Travis and Millie's Wedding Ceremony

Friday night we headed to Duluth for Travis' wedding. Following dinner downtown Duluth, we took a walk along the peer:

It was a beautiful night for a walk and very busy. We've never been to Duluth during summer tourist season so it was a bit of a shocker to deal with all the people and traffic!

The famous lift bridge, we saw go up and down while we were on the peer:

Watched a ship come in and blow its horn right in front of us - LOUD!!!

Saturday morning we headed further north to Beaver Bay. Travis and Millie decided to get married in the 'fish house' on the property of a resort they were going to stay at Sat. night.

There was a cute little water fall near the parking lot:

Nature calls - one of the blessings of having boys! (Emmit's little buns are peaking out)

 The happy groom. (I took this before Millie showed up and realized I didn't get a good picture of her!)

Brotherly love (for the moment)

Gerrit and Emmit loved the location of the wedding. The water and rocks made for a great playground. I didn't think so as this took place before pictures and I didn't bring spare clothes along!

A view of the fish house from a little walking path the boys and I found:

This was a little more tame way to pass the time, and a dryer option!

The view of the ceremony from my side: 

Jacee was Millie's attendant and Connor was Travis' (that's Connor's head).

A view from inside the fish house:

Following the wedding we had lunch near the resort. We headed back to Duluth and went swimming. We went to Fitger's for dinner - yummy food and better beer!

After dinner we went to Spirit Mountain, a local ski resort in Duluth to go on the Alpine Coaster. It was a highlight for all of us. The boys were not too apprehensive to go with us either. They both wanted to ride with Adam but Emmit won the coin toss and road with Adam first.

We had so much fun, we went again. This time switching partners. We controlled how fast we went with the break. If you didn't use the break, you were going about 26 mph. Adam and I both used the breaks a bit, but Connor (who hung out with us after the wedding) did not! Bob and Geri even went on it too. 

Emmit was mad he couldn't go again (thankfully it was closing as it was going to break the bank if we paid for more rides!). We promised the boys we would come back as the slide is open year round. They can not wait!

Sandy Pines 2013

Better late than never regarding July at Sandy Pines.

Emmit enjoys hanging out in the loft:

The boys were excited to use a Christmas gift frequently during the week:

Emmit a bit disappointed he can't hit the ball as easily as his brother:

Classic digging a hole at the beach with Ella and Mia:

Emmit went to dig for buried 'treasures' at the volleyball courts. It was sponsored by the rec dept. He stuck to one area but did find a few coins:

Opa helped a little too:

He could play on the monkey bars all day (so could Mia):

Emmit wasn't quite sure he wanted to be in the deep with Ella and preferred to chill on the beach:

Eating a snack on the soon to be decorated float:

The kids loved playing on the trailer, pre decorated:

Before the fireworks, we had a few sparklers of our own:

Adam doing his sparkler dance:

Emmit got the hang of the sparkler too:

We went to the water park too - the water was a bit chilly:

 The cold water didn't stop Emmit and his curiosity:

Gerrit bravely sat on the water sprayer despite the cold:

Emmit almost got wet:

Before we left for MN, Opa brought the tracker that was going to pull the big trailer:

 The boys enjoyed sitting on it and 'driving'

This is the first trip we made which we didn't use the pack n play. Both boys received sleeping bags at Christmas when they were at the age of outgrowing the pack n play. They liked having one side of the loft to themselves:

 A fun and fast trip. Hard to relax completely because we knew what was ahead of us - moving! Now that we have moved and getting settled in, we are ready to go back!! I'm taking the boys back for a few days while Adam is out of town. 

