Binky

I think I remember someone else who loved their binkies! She has yet to try and put 2 in her mouth at once like her brother Brodie did.

Fishing

Tonight we took the kids fishing and had a picnic dinner. It was an absolute gorgeous night to be outside. It has been awhile since we loaded everyone up and gone somewhere for the evening. It felt really nice.

The boys were happy to catch a few fish. Brodie caught the first fish of the night.
Tony was really into fishing tonight. Usually he gives up, but he was the only one who fished the whole night. He ended up catching about a dozen blue gill. This was the largest.
Jake fished for a bit and ended up catching a few.
Drew fished for a short while. A very short while. He had more fun playing with his buddy Canon, throwing rocks into the water and poking a dead carp carcass with a stick.Little Miss was such a good girl. She sat most of the evening in her stroller soaking it all in.

Super Heros

Drew's newest passion is super heros. For awhile he wore the spiderman costume we had from last Halloween. A few weeks ago I found this batman costume at a garage sale. Every morning when he wakes up before coming out to the living room he gets dressed in his costume. When he wears the costume he doesn't like you to refer to him as Drew, his name is Batman.

Brodie likes to dress up as well, for now he wears his Iron Man shirt and sweatpants. I am on the lookout for more super hero costumes. If you find any let me know!

Emily got some new jammies from a garage sale. She looked so adorable before going to bed the other evening.
I really love this picture of her. Her eyes are so blue! Of course her brothers had to try and be in the picture with her too.

Minnesota Vacation Part 5

The last few days were a bit cooler and a few of the days the lake was a little rough. That didn't stop Will, grandpa and Jake but the rest of us opted to stay off the boat.

We spent some time up at the bridge fishing. We didn't have a lot of luck up there this year.Drew got some web blasting practice in.
Emily was content mostly just sitting in her stroller watching everyone.
Friday night was our last night and we enjoyed a meal up at the steakhouse. The weather was rainy so no one went out fishing. Tony was able to finish the puzzle that grandma had brought that we all had worked on throughout the week. The guys got the boats out of the water while mom and I finished packing. We finished the night with a fire in the fireplace.

Saturday morning we got up early to pack the boats and get on the road. All week we kept a poster on the fridge documenting what fish were caught each day. The person who caught the most bass for the week would be the champion. After doing some math and averaging out (since grandpa missed some days) the winner of this years Ten Mile Lake Tournament of Champions was...Will. He won the belt buckle. And yes, that is a trout, not a bass. Details, details. As usual we took family photos before we left.This was the view of the lake from the front of our cabin the morning we left. This will be our last year up there for a while. It is bittersweet. I have come up here every year since I was a child. We decided that since our kids are getting older it is time to travel a bit and see some new sites. So, next year we are planning to take a vacation elsewhere. While I will miss not coming up here, it will be fun to go some place new.

Minnesota Vacation Part 4

After spending 3 days together with just the 7 of us, we were excited to hear that grandma and grandpa were on the road and would be joining us late Tuesday evening. The boys were very excited and waited outside for them on the deck.
It was good to have them up there. Joel, Will and Jake went fishing every morning. The Northerns were really biting this year. Each day they caught a stringer full. This picture was taken Tuesday morning when Will went out by himself.
These pictures were taken over the next couple days. This was a good haul!
This particular batch of fish has a story with it. Can you pick out the injured fish? The third fish from the left has a bite missing. Here it is a little closer.The guys had their fish tied up to the dock one night. We decided to have a fire and spend some time with the kids before Will and Joel headed down to the fish house to clean them. Tony decided to walk out onto the dock and started yelling that there was giant turtle eating the fish. Everyone ran out on the dock and we saw the biggest.turtle.ever. It truly was the largest turtle I have ever seen that wasn't in a zoo.

It's head was as big as a softball and it's feet were bigger than my own hands. It had clamped down on one of the Northerns. Grandpa tried to shake it off without any luck. The turtle finally bit threw the fish and left. We quickly pulled the fish out of the water. Thankfully we caught it early and it only damaged one fish.

We decided to let that one fish go and see if the turtle would come back and eat it. Will tossed it into the water and within minutes the turtle emerged and snagged the fish. It is hard to see but the fish is in his mouth. His tail was as long as the fish!The picture really doesn't do it justice because it was so huge.


After the turtle incident we decided to light up some small fireworks and let the kids do some sparklers. I found some race cars that had little shooting sparklers on them. We had a competition between the boys to see who's car would win. Winning consisted of having the least amount of damage. Tony's car ended up the winner.
Even though the kids were a little freaked out about the turtle, it ended up being a really good night.

Minnesota Vacation Part 3

Emily did so good on vacation. She spent lots of time outside so that made her sleep really well each night. She only struggled 2 nights. That might be my fault though because I drank a little more coffee on those days! She was happy and babbling most days.
Last year we put together a really cute chicken puzzle while we were staying at the cabin. This year Wills mom picked up one to bring but since they didn't join us we decided to pick one up at Wal-mart. The older boys, Will and I all worked on it. It was 500 pieces and took all of one morning to put together. The next day we realized that the game room at the lodge carried puzzles so we picked up another one. It too was 500 pieces and took us another day to put it together.
The boys had fun playing at the park that is on the camp grounds. We visited that each day we were there. Will taught Brodie how to swing and he spent most of his time doing just that.

They had so much fun on the teeter totter. I don't know if they have ever been on one (except up here last year). They laughed and laughed. Sometimes I would have to help them because they weigh the same and they would balance out and get stuck.

The first couple days we had really warm weather. It was in the 80's and 90's. The kids were able to do a little swimming and play on the beach.While I love using my wrap to carry Emily around it was starting to really make my back ache. So when I ran into town I ended up buying a small stroller. The boys loved pushing her around in it. She enjoyed it as well and it gave me a nice break.

Minnesota Vacation Part 2

After spending the previous day in the van traveling, we were so happy to wake up and be able to do whatever we wanted. We were bummed Mom and Joel weren't there to share in the fun. They were going to stay with Jenny and see how she did and maybe try and come up later in the week if she was feeling better.

The boys did lots of fishing. Will was able to take them out on the boat a few times the first couple days.
The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed spending lots of time outside.
We also fished from the dock right in front of our cabin and had some luck catching some small sunnies and bass.