Breezy Point Mini Vacay

What a difference a week makes! Last weekend was pure vacation perfection at Breezy Point Resort. We lucked out with near 80 degree temperatures, cloudless skies, beautiful fall colors and a whole lot of sunshine. Yesterday my parents headed north with the Shemon's for a weekend a Breezy Point, but I have a feeling their experience will be a little different. Unfortunately it's not supposed to be above 50 degrees and they even saw snow last night on the drive up! Classic Minnesota.

Every fall my company plans a weekend trip up north and sadly I've missed the past two trips due to Helleen weddings. With no weddings on the calendar, there was no way I was missing this REACH outing for the third year in a row. 

Before I left on maternity leave they told me to mark my calendar for the last weekend in September. REACH was heading to Breezy Point Resort and the Helleen's were coming! Knowing this was our first mini vacation with both Harper and Emmett, we weren't exactly sure what to expect of our "vacation." We were going in with a positive attitude and a whole lot of patience. Although the resort is only 2 hours from our house, we opted to head up Saturday morning and planned to stay just one night.

Mitch had a tee time with a few of my co-workers at 10:50am, so we had the car loaded and kids buckled in by 8am to get there in time. Naturally a morning road trip called for McDonald's breakfast. This is a requirement for any weekend morning commute. The sun was shining the entire drive up so I knew we were in a picture perfect day! 

We dropped Mitch off at the golf course and the kiddos and I were off to check in to our room. After a little room key snafu, we were relaxing in our room nearly an hour later. The woman at the check in desk wrote the wrong room number on our keys, so after unloading the car and dragging the bags and kids to the third floor our keys weren't working. I called up to the front desk and they sent someone up to let us in. A kind man came and opened the door for us. We walked in to find someone else's bags, shoes and beer littering the room. I flagged down the man who let us in and told him the situation. He tried the door across the hall, and sure enough - that was our room! 

I had promised Harper we'd find the park and that's all I heard all morning. "Mom, let's go find the park." "Mom, are we going to the park?" "LET'S GO TO THE PARK!" Patience clearly isn't her thing, but we're working on it. Since it was beautiful outside we decided to walk around in search for a playground. We made a pitstop at the coffee shop for a chocolate muffin and a much needed iced tea for me. Afterwards we found the play area which was placed perfectly at the beach. Harper had a blast playing on the slides, splashing in the water and collecting seashells. 

After nearly 2 hours at the playground, I finally convinced Harper to leave to grab some lunch. We met a few of my co-workers at the bar & grill across the street for burgers and bingo. When they told me there was bingo, I knew I had to go. Grandma Josie would be yelling at me if she knew I passed up a bingo opportunity. Mitch met us there after golf and we spent the afternoon dobbing numbers and hoping to win. I got to yell bingo once, but I happened to win with 7 other people. An $8 win is still a win, I'll take it!

After bingo we headed to our room to get ready for dinner. REACH had planned a nice dinner for all of us and we were looking forward to it. It was great having a delicious dinner and catching up with my co-workers. Even though I've only been gone for 5 weeks, it feels like I've been away for years! That night Mitch insisted I go out with the others while he stayed back with the kiddos. Isn't he wonderful? I had my night out and it was a blast. By 11pm I was yawning but I powered through a bit longer. It was such a fun night and thanks again to Mitch for urging me to go out. Thanks to REACH for another unforgettable outing! We might have to make Breezy Point an annual Helleen tradition!

 

 

 

 

With less than a month left of maternity leave, I realized I still have a lot on my "stay-at-home bucket list." Last Friday it was unusually warm, so we took full advantage of the late September sun and headed to the Minnesota Zoo. Since it's quite a trip for us (nearly an hour) we usually only visit once a year. 

Harper was excited to see all the animals, so was Emmett. :) We walked in and were immediately drawn to the monkeys. They were all very active and a few were extra feisty. I couldn't get over the cuteness of the two babies. My Mom and Harper had to drag me away from the exhibit. After a full day of animals and carrousel rides our zoo trip was a total success. Harper even surprised me and pet the sharks twice at Discovery Bay! At the end of the day, she told me the sharks were her favorite part. I failed to mention that to her godmother Amanda who is completely terrified of sharks! 

 

This past week we continued with a few fun field trips. One unexpected fun visit - Cub Foods. I decided to tackle grocery shopping by myself with both Harper and Emmett. Since Emmett's carseat takes up most of the cart space, I knew Harper would have to walk. If she sat in the cart too, we'd have no room for our groceries. She spotted the "Customer in Training" carts and there was no talking her out of pushing her very own cart. I've never seen someone so eager to throw something into their cart. Those little hands were trying to grab everything! Our trip might have taken nearly an hour and half, but Harper sure had a blast! 

Deb had Wednesday off and asked if we wanted to do something. Due to our failed Science Museum trip a few weeks ago, I thought we'd give that another shot. Harper had never been and we've been reading a lot of "Danny and the Dinosaur" so it seemed fitting. We nearly had the entire museum to ourselves, or is certainly felt like it. I'm used to visiting during busy weekend hours, so it was nice to have wide open spaces for Harper to roam free. She wasn't sure what to check out first. So many things for her to touch, click, flip and play with. I'm not sure if she enjoyed "driving" the tug boat or all the dinosaurs best! We ended our trip with a giant sugar cookie, is there a better end to a fun field trip? 

Mitch and I unexpectedly had a little field trip of our own last week. Mike and Jennie invited us to a pre-season Wild hockey game Monday night. It's not everyday we're offered Wild tickets, so Mitch and I quickly jumped on the offer. My parents came over to hang out with the kiddos for the night while we headed to St. Paul to kick off the hockey season. As usual, we had a blast and it was fun to watch hockey again! I think that makes it official, winter is just around the corner. Socks, hats and coats? I don't think i'm ready for this!

Until next time…

The Helleen's