Family Vacation - Day 1

Today is Day one of our vacation to the North Shore of Lake Superior.  We have had so much fun so far today!  We got up to Duluth in about 2 hours.  You can get there pretty fast going 80 most of the way.  ;-)  We stopped at a Rest Stop on the South side of Duluth where the kids were able to get out and stretch and run around.  It was a good break for mom and dad too.  It was fun until it was time to put Micah in the car.  He kicked and scratched because he didn't want to get back in.  Let me back up by saying that he has never been a fan of really long car rides and this qualifies as one of those.  Today is also, not only mother's day but his 2nd birthday.  So I guess he's entitled to fuss and cry if he wants too, but kicking and scratching isn't okay.  

So we finally got him in the car and we drove to the Duluth aquarium where for $8 more than the admission for our family we became members.   We walked around that and explored for a little while.  The kids had a blast looking at the fish and touching the lake sturgeon and freshwater stingray.  They even have a toy model of the great lakes system and boats for the kids to sail in the water.  It was all good and fun until Micah decided he was going to step into the water and walk, with his shoes on!  All's well that ends well though.  His shoe was barely wet and his pants dried pretty quickly.  

Next stop, lunch.  We grabbed lunch to go at McDonalds and went to a park right on the shore to eat.  The kids had fun throwing rocks in the lake and Micah slept in the car the whole time.  Kenan said he was making a rock home for the fishies by throwing the rocks into the lake.  This time also ended with a kid ( the 4 year old) slipping and his foot landed in a puddle.  Soaked his whole shoe, and sock and pants.  We just walked to the car and changed his soaking wet sock.  I never would've guessed that we'd need extra shoes on our trip.  :-)

Our next stop was Gooseberry Falls.  The kids picked out souvenirs and we went walking down the falls.  Micah had fun, except when he saw a dog on the path.  Usually he would turn and head the opposite direction away from the dog if it was coming toward him.  To me, that was the best part of the day!  

Finally we drove to our hotel.  Our hotel has a 110' water slide, and a mini water slide.  We got in and settled, ordered pizza for dinner then finally the moment the kids all waited for!  The Water slide!  They had a blast.  Kenan isn't tall enough to go down the big water slide but he was just as content with the mini water slide that looked like a frog.  Kenan was so excited to go swimming that he jumped into the kiddie pool with his shoes on!  We were all like "Kenan!  You have to take your shoes off."  He said "oh"  What a silly guy.  I think he will have soaking wet shoes for the rest of the weekend.  They are next to the fireplace right now.  Hopefully, *fingers crossed* they will dry really well overnight.  The hardest part was settling Micah down for the night.  He learned he can pull his mattress up from the pack n play and he just didn't want to settle down.  He had a hard and stressful day considering he is quite timid when it comes to new situations.  He was really tired and wanted to go to sleep and finally he settled down and fell asleep.  

Tomorrow is a new day full of exploration and adventure.  I will post a link to the pictures when I get them up.  I will put them on Facebook and post a link to see the pictures because there are just too many to post on here.  Until next, Have a good night!