Paradise

We are back from our trip to Arizona and we had a great time!  Despite having an emotional goodbye with Josiah on Friday morning, I was able to pull it together by the time we reached the airport.  We definitely missed our little man but knew that he was in very capable hands and would be having a fun filled weekend with Grammy, Papa, Uncle Josh and Uncle Noah!  Seth and I discussed on the plane how in the world we would have kept Josiah sitting in our laps for 3-1/2 hours and both decided that it would have been impossible.  Major kudos to you parents out there that have done it and survived (Jan-extra kudos for surviving with TWINS)!  The trip there was pretty uneventful with the exception of the landing...let's just say that it might have been the pilot's first landing and we almost lost the landing gear since we slammed into the ground so hard...and then almost slid off the end of the runway because the brakes weren't working so well in the rain.  Yikes!  But we survived and on we went.  We stayed at Cibola Vista Resort and it was absolutely gorgeous!!  The Shevik family were all there to greet us and were wonderful hosts the whole weekend.  Laurie and Brian's wedding was held at Blackstone Country Club and it was the most picturesque venue I have ever seen, seriously movie worthy!  The ceremony was gorgeous as was the bride...and the groom and wedding party didn't look too shabby either:-)  The reception and dance were an absolute blast and as usual, the Beckers and Sheviks lit up the dance floor until the last dance...something about a wedding dance that gets even the most uncoordinated of us shakin' our groove thing!  Sunday found us all recovering by the pool and acting like 12 year olds with multiple rides down the water slide and several rounds of "whirlpool" all the while sipping froo-froo drinks that were delivered poolside...now THAT is vacation!!  It was the first time in quite awhile that all 20 of the Becker/Shevik clan has been together, don't worry, my mom took plenty of pictures:-)  Despite having my camera with the whole time, I only managed to get a few shots of the view from our balcony...I will steal some other good ones from Mom and Robin's blogs when they post:-)  Monday we headed home and went from 82 and sunny to 45 and windy...but hey, it's MN, what did we expect:-)  We were sad to leave AZ but excited to get home to Josiah!  It was a great get-away...a big CONGRATS to Mr. and Mrs. Brian Arnold!!  Thanks for including us in your big day!!  And now, without further ado, here are the few pictures I managed to take:

Fashionista in the making

When Seth said "It's a boy!" in the delivery room 15 months ago, part of me was sad that I wouldn't get to shop for all the frilly pink dresses and fabulous matching accessories but a bigger part of me was relieved that I wouldn't have to shop for those things:-)  I have never been into high fashion (sorry Jan) and prefer jeans to any other attire!  Just ask Robin about the rolled up sweatpants and puffy headbands that I sported for WAY too long.  And let's not even get started on the HUGE Sally Jesse Rafael style red glasses that I wore around proudly for a few years!  So who would have guessed that I would be posting about how my toddler son has developed a love for hats, shoes and fancy hair styles??  However, his idea of fashion is a smidge outside the "norm" just like his Mommy.  Here are a few pictures and a video that describe it better than I could with words.  Enjoy:-)

Apparently he feels that the shoes need not match...and anything goes with shark PJ pants

Whenever Josiah is eating and I hear "Hat", I already know what I'm going to see when I look over.  Case in point.

And this is what the newest hair style looks like.  Who needs product when you have syrup at your disposal??

