Up North ~ Part 1

Last week, Brendan and I went up North for a long weekend. We stayed at the Burlington Bay Campground in Two Harbors. I absolutely love that campground. It was in the perfect location for what we were doing. 

The view from our campsite

We arrived shortly after 8:00 p.m. that night and of course, it was dark by then. So, we were left setting up the camper in the dark. Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad!

It just happened to by my birthday, so Brendan decided to take me out! We ate at the Black Woods Bar & Grill. It was delicious! I definitely recommend it to anyone who goes to Two Harbors. They even gave me a piece of cake (for free) because it was my birthday. It was the perfect ending to a lovely day. 

Brendan took this lovely photo

The next morning Brendan and I woke up early and hopped on his motorcycle and rode into Duluth. Our first stop was the aquarium. I definitely wouldn't recommend going to it. Tickets were $16.50 each, plus $5.00 for parking. I didn't realize that everything in the aquarium were native to Lake Superior. Oh well, lesson learned. 

Afterwards, we decided to go to Glensheen Mansion. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone. It was gorgeous! We did the standard tour, but I think we will be back for the more expanded tour.

Glensheen Mansion

Brendan and I in the court yard

Brendan and I in the gardens

The next morning we went back into Duluth and visited Enger Tower, a cute little malt shop, ate at Pizza Luce. 

Enjoying our malts!

This Blogging Thing...

Man, oh, man... I need to get better at this blogging thing! I get so darn busy with life in general that I don't take the time to blog. It is something that I will definitely be working on! I have many new things that I want to share with everyone. So, please stay tuned for upcoming posts!

Vacation Planner Printables

I am finally done creating my trip planning printables! I am pretty happy with how they turned out. These will work perfect for planning our trip to the Grand Canyon. 

Click here to get my Vacation Planner Printables

Planning a Trip

I love getting in the car and driving somewhere. There are so many fun things you see along the way when traveling. I plan on taking many vacations in my lifetime. The key to a great vacation is to be organized. You don't want to get to your vacation spot and have no clue where to eat, where to stay, or what to do. Due to our upcoming vacation in September, I decided I wanted to create my own printable pages to help me stay organized. Here is the first document I created for my Trip Planning Binder. Once I get the rest of the pages created, I will post them for everyone to use. Stay tuned! 

~ Amanda Danielle

It's Been Awhile!

Holy smokes! I have not posted in what seems like forever. A lot has happened since I last posted. We spent our summer hanging out with some great friends. Went four-wheeling. But, the hardest of all, was when we lost a wonderful man in November 2014. We spent so many nights visiting Grandpa Tom in the hospital and in the nursing home. Things seemed to be going so great and then one day everything changed. Grandpa Tom had an abdomen aortic anuyrism rupture in late October. It was such a scary experience! Not many people survive through that, but Grandpa Tom did. He was one tough cookie! His recovery was going okay after that, but then he had problems with his colon, part of it died. So, then he had to have surgery to remove part of his colon. After that, recovery was tough. We spent many nights visiting him. Then on November 21st, 2014, we found out that Grandpa Tom was put on hospice. We made plans to visit him the next morning, and we are glad we did. On the morning of November 22, 2014, we went to visit Grandpa. It was so tough seeing him in that condition, so we spent some of our time there and then left, making plans to come back later that day. Not 5 minutes after we left, I received a text message from Brendan's aunt saying that Grandpa Tom was passing away. We rushed back to the nursing home, but by the time we got there he had already passed. Every day I thank God that we made the choice to visit him that morning. 

Thanksgiving and Christmas were not the same without Grandpa Tom. He sure did bring a lot of cheer into the conversation. He may have not been there with us physically, but he was in our hearts. 

Grandpa Tom built this picnic table for me in August, 2014. He had been going through chemo and still managed to build this beauty in 2 days! I am forever grateful for this gift. 

"God gained another beautiful angel today. Grandpa Tom was an amazing man and I am so happy that I got to have him as a part of my life for the past 7 1/2 years. I will always remember the long conversations we had about the airplanes he built and flew, the roads he used to take when he was out trucking, and his favorite companions, Astro, Frankie, and Buster. This past year was tough on him and even though we will miss him in every moment of our lives, we will be at peace knowing that he is no longer in any pain. Every time we sit at our new picnic table this spring we will know that Grandpa Tom is sitting there with us. Rest in peace Grandpa Tom. Thank you for being a grandpa to me as well."