First Family Vacation

The weekend before the 4th, my parents were kind enough to take Abby, Jason and me up to a cabin resort in Hackensack Minnesota!  This was our first official family vacation.  It was interesting to have to plan out, how we were going to get there (3+ hours away) since Abby has only been in the car for a max of about 45 minutes but she did very well.  We drove over her nap time assuming she'd take a nap ... but even though she didn't nap at all, she did not have any break downs on the way there or back.  Here's a picture of Abby with daddy's swim goggles on while we were packing our things to go.  

 When we got to the cabin resort, the first thing we noticed was that there were domestic BUNNIES hopping around the camp ground.  The owners of the resort had lots of bunnies and just let them run loose around the site. They were very friendly and Abby even got to feed and pet some of them.  Abby named this one "Silly Bunny" because he lived under our cabin and we saw him/her most frequently. 

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One of the first things Abby wanted to do when she got to the resort was go swimming.  Daddy was a champ, he got right into the water with her.  They had slides and paddle boats and a huge trampoline (that Abby was too little to go on).  She could have spent all day, every day in the water if we would have let her.

One day we went into the town of Hackensack, and saw Lucette.  Did you know that Paul Bunion had a wife?!  Well, lucky Lucette is Paul's wife and she's located in Hackensack MN if you'd ever like to meet her, she's a big gal.


Abby also got to experience catching a fish and learning the virtues of what it means to "fish".  Several rules like being quiet or you'll scare the fish, waiting patiently for your bobber to go down and sitting still or you'll give Mom and Grandma a heart attack on the dock.  :)

Abby did end up catching a fish or two off the dock but the real fun came when she was able to fish from the pontoon out on the lake.  The fish were bigger and more aggressive. 

What's a cabin vacation without a bunch of s'more on your face?

Everyone caught fish while we were out on the lake.  There's even a little video of Abby reeling in a fish that daddy caught on her new purple princess fishing rod.

Daddy got to drive the boat.  How exciting!

Abby thought it was so neat to look off the back of the boat and watch the waves.  Here's a picture of Mommy and Abby while the boat is moving.  I love this picture.

All in all, the vacation was a great success.  We now know our little family can be mobile.  The next trip we might take we might try to go to Duluth for a weekend and see the boats.  Thanks again Mom and Dad for a perfect first family vacation!  It couldn't have gone better.

Summer Fun with the Beals

It's been a while since I've blogged on BabyBeal blog site but ... we seem to NEVER get any comments. I hope people are reading out there. Oh well, if not, this will just be a documentary that Abby can look at when she gets older.

ANYWHO ... our summer has been busy especially with the baby coming along sooner than later. Because the baby is coming soon, we've been trying to do some fun things with Abby so she doesn't feel left out or lost in the mix of her new baby brother.

Here's some pictures of what we've been up to for the past month or so.

The Children's Museum of Minnesota is a really fun place to explore. Here's Abby on the Wobble boards, learning about balance. Of course, she already knows quite a bit from Gymnastics.

They had a huge ant hill that Abby thought was really fun to crawl around in and find all he nooks and crannies. Here we were in a cave and it was dark so she wasn't quite prepared for me to take a picture.

This is what Abby would look like if she was a turtle.

Abby and a Skunk puppet in the Marsh playroom.

Here's a place Abby could have played at ALL DAY if we would have let her. It's a market and a diner. Abby and Daddy hard at work mopping the floors.

This place was really neat, she took a cart and went shopping and Daddy rang up the total cost for her groceries.

Abby with her cart of groceries.

Because mom is supposed to eat healthy and get a serving of green veggies per day, we found a smoothy recipe that had SPINACH in it. "WHAT?! SPINACH" you say, "that's crazy." Yes, it was crazy but it was REALLY good and Abby loved it as you can see it's all over her face.

I see a trend here, this must be her "Paris Hilton" Pose.

It was really warm one day so Grandma and Grandpa Beal got out the pools. (yes, 2 pools-plural) Here is Abby sunbathing.

This pool was the cold pool, the other was the "hot tub" cuz it was smaller and the sun heated it up faster.

There's the Paris Hilton Pose again! That's all for now folks.

Wow, 108 Days to go ...

