dropped her off at the airport in Fargo.  It was a sad day of good-byes.  Let's just say a fear tears were let out that day.

See...I told you it's been a busy August!  And I'm only half way done.  Not kidding.

On August 18, we hit the road to the great state of South Dakota.  We were there until the 24th.  Here are a few highlights from our trip:

 After many billboards advertising Wall Drug, we finally made it!!  My cute little cowboy and Indian at the Wall Drug Backyard.

 The family in the Badlands National Park.

 We got off the main road through the park.  Best decision ever.  Ok, maybe not ever, but it was that day.  We came across this herd of bison in the road.  We didn't rush them!  Just your average traffic jam in South Dakota.

 Crazy Horse Memorial.  One day it will be finished.  When?  Who knows.  Still pretty neat to check out.

 Bear Country USA.  What a neat place!  And the best part was that Hunter thought we just took a random road that just so happened to have a bunch of wildlife including a lot of bears.  I think it'll be sad for the day he learns how to read.  All of the excitement of things get sucked out.  Ok, not really, but next year, he may know that it is just a tourist attraction and not just a random road.

 Brody's first train ride!  We rode the 1880 Train from Hill City to Keystone and then back.  Brody loved it for the most part.  He even fell asleep on the way to Keystone.  Half way back to Hill City he was ready to get out of his seat and walk around.

 Hunter loved it too!  He was really quiet and took in the scenery around him and enjoyed the ride.

 The "boys" in front of the train.  It was getting ready for it's next trip so we watched the engineers get water into the engine and prep the train.

 My favorite family picture from the trip :).  Needles Highway.

The family at Mount Rushmore.  I guess Hunter is now Abraham Lincoln and Brody is wondering who the heck that guy is that my mom stopped and is now holding our camera taking a picture. 

 Hunter's a little model!!  Along Spearfish Canyon Scenic Bi-way.  Such a pretty drive with some great waterfalls!

 At the bottom of Roughlock Falls.

 Devil's Tower, WY.  A really neat place.  If you are going to hike around it, make sure to bring good shoes, water, and know that there is a sign marking the half way point when in your head you are convinced you are at least 2/3 of the way around.  It was a hot day and the longest 1.3 miles of my life.  Strap on a 30 pound kid to your back.  But totally worth it.

 Not a bad view for a picnic!  And a cute kid too :)  I know, I'm biased.

 No, we did not force Hunter to take this picture.  He saw them and kept asking if he could take his pictures with the cowboys.  Which is funny because anytime WE would want to take a picture of him he would pout/whine/complain...you get an idea of what we dealt with.  He looks a little nervous, but I think he enjoyed the guys in Deadwood.

 Pretty sure we heard the question "Are we going to the Corn Palace today?" about 5 times a day.  Originally our plan was to stop on our way out, but due to some rain we passed thru Mitchell and stopped on our way back.  Hunter was excited to finally see the world's only Corn Palace.  And it was neat.  We went inside and saw how they transform the palace year after year and come up with a new design.  And Tanya Tucker's band was warming up, so we had some great music to listen to.  Oh!  And the best part was: air conditioning.  It was about 95 outside that day and the sweat would just roll off your forehead.  Yuck.

And our final stop before parting ways was Falls Park in Sioux Falls.  Our view from the observation tower.  The tower that I climbed while carrying Brody thinking that Craig and Hunter were just a little ahead of us.  Only to find out they took the easy way up and rode the elevator.  Why didn't I think of that??  Especially since it felt like 100 degrees inside of the tower with zero air movement.  I was about ready to pass out.

Well, now you can see why I have been MIA this month.  But hopefully this catches you up with our life and you understand.  Hope you all are having a great summer!  Enjoy it while it lasts because before you know it we will be dealing with S***....Yeah, you know that ugly four letter word.