Friese~Party of 5

Monday, April 2, 2012

A weekend--AWAY--just the 2 of us!

My Thanks go out to CrowdCut.com and to my in-laws for making this weekend possible! The beginning of February I saw an ad on CrowdCut (a national/local discount website) for 50% off a 2 night stay up in Lutsen, MN. Since our birthdays are both in February and we don't usually buy each other gifts I thought this would be a great present to both of us--a weekend away!
So, I bought the deal and then we checked with Tim's parents to see if the kids could come down there for the few days we would be gone. We chose to go right away during the girls' spring break and we couldn't have asked for a nicer weekend. The kids enjoyed being down on the farm in the unusually warm 70-80 mid March weather and because they were outside so much it helped tucker them all out and make bedtime and the whole weekend go super smooth for Tim's parents! (That means that they will open to doing this again for us sometime!!)

We left the cities around 10am on Friday (3/16) and enjoyed a fairly light traffic drive up to Duluth. We were hungry by the time we got up there and so we decided to use a gift card for Buffalo Wild Wigs that Tim had been given for his birthday! Hmmm...I love B-dubs--especially when just Tim and I can go and take our time and enjoy some good food and wings!!

After lunch we headed down to Canal Park just to walk around and see what was going on! Well, much to our surprise the first ship of the season was going to be leaving port within the hour! Sweet!! It's always fun to see a ship go through there and for it to be the first of the season was kind of fun!

Onward now to Lutsen! We couldn't check into our Villa until 4, so we didn't mind taking our time getting going from Duluth. I had never been past Gooseberry Falls and it was such a fun a pretty drive, but maybe one of the longest 90 mile stretches with the windy roads and having to slow down to 45 for every little town we went through. Oh, well--still fun!
Our Villa was super cute and perfect for a weekend getaway and the first thing out of my mouth upon entering the villa was how much the kids would love the loft area! So -- next time-- and I do mean -- next time-- the kids will come with and we will stay for 4 nights instead of 2!! ( I can't wait!!).

The Villa
We were in a 1-story and it was perfect and cute!

The view of the kitchen right as you enter from the front door.

Standing by the table and patio doors.

Sitting area.
The couch opens up into a bed and so this little Villa could sleep 7 people!
However, check out the steep ladder that goes up to the loft...yikes!

The cute loft. Perfect for the 3M's!

Ahh...a fire! So nice while we watched some NCAA basketball

We enjoyed most of our meals up in Grand Marais. The funniest story is our first night was a Friday night and so we thought "Fish Fry"!! So, we find a little cute restaurant in GM -- the Bluewater Cafe, walk in at 6:45pm and yes all you can eat fish fry...BUT they are all out and they close at 7pm---WHAT?!!! Oh, well...I had a club sandwhich, Tim had the Tuna Melt and they were both great! We enjoyed a nice walk down to the river after that and then a pretty drive back to Lutsen with a beautiful sunset ahead of us!

Grand Marais

So, beautiful!

We spent most of Saturday hiking Cascade Mountain just north of Lutsen and then back to Grand Marais and hiking along the shoreline and around the Coast Guard/Border Patrol shoreline. I had my pedometer on and on our hike up and around the Cascade Mountain we logged over 9,000 steps in about 2.5 hours! I had a walking stick which was good because some parts of the mountain were still covered in snow and I would've surely taken a "digger" at somepoint!!

CASCADE MOUNTAIN HIKE

Part of the hiking trail
-Cascade Mountain-

My Man being funny...or something!

A man-made bridge in the middle of the wilderness--not very natural!

At one of the scenic points we found this. So cool. That
table isn't going anywhere!

Around one of the turns we found this beautiful frozen lake off in the distance! We are pretty sure that that is Cascade Lake and just so beautiful! If we had more energy we wouldn't continued our trek to try and hike to it--next time!

GRAND MARAIS HIKE

I just love the "up north" shorelines and even watching the fog roll in--awesome!

My first panoramic with the camera!
Kind of washed out...but being able to only see water as far as you look is so neat!

I could sit and listen to the waves roll onto the shore & rocks all day--so relaxing so calming--just what we needed!

