What We Do For Fun

I grew up as a Navy Brat and love to travel and see new places and experience new cultures. Kurt grew up in central Minnesota and didn't travel much until he met me. Most summers we go to Michigan near Traverse City to my grandparent's cottage. It is the most amazing place I've ever been, and I've been a few places.

This is Big Glen and Little Glen lakes. The other large body of water is Lake Michigan, the very sandy spot you see in the upper left is called Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes National Lakeshore. It's like a tropical paradise in the middle of our country (except in the winter when there's LOTS of snow). Autumn has fallen in love with this place and constantly asks when are we going back to "our brown house". I'll post a picture of the cottage when I get the computer hooked back up to the other hard drive.

This coming summer we are going to try to go to Washington DC for the Girl Scout 100th Birthday celebration so I'm not sure if we'll get to the lake, but if we can we definitely will! 

As for what we do around here, we go to the zoo as often as we can, Autumn loves animals and the zoo is a fun place to spend the day as a family. We also go to the aquarium at the Mall of America where we enjoy watching the sharks. We've been to plays with Autumn and go to many many parks. We love going to the Children's Museum and the Science Museum as well. We are hoping to get back to the Minneapolis art museum this summer as well, Kurt and I haven't been in a while. We like to hang out at home and play in the backyard as well as going for walks in the "forest" as Autumn calls the county parks we visit. 

We go to a wonderful church where we have a fantastic group of friends that we like to do things with. We are very involved in our church and spend a couple of days a week there volunteering, having supper, going to or teaching classes...

Hello

Merry Christmas! I wanted to tell you a little about our family. We live in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. We live in a southern suburb called Lakeville. My name is Erica. I have been teaching in the early childhood special education field for over 11 years now and love what I do. Currently I'm in my 6th year in the Farmington School District. I was working in the birth-2yr area doing home visits to help families learn how to help their children succeed. Now I have a preschool class for multiply impaired kids as well as still doing my home visits. I really love the connection that I have with each family I work with. I volunteer in our church nursery and teach the infant/toddler Sunday school class. My husband, Kurt, is working at a company that prints standardized tests for schools. He is enjoying the challenge of learning a new job. He worked for 6 years for Liberty Mutual Insurance though recently the company had to downsize and Kurt had to find a new job. He enjoys playing his guitar and is passionate about writing Christian music. Kurt has one CD that he put together and is now trying to put a second one together. Autumn is rather musical herself and we love singing together and playing the piano and guitar and drums together. 


Kurt and I have been married for 11 1/2 years. We met in college in the Concert Choir where we both were able to exercise our passion for singing. We have a 5 yr old daughter, Autumn, who is adopted. We struggled for many years with infertility and miscarriages. Recently I discovered that there really is no safe way for me to get pregnant. And while that was a hard message to hear we have been fortunate in our daughter who keeps us laughing and on our toes.


Autumn is a very energetic little girl who loves every second of life. She has a very active imagination and is forever inventing games, stories, and songs to liven up our days. Autumn LOVES dinosaurs and is constantly surprising us with all the things she knows and learns about them. She also has an invisible T-Rex that she named Cup. He lives in our house with us, but he is a very nice Rexy and doesn't cause much trouble.


We have two cats, Nero, and Maddie. Nero is 10 years old and Maddie is a little over 1. We have 3 fish as well: Fishy Fishy, Orangy Orange, and Marshmallow (Autumn got to name them).


We have a wonderful relationship with Autumn's birth mom, Amanda. Autumn calls her "my birthday mommy". We see Amanda's mom about twice a year and always enjoy her visits. We seen Amanda about 6-8 times a year and share many pictures and stories with her on Facebook. Amanda is an important part of our family and we love the time we spend with her.