Gone Girl

  Earlier this month, I had the chance to slip away on a girls' weekend where the goals for the moms of the group were to sleep in, stay up late, not make dinner for anyone, and watch a movie in the middle of the daytime...the simple pleasures :)  I was a little nervous about going, knowing that a weekend with the boys is not as glamorous as you might imagine.  At age 6, Boden, of course, is pretty easy to hang out with, but adding a 1 year old to the mix, means naptimes, lots of age appropriate snacks, and diaper changes.  All of which puts a real damper on free wheeling thru the weekend.  And Todd had a nasty cold that could have easily turned into strep throat.  But, I packed into the minivan with my gals on Friday with fingers crossed.

The short report:  Me and my gals rented a lovely home free of pet hair and kid grime and had a glorious time.  And, I heard "Boys Weekend" was great, quote "we did just fine without you."  Everyone's a winner!  I'm scoping out my next trip, already.

Anniversary weekend getaway

A few weeks ago, Todd and I were able to make our (mostly) annual trip Up North for our anniversary weekend.  While Todd would have preferred camping, I said "no way" this year--25 weeks pregnant at the time and in no mood to fight off bugs and sleep on the ground.  It was a bittersweet trip, as last year we had Bueller with and we began to suspect something was up with his health.  Lots of memories of hiking with him...sigh.

Anyway, we thought about bringing Boden along, but maybe next year.  This seemed like a good (and only) opportunity for a mini baby moon. So Boden stayed home with a nanny whom he adored and had a fantastic time with despite an unexpected last minute pain in the butt (literally) that took some coordinating but it all worked out.  

We stayed in Lutsen and hiked up to Eagle Mountain (a favorite trail of ours) though I was a bit slower this year.  Our resort had views of Lutsen Mountain and was incredibly close to several stops on

The Superior Hiking Trail--so we tried a portion of that out for the first time and were happy enough with it that we look forward to exploring more of it in the future.  The evenings were cold (yep) and the days were on the cooler side which made it perfect for hiking.

Overall, a great trip and, as usual, we returned less well-rested than when we left!!

Below is a selfie of me from the overlook on the SHT and a picture of Todd from the same trail.  It was much wetter and less rocky than hike to Eagle Mtn.