The "BIG" City

We have made the transition to the 'big' city. Everything went smoothly with the 2 closings. The difficult part was dealing with the heat. When we moved to Z-town, it was the coldest weekend of the year and I think this move put us at the hottest weekend of the year! Thanks to wonderful neighbors, we were able to leave odds and ends at their house after the truck and storage unit were full! We were house guests at John and Deb's and they were wonderful hosts! Dinner made for us the night we loaded the truck and pancakes for breakfast both days! A surprise breakfast with the group was a nice touch for the big move. And dinner at Langley's when we were 'homeless' - living with John and Deb while we waited for the closings on Tuesday. The boys enjoyed a few days with Luke and Paul while we did the tough work (and they had swimming lessons so they needed to stay the week).

Pam and Paul came up on closing day to help paint and unload the truck. It was a hot afternoon but the big stuff found new homes and the boys' rooms got a fresh coat of paint. I painted the boys' bathroom before we picked the boys us because I didn't want any 'help' from them. We were able to get the boys' rooms put together enough for them to feel like it was familiar to them by Friday. They were excited to see the house and I think they were shocked to see our furniture in it (they were not around when we loaded the truck).

A few things to note since moving in to the new house:
- it is important to have a valid drivers license when closing on a house - learned mine expired when I was at the bank the morning of the closing -- rather than doing a walk through of the new house, I went to renew my license. Oops. At least I got the new address on it already!
- took less than an hour before the boys wanted to drop things down the laundry shoot.
- Emmit seems to like our bathroom to take care of business.
- Emmit loves tub showers - laying in the bathtub while the shower is running (we didn't have this feature before).
- Gerrit loves to race cars on our street (its not a real busy street and we don't have sidewalks)
- there are a lot of kids in the neighborhood for the boys to play with, including a boy next door that is almost 5 and a 5th grader 2 doors down.
- Adam loves his commute - 20 some miles and 30 min. which is a 3rd of the time it was from Z-town
- I love my kitchen!!
- Adam and I realize we are not 30 anymore and are sore and tired from the past few weeks.

I didn't take many pictures of the move as there was a lot going on but I will post pictures of the house once I get rid of these cardboard boxes!

Finally Made it to the POOL!

We opted not to get a pool membership this summer because we knew we were moving...Now that it is almost July, we finally made it swimming! 

Granted the weather has not been that great, but still - this is not like us to wait this long to swim!

Monday Sue came down for a visit and lunch. She joined us in making the drive over to Lake City for a swim at Pepin Lodge. And boy was she glad she came! (So were the boys!)

 Sue is a kid at heart and put her in the pool and she is in her element! Gerrit loved swimming with his snorkel and seeing Sue swimming underneath him and wave. She was a "Bond girl" with her squirt gun tucked in her swim suit - ready for action. 

Can't believe how old the boys are looking!

Emmit enjoyed his swimmy fish to float around the pool:

Gerrit preferred his mask and swimming under the water in search for dive toys:

We were lucky enough to come back on Tuesday night for supper. John and Adam were not home for dinner so we dined by the pool with Deb! After dinner we took a walk to the lake for some rock skipping:

 The view of Wisconsin from the shore:

 The view of the marina (MN side)

It was a great way to spend a few hours away from the house and the thought of packing! Lucky for us, we won't be too far when we move that we can't come and swim. Adam might ride his bike by himself there but that's all!

We are anxious and excited for MI and more swimming!

Back Tracking...

I forgot about basketball camp! I was downloading pictures and realized I didn't download basketball camp. Camp was Gerrit's first week off (but I was still in school so we were busy at night!).

 Love that form! I can't take much credit for teaching him - he comes by it naturally!

Here's the first grader campers (weird to think of him as first grade!):

They practiced ball handling in the 'big' gym (high school court) and dribbled in the halls (elementary is connected to the high school). 

Practicing the 'weave'

This drill cracked me up! Pistol Pete!!

Gerrit was the only one that could catch the ball sucessfully!

Shooting on the big court for a few minutes!

Full court passing on the move

Look at that lay-up!

This is how Emmit kept himself entertained:

Gerrit loved camp and was bummed it was only 4 days. He was very excited when I told him there was organized basketball at his new school for first grade! (One of the benefits of a large school system).