Making some dough!

Emery decided that she wanted to make some play dough today!

And a few more

Jake the Pyro:

Camping photos

Emery went fishing off of the dock, with her great-uncle Roger, for hours! Here she is with one of her catches!

Peek-a-boo Lane!

Camping=Exhaustion

So we broke in the camper this weekend! Jake and I and the kids went up to his grandparent's cabin on Saturday for our nephew's birthday party. It was a great time, exhausting, but great! A friend of ours made all the kids marshmallow guns and also took all the kids for canoe rides. Well, not Miss Emery, that was just too intimidating for her. It was nice to visit with everyone and the kids had a blast playing with their cousins/friends. Jake and his dad shot off fireworks at night (big shock, eh?) and then we all enjoyed a campfire. I was worried about how Rylan would do sleeping in the camper for the first time. Turns out I should've been more worried about the drunken idiot camping at the cabin next door! Rylan went to bed without fuss and fell asleep right away until the moron next door kept passing out and resting his head on his car horn! Jake had to yell over there a couple times in an attempt to remind them that some of us were trying to sleep in peace! Eventually one of them with at least half a brain disconnected his car battery and I hear that a woman from their camp came over to apologize the next morning. So, yeah, that was terribly annoying at the time (but I do get a humorous mental picture of the guy passing out) and then Rylan was pretty much up from 2 a.m. on. I also had a wonderful allergy attack on top of it all. I then decided that Rylan and I would be better off at home, so we wouldn't wake up everyone on Long Lake! I threw a few things in the van and Rylan and I headed for the hills. The poor child fell asleep ten minutes after we left the cabin at 6 a.m. and slept until noon! Lane disappeared into his room at 4 p.m. on Sunday and slept until late this morning! I do look forward to camping again, but definitely in a quiter location!

I Am Loony!!

Awww....I love loons! We have been hearing them out on the lake quite a bit in the evenings lately. I still remember the first time I heard a loon call. We had been living in Texas at the time and we were up here staying at my grandparent's house on Lake Wabana, when I was probably about 10 years old. I think I had been sleeping on the couch upstairs the night I first heard their eery cries. It freaked me right out! I had to ask my grandma (who can engage a loon in a conversation, mind you) what that creepy sound was in the night. Now, whenever I hear them, it reminds me of coming up here on vacation when I was younger and fishing with my papaw. I am happy that my parents decided to make Minnesota our home! Now if I could only afford to live on Lake Wabana! I added an audio clip of loons calling on my complete profile page if you want to take a listen to it.

Tiptoe through the tulips

Well, the tulips passed away a month or so ago, but we seem to always have something in bloom on our property. I think we have a pretty good cycle going on now. If only I could keep those rotten chipmunks from digging up my sunflower seeds and re-planting them in undesirable spots (random flower pots and next to our tomatoes in the garden)! I do admit that I think Minnesota winters are usually beautiful, but Old Man Winter really overstayed his welcome this year!! It is great to look outside and see some color again!

Plant Kindness, Harvest Love

Our garden got a late start this year, but it is coming right along!! We have beans growing, cucumber, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, peas, but our potatoes are being stubborn!!



This is our raspberry patch! Rylan ate them like crazy last year! They are not quite ready yet, but Jake did get to sample a couple yesterday.

Here we are!

Indiana Trip

Bloggity, Blog, Blog

So I decided to give this whole 'Blog' thing a whirl. If anything, maybe some of my relatives and friends out there can catch a glimpse, here and there, of our lives up in the Land of 10,000 Lakes! I never take the time to scrapbook anymore and I LOVE to take pictures, so this will be a good outlet for that. That and all the other random stuff that floats around in my jumbled up mommy-brain!