Camping

In June, right after school let out for the summer, we went camping. We rented a camper cabin at Wild River State Park and it was fantastic!

The girls were absolutely thrilled to sleep in bunk beds, and even more thrilled that there were TWO top bunks!

There was a beautiful trail leading down a very long stairway to the river. It was infested with more mosquitoes than we had ever seen in one place, but the view was worth it.

Some of us were disappointed that there was nowhere to swim. The current was pretty strong, but there were people boating and fishing.

Dana honed her marshmallow-roasting skills. She still likes to light them on fire and then blow them out rather than gently browning them. Something about being 5 and impatient I guess.

Campfire coffee is pretty awesome, too.

We're hoping to get out again before summer ends. We'll see. As you can probably guess from my lack of posting, we've been really busy.

I also have some really sad news. After ten days with our puppy, we could no longer ignore the fact that Kevin is allergic to dogs. He had never lived with one before, so he had no idea. His eyes were fire-engine red and swollen nearly shut by day 9. We had a very sad family meeting and, on day 10, my lovely sister agreed to take her. They had been looking for a small dog for Keenan, my nephew, for about 18 months, but never had any luck at the local shelter. She is doing great, is still the cutest little monster ever, and is now named Charlotte. And we still see her often.

Saturday Drive

On Saturday, we took a little drive to check out a campground we want to visit this summer. Since we had never been there before, we wanted to see what it was like before making reservations.

Who doesn't love climbing on a nice, sturdy gate?

The campground is really lovely, with a river running right through it. Tons of hiking trails, lots of opportunities for bicycle riding, plenty of geocaches. No highway noise. In a state park. Sign us up!

We grabbed some ice cream to enjoy in the car afterward. Nora got strawberry.

Dana got cotton candy. Which was good, since it was the same color as her shirt. No amount of wet wipes could touch this mess!

Sledding Hill

Yesterday I posted about the Winter Olympics at Nora's school. Today I took Nora, Dana and Keenan to the school to use the sledding hill. It's such a great hill!

It took Dana a while to work up the nerve to go down on a sled alone. So here she is on her caboose.

And here's a view from the top.

I took the girls yesterday, too, and I rode with them. Unfortunately, I am the only person living in the state of Minnesota who does not own snow pants. And so, today I did not sled. There's hardly anything more uncomfortable than wet jeans, after all. And I got my fill yesterday.

Winter Olympics

For as long as I can remember, Nora's school has hosted a winter picnic every February. Even when I was babysitting my neighbor kids, who have now graduated from college, the winter picnic was going on.

This year, the two moms chairing the event decided on a winter Olympics theme. It was perfect, considering the picnic fell on the day of opening ceremonies.

The day started with opening ceremonies. The kids all lined up in the gym with the flags they had made earlier in the week. Each country participating in the games this year was represented.

They paraded through the school, out the playground doors, and around to the front of the school.

There they are! There was much cheering and applauding.

Here, the principal is announcing the opening of the games. This was followed by a torch run, with a kindergartener "lighting" the Olympic torch (that brown podium-looking thing).

Dana was not nearly as impressed with the activities as the rest of us were. She made snow angels and ate ice chunks while we cheered.

The rest of the day, kids participated in "luge" (an awesome sledding hill, complete with lanes, built by volunteer dads), knee hockey, hay rides, an Olympic obstacle course, ice skating for the upper grades, and Olympic trivia. Dana and I were there helping out from 8am until about 1pm.

It was a pretty awesome day.

Foxy

There's a new resident on the commune. Do you see him in there, hiding between the trees?

I first saw him a couple of weeks ago, running down our driveway with a bunny in his mouth. That was pretty tough.

Yesterday, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and it was Mr. Fox, running along under the porch roof. Dana and I crept from window to window, watching as he walked all the way around the house, then into the woods behind the garage. He eventually took off towards my parents' house.

I had several opportunities for close-up photos of his gorgeous, foxy self, but I couldn't find the camera. This will have to do until his next visit.

First Snow

Nora was the first one up this morning. She was halfway down the stairs when I heard her frantically yelling, "MOM! COME LOOK OUT THE WINDOW!"

I figured there were some deer under the porch roof or something. I did not expect to see white!

