Summer is in full swing!

Ahhhh, only the 9th day of summer (for us anyway - that first month didn't count as it was like April all over again here) and we've had such a good time.  The kids and I went to the strawberry patch near our house the other day.  We went to one last summer and Dylan really enjoyed it so he was pretty excited to go again.  Wasn't sure how Avery was going to do, but there was only one way to find out!

It was a slow start.  Dylan had to sample the product before he could get serious about picking.  Avery had to take it all in.

Like her brother, she did more sampling than picking.

Finally, I had picked enough to fill two cartons (they didn't do as much picking as I had hoped they would!) and asked them to pose for a picture.

Avery was mid taste and took her strawberry out of her mouth to showcase it.  Perfect!

Back at home in the BLOB.  We sure are loving the BLOB.  It gets pretty hot up on our patio (aka, our second living room) so its nice to sit in our adirondaks and get super hot and then jump in the pool.  We've really been enjoying it.

Here they are taunting their daddy who is upstairs working.  HA HA DADDY!!!!  We're in the pool and you're working!!!

They both do pretty well in the pool.  Dylan is working on floating and he loves to swim underwater.  Avery is doing pretty well at walking around and when she goes under, she pops right back up.  She still needs constant supervision of course.

Here they are playing in our second living room.  Dylan was playing cars and Avos was taking pictures of me.

And I was taking pictures of her!

She was in a real "picture-y" mood so I took advantage.

D had to come over and get his picture taken too.

Here I bribed them with ice cream to get them to pose with me.  SUCKERS!

Last night we went on a boat ride as it was hot, sunny and there was just a light breeze on the lake.  PERFECT conditions for a cruise on Pontunia.

And perfect conditions for a dip too!  The water was nice and warm!

Our neighbors Lingy and the Winercheskies cruised by and we hooked up together and dropped the anchor.

More swimming occurred.

Eric has been wearing Dylan's hat lately to keep the horseflies from landing on his head.  We all especially love it when he pairs the hat with his skin tight camouflage waders.  Its a goooooood look.

It was a lovely evening until we learned the hard way that we shouldn't bring our cell phones on the boat anymore.  The kids were tossing ice cubes into the lake one by one out of our soft sided cooler.  Dylan got sick of tossing them in one by one and decided to dump all the ice cubes out at once by holding the cooler upside down.  Guess what was in the side pocket of the cooler!?!?!  Eric's blackberry.  UH OH!  500 dollar mistake and lesson learned!  He had a new one coming from Ebay, but its still no fun! : (  So if you need to reach him, please email!

Another fabulous day is on tap!  : )

 

 

4th of July Weekend

Well I'm back from the long weekend and armed with a gazillion pictures, as usual.  Had to really pick and choose to tone it down a bit and ease the uploading process.

We went up to Loon Lodge (my parents cabin on White Earth Lake) first.  It was my 32nd birthday on the 1st, so clearly I was queen for the day.  The kids and Eric washed my car for me.  So thoughtful!

We really lucked out on weather b/c there really was only ONE moment of crappiness.  And this wasn't it.  Here's Avos and Gpa Tom on the kayak.

And then Dylan and Gpa on the kayak.

As usual, I made them pose with me for pictures.  Special birthday edition this time.

Avery was too busy for pictures with me.

 

See - too busy!

We had dock lunch which is just like old times.  We did this a lot when I was a kid over at my grandparents cabin (5 houses down from my parents cabin).

 

And then it was time for Fun Island!

29!  Woohoo! ; )

Yearly photo of Eric tossing Dylan in the air.  We wondered how long Eric can keep this momentum going.

And then we did a birthday pontoon cruise complete with fun accessories.  Here is my niece Natalie looking very stylish.

Avery's accessory was yogurt.  No surprise there.

 

A

Present time!  Complete with typical Eric wrapping (beach towel and Fleet Farm bag).

A lifejacket!?!  Get outta town!

Looks sharp!

Can't wait to put that baby on diaper style and float in the lake (the sole purpose of me having a lifejacket - for real).  The moment of weather crappiness occurred after this photo was taken and cut the boat ride short.

Back in the cabin having a little sword fight.

Sword fight buzzkill!  Taco Jon put the K-bosh on the noise the swords made.  Booooooooo

Off to the Lodge for Mexican Night!

And then we moved onto Gma and Gpa Wikoff's at Maple Lake!  Avery was learning how to tan from Auntie Kelli.  So far so good!

Reed and Dylan were having fun pretending to ski.  Really skiing - NO WAY!

My bathing beauty!

 

Two bathing beauties having a chat!  (with cousin Adelyn)

As usual, Dylan got so tired that he fell asleep on the pontoon.  We figure he loses about 4 hours of sleep per night when at Gma and Gpa Wikoff's.   The aftermath ROCKS.

Check out the size of that Coors Light!

Our pretty baby swimming!

Water boy swimming!

Father/Daughter swim time.

And finally, the cousins in the Pow Pow Power Wheels cars.  Always a good time!

I didn't take any firework pictures this year.  They never turn out, so I figured that it wasn't worth lugging the camera along for.  I could have taken a picture of the ginormous mosquitos or the sleeping Dylan (yep, he fell asleep AGAIN on the boat), but oh well.  It was a good weekend though!  Good food and good times with the families - what more can you ask for!  We'll be doing it again in 8 days as we head up to Cass Lake for the annual family camping trip.  So look for a special Cass Lake Edition on the blog!