Check it

The other day Jackson asked when he was going to be able to have his own blog. He thinks his life is pretty rad, and would like to share it with the world. I decided that it would be a good way for him to keep a journal. It took only seconds for him to decide on a blog name: lavaheadsblog. So if you want to check out what this little guy is up to, head on over to lavaheadsblog.blogspot.com . In a couple weeks I am going to make it private, so leave a comment and let me know if you would like to be invited to the coolest little kid blog ever. (in my biased opinion!)

Advanced Screening

So I know y'all just can't wait for this years Christmas card, so I thought I'd give you a little peak at some pics from our photo session so you don't explode with anticipation. Without further ado:

Thanks again to the talented Darci Timothy for working with our crazy family and making us look fabulous!

Busy Busy

Please excuse my blogging absence. This month I've been doing a whole lot of nothing. I've felt so busy lately, but nothing really to show or blog about. Life is rolling along and with it comes laundry, car pools, dentist appointments, snow shoveling, family pictures, toilet cleaning, and more laundry.

The thing that keeps me most occupied these days is this sweet little gem. She keeps me on my toes by climbing everywhere and getting into everything. Doesn't she have a twinkle of mischievousness in her eye?

She has been busy herself mastering the art of stinky faces.

These pictures don't quite do her "stink eye" justice. She is a living legend for her eye brow furrow.

John's brother Matt visited this weekend. He can attest to all the climbing and furrowing action that goes on at our house. Unfortunately, he can also attest to us getting nothing done as well. Just ask him about the fourteen paint swatches on my master bedroom walls just waiting for someone to make a decision.

Misty water memories

Have I mentioned that my parents are slightly odd ducks? They have done some pretty funny things that gave me a childhood full of many colorful stories. See these adorable striped overall Sadie is cruising around in? Well they come with a little back story.

One time in the early eighties my Dad traveled to Nebraska to visit some of his relatives. Back in the day my Mom (big louie) would pick my Dad up at the airport when he flew. This time was no different, so we all packed into the station wagon and headed to curbside pickup. Upon arriving my Mom noticed this incredibly obnoxious man in bright red and white striped overalls. With further examination she discovered (to her horror) that this obnoxious man was her husband. Big Louie did the only thing she could do; keep on driving. We did a few loops around the terminal and she finally decided to pick him up. Pops loves to embarrass Big Louie and so he would don these overalls through the years for a few giggles from us kids. He has worn them so much that the bright red has faded to a dull pink and the behind is thread bare. I wish I had a picture to show you of how incredibly horrid these overalls were.

Fast forward 30 years or so and Pops was in Nebraska once again. He has gone many times and always offers to pick me up some beautifully striped overalls for myself, but has never actually done it. This time he searched high and low, and could only find these much smaller and much cuter pair for Sadie. The stripes live on, but look sooo much better on her!

Happy Birthday Big Louie!!

Thanks Martha

Once again Ms. Stewart, you have really outdone yourself. How do you come up with such cute and crafty ideas season after season?

This could possibly be the easiest craft I have ever made. It involves two steps, one: paint elmer's glue on a pumpkin and two: sprinkle with glitter. And Wah-Lah, you have yourself a Martha - esque halloween centerpiece.

Happy Halloween my little pretties!

ps- Matt Christensen, you are going down this Friday night. You should possibly consider not even showing up, just a thought.

And so it begins

I think it's time to reinvest in magic erasers. Sadie has discovered crayons.

It's a good thing that Sadie's so cute, otherwise she would be in big trouble!

Halloween Decor

Knowing that I don't really decorate for Halloween, Max decided to take matters into his own hands, or ears actually. Check out his new and improved ORANGE and BLACK ear molds!

When Max's ears grow a little, he has to get new ear molds so his aids will work properly. At his last audiologist appointment, Max insisted on orange and black. I was a little apprehensive, but decided to let him. Last week I stopped by the hard of hearing room at his school. It wasn't long before I figured out why Max insisted on the color scheme. Every boy at Fernbrook with hearing loss was walking around in orange and black ears. Usually Max bangs to the beat of his own drum, so this cracked me up. I guess every boy feels the need to fit in now and then.

Happy Halloween!

You know it's fall when

The first thing our little family wants to do when fall has arrived is head to our favorite orchard, Apple Jacks. With the weather being pretty cool the last couple weeks, Jackson decided fall was here and thus it was time to take our annual trip.

We always go on a Saturday morning because they have fresh carmel apple rolls and apple doughnuts on the weekends. I can't say how good the apple rolls are....words just wouldn't do them justice!

