Lake life 2019

Labor day brings us to the cabin every year as it has for at least the last 14 years. This year we ventured back to the same place we went last year-Island View Resort on Nest Lake, with its amazing beach, swimming area and fun game room.

 

My brother definitely won uncle of the year, letting Lincoln drive the pontoon and taking him fishing from sun up to sun down every day. Hooks, worms, fish, repeat.
Thank you Ben!

 

 

Lincoln and Lila caught frogs and toads, bringing them to the fire at night. One poor frog was not so smart and leapt directly into the flames.

From the dock and from the pontoon, Lincoln certainly caught the most fish of anyone. One day alone he brought in 17 fish!



 

A little game room fun. It might have been missing a cue ball, and thankfully Grandma Jan brought her own ping pong balls, but it gave the kiddos a break from the water and another opportunity to have some fun.

 

We took lunch out on the pontoon one cloudy afternoon. It wasn't warm and it wasn't a great weather-day, but we had all of us together enjoying the lake and I knew my mom's heart was filled!

 

 

Lincoln learned to kayak and can cruise pretty fast in that little boat. He loved joining in with the big kids, doing all sorts of fun activities.

 



 

When my cousin's boat failed to operate properly, our kiddos sweet-talked the owner's son into taking them out behind his super fast speed boat for some tubing.  Boy did they have a BLAST going super duper fast!

 

From the boat or from the tube, they giggled the afternoon away :)

 

Lincoln eventually got brave enough to take the fish from Uncle Ben and toss it back to the lake himself. He'd always say something to his fish to wish it well back into the lake, then touch the fin one time and plop it into the water.

 

My cousin's daughters are just about the same age as our girls and all 5 of these kiddos hung out all weekend together.

 

 

In his glory driving the pontoon.

 

Regan wasn't too sure about swimming out to the dock given the temperatures were hovering in the 70's; but she looked pretty chill enjoying some sunshine out there.

 

"Ben, Ben, Ben"

He sure made Lincoln's weekend!

 

I challenged Regan to climb up this tree that hangs over the lake. She accomplished it easy and then attempted to hang her hammock from the branches. That didn't end as well and she eventually gave up; content to just sit on a branch.

 

I'm so thankful to mom for getting us all together every year to enjoy this annual tradition on the water!

 

Sun-kissed cheeks and boat hair, don't care.

 

Minnesota sunsets on the lake are amazingly incredible

We ended each night gathered around the fire, all 20+ of us. S'mores and pie fries and roasted starburst.

We had lots of laughs and made countless memories as summer 2019 came to a close.  

Great MN Get Together 2019

In no particular order, I'm going to just drop a handful of photos right here from our MN State Fair trip. Once again, we joined 150,000 people in gorgeous weather to eat our way through the fair. We took in the sights, explored some new activities and of course went back to the old ones. It was a full day, 12+ hours of fun :)

 

Butterfly Garden was Sidney and Lincoln's favorite again. They could spend hours inside that building, letting butterflies land on them and coaxing more and more to join their shirt.

 

 

Cheese curds could very well be my favorite fair food

 

Lincoln and Sidney tried alligator bites for the first time.

 

Sidney chomping on corn on the cob, because next year she will likely be sporting braces and not able to enjoy it as much.

 

Ryan loves himself a scotch egg, but doesn't get to eat as much of it since the girls also love it!

 

Although Ryan thinks buying cookies at the fair is a complete waste of money, the rest of us completely disagree and therefore, savored every bite of our 3/4 baked yummy deliciousness.

 

I love the colors of the Ferris Wheel.

 

 

We found this lady last year, she sells snow cones for just $1.

It's the best bargain at the fair!

 

Sidney and I rode across the fair together on the chair rides. She giggles every year as we go over the buildings where people scatter their under garments on the roofs! Quite the sight :)

 

 

 

Three kiddos at the State Fair is no easy feat, but we had more smiles than tears and more kind words than rude ones so I'll take it as a win. 

 

We always look forward to spending the day wandering the state fair grounds, despite that it means the end of summer is very near.

