Minnesota lake fun

As you can see traveling in the car so long makes one very tired!

Looking out the window enjoying the scenery of back roads in South and North Dakota.  We only were on interstate for the first hour and the last mile in MN.  Otherwise we made G proud and avoided all the major roads and took the back roads through farm land and small town Dakota!

We finally got to MN about supper time Thursday.  Just in time to see G&G before they headed out to the campsite. After playing for a little while we headed to bed.  The next day started our adventures at the lake.  We invited Cousin L with us the first day for the famous Zorbez pizza on the lake.

The family waiting for the pizza to arrive.

The satisfied customers after a wonderful lunch.

For the next day and a half we spent as much time on the beach as we could.  Even those who decided not to swim as much enjoyed the shade and fresh air!

We even got Uncle S to go into the water.  Aunt S and Amber were wore out after swimming laps around the swim area.

On Saturday, Aunt M made a crab/shrimp boil (minus the crab).  It was very good.

Doesn't it look great!  We all dug in and there wasn't any food left after we got down with it!

When the sun started going down and it got too cold to stay by the lake, we headed to the campsite to spend the evenings with G&G, Aunt M and Aunt R.

Being silly with our "hats".  The translation of the song we are singing is "when coming to the street, look both ways", then we would head into the "street".

G loves to spoil her little girls, so we got some presents from her recent trip to see Uncle W in Hawaii.  I also got a late birthday present from Aunt M.

Storybook land

Since Aberdeen was the place we ended up spending the night and D hearing from Uncle S about the fun park there, we decided to head to Storybook Land on our way out of town.  M&D thought we might spend an hour or so, have lunch and then finish the trip to MN.  C and I had so much fun though that we ended up being there almost 3 hours.

Storybook Land is the home of Wizard the Oz and the yellow brick road, but there are a lot of other fun characters there also from all your favorite stories.  The best park--FREE admission.  It really is more of a playground with statues everywhere, but we were the perfect age to enjoy it!  D even got into the fun--having the lion bite his head as he tried to get a drink of water on the hot 90 degree day.

Riding the ponies on the way to.....

Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eaters house!

We climbed the hill with Jack and Jill, sailed on the blue seas with the pirates, played in the woods with Bambi and friends, passed the 3 little pigs and their houses and climbed Rupunzel's castle. 

Then we stopped to eat lunch before heading to the Land of Oz!

Enjoying the fountain of books.

 

We walked the yellow brick road with Dorothy and her friends, past the Scarecrow's cornfield, through the woods to the tin man and into the cave of the lion.  We walked through the haunted forest and past the witch's castle until we got to Emerald City and the balloon ride of the Wizard.  What an adventure!

We ended the day with a ride around the park on their little train and a stop by the zoo to see the buffalo!

Waterslides

At  the end of July M and D had some vacation days planned to head to Minnesota for a family reunion.  As the date got closer M realized that even though we had planned to leave on Wednesday no one else would be in MN until Thursday later afternoon.  With M's new job approaching the decision teeter-tottor game was played.  Do we work that extra day or do we go up and take our time?  We finally made the decision Monday evening that things were looking good at M's job and who knew when she would get another day off as new employees and training would be taking place in August.  So early Wednesday morning we headed out.  The plan was to go through the Black Hills and possibly make it to Mitchell to visit some friends before heading to a hotel for the night.  Through M's lack of planning and a slight unplanned detour coming out of the Black Hills (no pictures even though we passed Mt. Rushmore  and I told M, "I've seen that before at school in a picture!") we ended up too far north of I-90 to visit friends.  So M in a panic started calling the different hotels along the map and finally found a place in Aberdeen for us to spend the night.  It actually worked out well (even though M was very sad to miss Mitchell and the friends there!) as the hotel had a fun park (ie. 2 slides!) for us to play on before bed and first thing the next morning.

C coming off the BIG slide with D.

I went with M quite a few times but even got brave enough to go down by myself as long as M was at the bottom to catch me!

Swimming in the deep end with just by float board!

Relaxing in the hot tub with D.

River Fun

A few Sundays back we decided to head up the canyon to cool off.  We drove until we found a good spot to soak our feet in the water.  It was a little cold, but that didn't stop us from playing and going out as deep as our waists.  What a great way to cool off.  It didn't last long because the rain started threatening as soon as we parked but we got almost a half hour of fun before it really poured!

Hanging out on the rocks with M.

D watching his much too brave girls try to climb around the rock in the current!

Watching the river go by!

The smiles say it all.  We had a great time even if it was short!

Company Picnic

A few Saturday's ago was D's company picnic.  It was only forecasted to be 95 that day, so we set out to have an afternoon of fun.  After a great lunch of BBQ, the only logical dessert is ICE CREAM!!

