Anika's Trip to the North Shore with Grandma and Grandpa Freeman

Each fall, the Freemans go to the North Shore for a long weekend, to take in the colors, enjoy the cool breeze off of Lake Superior, and to relax.  Naps are had, Trivial Pursuit is played ad nauseam, and the great outdoors are enjoyed.  This was our first year with Anika, and it was an absolute treat.   

This is Anika on morning one, ready and raring to go.  She is as happy and giggly as it gets first thing in the morning.

Anika with Grandpa, checking out the great Lake Superior for the first time.  She loves her grandpa.

Anika with mama at the lake after her breakfast of kiwi and cantelope . . . mmmmmmmmm.

Anika is happy again after her first diaper change in the wild.  We had to pull over and utilize a picnic area to do our work, right in the middle of our tour of the fall colors.

The fall colors are exquisite!  Hopefully, all of Anika's exposure to maple leaves don't turn her into a Canadian defector.

Along our tour of the Superior National Forest we stumbled across a maple syrup store.  It is for Wild Country Maple Syrup, the largest maple syrup distributor in the state.  It takes over 60 miles of interconnected tubing to gather all of the maple syrup they produce each year.  Amazingly, this little store uses the honor system.  No employees.  Maple syrup for the taking and a little pay station to leave your money.  Incredible!

Anika was equally amazed that the honor system still exists.  She wanted us to get as much syrup as we could carry.

Enjoying the view from the VIP seats.

Anika with Nana in her red riding hood sweater, ready for day two

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Anika taking in the beautiful blue sky at Grand Marais in between sorting out flat skipping rocks for Alicia and I.  Next year she'll be skipping them all by herself!

Back Again--Anika's Educational Regimen

The disgruntled fan mail has been pouring in over the last two months:

• "get off your lazy butt and give us more Anika"
• you're just like every other blogger on the planet; over-promising and under-delivering"
• we're strongly considering deleting Pure Joy from our favorites and going back to watching" You Tube videos of shells named Marcel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF9-sEbqDvU)"

The fans have been heard and are in for an extra dose or two of Anika this week.  The following is a smattering of recent Anika sightings as she nurtures her inner child prodigy.   

Dad and Anika at the Minnesota Zoo together for the first time.  Anika is such a frequent guest (family pass!) that the poparazzi slink around at the Zoo hoping to see her. 

They are most likely to see Anika inspecting the tropical fish.  The fish are Anika's favorite because she can get so close to them (and because Alicia has been taking her to the local fish store since she was born).  She's already asking for scuba gear and tickets to the Great Barrier Reef for Christmas.

Anika was really mesmerized by the penguins and their jumping, and swimming, and squeaking.  Unfortunately, she was terrified by all of the running, laughing, and squealing little kids who were equally energized by the penguins. 

Can you believe all of these crazy and wild kids at the zoo?!  Who are these kids' parents and what are they feeding them?!  Is this where they make you go if you don't learn how to use an inside voice?

When Anika isn't at the zoo studying to be a zoologist, she's back at home tickling the ivories.  There's no rest if you're a nine-month old under Mrs. Freeman's watch. 

Getting after it Ludwig-van-Beethoven style.  Clearly, Alicia has her playing tarantella in preparation for the pre-teen division Minnesota State Fair talent show.

Then, after she's finished warming up, she moves on to more difficult music.

Every once in a while, Tiger Mom tells Anika that she can go outside and play, and Anika is downright shocked.

After hours of learning at the zoo and playing the piano, Anika picks the lazy-baby form of recreation . . .

. . . and makes me push.

Experiencing Northern Minnesota--Anika's First Vacation

After a summer of hard work, this week our family finally got some much needed rest and vacation time. Stacey, my best friend and teammate from Yale, drove up from Oklahoma City with his lovely bride, Ronna, and their daughter, Lydia. We all piled into the Baumans' mini-van and headed to a cozy resort called Kavanaugh's, in the Brainerd lakes area. It was great fun, and we all got a first-hand glimpse into what life might be like with two kids.  It was pretty much all crazy all the time.   

As you can see, Lydia is 6 months more advanced than Anika, and had lots to teach her. Anika was mesmerized by her constant toddling around. Hopefully, she picks up Lydia's walking skills but chooses not to model her almost-nudist fashion sense (based on my time rooming with Stacey on the road, I'm pretty sure she gets this from her Dad).

Clearly none of us understand how to pack economically with small children. All this for a three-day trip! We would've needed a trailer had we gone longer. At least the car ride was short. The babes did great in the back seat, and the adults only had to suffer through about 30 minutes of Itsy Bitsy Spider and other assorted songs from Baby Einstein.

Each morning, Anika and I got up early, gave Mom time to sleep in, and sat out by the lake together. I was not entertainment enough by myself (hence the rings), but the time was priceless--a great time and place to rest and read my Bible.

Our activities at the lake were somewhat limited by nap times, baby-feeding, baby-changing, and everything else that goes with bringing little ones on vacation. But in our short windows of awake-time, we made sure that Anika and Lydia got in some solid, northwoods recreation.

This is Anika getting ready for her big paddle-boat ride. We put her in the smallest life-vest they had, which probably would have popped up off of her head in a matter of seconds. Alicia assured me that we had no need to worry because the water was so clear that we'd be able to see her at the bottom if anything were to happen. This was supposed to be comforting. As you can see by Anika's conquering-the-world pose, Anika was a fearless trooper and gung-ho to take to the water.

This is Anika doing her best two-legged Captain Ahab impression.  All she could talk about was finding the great white whale. Alicia was relegated to Anika's first mate, Starbuck. I suppose that made me Ishmael.

In addition to paddle-boat cruising, we made sure to hit the pool. Hardly natural northern-Minnesota recreation, but the heated pool water was hard to beat. This is Anika modeling her least-dorky sun hat and getting ready for some swimming.

Anika's frog pose. I've been trying to teach her "ribbit," but I think she's holding out to make "ma-ma" her first word.

Stace and Lydia goofing around.

Anika continues to put on her serious face whenever we're in the water. I don't think she trusts it quite yet. She must get her risk-aversion from grand-pappy Freeman.

Next it was time for Anika's first motorized boat ride. Despite my best efforts to exceed five miles per hour, the paddle boat wasn't fast enough for Anika's taste. The pontoon boat was much more to Anika's liking.

Mom whispering whale-catching secrets to Anika.

Ms. Lydia checking out the boat controls and making sure her Dad is driving the boat correctly.

Anika looking stupefied after her first sighting of the big white whale.  Guess we'll have to go back and try again next year.