Quarantined

The little boys and I are quarantined this week. Sam came down with a fever Monday morning and we found out he has Strep throat today. Hopefully he'll back to his usual self on Friday. Anyway, we've been pretty bored around here and I've actually gotten around to organizing some photos. Here's a brief rundown of our October...

We went to Duluth for a day while Jeff presented at a Conference. Sam, Mick and I toured a Railroad museum then took a train to the North Shore of Lake Superior.

We returned home from Duluth to find our basement flooded again. It rained the day we drove north (14" in one day). We pulled up the carpet, turned on the fans, packed our bags, and headed for California. We'll deal with that mess later. Right now we're going to soak in the sun.

We went to Disneyland (in record heat, 114 degrees)...

California Adventure...

Mission Beach...

and Legoland...

It was a blast. We said to goodbye to Jeff in Las Vegas then spent two weeks with family in Salt Lake. I celebrated my birthday at Wheeler Farm while there...

When we returned to Rochester we crammed in our favorite fall traditions. We went to Northwoods and bought our pumpkins and ate fresh donuts (mostly Mick)...

We drove to the SPAM museum on a rainy afternoon. We're good for awhile. Not sure if we'll go back again. Two times is plenty.

Jeff bought me a new camera for my birthday (and every major holiday that requires a gift for the next couple of years). I'm having fun practicing my photography "skills."

And, of course, Halloween...

AND Mick is binky-free. I know, I know. It's true. For those of you who see little Mick often you may not recognize him now. He is independent of his bink. It was a piece of cake too! He's asked for it about four times and has never once cried. Night-time has not even been an issue. The only con about the whole binky episode is his open bite. If you scroll up the picture of Mick (below the picture of Sam lounging on the floor) you'll notice that his front teeth aren't touching even though his back teeth are in contact. Yep, sucking on a binky all day long does cause problems. I've swallowed my pride and admitted the fact that I should have let him have it only at night a long time ago. Oh well. We've taken it away now and the issue should resolve itself on it's own - especially as his adult teeth grow in. There's my hard lesson learned. Don't get me wrong. I will still give a binky to the next baby. It's totally worth it when they're an infant. I'm just going to be more diligent when he's older to minimize his sucking time.