Well, we enjoyed a couple more great meals--Saturday was 3/17--so St. Patrick's day! The little cafe we had lunch in was all decked out for the celebration and served up some good food! Tim had a Reuben and I had some Fish-n-chips! Then for dinner we went to the Pub which was connected the Resort that we were staying at. Awesome Beef stew was my choice and Tim had a "Winter" Salad that he said was great!

We enjoyed a fire in our fireplace for the last night and watched some basketball! Tim and I are both thankful we each love to watch some good "hoops"!!

Sunday was time to head out and we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and a little fog rolled in shortly after!

Soo beautiful!

Here comes the fog, but it's beautiful!

After we checked out we were wondering what to do, maybe where to hike and well Tim has always talked about Temperance River and how his family would go there every year and well, I said--let's hike it then! I had never been hiking around there either!! Oh, was it fun and pretty. The Falls were amazing. So neat to see and feel their power--wow, what is Niagara like?? It was a great way to end our little weekend away!

Temperance opening up into Lake Superior.
It was so cool to see the waves "roll in" as the water from the river went "out"!

The bottom of the falls

Somewhere in the middle!!

Towards the top of the falls!

Me and my Love!

It's hard to believe that I'm writing this almost 3 weeks after the fact! What a fun getaway it was. We need to do this once a year, not once every 4 or 5 years!! But we both agree that the next time we go up north we will take the kids. They would've loved the Villa & loft and being right on the Lake and being able to go throw rocks in whenever they wanted! Oh, they could all spend hours just throwing rocks in and have a blast doing it!

There's just something about being on the Lake that does make you relax and feel calm and for Tim and I just to be by ourselves--no schedule--was so nice!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Basketball in the driveway--in March!!

No complaints here of our apparent early Spring and we are taking full advantage!! We are getting outside and enjoying our new basketball hoop that we bought in November!! Malia had a fun first season of basketball this past Nov-Jan and I am thoroughly enjoying playing HORSE and someday "shoot for a quarter" like my dad and I used to do. (Although it usually ended up being "shoot for a blizzard @ DQ!!" Thanks Dad for all those treats!! ha ha)

Marshall loves hoops, too!

Morgan getting in on the action!!

Nice form little buddy!!

Nice shot Malia!!

Suprisingly--Morgan has some "ups" & nice form, too!! (She also found her "sweet spot" and kept shooting from there....over and over and over and over....at least that's how Malia described it!)

Love her...she wasn't too into me taking her picture---hence, no teeth in this "smile"!

Marshall B taking a break & cheering his sisters on!

Nice Shot Malia!

Snow - well a little of snow!

What a different winter we had here in Minnesota (use your best "up nort" accent with that!)! We had snow, yes, but not as much as usual! So when we did finally get snow we made sure to enjoy it!! There is something so pure and cleansing about a good snowstorm that blankets us in pure white!

From pure white and pretty---to CRAZY...welcome the Friese Trio of 2012! Our neighbors joke with us that we hibernate all winter because they don't "see", but all they need to do is look at our yard & hill and they'll see the proof of 3 little munchkins ruling this roost!

Malia's snow-girl!! Waving as the neighbors drive passed!

Morgan wanted her snow-girl to be super happy...no eyes, just fun eyebrows!

And of course...what is a good snowman-making session without a good snow in your face fight?!! Somehow Morgan escaped! (Or did she start it and then get away??)

A day at the Zoo!

I know most people think of summer and sunshine when they think of going to the zoo....well, we are not normal!! For Christmas my parents gave us a year membership to the zoo!! I'm excited to use this membership again and again throughout this year...and it doesn't clutter my walk-ways, the kids' floor!! (I am going to love this!!)
Malia's highlight is of course the WILD African horses!!
Morgan wished there would've been some Panda's--her current animal obsession!
Marshall LOVED all of it, but mostly thanks God (every time he gets to pray) for letting him see the SHARKS!

My highlight--a day with the kids, fairly nice weather for February and that we can go again and again and enjoy the zoo in every season!

Monday, February 20, 2012

2 More Birthdays in February!!

February is quite the month at our house!
First we celebrate Malia's birthday on the 11th....then we celebrate Tim's birthday on the 12th...and then on Valentines Day we celebrate my birthday! Of course we focus on Malia--because that's what we do as parents! And by now...it's okay to take the focus off of how old Tim & I are getting and just have fun celebrating each new thing with the kids!! (I know...we are so ancient!!)

