Just a little mini-post :) Dave and I enjoyed some time away last week. We stayed at Cove Point Lodge in Beaver Bay, MN. It was about 4 miles past Split Rock Lighthouse. My sister stayed with Carson and we got some much needed R&R. We drove up on Tuesday morning, got into Duluth and decided to try the aquarium. I must say I was terribly disappointed. It was so expensive to get in and it was basically some tanks with some trout and stuff. Nothing worth writing home about or worth the $15.00 a piece admission!!
Once we got up to the hotel, we ate a late lunch and walked out on the hotel's mini-trail out to the rocky point that you can see from the hotel. It was an easy little hike and funny enough out on the rocks was the only place my cell phone got reception! In the hotel I had no service! :)
On Wednesday we drove up to Cascade Falls, Temperance River and Grand Marais. We did a bit of hiking at Cascade Falls but it was so beautiful there. The weather was wonderful too. I wore long pants and tank tops and was comfortable! We were lucky with 70's and only about 20 minutes of rain on Wednesday afternoon after we got back to the hotel!
On Thursday we had a little more relaxing day. We hung around the hotel in the morning, went canoeing, and just relaxed and then drove down to Split Rock Lighthouse and Gooseberry Falls. I was surprised at how low the river and falls were at Gooseberry. I was also surprised at the amount of people swimming there! The water was so cold! My very good friend Nikki and her family happened to be up in Duluth on Thursday/Friday and we met them at Gooseberry so that was fun.
Friday was our day to leave. We got on the road fairly early and then stopped in Duluth to tour the Glensheen Mansion. I can't believe how big that place was! I'm so glad that places like that are restored and available to tour. Even if it was quite spendy. The history in an estate like that is priceless! I was impressed with the knowledge of our guide and the length of the tour. It was an hour and a half! I was curious to see if they would bring up the murders at all, as I've been told they're allowed to speak about them now but our guide did not. I was tempted to ask but there were 2 children in our group of 10 and if Carson was old enough to be touring I wouldn't want it brought up. No need to have that be the thing they remember most about the tour or give them any sort of nightmares. The place can be creepy!We got home in the early afternoon and were exhausted for the next few days. I'm glad we had 2 days at home to recover before Dave had to go back to work.
In other news, I'm now almost 22 weeks pregnant. Dave and I have just started our first birthing class. We're taking classes on The Bradley Method. So we'll have class once a week for 12 weeks running into November. I'm just now getting to the point of feeling movement every day and even from the outside. I feel like I look huge but if I compare pictures to when I was pregnant with Carson I look almost exactly the same if not a bit smaller now so I guess I'm right on track!
We had our 20 week ultrasound a few weeks ago, I was almost tempted to find out the sex of the baby but held strong! All in all, everything looks good and healthy. All measurements were spot on and baby had all healthy vital organs. So we're happy with that!
Carson is really picking up his vocabulary. Every day he puts together a longer sentence or says something that catches me by surprise. My favorite thing he says right now is "I guess so". If you ask him if he wants to do something like eat dinner he'll say: "Um, I guess so" and he says it all so casually it's so funny.Right before we left for Duluth, my good friend Cassie took some family pictures for us! Being laid off hasn't afforded me the luxury of family photos and I really wanted some updated ones and something good for the Christmas card. She's extremely talented but lives out of state so we were lucky to snag her while she was here. She's only given me a 'teaser' photo so far but I'm in love with it! I can't wait to see how the rest turned out.
OK well that's my update for now. I'll leave you with a photo from our last night in Duluth, there was a full moon over the lake. Couldn't have asked for a better time!!
This is the HR measurement 178 BPM