She got on all of her winter gear, grabbed a bowl, and went outside to collect snow.

And when Dana woke up a little while later, she put on her winter gear, too, and grabbed a bowl, too, and went outside, too.

I was very happy that I had the foresight to figure out snow pants and parkas a few weeks ago. I wasn't as fast with boots, but Nora was good in her galoshes and Dana squeezed her feet into last year's boots (with a lot of help and wrangling). I will be measuring feet as soon as they come in.

Now, I realize most of us Minnesota folk are not thrilled with snow on October 10. But I have to admit I am OK with it. The kids will be happy to play outside again (fall is so iffy around here), and I feel all cozy, with my banana bread in the oven and my coffee next to me. And really, once it's cold, does it matter if there is snow or not?

Cooking Outside

The weather lately has been most summery: hot and sunny. I kind of expected this in July, but it has waited until September instead. Whatever. We'll take it!

It was the perfect night to cook outside. The girls do not love barbecued food (I know!), but they absolutely loved roasting their veggie dogs over the fire.

I guess the theme for dinner tonight was "red."

And no, the girls do not believe in forks or buns for their dogs.

Mmmmm...marshmallows...

Nora takes her marshmallows very seriously.

Kevin grilled a pizza for us, which was absolutely amazing. The crust got so crispy, and it was really flavorful. I believe his comment was something along the lines of, "Why weren't we doing this all summer?" Probably because summer just started here.

The girls are in the tub, soaking all of the soot and marshmallow stickies off of their skin.

Daredevil

Last week, it was hot every single day. We spent many days in the pool at Grandma and Grandpa's house, trying to stay cool.

Somewhere in that time, Nora taught herself a little trick:

We are incredibly impressed-most of us grownups have never attempted this before, and here little Nora is, flipping her way through life like it's no big deal.

Meanwhile, Dana and Taylor (Sam and Liz's niece) worked on perfecting the Twist Jump, which they invented. Dana jumps immediately-I caught her mid twist-so watch closely!

It's 60 degrees right now, which is too cool to swim. Hopefully it will warm up again soon so we can practice new tricks!

Biking + Nora's Photo Shoot

The girls spend hours every day riding their bikes. They go up and down the driveway, around the garage, next door (with a grown up, of course).

Kevin snapped this cute photo the other morning. I remember the days of getting a "buck" from a friend.

The other night, Nora asked if she could borrow the camera to take photos of her doll in different hats. These photos are so funny!

It's a Cabbage Patch Kid modeling Bitty Baby clothes. Nora's a pretty good photographer!

The L.L. Smith

Last week, my mom took me and three of the kids on the L.L. Smith, a research boat operated by the University of Minnesota Sea Grant.

Last year, my mom took me, Nora, Keenan and Zak and our boat departed from Barker's Island in Superior. This year, she took me, Nora, Keenan and Adrea and we departed from Two Harbors. Here, you can see the kids in the foreground and the L.L. Smith docked at the breakwater.

The captain took us to a depth of 300 feet. At that point, the research folks brought up water and soil samples for us to study. Here, the kids check out the soil from the bottom of Lake Superior. It was really muddy!

This was, by far, the favorite activity. The kids call it "fishing." The pans have water samples in them, and the kids use eye droppers and tweezers to grab samples, which they transfer to petri dishes.

Then they take the petri dishes into the lab and place them under the microscope. They had so much fun watching the teeny tiny wormy creatures and clams.

I just love these shots of the kids looking into the microscopes. They were fascinated!

Knife Island was completely covered in gulls and cormorants.

It was a great day out on the lake, despite strange weather that changed every few minutes from hot to cold, from rainy to sunny.

Canal Park

On Friday morning, we went to Canal Park with some friends.

We were lucky enough to see a ship go through the canal, which is fun on many levels. There was waving, there was awe over the bridge itself (the Aerial Lift Bridge can raise to its full ship height of 138 feet in less than a minute), and there was astonishment over the length of the ship.

Afterward, we spent some time on the beach, throwing rocks in and testing the icy water.

Isn't this a fun photo of Keenan? Maybe he's doing yoga. Maybe he's winding up to throw a rock far into the lake.

These two are so funny. Our friends are 2, 3 and 4, and these big kids had better things to do than hang out with the wee ones. They shared secrets in hushed voices, waded into the water and generally kept their distance from us.