Tim's birthday landed on a Sunday this year and it happened to be a very busy Sunday for the Friese household! We teach Jr Church at our church every 2nd Sunday of the month and well, the 12th of Feb was the 2nd Sunday of the month!! It happens that our church just went to doing 2 services each Sunday morning and so that meant we stay for both services and teach at both services! Sunday night we also happened to be scheduled to be in the Nursery during the evening activities at church and then we had also had friends over for lunch!

So, yes...a little nutso for the birthday boy! So, I gave Tim the "day off" from all of those and taught the Jr Church's and then arranged to have my friend Sarah be in the nursery with me so that Tim and a bunch of his buddies from church could hang out and grab some wings at the local Green Mill!

Tim had a great time with the guys and our Pastor even ended up over there with them, which was fun, too. Tim enjoyed his day, even though he said he indulged a little too much during the gathering at Green Mill! I forget how many wings they ordered...but it was a lot!!

I'm so thankful for Tim!! I wouldn't have my precious family without him. I'm so thankful for how God brought us together 13 years ago. Thankful how God has kept us together and blessed us with Malia, Morgan & Marshall. Every day is definitely a new day--I didn't say an easy day--but God's promises are also new every morning and His blessings tremendous when we keep our hearts & minds stayed on Him!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

And now Valentine's Day! My Birthday!

It's tricky having a birthday on Valentine's Day! (Just ask Tim...He's learned---the hard way!! ha ha!!)

Beautiful

Well, It was a busy workweek for me--busier than normal and I am not complaining...so thankful to have a great job with great coworkers and bosses! I came home from work on Monday to 2dozen roses!! It was sweet! Tim had been home all day with the Marshall-Monster and had ordered those ahead of time--he was thinking!!

In a couple weeks we are headed up north for a much needed weekend--AWAY!! I'm so happy to have all these discount websites at our disposal!! Like Groupon, Living Social and Crowd-Cut. I bought a Crowd-Cut deal for a halfprice stay up in Lutsen--SWEET!!! (however, gas will probably skyrocket, so the savings from the discounted deal will be put towards the fuel to get up there!!)

I just realized that Tim & I didn't get a picture of us on our birthdays...I guess we will have to do that! Maybe when we finally can get out for a birthday dinner we will get someone to snap our photo!!

Praying that this year will be a great year for us, a year of blessings--not just those showered on us, but that we can be a blessing to those around--that our kids will always see Christ in us and that we can grow as a family in the ways of the Lord!

♥Sara

Malia Renae--9 years old!

February 11th! The day my beautiful Malia turned 9! 9----already! It's so incredible and so is she!!!
What a fun birth-"day" she had too! On Friday the 10th it was "birthday lunch with Principal Good" day and so that was a great way to start the celebratory weekend for Miss Malia! She enjoyed her lunch with him and was chatty--according to herself! She also took in some birthday cookies for her class and then passed out the extras to the "office ladies" as she left school for the day!
Saturday started out like a usual birthday morning! Breakfast of choice--cereal hand-picked by the birthday girl! (Mommy can't say no when it comes to the birthday cereal--it's a tradition--a RULE!!)

Flowers for the birthday girl and balloons are also on the table greeting them as they wake up! It's fun to have these traditions! After breakfast we geared up for the party! We hadn't had a birthday party since Malia turned 4 and so this was really special! We invited a few girls from school, a couple from church and then our babysitters daughter who has become a fun friend (And then one of the girls from school brought her sister with --who is Morgan's good friend!!)! The stipulation was that they all had to have an American Girl doll because we were making crafts for their dolls and that was the theme of the day! (If you need ideas for a birthday party with this theme--head to Michael's--they have partnered with AG and have a plethora of fun activities and party favors to choose from!!)

They enjoyed pizza for lunch, decorating their own cupcakes and then making "cake pops"! Cake pops are the latest craze and they enjoyed making them and decorating them! The girls also enjoyed making the headbands and bracelets for their dolls. We packed a lot of fun into 4 hours!!!

Marshall was home with us for all of this and kept coming upstairs telling me how "loud" they were! That was funny coming from the little loud boy himself! He enjoyed having the girls here, though, and enjoyed "bugging" them!

At the end of the day Malia said this was the best birthday ever and thanked me for letting her have such a fun day! It was precious! My heart swells thinking about how much I love her and how thankful I am for my sweet family!