March Came In Like a Lion....Out Like a Lamb!

 Where did March go?  I have been terrible about updating the blog this month and also with taking photos.  It was a busy March and it went by VERY quickly!  First news tidbit is we purchased our new SUV.  The Durango was officially totaled, so we decided to downsize to a mid-size SUV and bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Mommy has driven a Jeep Liberty and Grand Cherokees in the past, so it was a truck she was familiar with.  We decided on white for the color (my parents have never owned a white vehicle).  The Jeep smells new, looks new, and has excellent gas mileage.  I am always excited when we go somewhere in it.  Considering the circumstances, we are glad the ordeal is over with and we are now in our new vehicle that will for sure keep us safe and sound :)

Spring has sprung!  It came much earlier than usual.  The birds have been chirping, leaves/perennials are budding, and we have spent countless hours outside playing!  Cooper and I love to ride the Gator and John Deere tractor around the yard.  As tempting as it is, we have not done any gardening, raking or other yard-work.  We are hoping this weather is here to stay!

One morning, while playing, Mommy started to ask me about feelings.  She finds this humorous as a Kindergarten teacher?!?!?   Out of curiosity, she asked me to show her what different feelings looked like.  I went with her little experiment and this is what she got from me.... above is my happy face.

Silly face

 Mad face

Scary face

Sad face

That same morning during our PJ time she took some pictures of Cooper and I as we just did our usual play... Cooper likes to detach the play vacuum hose and use revving sounds with this mouth (see photo above).  It cracks us all up when he pretends to be the vacuum cleaner. 

Cooper makes noises ALL DAY LONG as a matter of fact.  He is a loud kid in general; my parents often wonder if this is a sign of what is to come?!?!

Cooper is also a good problem solver.  Even though he is a tall 21 month old, he finds ways to make himself even taller by scaling up furniture, toys and even in this instance, toy bins.  What a monkey!

And here is our feisty Cooper who is ready to whip the ball at Mommy.  She decided at this point to put her camera away.

Based on the heavy winter coats and hats here, these photos were most likely taken earlier this month before our warm weather arrived.  Another favorite outdoor activity for us is riding our bikes all over the place.  Mommy and Daddy are going to teach me how to ride my bike with just two wheels.  I am sure you will hear all about that development in the months ahead.  Cooper is such a copy-cat that he wanted his own helmet too.  Since he is not tall enough for my big trike, we just haven't found the need to buy him a helmet.  Joan, the CEO at the hospital Daddy works at, gave him an old motorcycle helmet of hers that she doesn't use.  It was actually for snowmobiling (as an extra one if needed), but Cooper has been using it as a bike helmet.  He LOVES wearing hats and helmets.  He probably doesn't realize that he looks like a beetle wearing it.

This month has been exciting for auntie Karri.  She is getting closer to baby Lindell's arrival.  He is due to arrive on May 1st (MAY DAY!)  Mommy, along with her aunts, cousins, and sister threw Karri a baby shower.  They had a great turn out and had a "cute" time saying "ahhhhhh" to all of the tiny gifts she received for baby. 

Mommy had Spring Break this past week.  Since we are going to Florida in two weeks, we decided to just stay around the general area.  We loved the weather and Mommy appreciated the extra time to organize, clean and work on projects.  We also were fortunate to have nice weather during the week! One of the main Spring Break events was a trip to the cities for Uncle Jim's 30th birthday (oops, no picture).  We spent the night and went to the zoo the following day.  Cooper and I were hanging out on Grandma's front porch before we left for the zoo so Mommy quickly attempted to take a brotherly photo.  As usual, one of us is not looking in both of the photos.

Thanks to great-auntie Lynda, we have been zoo members for several years now.  This is her wonderful Christmas gift to our family each year and we love it!  We attempt several visits each season to the zoo.  We haven't been there since fall and were happy to see some of the renovations.  We were "off" to find our favorite animal (the monkeys) but made several stops along the way.

We love the aquarium/reef at the zoo.  We growled and made scary faces at the shark as he lurked on by.

