GOOD MORNING COEUR D'ALENE

This morning Coeur d'Alene was spotlighted on Good Morning America, and I didn't even know it until 4 am this morning, when our house was shaking from the fireworks downtown, since we are not very far from the main street. Other than the terror (thinking we were under attack, or worse...that our kids would wake up :), I thought it was pretty cool to have our town on national TV. Who would've thought?! Here are a few reasons why they picked CDA:

• Home to the world's largest holiday tree at 161 feet, which is more than twice the size of the tree in New York City's Rockefeller Center

• Over 30,000 lights trim the tree

• 1.5 million lights transformed the tiny town into a winter wonderland tour

• A special North Pole village has been set up by the resort that can only be reached by crossing the lake

Viva Las Vegas

Last weekend, Teem and I got to go to Vegas with his office staff and their spouses. Technically, it was for a dental conference, but we also had some good times together. We did a lot of walking (thank goodness, because we also did a lot of eating)...there seems to be a theme to my vacations: Food. I'm just training for Thanksgiving. :) We also did the dinner show at Excalibur and got to see a cirque du soleil show (la reve...AMAZING!) I definitely had Kaija and Luukkas withdrawls, especially since I was gone two weekends in a row, and I don't miss the smoke and the nastiness that can be found there, but is was definitely worth the time with Teem. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

New York Trip

Last weekend, I was able to leave my kids with my mom (thanks Mimi) and spend a few days with three great friends from Michigan (Jana, Lisa and Debbie and a little time with Emily D.) in NY shopping, eating, and all the other NY stuff...did I mention eating. I swear I gained 10 pounds, but most of it was worth it. I haven't been able to upload my pictures, so go to Lisa's blog for pics and more details. Thanks for the memories, girls. I'm off to Vegas with Teem and his office staff for an extended weekend.

Happy Halloween!

This year it seems as though we've had a week long halloween celebration. It started with our church halloween party...as you can see, my date was a 70's rock star (or something like that). We then carved pumpkins on Sunday. Then on Tuesday was Kaija's preschool halloween party. Wednesday we went to our library storytime and they got to do a halloween parade for the staff and recite a pumpkin poem that they learned. That afternoon we went downtown Coeur d'Alene for the trick-or-treating at the shops. Kaija and Luukas had it made...I pushed them around in the stroller and they sat there and looked cute and held their buckets. We went to the mall (they do trick-or-treating and games and such) then got a few housed of the traditional trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Kaija kept saying, "one more house, okay?" She was totally into it. She also politely corrected anyone who said, "what a cute dinosaur" or "what a cute crocodile." She said, "I'm a green dragon." It was her choice actually, since her favorite color is GREEN these days, she didn't care much what the costume was except the color. I hope you all had a wonderful halloween.