I read my little "pregnancy meter" and it said 108 days to go ... that's kind of scary. :) I figured I should post some of the pictures we got from the ultra sound.

Here's a picture of my belly on the day we went to the ultrasound.

Here's the proof!

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Ten Toes!!!

Vacation!

Since Abby is too young to travel much yet, Jason and I have taken separate vacations for the past 2 years, that way, Abby is always at home with mom or dad. Soon, we will be able to take vacations together once we know Abby can tolerate road trips. But, our recent trips were to California (Jason) and Montana (Julie). Here's some pictures of our trips.

JULIE'S VACATION TO BILLINGS MONTANA!

It was a 2 day vacation, very short but sweet. Spent with good friends, this is Emily.

This is Meghan.

We went to a small town at the mouth of the Bear-Tooth Path going into Yellowstone called Red Lodge, there were a bunch of little shops and we ran across this candy store. Very SWEET!

Red Lodge used to be a mining town, you can see a mine shaft up in the hills.

What a view, from left to right; Meghan, Jen (from WI), Emily, Julie, Ashlee (From MT).

Pregnant lady in the mountains.

Small waterfall.

JASON'S VACATION TO SOLVANG CALIFORNIA!

Is that a REAL guard??

Scenic View

Bicycle built for 4!

Joe Cool at the winery.

More Wine! (And a Dave Bargmann)

Lots of Wind Mills in CA.

We'll leave you with these pictures of a fairy we found in our yard. We decided to keep it, it was too cute to leave outside.

Easter Egg Hunting!

Ahhhhh, the Holidays. For anyone who has children, it's a fun time. But with all the fun to be had, it's exhausting and stressful. Especially when you're pregnant. So here's all the FUN we had over the Easter weekend.

We went to Bloomington where there was an Easter Egg Hunt. It was free and the community was putting it on so there was a Fire Truck Abby got to sit in.

As you can see, we all have our coats on, it was not too cold but it was WINDY. We're grabbing a little snack before we head to the hunt. (Left to Right: Jason, Duke, LouAnn, Abby, Katie, Greg)

Here's a BEFORE picture. As Jason put it, it's not really an Easter Egg "Hunt", more like an Easter Egg "Pick-up."

Before we started the hunt, there were eggs literally sitting by Abby's feet but when the guy on the megaphone said "ready-set-go" Abby took off streaking across the field of eggs passing hundreds of eggs just to pick up this blue egg on the OTHER side of the field.

Here she is putting stuff into her basket.

Although she passed several hundred eggs, she still managed to get quite a few.

The eggs were all filled with Jelly Beans. She was so proud of her loot.

Here's a random picture. Abby really likes to do my hair. She'll do my hair for 1/2 an hour. She's such a girly girl. Don't I look beautiful!!!

One day I was having a rough day and so Daddy was sweet and brought us both flowers to brighten up our day. Abby just adored her flower but then it died. I let her have mine. She loves flowers.

My Apologies People

Yes, I'm sorry, we haven't updated in a while. Here's the scoop, as to what we've been up to lately. I try to struggle to stay up past 9 sometimes these days so we've been trying to do some more FUN things during the day when Abby and Mommy are both awake. These may be a bit out of order but you get the gist.

We took Abby to the Minnesota Zoo, she loves the Zoo. I remember when my Grandparents used to take us and we'd spend the whole day there. What a fun adventure.

Abby reaching into the water to pet a star-fish.

She needed a little boost from Daddy.

She finally touched it. It was "Squishy" she said.

Here's Duke, exposing him self in a very unflattering position. I just HAD to take a picture.

Here Abby was helping put together her Valentines for her daycare friends. She actually didn't get to pass them out, she ended up getting Croup from someone at daycare and had to stay home for almost a week. We took her to the doctor and they ended up giving her a steroid and then she got an ear infection and went on Antibiotics. Ugh, the steroids suppressed her immune system and then she was destined to get the ear infections. Not much an adjustment was going to do for that.

She still loves to go to gymnastics. Next week is the last week and family are invited to come watch what they've learned. I've personally learned that she's much more capable than I ever though a 2 and a half year old should be. She's actually really good at all the stuff they do at gymnastics.

Cuddles with Duke after a long day. Abby and Duke get along really well. She's finally at an age where she can actually PLAY with him and they both wear each other out sometimes.