After devouring our delicious sweets, we took a walk down to the Crow River to snap a few pictures.

Our usual spot was half sunny half shaded, so we decided this spot would have to do.

Max spotted a toad along the way and thought he should be in the pics.

Sadie wasn't too keen on the idea of having a four legged friend join our family just yet.

......and the best part of the trip is coming home and making a year supply of applesauce!

I'm a sucker for celebrating

Jackson came home from school on the first day and deemed it a success. (and that is a MAJOR feat!!) To celebrate he quickly suggested that we whip up something from the Wookie Cookbook. I think he knows me all too well, and knows that I will use any excuse to celebrate. We flipped through the book for a while and settled on the idea of making little R2D2's.

For any trying to pack on a few pounds, here are the glutenous directions:

Roll a Twinkie in melted white chocolate and immediately roll in nuts of your choice. Place kit kats on each side, and enjoy...that is if you like having your stomach ache from the sweetness of it all.

Here we go again

It's that time of year again. Back to schedules, routines, homework and carpools. Back to school time!! Woo Hoo!!

Most kids are happy to go back, but from the looks of things, I'm a tid bit more excited than they are! I just can't wipe that smile off my face.

Jackson is heading off to Mrs. Flatgard's 3rd grade class. Big changes in life are always hard for him to adjust to. I hope his first day of school wasn't too hard for my crazy little man.

Here's Max before heading out the door to 1st grade in Mrs. Raja's class. Max told me he only wanted to smile a little because he is just a little excited. I hope his smile is bigger when he gets off the bus from a great first day of school.

As for Sadie, well she doesn't need to go school just yet. She's a self taught genius. Here is something she learned just the other day! It's always a crowd pleaser and she loves to show people everywhere we go her knew trick.

Time to get back to my bon bons.

NYC baby

One of the perks of John traveling so much is his ever growing stockpile of frequent flyer miles. They are a beautiful thing. A couple weeks ago John found out he would be traveling to NYC for business. Normally he's in Wisconsin, Ohio, Arizona or Florida. When he said NYC, I decided then and there that I needed to figure out a way to go with. I am lucky enough to have awesome friends, (or should I say naive, mu ah ha ha ha!!) who agreed to watch my kiddos while I was out of town.

John wasted no time in researching some tasty restaurants to try while we were there. One of my favorites was this little French eatery that we went to for breakfast. The atmosphere was beautiful, and the nutella croissants were heavenly.

John did have to work during the day, so I took the opportunity to shop in the rain. Yet again, it was a little piece of heaven on earth.

One night we hit Times Square and saw the broadway show American Idiot. Should have gone for Phantom or a classic b/c this one was not my cup o tea.

On Tuesday we had planned on spending a good chunk of time at the Museum of Modern Art. We found out Tuesday morning that it is closed every Tuesday...oops! We decided to go on a city bus tour. I wasn't sure I would like it, but it ended up being one of the highlights of the trip, even in the drizzle.

The tour bus stopped frequently and you could choose to get out and spend as much time as you wanted and then wait for another bus to come. We stopped a few places including Central Park. It was beautiful and the weather cooperated with us and stopped raining while took our stroll.

You can't go to the Big Apple without having a slice. John and I scarfed down a whole pizza together, it was so good!

I mastered the fine art of self portraits while I was there. I think I took about 20 pics of myself when I was shopping on 5th ave. Here's one of John and I on the subway.

I love NYC and was so glad to be able to go and spend some time with John before he starts up grad school again in a couple weeks. Thanks Cecia, Cameron and Jack for holding down the fort while we were gone. You are rad.

Great River Relay 2010

If there is anyone out there looking for proof that I am crazy, well here it is.

That's right, John and I decided to join some friends on a little adventure known as

****RAGNAR****

For those not privy to what Ragnar is all about here is the gist: Run, drive, sleep?, repeat x3. Basically, it's a 193 mile relay with 11 of your closest friends, or at least friends that you are willing to sit in a van with after they have just run 5 miles in 90 degree weather. It smells just as wonderful as it sounds. Everyone takes 3 legs that total anywhere from 13 to 22 miles. It's crazy, and fun all at the same time. I think the fun kicks in when you become delirious from sleep deprivation and everything seems hilarious. My legs were 6.8, 3.7 and 4.5 miles totaling 15 miles. John had a tougher route: 5.2, 5.4 and 6 mile legs totaling 16.6 miles.