We stopped and watched our favorite "pink butt monkeys" for a long time.  These two little monkeys must be brothers because they were busy wrestling, chasing, and causing mischief with each other.  Sounds a lot like Cooper and me.  No wonder we like them so much.

We love the new penguin exhibit!  Penguins are very social and interact with people along the glass.  I kept exclaiming how much the penguins liked me.  I was completely intrigued by them.  Mommy loves the photo below of me watching the penguins waddle and dive.

We found many more monkey along the Tropics Trail.  We love the tunnels you can climb in and view the animals from the inside windows.  Notice Cooper's random outfit?  He insists on wearing hats even if they don't match (high maintenance at the age of 1, yikes!)

We were happy Daddy could take a few days off work to accompany us to the zoo and hang out with his favorite boys :)

Recently, one of the young dolphins at the zoo died (it was very sad for the community) but the dolphin trainers are still hard at work with the other two veteran dolphins.  We sat in for one of the training sessions.  We loved when the dolphins clapped their "hands" and played with a beach ball.  I hope to see dolphins in the ocean in Florida soon!

Our last stop was a first for us, the monorail.  Since it was a bit chilly out, we decided to take the monorail around the zoo to look for animals.  We saw camels, prairie dogs, antelope, buffalo, bears and tigers.  Cooper and I were excited for the 20 minute ride around the zoo.  My parents were glad we didn't hurt each other as we raced back and forth to see animals on side A and side B of the train, ugh! 

Our final Spring Break event was a playdate with a few of our friends.  Since the weather was not especially warm, we hosted at our house.  Our full flight of steps became an exciting "ride" for all and we found many ways to stay entertained indoors this day. 

Well that is about it for our latest update.  We are excited for the next few weeks of the lambing barn, Easter activities, and of course our trip to April!  We hope you are all enjoying spring-like weather too!

ICY!

It's been a WILD week since our stay in Lutsen.  We left Friday night for our long weekend up north.  We had the snowmobiles and truck packed to the gills before we ventured 5 hours to moose country.  Doesn't my Kitty Cat just look stinkin' cute next to Mommy and Daddy's sleds?

Our drive was uneventful until we were approximately 1/2 mile from the cabin.  The last 30 minutes of our drive is on dirt roads that are snow-covered and hilly.  As we approached the final turn at a T, Daddy couldn't stop the truck in time... anti-lock brakes engaged and we were in a fast skid.  Luckily, he was able to make a hard turn to the left at the T, but we still ended in the ditch and hit trees.  I was wide awake and witnessed the accident, Cooper was sleeping but woke up screaming, and Mommy and Daddy were in the front, trying to remain calm.  Airbags did not deploy (see the black bar in the lower photo... it didn't break luckily!)  Besides Mommy's knees hitting the dash, we were all OK, thank God.

These photos were taken in daylight, but the accident happened at 10:00 p.m.  Luckily, we were in one of the 2 or 3 spots where there is cell phone reception.  Everyone was at the cabin already, so we were picked up and the tow truck/flat bed came the next day to haul our truck back to Duluth, a 2 hour drive from the cabin.  Daddy took some pictures of the damage, including trailer damage, Kitty Cat damage (Mommy and Daddy's snowmobiles were fine) and of course, the Durango.  We received word today that the Durango was offically totaled, so we are off to find a new SUV.

My Kitty Cat has approximately $200 in damage, but it still runs.  We were SO excited to ride up north, so we did just that thanks to a bungy cord that kept my hood on.  Daddy ran down to Duluth to pick up a Suburban to get us home in.  Everything turned out OK (all things considering), so we settled in for our long weekend of winter fun.

Lauren and Abby were excited to try out the Kitty Cat.  Both decided it wasn't for them (the best photo is on Meggen's camera... I will have to post that another time as it is hilarous!)  Abby is my age and Lauren just turned 5.  We all get along GREAT!  Their Mommy, Meggen, has been Mommy's best friend since 4th grade.  Daddy and Pete have many similar interests, so they get along perfectly too!  The cabin is Pete's parents, Margie and Bob, who have become like adoptive grandparents through our cabin vacations.  I even call Margie, "Grandma Margie" and she loves it :) 

Cooper can't get enough of snowmobiles.  He LOVES sitting and riding on them.  We are pretty certain he will ask for his own Kitty Cat in the years to come.  My parents are already cringing at the thought as Santa needed a lot of help finding mine alone.

