Family Weekend in Dubuque, Iowa

It is so fun to see things come full circle. Growing up we would have Klendworth getaways at various locations around the U.S. with our extended family. We decided to start our own traditions with my brothers, sister, mom, and their growing families.
March 11-13th we set off for Dubuque, Iowa to spend the weekend at the Grand Harbor Hotel. Its big attraction is the indoor waterpark. We had a lot of fun and are looking forward to our own "Klendworth" getaways.

Hannah, Chloe, and Ayden enjoyed playing in the sleeping tent. Chloe was the only one to actually sleep in it. Hannah wanted to sleep in her Grandma's bed.

Hannah and Ayden had such a fun time playing together. We wish that we lived closer and they could see each other more often!

Chloe tried her best to keep up with the girls, but they were too fast for her little legs.

This is the water slide that goes outside the hotel. It is VERY dark and fast. Hannah and Ayden both went down it. I don't think either of them were too impressed :)

Here is Hannah with her daddy coming out of the big slide. The other slides were a little bit more their style.

Water, Water Everywhere!!! There were two slides on the back of this, but you had to go through a lot of different obstacles to get there. Both Hannah and Chloe went down the slides. We even got Grandma to go down them!!

Hannah had fun riding the giant snake.

On Saturday late morning, we decided to take a break from the waterpark and ventured to the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. It was literally right across the street from the hotel.

There was an interactive children section that the kids could do various water activities including building levies.

Hannah loved the alligator outside of the gift shop. She called it Rajah (after the tiger in Aladdin). She did not want to leave him. She even gave him kisses before we left.

How mean!

March 2010

Here are some of Chloe's 9 month pictures with Hannah included. The girls are growing and changing constantly. They are such a blessing to us every day!
Chloe is officially on the move. She took her first steps on March 27th, then the next day she figured out how to really crawl. So much for walking now. She finds crawling to be so much more efficient. She has also learned to clap and wave this month.



























Chloe is such a great eater. She will eat just about anything. I thought that this one was cute because she has a puff stuck to her head. Later on Hannah stole it and ate it off her head. There is never a dull moment in our household with little girls.

Hannah asked me to take her picture while she was eating her snack.

"Nuk going away party"

So we finally decided that we had to get rid of the nuks once and for all for Hannah. So we decided to do a "Nuk going away party". We went around and collected all Hannah's nuks that we could find. Then we put them in a box and decorated the box to send to our friends who are having a baby.

Hannah enjoyed the party and actually did fairly well with everything. She had a couple nights that she would want her nuk and we would remind her that we sent them away to Joe's baby brother or sister. Then she would be okay with it.



We even had cake and ice cream at the party. Then we sang the "Goodbye" song from music class.

Valentine's Day and a few random pictures

The girls dressed the same for Valentine's Day. They are just so cute together. They are starting to play together more and more. Hannah likes to pick up Chloe and give her big hugs and kisses. We still have to watch pretty closely. One day Hannah tried walking Chloe and Chloe ended up falling face first into the floor. She cried for a second and then was laughing again. She is a trooper!

Hannah was "done" with pictures and took her clips out. Cute hair only last so long in our household :)

Chloe is already 8 months. It is hard to believe how quickly the time has gone. She has the sweetest personality and brings so much joy to our family.



The girls on a random morning just looking cute together.



Hannah loves to fingerpaint. She made a poster for Andy's parents who are big Packers fan for the Superbowl.

Rest of our Florida trip

After the first day in Orlando, we drove to my Grandma Klendworth's place in Bradenton to stay the rest of the week. We had a packed full week. We found lots of playgrounds to play at and went to many different beaches. It was just so nice to not have to spend all day indoors like in Minnesota during the winter. Hannah said that her favorite part about the trip was swinging, but she definitely enjoyed the beach too. She liked to have Daddy build things and her destroy them.

The first day, we tried to play shuffleboard. We played for a few minutes before it started to rain. It was probably better that way. Hannah enjoyed herself, but it was a little dangerous having a two year old play shuffleboard.

Since it was raining, we found an indoor activity to do. So we went to "U Bounce". It is similar to our "House of Bounce". It is full of big blow-up activities that you can bounce in or slide down.

Hannah got going a little too fast on the slide as you can tell. That really is her in that rug. She was still smiling afterwards and went down again. She is a brave little girl.

Chloe with her Great-grandma. Chloe could not do too much at the bouncing place, but she liked watching the other kids.
That night we went to the Alpine Steakhouse for dinner. Andy had seen this restaurant featured on "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives". It is know for the Turdukin. A turkey stuffed with a duck, which is stuffed with a chicken. Andy enjoyed it and he bought a t-shirt to remember the experience.

I decided that I did not need to bring a hair dryer because I thought for sure that Grandma would have one for me to borrow. I just did not realize what kind of hair dryer she would have. It worked pretty well, but seemed like a lot of work for dry hair :)

I think that this was Chloe's favorite part of the trip. She loved having a bath in the kitchen sink. I was covered in water from all of her splashing! She was such a trooper the whole trip despite having a fever for most of it, which ended up being from having an ear infection. Same story as Hannah when we went to Florida when Hannah was this age. Maybe we should not take our children to Florida when they are this age.



On Thursday, we went to Mixon's fruit farm for a tour.

We got to ride a little train and they told us all about the history of the orchard. Plus they have an animal rescue place where we got to see a bunch of different animals and here stories about how they came to live at the orchard while they heal before returning to the wild. Some of the animals will stay there for the rest of their lives.

They let people hold some of the animals. Of course, Andy jumped at the opportunity.

Hannah even touched some of the animals, including the snake.







Chloe wasn't all that impressed by everything. She decided to sleep through most of it :)

In front of the store, there were two people making kettle corn.

Hannah is watching them very intently make the popcorn.