I didn't take many pictures because a few hours in I thought I lost my camera, so I pretty much got before and after shots. (found my camera 3/4 of the way through, it turns out I have only lost my brain)

As we were driving to begin this 24 hours of madness, Carey and Natalie spotted the best cheese curd place they had ever been to. We stopped in and it did not disappoint. Eating a ton of fried food hours before a race may have not been the smartest thing we've ever done, but it was worth it. I'd do it again just to taste those curds....mmmmmm.

I would fill you in on all of the sweaty details, but it might bore you. Let's just say that it was HOT, HUMID, AND HARD, and I'm glad it's over!! Here's John and I after running forever and a day on about 2 hours of sleep. We look about as good as we smell.

All in all it was a great trip and kept me motivated to stay in shape throughout the summer. It's still to early to tell if we'll make this an annual event. I'm hoping it will be a little like child birth was for me and I'll eventually forget about the pain and just remember the end result. Time will tell.

A Hot Mess

I know I mentioned this in my catch up post, but I thought my trip to DC deserved a full post of it's own. I was ecstatic when I heard my good friend was moving to DC this summer. (It's kind of selfish really, I have wanted an excuse to go to DC for quite some time and now I had one) She made the move in early June, and I booked a trip as soon as I had a free weekend. These pictures are just thrown up and not in any kind of order, but here are a few things we did during my hot sweaty weekend in DC:

Walked the Mall and then some. We walked/ jogged the entire mall of monuments, over a bridge through the National Cemetery, over to Georgetown, back over another bridge and onto the train back to Crystal City totaling over 13 miles! Standing in front of Abe reminds me to be completely honest, so here it goes: that day was fun, but a sweaty sweat mess. Next time I'll do this it will have to be in October.

Another day was spent at the Holocaust Museum. Upon finishing there, we decided to hit the Air and Space museum to see something more uplifting to take our minds off the weight of what we just experienced.

Emily is in a running club, so one morning we jogged 4 miles. Afterwards we decided to walk around the shops in Georgetown and had lots of fun getting nasty looks from people passing by as we were both a hot sweaty mess.

Yum! We stopped into DC cupcakes and had ourselves a cupcake or 3. The secret cupcake of the day was Salty Carmel, the perfect combination in my book. Loved it!

I know I already mentioned the Air and Space Museum, but here's another tid-bit. This is where the lady who took my picture proceeded to give me a mini lesson on how to best work my camera. Kinda funny.

Here's another pic of our hot sweaty mess of a walk/run through the Mall.

Me trying to get artistic with my camera. If only I had the camera lady there to show me how to get the flash to go on.

Thanks Em for having me. It was so nice, sweat and all, to see you and get a break from the kiddos!

Parrish Family Vacation 2010

Call me crazy, but this year I just didn't want to drive out west and spend forever and a day in a car with a 1 year old. Not my cup o tea. In lieu of a epic adventure out west, we decided on taking a trip up north to Lutsen, MN, which is on the North Shore of Lake Superior, and and about 1/10 of the driving distance!

Driving up was a breeze. We stopped in Duluth and lucked out as they were having a "big ship" festival. There were enormous ships lining the harbor and both Jackson and Max thought they looked like pirate ships. They confirmed their suspicions when they saw a goth girl walk by and concluded she was a pirate.

Day two was spent split up. John and Jackson took a kayak trip and Max, Sadie and I drove up to Grand Marais. Yet again we lucked out. The town was holding their annual dragon boat races. We watched a few races, stuffed our faces, and played a round of mini golf.

From there it's kind of a blur. One afternoon, we played a round of disc golf where we managed to loose two discs on the first throw of the first tee.

We went on a few breathtaking hikes. Sadie inevitably fell asleep every time.

This could be my favorite picture of the whole trip. If you scroll through this blog you'll see how hard it is for me to get a genuine smile out of Maxers. Well, here it is folks!

We celebrated my 31st birthday in style by spending the day on the Alpine Slide, and driving into town for some fresh caught fish. Yum! John also surprised me with the perfect gift, a Garmin Watch! I felt so spoiled!

Jackson proved yet again that he lacks a safety chip in his brain as he refused to apply the break the entire way down. He was proud to beat John, and catch air a few times!

Many a hour was spent lounging by the lake, skipping rocks, and roasting marsh mellows.

We had great weather. The few times it rained, we happened to be in our car or it was after bed time.

Our trip home we visited Split Rock light house. Jack loved it, Max, not so much. He was over hiking and didn't like the fact that we had to climb a couple hundred stairs for a photo op.

We also stopped by Gooseberry Falls to see what all the fuss was about. From the looks of it, Sadie liked the scenic view. I myself thought it was beautiful, but way to crowded.

We had a ton of fun. After all of this family fun and togetherness, I am so ready for school to start.