Then it was off to the bouncy houses.

 

Patiently waiting for our turn in the jumping house!

C climbing the rope ladder inside the caterpillar bouncy maze.

We had all sorts of fun on the 3 bouncy equipment they had.  We jumped and raced and had a good time--even if we were being silly!

 

While M tried to stay in the shade watching us on the bouncy houses, D and P found their own shady spot patiently waiting for us to finish up our fun.

After the bouncy houses, it was off to the carnival games.  I won a little stuffed horse and C won some new dress-up rings.

After the afternoon in the sun we were wore out, so we dropped P off and headed home for a nap.  When we woke up M took us the lake to cool off.

Fourth camping

Since we couldn't camp on the 4th, we went up Friday morning for a long weekend.  We've had a month of record heat and drought, but this weekend it chose to rain and rain hard.  Friday afternoon our battery died, so D left to go get another one.  He was gone 4 hours and it rained the whole time.  The Poudre canyon actually was closed due to mud slides in the fire area.  We also had a little river run through our campsite from all the rain.  We spent a lot of time in the camper!!

Saturday was cloudy and threatening rain most of the day, but it stayed dry until just before supper.  So we got 2 really long rides in and only saw one other rider.  The area we camp is near the High Park Fire area (at one point on the drive up we saw the burn area within a half mile of the road), so with the fire ban still in effect, rain in the forecast and driving by the fire still burning scared most people away.  So instead of 50-100 different campers throughout the trails and meadows, we saw 3!!  There were a few day riders, but we really did have the place to ourselves.  We even were the first ones on the trails for the season so we had to do some tree clean-up of fallen trees.  The first ride we went on took us on all the major trails and had us out for over 2 hours.  Both C and I fell asleep!  After lunch we went on another long ride which took us through some streams.  I got really wet!  What a fun weekend.

Fourth of July

With the 4th of July being mid-week and M busy training for her new job, we didn't actually camp on the 4th and instead went up to the Y where we got to be a part of the Y parade.  It is hailed as the shortest but most enthusiastic parade in the world.  It runs about 2 blocks length in front of the main building on property.  All the guests come and watch while every department and some family reunions have floats and decorations.  The Craft shop even had a cheer routine they did in the middle.  The day campers are the first event, so that we can sit at the end and watch the rest of the floats.  M was just a spectator this year so she could watch C and me come down the parade route.

Her little patriotic girl!   

 I was a clown in a car walking with my animal friends.

 No parade is complete without a fire truck or in the case a truck carrying a water gun which sprayed the fire truck the whole length of the parade.  As you can see from the below video, the fire truck guys got the rest of their department back after the parade.  Y employees have too much fun!!

Birthdays

Since April I had been telling M that I wanted to celebrate my birthday at the Train Park everytime we passed it after dropping C off at daycare.  It wasn't until the week that M realized that it would be the hottest day of the year as it was forecasted to be 103 degrees.  But since I was so determined, M decided to go forth with the Train Park.  Luckily everyone was trying to stay out of the heat, so we didn't have a crowd to fight at the park at all.  We got three tables all in a row and in the shade! I had invited a few friends from my Y school, but that morning a fire started in Estes Park (1 of 6 fires which started that day in CO bringing the total fires burning on that day to 12 in CO) and one friend's aunt was evacuated so they couldn't come down.  Needless to say that fire dominated the adult conversation as 2 attendees worked with M up there and it was only 2 miles from the Y and the road was closed going to/from for emergency vehicles only, so they were trying to figure out if they would even be able to get to work on Monday.  The crazy thing--the last time a fire was that close was 5 years earlier when M was in the hospital with me and the SMR facility had a 5 acre fire on property.
My best friend P was able to come since she also lives down in Loveland.

 Waiting patiently for the train to let us board.  Proudly holding our tickets!

 The D's rode the train with the little kids in the open air car.  We got to go on two rides so one time I was in the boxcar and the second time i was in the caboose with my friends.

 

We went through 5 gallons of cool-aid, but as long as you stayed in the shade it wasn't completely unbearable, just uncomfortable!  Next summer M will plan a water party of some sort!!

The next week we helped D celebrate his birthday.  Before having company over to our house, we had to go visit G's gravesite and leave our birthday momentos for her.

 Happy Birthday to a wonderful G that is very missed.

 When we got home, we all changed into our Bronco gear.  M said that D had his girls trained well.  They both picked those out on their own accord for D's birthday!

 After we finished lunch and the adults were enjoying the shade in the backyard, C and I jumped in our new bouncy house I got from G&G for my birthday.  It was lots of fun, even more so after M figured out how to plug up the extra air hole!!

We had a good birthday season, with M celebrating hers with just a family supper at P's house.