Dana found a ladybug on her knee and transferred it to a stick. She thought it was really neat and wanted to take it home for a pet.

We eventually made it to the fountain and spent half an hour walking on the path and playing in the shooting streams.

This was the first time we visited Canal Park this year. Is that sad or what?! (And on a side note, I sure wish my keyboard had an interrobang.)

Lounging in the Pool

My parents are always busy with a new project in their yard. If you've been to their house, you know that their yard is their number one hobby.

Right now, they are working on making concrete pathways in various locations, such as to the sleeping gazebo and to the swimming pool. The girls think they look like fairy paths, so that is what they are called now.

I know what you were thinking when you first read about concrete pathways. But look! They are so cute! They are using a form of some sort, and it makes sort of a cobblestone pattern. My mom is in charge of coloring them. She is using milk paint. I am not sure if she is sprinkling powder on top and blending, or if she is actually mixing it into paint and pouring it over the top. I guess that will be her secret. At any rate, this path goes from the gazebo to the pool, and the children are much appreciative. This path used to be a combination of sharpish rocks and wood chips. It wasn't great for walking barefoot, which is usually how they walk to the pool.

We found these inflatable tubes at Menards the other day. They are quite fun, and take up less space than the inflatable mats they initially wanted. Nora enjoys learning new tricks with the tubes, such as diving into the middle, or flipping it over and swimming back up through the middle.

Dana likes to warm herself in the sun. This is the life!

Campout!

On Saturday night, my sister and her husband were gracious enough to host a campout in their backyard. For the kids, you see.

Luckily, they have a ginormous tent. I know you can't really tell, but this beast has three rooms! Which is good, because it was home to seven grade schoolers for the night. Yes, seven.

No campout would be complete without some marshmallow toasting! There was some fun discussion about how people like their marshmallows done: flambe, golden brown or pale.

I tried to get a shot of all seven sticks in the fire, but I was too slow.

Nora is almost caught up on her sleep again, after falling asleep after midnight and waking up at 7am. I asked her what she liked best about the campout, and her answer surprised me: holding the baby. She spent half an hour holding the neighbors' 7 week old son and she would now like a brother of her own. Thanks, neighbors! She's more likely to get a pony!

Butterflies and Popsicles

We haven't been up to anything specific lately. Nora and Keenan were in a summer clay class, we've been in the pool a lot, we sleep in most mornings. So here are a few photos from our random days.

Kevin got this nice shot of the fireworks.

Both girls love butterflies, but Dana spends hours chasing them around with her net. Here, she smiles at one she actually managed to catch.

Nora must see this for herself. As soon as Dana shows us a catch, she releases her new butterfly friend. She knows butterflies must be free.

I thought her clothing selections were pretty cute, so I asked her to look at me so I could take her photo. This was her response. I think those great big eyes are saying something like, "Gimme a break! I'm just trying to eat my popsicle!"

In other news, we have bears. Yes, plural. One evening last week, Kevin walked next door. As he approached my parents' house, a gigantic bear emerged from their driveway. Luckily, he had better things to do than pay any attention to Kevin. He just crossed the road and walked into the neighbors' yard. A couple of nights ago, we were sitting on the couch and we heard our garbage can tip over. We turned on the outdoor lights and saw a small bear walking into the woods with a bag of garbage in his paws. Luckily, I have been composting a lot, and there wasn't much of interest in our trash. And now we keep our garbage can in the garage like normal people. And, of course, I couldn't find the camera in time to get documentation of the garbage thief. Maybe next time.

I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles...Pretty Bubbles in the Air!

Yesterday was another hot one. We spent about 5 hours next door in the pool. There was, of course, some in and out, and the girls spent some time blowing bubbles in the shade of the big umbrella on the picnic table.

Dana kept herself busy for about half an hour, which made for some fun photo ops. I like how her swimsuit coverup and the peony buds in the background are virtually the same hue.

I love this action shot, with the bubbles forming and floating, and her cheeks all puffed out.

Nora got in on the fun, too! I love this shot, how the bubbles look like they are on Dana's head.

By the way, Kevin is a "football" fan, hence the "Bubbles" song. United!