beanski

first annual camping trip

Everyone has a friend like Lindsey, I suppose. Or if they are lucky like me, they have a handful of friends like Lindsey. Friends where the loyalty never runs out, where time never changes the friendship, where you can sit down for a drink or a dinner after a year of hardly talking and have a ton of things to talk about. Where there isn't judgements or hurt feelings or childish games ... there is just a mutual understanding that you both care about each other no matter what. Time or distance or divorces or not becoming sister-in-laws like we once planned or three kids under four can't change the history, can't ruin the friendship. When things slow down, you'll pick up where you left off. It's the way real friendships work.

When she mentioned that she and Steve were going to take the kids camping on Rainy, I jumped at the chance to go along and knowing that my sister and her kids would love it as well, I invited them along. It was our First Annual Kid's Camping Trip on Rainy and I can't wait for next year. 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 4, 2 were the ages of the kids that went and they all got along so great. The big kids helped out with the little kids and the little kids watched in awe as the big kids did things like surf behind the boat.

Charlie and Andy became fast friends and spent most of the weekend racing up and down the trail in the lastest form of extreme sports. If you can make it to the end without falling and cracking your skull open, you're tough.


Katie helped out with the little kids and with the cooking and putting the tent up. And I realized what it's going to be like to have one girl and two boys. Loud and busy with a touch of drama thrown in for good measure.


And Chris tied fishing lines for the little kids without complaining even once and showed us that it is indeed possible to surf behind a boat (and wake board, tube, and any other trick that is possible to be done behind a boat)


We played UNO during the rainstorm that dropped down buckets of water and left us all with wet feet and wet clothes. No one even cared.



I got to spend time with my sister and my niece and nephew and it felt so good to see them all smiling so hard.


We spent hours on the boat, watching the kids on the tube or swimming until our toes were almost permanently pruned. My little girl told me every 10 seconds that she wanted to swim all day every day. She's going to be an Aqua Bronc in no time.





We fished. Or at least pretended to. The boys did catch a few Northerns off the dock.


And we slept in a tent for the first time as a family, me halfway pregnant with number three. It rocked my world and my little girl LOVED everything about it.

We sat by the fire and we made s'mores and we told stories.

And we enjoyed the beauty of Rainy Lake.



I think it's safe to say everyone had a blast. We can't wait for next year.

easter

We ended up having Easter at our house this year and used our full parental full force to get the kids to sit down and take a picture with their grandparents. They don't know it yet but these are the pictures that will mean the world to them in 20 years. They'll mean a whole helluva lot more than a picture of them looking for Easter eggs at the zoo with the rest of the kids in Duluth (which, in case you've never been, SUCKED).

My girl in her Easter dress


Cam looking cute (I DID dress him up for Easter but he didn't end up looking that much different than normal). And he wouldn't stop long enough for me to take a picture. There are cars and motorcycles and other things to drive.

I did get my first fake smile out of him though and it make me sad that he's not a baby anymore. This is one of those pictures I would delete if it weren't for the fact that it makes me laugh out loud every time I look at it.

One of Sarah on the swing. The girl can even strike a pose on the swing. She shakes her cute little booty better than anyone I know.

And one of the boys. You would think the four year age difference would be hard for these two to overcome. You'd be wrong. They are best buds. Charlie is so great with Cam. He plays with him like he's a big boy and watches over him. It is The Cutest.

All in all, a good holiday. Even if I am still hiding and finding eggs EVERY.SINGLE.DAY and even if my house looks like the Easter Bunny threw up all over it. Also, I just hit preview on this post and realized the processing these pictures is terrible. I'm out of practice. And also, much too tired and lazy to redo them. This is the latest I've been up in WEEKS (it's 9:28PM).

the fam

We had family weekend at my parents' house this weekend. Meaning, it was just the original Peterson gang and it was really pretty awesome. We played dice and Wii and shoveled decks and drank way, way too much booze. Since the kids were born, I guess I didn't even realize how much I miss all of them. It sure was good to spend time with them.

pictures are always good for a smile

Even on the hardest of hard days, pictures of two adorable little girls who insist they'll be best friends forever are always good for a smile.

how cute are my parents?

I got to spend four and a half days with them and I miss them so much already. The kids miss them too. Cameron said "Gramma Papa come back SOON" about 400 times today after they left. I wish they were closer but am thankful they are close enough.

photo dump

Things have been crazy. For you too, I KNOW. This time of year is insane. So insane that I have pictures from Sam's birthday in MAY that I haven't finished going through. Since his birthday, there has been a lot of other birthday parties. Like Griffin's. And Renee's. And Sarah's. And Lucy's. You get the picture.

This family needs to quit having babies in the summer. That's all I'm going to say about that.

