MN Trip 2017 - 3rd Leg The North Shore

 Kyle's brother Kasey (#6 child), rented a cabin in Duluth.  5 of the 8 kids brought their families along.  We pulled up our camper and Kota and Blair camped in a tent.  We got to explore the North Shore of Minnesota.  This was a first for me.  The North Shore goes along with the point of Minnesota.  We traveled from Duluth to Grand Marais.

 I miss Blair.  She was my favorite dog.  She has such a good disposition and is very affectionate.

It's fun being around the nieces and nephews.

 I miss this guy too.  I'm glad he is getting established, but wish it was not 1,000 miles away in a place where the cell and internet reception sink.  In a day where we could skype, but can't because of location...

 Our cabin, was around the corner from Lake Superior.  I don't know what it is, but I absolutely love that Lake.  I love it from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, all the way to the North Shore of Minnesota.  Something about it draws me in every time.

 We hiked into Gooseberry Falls, with the family.

 Then we stopped at the Palacade.  This was a super tall cliff over looking Superior.  It was a little scary to be honest.  The rocks were split and I felt that the rocks would slide of the cliff at any moment.

 But it was beautiful!  My favorite was Grand Marais.  I wish we could of stayed here a few more hours, but it was about 3 hours north of the cabin.

 Saturday, we spent some time in Two Harbors.

 Kyle, still likes to skip rocks.  There are no shortage of rocks along Superior's shores.  There are tributaries flowing into the Lake, all over the area.  I think this was the French River.

 There also is no shortage of water fowl in the area.

 Iron ore, is a big resource of the area and is mined in this area and sent out through the Great Lakes.

 Superior is too cold to swim in here, but the Knife River.  This was a natural swimming pool.  It was about 4 feet deep and had a ledge to sit on.  It was fun for the family.

We might had to look for land in this area, instead of where all the family is.  I think I like this a little bit better!

MN Trip 2017 - 2nd Leg

 Robin is watching one of the littlest of the grands while their parents are working.  His mom didn't bring him a hat so Robin made one out of a handkerchief so we could take him on a walk.  The deer flies, black flies and mosquitos are relentless up there.

 We to the short walk down to Kory and Jessica's house to visit.

 These hollow logs greeted us the whole way up the drive.  :)

My nieces River and Ashley followed us back up to Robin's house and I let them us my camera to keep them busy for a little while.  Here is what they found interesting.

So most of our vacation was spent putzing around this place and visiting with the "old" people.  Life is much slower in Minnesota than it is down here in Ohio.  I'm sure if I lived up there it would be busy too.

I wish I had more pics of the lakes, but when you are kayaking on giant lakes I didn't want to risk my camera getting dunked.  We did several lake excursions, that I don't have photo evidence of, but that was my favorite part of the trip - besides seeing that son of mine.

Kota is in a tough transitional phase.  I hope he finds what he is looking for soon.

MN Trip 2017 - 1st Leg

We left Ohio on July 6th and traveled to a place with limited cell reception and little to know wifi.  Sometime that is nice to be unplugged, but other times I missed being connected.

Kyle came to me a year ago and said he was thinking about building a camper.  It should only cost around $700 - $1000 since he already had the frame for what used to be the scout trailer.

I thought, why not, and he ventured in a year long task.

We were supposed to take it out on Spring break (April 10), but it wasn't done yet.  Then Mother's Day weekend, still not done.  It was finished (at least 98%) on July 4th.

Good enough!

So we left Ohio in pursuit of seeing our son in Minnesota country.  We always travel by way of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  This time we decided to try a new stop in Wisconsin.  We were on the edge of the Apostle Islands.  We will need to plan on spending a couple of days here on the next trip.

The micro-camper as we came to call it (queen size bed on wheels) kept us dry and warm on the trip.  We ventured into a small campground in Washburn, WI and enjoyed our evening.

We had beautiful view of Lake Superior right from our camp site.  At only $25 a night we were pleased.

I woke up to Canada Geese sleeping on the beach close to us.  It was fun to watch.

Rise and Shine.  On to Minnesota to see our son and make our niece's graduation party.

Where has June Gone?

Can it be a month since I posted last?

  Things were supposed to slow down when school is out.  I actually think I've worked just as hard while the teachers have been gone on summer break as I do when they are there.

So I taught my first class to adults who paid to come see us.  That was scary, but the class went great.

Kyle and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary on June 4.  That same day he was sustained as second counselor in the Bishopric at church. 

After one long day at work this month, Kayla asked me if I'd take Dixie on a walk with her at Byer's Woods.  I was tempted to say no, but went any how.  I'm glad I did.

 We got to see this guy up close.  Although he looks pretty far away in this shot, he just stood there watching us.

 There is a nice pond that we walk by, Dixie enjoyed getting in an cooling off.

 Can you see them ducks?  Them are ducks!  (haha)

 My last day of work was June 21st.  June 22nd, I spent cleaning getting ready for some MN guests coming in.  My neice Autumn is going to go to OSU this fall.  They have to come in for an orientation this week.

 Then I spent the afternoon with this guy, so his mom could take his baby brother to a well baby check up.  It was a lot of fun.  His little sister slept through the whole game playing activity.

 Then Friday, I got to watch this pair while their mom went to pick up the YW from camp.  Lots of service in the first few days off of work!

 We sure got to enjoy a rainy Friday, playing with homemade playdough, indoor noodle hockey, board games, and we even baked a batch of peanut butter cookies. 

 Then Saturday, we volunteered time for Mid-Ohio Preschool to have a booth at the Children's Festival over by the carousel.  We made individual bags of flubber with the children.

 I worked from 8 am to 3 and ended up with a sunburn, despite two applications of sunscreen.

It was a fun day, I walked away tired and stiff.  My arm is still sore from all the pouring of glue from gallon containers.  It was worth the effort we earn some money for our family involvement fund.