Brainerd Cabin

With Matthew's arrival on February 1, 2010, our Grandview "Brainerd cabin" crew now numbers 19, 11 children and 8 adults. In what has become a yearly tradition, we gathered February 4-7, 2011 in the same unit we shared in 2009 for Super Bowl weekend with the C & K Andersons, the MacIvers (who joined us on Saturday evening from Seattle), and the Wilsons. The schedule is laid-back and simple. The kids wake their sleep deprived parents as early as 5:30 am, with parents pulling out all the stops to keep their kids quiet until at least 6:45 am. The group heads to the main Grandview lodge for an amazing complementary breakfast buffet around 8, followed by a morning of swimming, gleeful screaming down the indoor water slide, and lounging in both warm and hot tubs before returning to the unit for lunch. After naps and quiet time, we took the kids sledding and tubing on the hill right outside our condo. Evenings were spent catching up and playing celebrity and phrase telephone. As an added bonus for Brian, the Packers defeated the Steelers in Super Bowl 45.

On Monday morning we decided to "swing" through Hill City on our way back to the Cities to pay a short visit to Nana Splash, since we were unable to attend the Johnson Christmas gathering over the holidays. My superior navigational skills landed us on a minimally maintained gravel road, AKA county road 19, for an uncomfortably long leg of the trip. The boys played with Lovie while Adam and I chatted with Nana and her dear friend, Pete, about Nana's recent trip to Cabo. Lovie hid one of Nolan's socks, which delayed our departure. Nolan's recount of Lovie's exploits was re-ignited mid-week when he opened a letter Nana sent, which contained Lovie's contraband.

"Cole, COLE" (cold)...Lovie snuggles with MommyCheck out that billiards form!
9 kiddos...the final count once the MacIvers arrived was 11: 4, 2 and under (Nate, Bennett, Nolan, and Matthew) an 11, 8 and under (Elise, Heidi, Betsy, Collin, Mitchell, Aaron, and Eva). From bottom moving clockwise, Elise, Collin, Heidi, Nate, Bennett, Mitchell, Aaron, Nolan, and Betsy.
Magna tile creation, from left to right: Heidi, Nate, Collin, Aaron, Mitchell, Elise, and Betsy
Tubing!
Collin and Elise
Dubs and Mitchell
"Cheese"
More Magna fun
Aaron and Heidi pose with their Super Bowl creation, while Eva looks on.
Heidi, Collin, and Nolan in the lodge at Grandview.
Fun at Grandview's indoor water park
WooHoo!
The whole crew (minus Matthew who was spending his "sick" time with Grandpa Lyle and Grandma Becky). We were all apparently in a state of denial about the health of our kiddos. Mitchell puked at the pool on Sunday, which we attributed to ingestion of too much treated water, and little Matthew puked multiple times on Sunday night, which we ignorantly attributed to the introduction of solid foods into his diet. I guess it never occurred to any of us that they might actually have the flu. Not surprisingly, Adam got a call from the staff at Kid Safari on Tuesday afternoon that Collin had puked shortly after school was dismissed at 3. By Friday, Nolan came down with a fever than persisted through February 16.

From left to right: the Wilson, the Andersons, the Beduhns, and the MacIvers
Funny faces!
Grandview Lodge, January 30-February 2, 2009

Highlights:

• Scaring Lyle and Rob with a story of labor and impending delivery of baby Beduhn #3. Before our arrival Rob requested a copy of records from my most recent ob visit, as well as any info my midwife thought I should have for a vacation to Brainerd, 37 weeks pregnant with my third child.


• Horse-drawn carriage ride around Grandview property, with Collin and Aaron taking turns sitting next to the whip.

Grandview Lodge, February 5-8, 2010

Memories:

• We arrive exhausted, after spending the previous night triaging the water damage which resulted from a previously identified broken water spigot outside our front door. After punching a 5 1/2 inch diameter hole into our ceiling to reach the shut-off valve (cue Hallelujah chorus), we shop vacced approximately 36 gallons of water out of the carpet and pad before propping the carpet up on 2x4's. Thankfully BaPa Minnows graciously volunteered to babysit the kerosene heater over the weekend so we could enjoy our scheduled vacation.


• Shortly after arriving, Nolan spiked a fever of 104, which persisted the entire weekend. Kelle, MD put him on alternating schedule of Tylenol and ibuprofen, after identifying that I had been administering the incorrect dose (blame it on extreme sleep deprivation). By Monday morning his fever was gone, leaving a textbook roseola rash in it's wake.
  
  
  

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