Lutsen had a MAJOR snowstorm on Sunday.  Fortunately, we had no plans to go anywhere, so we enjoyed the fluffy foot of freshly fallen snow.  My Mom didn't even scream when we ate some of it, yum!

If you look closely, Abby and I are walking up the hill with our tongues out (and we weren't even prompted to do this!)  We must have been discussing how delicious snow tastes!

Cooper had to try a taste too!  He loved it, of course!

Maybe Cooper and I are a bit strange, but the following pictures probably are proof we are not.  We both love to try on boots/shoes that just so happen to sit on our rug near our doors.  These shoes might be high-heels, boots, sandals, etc... it doesn't matter as we have fun trying on all the styles.  Cooper kicked off the fashion show with a pair of Pete's winter boots, followed by Mommy's slippers.  All the kids joined in the fun~ Ms. Abby in sneakers, Lauren in Merrill's, and me in Uggs.  Once again, kids are easily amused!

We had a S'mores roast in the toasty fireplace one night!  It tastes almost as good as campfire S'mores!

We went sledding EVERY day, sometimes twice in a day.  There is a perfect hill (road) we were able to sled down.  We had sledding races, tandem runs, adult sledding/snowboarding, and a whole lot of laughs!

Can't help but to show you how deep the snow really was up north.  Look at the heavy trees, and me "walking" through the thigh-high fluff!  Too bad we don't get this at home, although it was a little stressful as we had to keep a close eye on Cooper.  He could have been swallowed up by it.

We wanted to do one trek down to the lake and we instantly plopped down for snow angels.  We found our favorite dock and beach area where we played in the water this past summer.

We had many attempts at a kid photo, but Ms. Abby was being a silly pants and had her tongue out at the camera.  Cooper followed suit in the second photo.  I guess that makes us typical, goofy kids!

The adults made it out for a snowshoe trek.  The snow was SO deep they didn't make it too far before needing to turn back to the cabin for some adult beverages followed by Meggen's famous Pickle Dip and Chili Deep.  That probably explains why they didn't get that far!

We had an amazing weekend, despite our scary Friday night crash.  We almost made it home with no problems, until we hit the Duluth/Superior bridge and our tire blew out on the snowmobile trailer.  Daddy was unable to change the tire as the lug nuts were rusted out.  A tow truck arrived with a special tool and was nice enough to charge us $50 for a 5 minute job.  At that point, we would have paid him a lot more just to make it home safely.  We got home just in time for Mommy to leave and play in the championship soccer game that night.  They won 3-2 and she scored the game winning goal, so it was probably good she made it to the game.  She enjoys continuing to play on the league, despite turf burn, bruises, possibly a few cracked ribs, and some nasty run-ins with some seriously-overly-competitive players.  

Two more random photos to end this week's posting... the picture below was made by Mommy and given to Grandma Carla for Valentine's.  The scrabble letters are from Great-Grandma Wink's scrabble can.  Great-Grandma passed away just a few years ago~ she was a blessing in our lives as she lived to 98 and loved playing games and spending time with family.  Grandma loved her simple and special gift from us.

We had a playdate with Lily and Lucy today and Mommy only took one picture, but quite adorable, I must say!  I played Lily's acoustic guitar and loved it!  I think I might have a new calling here!  Uncle Jimmy will possibly teach me someday how to play his guitars... although I don't know if he is able to play my new favorite song "Red Solo Cup?!?!?"

We want to thank Meggen, Pete, and family for our wonderful stay at the cabin.   We also want to thank everyone for their warm thoughts and wishes during the past crazy week.  We are very thankful for our strong Durango that took care of us when we needed it most and of course, for God, who was watching down on us that night.