Up North...

This past weekend we drove up to Northern Minnesotaear the Boundary Waters, Canada for a long weekend with our great friends/next door neighbors!  We made it to Duluth on Friday afternoon and walked along the pier on Lake Superior.  It was a wet and cool evening.  We enjoyed dinner at the infamous Grandma's. 

On Saturday, we had a true road trip up to Ely, Minnesota.  Along the way, we stopped at Two Harbors and watched the loading docks for the iron, an old lighthouse and train museum.  We skipped rocks into Lake Superior and the weather was clearing up, although still a bit chilly!  Evan LOVED the trains and cried hysterically when we left.  Good thing we will see Thomas in September! 

Next stop was Gooseberry Falls, a beautiful Minnesota landmark.  It's a state park with gorgeous waterfalls and hiking paths.  The gift shop/musuem had full size coyote and other creatures that Evan loved. 

After lunch, we headed up to Split Rock Lighthouse.  The light house was built after nine lives were lost during a terrible storm in 1905 when a ship carrying iron ore was destroyed in severe conditions---November, 30 degrees below, 60 mph winds in Lake Superior!  29 ships were destroyed during the storm.

Late afternoon we arrived in Ely at our cabin!  We had a great time with the campfire, fishing (or trying to fish), playing games and cruising on the lake in the pontoon boat.  The weather got better as teh weekend progressed and we came home to 80+ degrees in Austin!!  On the way home, we stopped at an iron mine in Viriginia, MN to show Evan the gigantic dump trucks used in the mines.  He was mesmerized and so were we!!. 

Random...

We've done so much in the last few weeks!  Here's a collage of our activities!!

Evan and our new neighbor Anna!

I caught a big one!!  Fishing at the pool!

Something looks very familiar....

Evan's 1st field trip to Skinner's Hill Park

Besides Happy Meals for lunch, riding the bus was his favorite!  He still asks when he gets to ride the bus again.  We count all the buses everyday!

Evan's 2 girlfriends from day care and two buddies!  The little one on the left is the boy he bit for a week when the boy first came to Evan's class!  The girls are all he talks about! 

Both girls will have little sisters too this fall!!!

One of the few hot hot days we've had this summer!!

 Daddy's low country crawfish boil! 

It was a great time and all the Minnesotan's loved it ...well most of them!!

Just being silly!!!

Watching the big boys climb the tree!  Hanging out with Daddy!!!

Cupcakes I made for our kickball game!  Our team is the Pig Pen...go figure!

But hey, we are headed to the playoffs!!!

Given our unseasonable summer, we decided to be funny by dressing up for winter before heading over to the Drennan's for pizza this weekend.  It was cool enough for jeans and longsleeves....

The kids just hanging out.

Ryley and Avari decided to play hair dresser!  Evan was smart to leave the chaos and brought us the scissors before the girls got to them...but it didn't stop them from
"shampooing" their hair with suntan lotion! YUK!!  It was quite funny!! 

 (maybe b/c it wasn't my child....this time!) 

Evan insisted on putting his snow boots, scarf, mittens and hat back on before we left Drennan's house.  The 3.5 minute car ride was plenty to put this monkey to bed!

Evan's 1st Campout!

I wrote this post the day after we came home from our campout; however, time flew by and I am now uploading it with photos too! 

Two weeks ago, we took Evan on a much awaited campout.  The country club does an annual campout every year and we decided to try it this year--definitely not rustic, but it was great for Evan.

Besides the autumn like weather (high of 62 and low of 49) it was a memorable trip.  The weather broke records being the lowest high.  Makes you rethink global warming...at least here!

Evan has been doing great with potty training at school and I received a phone call from him on Thursday while at work.  My heart drops anytime I see his child care number pop up.  However, Miss Julie said Evan had something to tell me....he was so happy for going "Beep Beep" (aka #2) on the potty he asked to call mommy at work!  I was excited and teared up!!  Everyone at work laughed but understood and it brought back memories of their kids!  In celebration of his accomplishment, while Daddy was travelling we did a little shopping!  Evan got a Lightning McQueen/Mater sleeping bag for his big camping trip.  I realized how important it meant to him, because anytime he began to act up, I threatened to take it back and he quickly behaved! Oh, the power (for now...)

So, we arrived around 5:30 to set up camp and Evan had a blast watching Garry & Alex put the tent together.  The club grilled out, had lots of games and golf carts to ride.  Then we sat around the bonfire, roasted marshmallows for smores and listened to some live campfire music.  Evan stayed up til about 10:30 and I left the boys to sleep at home.  I worried all night if they'd make it through the night and if I'd need to pick them up (poor planning we didn't leave a car at the club).  Too my surprise, no phone calls!!!  I met them for breakfast at 7am and arrived as they were just waking up!! If only Evan would sleep in like that at home like the old days!! 

It was a blast and knowing how well he did, I think we'll be investing in a tent of our own and other necessities!!