Winter Carnival

Delanie and I had so much fun at the Winter Carnival.  We drove to Saint Paul and walked around for hours.  Kudos to us for braving the below zero weather (no joke!).  :)

An entire park was dedicated to ice sculptures and another was full of snow art.  This one was my favorite.  It's a six feet tall statue of a piano lesson.  Every detail was so clear.....even the teacher's eyelashes!

Minnesota is the home of Charles Schulz (creator of the Peanuts cartoon) so there are statues everywhere!

Tubing

Since we are supposed to get six inches of snow today - on May 1st!! - I thought I would share our tubing adventure with you.  :)

Elm Creek Park Reserve is about five minutes away from our house so we went exploring a few weeks ago.  There are tons of things to do there:  tubing, skiing, hiking, snowshoeing, etc.

Check out the video....

Can you tell that Delanie was tired of having a camera shoved in her face?  One of these days she's gonna appreciate looking back at these memories! :)

Thankfully we didn't have to trudge up the mountain after sledding down.  There was a lift that we could ride! :)

Yep, this is my husband! Sorry ladies, he's taken!! :)

Calendar

To celebrate the upcoming year, I created a calendar with some of my favorite photos from 2012.  It took FOREVER but I really like the way it turned out. 

What do you think??

Already April

My first post of 2013!  The time got away from me......I can't believe it's already April.  It's been crazy at the Richardson house. I have so much to tell you! :)

Let's start off by welcoming in the new year. 

Duluth

Who needs to travel to the Connecticut to see the Fall colors?  Jim, Delanie and I drove two hours north to see the Fall foliage in Duluth.  It was spectacular!  :)  Duluth is located on the edge of Lake Superior and the views are seriously incredible. 

We had to drive through several of these tunnels that were carved into the rocky coast......a little nerve-racking!  It actually reminded me of the tunnels in New Orleans and Detroit.  Thankfully there was no water dripping this time!

Since we were already in Duluth, we drove an extra forty five minutes north to see Gooseberry Falls.  This waterfall was one of Tracey & Doug's favorite spots when they came to visit last Summer.  Now I know why!  Even though the waterfall was running low due to the high Summer temperatures, it was still a sight to see.  The picture of Delanie shows where the water would have been in a normal state. 

On the way back from Gooseberry Falls, we took a detour to see the Twin Harbors Lighthouse.  I bet we saw 100 deer on the road to the light house.  It was like a petting zoo!  They didn't might us gawking at them one bit. 

The Twin Harbors Lighthouse was incredible!  I've never seen a lighthouse in person before.  This one was so majestic......we were awestruck.  What a responsibility these beacons have!

This is the bridge going into Duluth's harbor.  The middle section of the bridge raises and lowers to allow the freighters into the harbor.  Duluth operates a high-volume shipping industry.  It was pretty cool to hear the freighters honk their horn as a "thank you" to the drawbridge operator. 

OK, I know this photo is seriously cheesy but I have to take advantage of Delanie's hugs as they come.  As she gets older, they are fewer and farther between! :)

This was such a great weekend trip!  Well, at least until Saturday night.  Jim had been restless all day and finally, around 9pm, admitted to having stomach pain.  As it turns out, the poor guy had kidney stones!  My husband can handle some serious pain.  The only time he let it show was Sunday morning before we headed home.  We ended up in the local Emergency Room that night!

Delanie checking out the biggest of the Great Lakes - Lake Superior. 

Jimbo

Isn't he just the cutest thing you've ever seen?!?!?!

She's got talent!

Delanie's Fall band concert was awesome!  She continues to amaze me with her talent.  This time she played FIVE instruments! :)