A dinnertime conversation with Josiah

Josiah's first trip Up North

As I mentioned in a previous post, I spent MANY happy days and weeks "up north" when I was growing up.  I know that to some the term "up north" is not a specific location but to me it has always meant Minocqua WI.  Last weekend Josiah and I had the opportunity to venture Up North with Grandma Sissy and spend a few days at my aunt Jan's house.  Along with Jan, we got to spend time with cousin Courtney and her daughter Carly, and cousin Bill and his 2 kids Madison and Cooper.  It was definitely a crowded house with 5 adults and 4 kids under the age of 5 but we had a blast and made it all work as usual!  It took us 6 hours or so to get there but Josiah was an angel and we stopped once to eat and let him stretch his legs.  On Saturday, we headed to the casino to use their pool, it was a really nice zero entry so the kids went in and out by themselves and loved it!  Sunday, Courtney and I headed into Minocqua proper to hit up a few shops downtown, it is always a walk down memory lane for me when I go downtown and it was fun to share with Josiah.  We also visited Torpy park which we used to frequent when we were younger.  The kids loved being outside and swinging and running.  Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and we had to head home on Monday.  We were happy to get to stop in Thorpe WI at the "famous" Thorepdo restaurant and catch up with Grandma's good friend Jackie while enjoying the good food.  The trip was so fun and we are excited to go again someday, hopefully soon!  I want to take this opportunity to say a BIG THANK YOU to our hostess with the mostest, Jan!  Not only did she open her house to us, she cooked for us too and the food was DEEE-licious as usual!  Another thank you to Courtney who added her homemade mac-n-cheese to the menu, it is to die for!  Here are a few pictures from the trip:

All the kids with Grandma Sissy
(Carly 2, Cooper 9 mo, Maddie 4, and Josiah 15 mo)

Our best attempt at a group PJ shot

We headed downtown to visit a few shops I remember fondly including the Fudge shop where you can watch them make fudge

Carly and Josiah waiting to go into the "five and dime" store...a store FILLED with plastic toys and other things that parents loathe but kids adore!  I bought my first bottle of Disappearing Ink there, remember trying to get that out of my clothes mom...guess it didn't disappear quite as completely as the bottle said it would?!

Swinging at Torpy Park

The weather was gorgeous and the trees were turning so the view was stunning

I can't tell you how many games of Yahtzee these two have played, they are the Yahtzee QUEENS!

Carly pointing the fishing boat out to Josiah

Family:-)
(Sissy, Courtney, Carly, me, Josiah)

State Fair 2010

I realize that it's been a month since we attended the Great MN State Get Together but better late than never, right?!  We braved going on what turned out to be a record setting day for attendance (234,384 people) and we did it with 2 strollers and 3 kids under the age of 2-1/2!  Crazy you say??  Maybe, but it was worth it!  The weather was picture perfect and the kids were angels!  We all piled into Robin and Kyle's new minivan and headed up at morning nap time to take advantage of some quiet time.  All 3 boys napped on the way up and were ready to go when we arrived.  If you're keeping count that's 4 adults, 3 carseats, 2 strollers....and a partridge in a pear tree:-)  In years past we have arrived at the Fair with no plan and wandered around which has lead to some tense moments when we realize that the place we are headed for is 7 blocks away....in the direction we just came from.  Not so this year!  I put my natural nerdiness to work and printed a Fair map and highlighted all the locations we wanted to hit up ahead of time so we went in with a planned route!  MUCH better and added bonus, we got to sample every food-on-a-stick our little heart's desired....and at a much cheaper cost since our planned route included stops at food vendors who offered coupons!  Nerdiness and thriftiness in perfect harmony:-)  One of the highlights of the Fair for the little boys was the John Deere display where we let them loose to run around the tractors and they decided to try their hand at landscaping which I'm sure the Fair people were really grateful for:

"Work fast Josiah, we MUST move all this mulch before they notice!"

"Got it Miles, I'm right behind you!"

Another highlight was the "Little Farm Hands" exhibit where they got to don aprons and go through a series of  stands that shows where the food we eat comes from.  They were a little young to understand the concept but had fun anyway:

We're all set with official aprons and buckets!

Josiah and Mommy in the "Little Farm Hands" line

"What do you mean put the seeds in the dirt, I'm just going to eat them instead!"

Tractor racing!

While the big boys were running around, little Henry observed from the stroller and planned out the food he'd like to sample next year when his teeth have all arrived:

The little Bug:-)

All in all we had a great day and are looking forward to our trip up next year!!