The North Shore is our favorite place in Minnesota. Lake Superior can't be beat, and the Shore has all the glory of the north woods without being overrun by people. Basically, it's God's country :)
The weather was cool and cloudy, so it was perfect for walking out to the Point. It was also perfect for sitting by the Cove. I love sitting. I'm 36 weeks pregnant now, and my favorite thing to do is sit :)
After sleeping in followed by finding a coffee shop to sit and play a game for hours, we ventured to the Lake County Fair where we met up with Eli's parents and our boys again. Caleb and Kai were excited to see us, and Caleb was particularly excited about the fair. It was the first night of this tiny county fair and hardly anyone else was there. There were a few animals in the barn, though, and that was all the boys needed to be super happy. Caleb also tried his hand at milking a fake cow, which he loved!
When we finally pulled them away from the animals, we headed toward the carousel. Caleb had ridden one before and we knew he'd like to ride one again. So Grandma Horn joined him as he chose to ride the goat. He was a happy boy!
Caleb then caught sight of the giant slide. He was adamant about wanting to go on it despite our assurances that it was big and fast and he probably wouldn't like it. (He's our more cautious kid and he never willingly went down a slide by himself until just this summer - and that was just the little slides at the playground.) But he was insistent and we chose the parenting tactic of letting him try something new and deciding for himself whether he liked it or not. He was so excited to go that he practically bounced up the stairs, and he remained excited until he actually went down it. Eli held him close and as soon as they reached the bottom Caleb was terrified and started wailing, "I don't like it! I don't like it!!!!" So now he knows :)
He was upset enough by the slide that we offered to let him ride the carousel once more before heading home. It was just what he needed to recover from the trauma of the giant slide. This time he chose to ride the rooster and forgot all about the slide.
Caleb didn't want to leave the fair, but it was nearly bedtime and Kai was falling apart. So we packed up the kids and headed home. Kai was so cranky that he never fell asleep in the car like he usually does when he's tired, but rather cried and fussed most of the way home, and we said a solid goodbye to our Getaway sans children. (We discovered the next morning that Kai was cranky because he was getting sick - he woke up with a snotty nose and was upset enough to warrant ibuprofen.) But such is life! We're glad to be back home with our kids and all the exhaustion that goes with it. We probably won't get a night away by ourselves again for, well, years to come. We're grateful we had this last chance to do so. Thanks again to Eli's parents for making it happen!
No comments:
Post a Comment