I started gaining ground and then I got what I thought was scabies. Except it wasn't scabies. It was poison ivy. Which I found out, after I doused myself with 40 different kinds of pesticides and considering I work in toxicology and build websites that allow you to search for the toxicity level of the vary chemicals that I covered my skin with. I flipped out a lot about the chemicals because I stupidly searched the database I built for the chemicals I put on my skin and found that they kill pretty much everything. Well, except humans. 

They think.

I lost a lot of sleep in the last month. When I wasn't worrying about skin and my children's beds crawling with mites, I was freaked out about the latest round of antibiotics that wasn't working. IT WASN'T WORKING BECAUSE IT WASN'T SCABIES.

Sort of ironic because when I went to the doctor for the first time over a month ago, I told them I thought I had poison ivy. But no, she thought it scabies. And then some other douchebag at the Urgent Care apparently agreed with her or didn't bother to use his own brian.

I could be a doctor.

I feel better now.

Also: if you got Renee something for her birthday and haven't gotten a thank-you card, I'm sorry. I should say "I know you haven't gotten a thank-you card because I haven't yet written or mailed them and for that I also lay awake at night feeling guilty." I will send them someday. I hope. If not, THANK-YOU.

Thank-you cards are sort of stupid. No?

How old does she have to be before I make her write her own damn thank-you cards?

ANYWAYS.

The pictures of the kids starting with Sam's birthday in May and followed by about a zillion other posts of pictures of this summer. Because this summer DID exist and it WAS fun. For the most part.

My kids LOVE their cousins and not a day goes by that Renee doesn't suggest going to visit one of her best friends EVER. LIKE RIGHT THIS INSTANT. I wouldn't have it any other way.

A little post bath-time reading. These two are the best age EVER right now.

Movie and popcorn time

Sam, the cutest and wildest boy in town.

Griffster

Charlie on Griff's bike


Sandbox time
 
The girls in their Dora undies


Could the birthday boy (in MAY) be ANY cuter?

the ski family

Ski's mom scheduled a photographer to take pictures of the whole Ski gang over the 4th of July. We got four kids under five all dressed up, along with eight adults and drove the 40 minutes out to the U of M Aboretum and guess what? The fricking photographer didn't show up. I have half a mind to link to her website but I won't go there. Can you believe the nerve?

Ski and I had discussed the merits of me lugging my 7D along with all of my lenses through the Aborteum with two kids, a stroller, diaper bag, etc. and against his will, I decided to take the camera anyways because it's SO PRETTY there and gosh, I just have to have my camera. Lucky too because we decided to see what we could get without the flakey photographer who didn't bother to show up. I'll post the rest on Facebook, guys and get a DVD of the high resolution files in the mail to all of you. You're all cute and fun and you make me smile.



Unrelated but CRIPES, I am soooo far behind on pictures. Like, I have pictures from MAY that I haven't edited. I wil never catch up. I did get my computer fixed up courtesy of my brother-in-law Colin and got PS5 and Lightroom and now I have a lot to learn. I feel like I'm starting all over. Boo.

he

He taught me how to ride a bike, how to manicure the perfect snowbank, that second place is not the first loser but pretty damn good.

He taught me to love Cheetos and Snicker bars. He called me hop-a-long and partner and most often, Beaner. Always Beaner.

He taught me that chances are that if I'm not having fun doing something that it is my own fault and he taught me that there are men in the world meant to have three daughters.

He has taught me so many things in the 30 years we've spent together but the most profound thing he taught me was that I deserve a man that treats me like he always has. Like he's always treated my mom. That I deserve this:

Happy Father's Day to the two most wonderful men I've ever known. The two men that share my heart.

the lemonade stand

We had Renee's 3rd Birthday party yesterday and the only thing that didn't go exactly as I planned was the weather. It was one of my favorite days ever and the memories of it will be etched in my mind for eternity. Uncle Carl built the kids this lemonade stand and they LOVE it. I see many, many, MANY weekend afternoons spent out by the curb selling lemonade to the passersby. Thank-you, Uncle Carl, from the bottom of all of our hearts!

they each have a buddy

As the kids get older one of the things I'm loving the most is getting to know my nieces and nephews and watching them build friendships with my kids. Each of them has a little buddy. Charlie and Griffin are a year apart, Renee and Sarah are six weeks apart and Sam and Cameron are six months apart.

We spent the weekend together in Mankato celebrating Sam's birthday and while I have a boatload of pictures to process, I wanted to post these.

If you sit around and listen, the boys are sneaking in discussions about poopy butts and saying crap like it's a swear word. I love that they already have secrets.


And don't get me started on the girls. They spent most of the weekend locked in a bedroom upstairs having a "Girls Only" party. They slammed the door on the face of any boy that came near them and they pranced around all weekend long holding hands. I have no idea where this girliness comes from as my sister Jen and I are not super feminine women. Our girls seem to think they are princesses though :) 


And these two don't know it yet but they are going to be best buddies too. Right now they're really only concerned with the fact that there is a lot of sugar on the table in the form of Fruit Loops and that is just not something they get every day :)