Luff you

The past 5 days Braxton had a 102 fever due to teething. Today he seems to have gotten his spunk back. This morning we played outside and he climbed on top of his cart in the most death-defying way (without falling...yet)!

What else has been going on? My mom gave Braxton her old phone to play with. Now Braxton can be seen running around the house repeatedly saying "hi" and "buh-bye" into the phone. Another phrase that we've been trying to get Braxton to say is "I love you". The learning is slow going and the conversations always go something like this:

Parent: Braxton, say "I"
Braxton: "I"

Parent: Say "Love"

Braxton: "You"

Parent: No Braxton, say "Love"

Braxton: "Luff"

Parent: Good job. Say "I"

Braxton: "I"

Parent: Say "Love"

Braxton: "You"

.....My goodness this phrase has been a tough one to learn!

North Shore Trip

This week we spent two nights at the North Shore of Lake Superior with Brock's brother Brent, his wife Teresa, and their two boys Brandon and Bradford. We piled all seven people along with all of the luggage into the van (something Brock and Brent were very proud of!) Here is the first photo of the trip ... a shot of Brandon & Bradford in the backseat of the van. We stopped at Gooseberry Falls on the way to our campsite. Here are a few Gooseberry shots. Next we went to the trailer home we rented (it's white and you can see it peeking out of the treeline in the middle of the photo to the left of the white "cross on the hill".)

Here are a few photos at the campsite. The next day we went to Temperance River State Park and hiked. [Brock wants to say that...except for the steps leading up through the steepest parts, Braxton walked the WHOLE way...which was about a mile up and back].

After hiking, we drove up to Grand Marais for coffee and donuts and to check out the shops (didn't buy anything but we saw a water airplane land...which was very cool). Then we went back to our campsite to fly kites, throw rocks into the water, and play catch with a football on the beach [the first photo shows the very first time that Braxton has ever flown a kite!]

Braxton loved running and playing on the beach and dealt well with the rocky shoreline. Here is the one video we have from the trip -- a video of Brock playing football on the beach with his nephew Brandon and Braxton.

Here is the last photo from our camera...a shot of Brock relaxing in the trailer with his nephews (and a cool, wet towel on his head after sunburning the top of his head).

Two little fish

Yesterday Braxton and I went swimming Braxton's Aunt De, her daughter-in-law Lauren, and granddaughter Avery. We had fun in the sun! Here are a few photos of the littles in action. This last photo shows Braxton exhausted, half-asleep and gripping his cup of Cheerios after a hard day of swimming!

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3 videos

This weekend was really rough with one crabby, teething boy and two crabby, sleep-deprived parents (and one missed trip to Sandstone to see my sister, her family, and my mom). Luckily I have 3 cute videos taken last week to show you. Enjoy!

Crazy Reality

There is a whole lot of messy, dirty reality that doesn't often show up on the blog. So--here is some crazy reality!

1. Braxton was holding a water bottle while balancing on top of his toy cart. When he fell, he was very startled by the cold water pouring on him and his clothes got soaked....it was a cold, hard lesson.2. This next photo happened when Brock and I took Braxton to the beach last month. We were swimming and smelled a horrible stench. Brock said, "geez, this beach smells terrible" and a few minutes later we realized that it was our kid's dirty diaper that smelled so nasty. Brock changed the diaper (Brock is really helpful with that!) and let him run free since no one else was around. Is our kid really naked at the beach AND peeing directly in the lake!!!???

3. Simple moments. Braxton learned to balance things on his head this week. Cute, eh?

4. Braxton normally loves to practice counting and saying abc's. He loves to say the numbers 13 and 14. His counting usually goes 1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10,13,14,15,16. However, on this particular day he had been counting really well and I ran to get the camera. Once I had the camera ready he was acting crazy and missing the numbers he normally says perfectly....and as we counted when we got to the number 13 he just started saying "pee-pee" over and over. Um, that's was not a good...nor was it good that I laughed out loud when he did it.

4th of July

This weekend we went to the Lakeville fireworks festivities which had live jazz in a big grassy field. While we were there a Blackhawk Helicopter landed for everyone to tour. Braxton got to sit in it and even touch the propeller.

Fourth of July 2010 Family Photo

Video of Braxton dancing to the Jazz

This weekend we also went to the Apple Valley "Family Fun Night" carnival. The petting zoo had llamas, sheep, and horses but Braxton was more interested in climbing on the stroller than watch animals...but he did participate in a Song Extravaganza and won a blue bead necklace for dancing to the Miley Cyrus song "Party in the USA". To beat the blistering heat Braxton also got to taste his first fair food....ice cold lemonade!

Backyard

Last weekend our weather was crazy...we went from very cold to really hot overnight. In a coat one day and shirtless the next day. Here are some photos of Braxton eating cereal in the backyard and a video of him playing with water.