Labor Day?

I definitely did not labor this Labor Day weekend. I mean, it's technically not even Labor Day yet, but I am pretty sure there will be no hard work tomorrow either. Not that I ever really "labor" in my work. I have digressed. Ahem. All that to say, I pretty much did the exact opposite of labor this weekend. Steve gave me the great gift of having the opportunity to have a couple nights and a whole entire day to myself this last week. As an introvert and a wife and mother of two young people, time alone is something that I covet. I love nap times and after the girls go to bed at night. This is why I stay up way too late so many nights, because I just need some time to not be on anybody's clock but my own.

I had Wednesday and Thursday nights (after work) all to myself and I took all of Friday off, just to have the first day all to myself in over three years. It was fabulous. I mentioned that I was alone in my previous post, the one with the adorable video of my girls singing to me that I have probably watched about 100 times by now. I was really truly alone and it was really truly so great. I feel very rested.

I missed my family a ton though, so I headed up to my mom and dad's a little early on Friday night to be able to see the girls before they went to bed. On Saturday all four of us, Steve, Tryn, Berlin, and me, got to be together for a whole entire day. This is also something that is very rare in our family. I work weekdays, Steve works weekends, if either of us have time off it is usually because we need to do something else - not just hang out together as a family. I think the last day that the four of us were together all day long was Memorial Day at the beginning of summer, and that was just for the day, not even for the weekend. So it was really truly the greatest weekend that I can remember in a long time.

AND, we actually got a family photo of the four of us!! I mean, we actually need to take the time to really do this sometime soon, maybe take a shower first, think about our hair, and not be wearing just whatever was still clean in the suitcase, but our last family picture was taken about 18 months ago when Berlin was a few days old...so even if both of the girls look ticked and we look a little mish-mashed, at least we have something documenting that the four of us really do live together, love each other, and belong together!

Tryn and I are oh, so carefully looking over the edge of some rocks at a waterfall. I told her that we needed to be careful and she just kept saying, "Why? Why?" I might have pulled out the nervous mom answer, "Because I said so, that's why."

Ooo! And Steve and I got another picture together too! We have a camera with us all the time it seems, but we apparently have a hard time taking pictures of anything but the kids.



Me and my sister Kristy. She is almost halfway through her first pregnancy, she looks fabulous. When I stand next to her I feel as though I should be saying that I am halfway through a pregnancy too...only, I am not.


Haha!! Steve had Tryn pose for this picture and told her that we were taking a princess picture of her. When I asked her today if she remembered taking the princess picture the other day she said, "Yeah! Mom, are you gonna put that on your blog?" I kid you not. I don't even know how she knows what my blog is. I obliged, of course.

After we trekked around Jay Cooke State Park with my mom and sister, Steve and I took the girls to Canal Park in Duluth. It was fun to walk around the place where I worked every day for over a year. We let the girls wade in Lake Superior. It was fun, but that water is never warm! The girls didn't seem to mind all that much though.


Heehee! This picture of Berlin just cracks me up!! My girls have this crazy ability to just lift their legs up really high, they are very flexible. That's all she is doing here. Just sitting on the rocky beach, lifting her leg up, just because :) She also really loves to do this while she is sitting in her carseat.

So beautiful.

It was a busy day! Oh, and Berlin really likes to use her arm rests on her carseat as leg rests instead.


What did you do this weekend? :)