August summer fun

We wrapped up the last month of summer and attended all sorts of “fairs”: Carver county (where a family friend shows llamas and let’s Regan get up close and personal, Valleyfair, and the state fair (deserving a post of its own). We sprinkled in a trip to the water park and a doggy sleepover and called it an excellent month! 

Regan helping take this buddy for a walk. She still insists we could put one in our backyard.  

Lincoln and my undivided attention during our trip to Valleyfair and scored this giant snow cone! 

He had so much fun on those rides, only bummed that he wasn’t big enough for the more adventurous ones. 

We dog sat while the neighbors took their youngest to college. Such a sweet dog! She never barked once, but that girl is relentless with the tennis ball! All day long, that is all she wants to do. Good thing it wears her out so she slept well for me.  

 

Slides and rides and more fair fun

 

 

Lazy river water park fun. Lincoln has no fear. He's so brave and tells me to go sit down, so he can go on slides alone. I'm so thankful of his (all of the kids') swimming skills, as it makes these outings so much  more enjoyable.

We squeezed in so much fun between the end of summer ball and the start of school! 

End of a chapter

Regan’s softball days with the local BFA organization came to a close last month with a final run at Nationals. She’s played with some of these girls for many years, so the last game pulled slightly at our heartstrings. Regan had big plans to try out for club ball which is like everyone heading off to different colleges....More on that later. 

Regan and Maria: our catcher / pitcher duo this summer. 

The blue boogers Bloomington Blue 12U

We followed the final tournament with a pool party in our backyard. It was perfectly sunny and hot and a wonderful party to celebrate a great season. 

These girls were a wild bunch! 

Broken bones and summer fun

We're catching up on summer around here, and I'm way behind on posting :(

 

A few weeks back, I had planned to take a week off from work to hang with these two cuties. We had big plans to find some fun and explore the city. Sadly, Lincoln took a couple of back to back tumbles and ended up with a broken collarbone and in a sling (more on that later).

So we switched gears and found some fun that was a little more laid back. We headed to our nearby Hyland Lake, where we watched a family of beavers literally save one of their own. It was so sweet to watch mama race to the bottom of the falls and swoop up her baby who had gone over.

Us mama's are always on duty :)

 

 

We also found paddle boats and took a nice long paddle around the lakes. My favorite part was when the kids fought over the front seats and I got to take a break in the back. It was a beautiful summer day.

I managed to convince the whole family to join me downtown at StoneArch. I love the background of this photo, seeing the history of the flour mill and the Mill City ruins. And I love seeing those girls together with smiling faces.

 



With all of the softball hoopla around here, I'm still working to give the girls chores and life lessons. Regan was super excited to learn how to cut the grass....until she realized it's not as easy as it looks. We had lots of patches of uncut grass the first time.
She's getting the hang of it, and has likely mowed the lawn more times than Ryan has by now! 

 

 

We've found some pretty amazing ice cream shops this summer, and this one by far tops them all. Oh the yummy deliciousness of cupcakes and ice cream. YUMMY!

 



 

And although this place gets an A for presentation, the flavor doesn't get more than a B.

 

And here's that awful xray…..the full story is that Lincoln jumped into the pool with intent to land on the Magic Carpet. Sidney pushed it away while he was mid-jump and he only half landed on it. Likely breaking (but not displacing) the collarbone, so it didn't show up on xray.

Two days later, although still cradling her arm, Lincoln wanted to join us all on the Color Run in St Paul. Sadly about 3 blocks into the run he tripped on his own feet and landed RIGHT on his collarbone, completely displacing it. Ouch.

I may have carried him over 2 miles to finish the 5K.

 

And in the midst of all those falls, he was still googly eyed over everything fire works!

Here is a before and after picture from the run. Notice how I was still carrying Lincoln after the end, my arms were literally shaking!  

 

I promise Lincoln is in this cute family summer selfie (see him looking through the railings!?).

 

 

And all that while on that busy stay-cation week, Regan was busy chasing after kiddos at the nearby camp where she was a volunteer Junior Counselor for 10 days. Such an amazing experience.

Sure wish summer would last another 3 months; so much fun left to be had!