three bears lodge...

three bears lodge: we headed to brainerd this past weekend to spend some time with the sederholm family. We stayed at the Holiday Inn/Three Bears Lodge Waterpark. The girls had a great time swimming and playing with cousins, Kaytlin and Elana. Here are some pics from the weekend... kaytlin, sophia, livia, and elana (in livia's bunk bed) sitting on the snake

livia walking across (you can just make out bobby and sophia in the pool)

goin' to the zoo, zoo...how about you, you...

goin' to the zoo, zoo...how about you, you: before we headed up north last weekend to stay in duluth, we took a small detour to the minnesota zoo. The weather was mild, but that meant less visitors. We couldn't believe how many animals were close-up and visible when we visited.

Here are some pics from our adventure at the zoo... livia in front of the bald eagle
aren't these flowers beautiful? spring is here...well, it was in the zoo!

our little wolves...

sophia in front of the discovery bay area

wow! and i thought livia had a big mouth ;)

checkin' out the bears in the russian grizzly coast

we actually saw this bear corral, catch, and eat this live fish...

that was a first for the withers family!

me with my girls...

in tiki town...

in tiki town: the withers family took a trip to duluth this past weekend. We left Friday morning and arrived in Duluth in the afternoon. To pass the time in the morning before we could check-in at the hotel, we visited the Minnesota Zoo (I will include those photos a little bit later). Our trip was memorable, to say the least...here are some of the highlights from our trip. and we're off!

the view from our balcony at the edgewater resort and waterpark

the girls each had their own bed and room...

daddy with the girls at the waterpark on friday afternoon

on friday evening we decided to eat at the duluth cafe because we had seen it featured on "diners, drive-ins & dives". the food was awesome and the banana dessert with homemade custard was delicious (also featured on triple d)!

we took a trip to the duluth aquarium on saturday morning

the girls in the treehouse at the aquarium (pre - sophia meltdown)

livia decided she wanted her picture taken with the moose (yay for me, since i LOVE taking pictures of my family)

this is actually picture #4 with the moose, since livia also wanted a picture with her holding each leg...she cracks me up!

sophia with the moose

after having supper at grandma's, we bought some caramel apples at the rocky mountain candy shoppe and brought them back to our hotel

sophia with tiki tina and livia with tiki tom (sunday morning right went the waterpark opened at 8am...daylight savings time!)

the look of pure JOY!

--------------------------

i guess we decided that 60% of our family trip was AWESOME, but 40% was AWFUL; hopefully we will look back at this trip and the difficult moments with Sophia will fade away and nothing but the memorable times will remain vivid. I am still sad to see my Spring Break over, but I know I have many more special memories to be made with my girls and Bobby! To be continued...

lobsterfest...

lobsterfest: every time we go to the grocery store we always need to stop by and see the lobster tank. Our friend, Steve, is always willing to let the girls see and "play" with the lobsters for sale. Because of that, Livia has been infatuated with buying one (Steve says we should keep it as a pet and put it in the bathtub), cooking it, and eating it. I was against the whole thing, so Bobby decided to compromise. Sunday evening we headed into the cities to eat at Red Lobster for Lobsterfest. Here are some pictures from our excursion... in front of the lobster tank at red lobster

could this be the lucky lobster?

Livia did try a piece of Bobby's lobster, but quickly replied, "I don't like it". Probably a good thing we went to the restaurant instead of buying one from the grocery store!

Bobby did report that is was "delicious"...