Our 10 year anniversary to the north shore and south shore.

Duluth tall ships festival was cool the first day when we could only see the ships from the shore. The second day was a waste of time. We didn't stay long... some people stood in line all day to just walk on 1 ship. Not how we wanted to spend our day. 

 Then we decided to save a buck and campout in the church parking lot. Shhh... don't tell them. We even got to download movies onto our devices with the church wifi. We brought a blow up matress that we set up in the back of our stow and go van. It was an old matress and lost air every couple of hours. I didn't sleep very well because I kept hitting the floor and I dreamed that the boy scouts came to church in the morning and found us.

 It was quite private. I don't think anyone knew we were there except for the kid that walked by with his backpack on... probably taking a shortcut to school. Then we drove to Bayfield, Wisconsin.

 And I had the best meal of my life there in Bayfield. Fish and sweet potato fries. Rocked my world.

Our hike

 to some waterfall.

 Our campsite on night two was right on lake superior. We still camped out in our van but we got a much nicer mattress and slept great.

 We went for a dip.

 Our view of the sunset from our bed. Then we watched some more movies.

 We took a ferry to Madeline Island

 And then we went on a kayaking excursion to see some sea caves. It was super fun but too windy and wavy to see most of the caves. We did get to go through one but I was not brave enough to try to take a picture with the waves.

Our third night, we stayed in a nice Bed and Breakfast. I guess it was too nice to take pictures of. LOL.

Summer fun in August

Camille and her boys stayed with us for a couple of days after the Funk reunion and we did some fun things around Rochester. We took them to Daube's bakery. It was actually our first time going but not the last. 

 And we took them to the Zoo in Rochester.

 Cutie boy cousins in the wagon.

  and we went to an outdoor concert where they bake pizzas in an outdoor brick oven. It was yummy and super fun. There was a parade of tractors that were all lined up and the kids got to try them out.

 Baby Aylin was born. Everyone love baby Aylin. Zola was holding her and Andrew needed to take a turn too.

 James is a pro at the big brother thing since its his 3rd time.

Swimming and popsicles.

 Cousins are the best...

Learning about the iron range at the minnesota History Museum. 

Starting our family history love early. 

 Swimming lessons are always a highlight of our summer! Dennis passed level 3 and almost 4! He mastered the backstroke, front crawl, and diving. He is working on his butterfly. Zola passed level 1. She mastered jumping into the pool unassisted, swimming under water, and the back float. She is working on her strokes. They blow me away every time.

 ... and this little dude watched every single lesson.

 We had some flooding in Pine Island. The swings are insanely high (hard for me to sit on) and they were under water.

 Sometimes we go to the library to read books, sometimes we go to play.

 He melts my heart.

 I tried something new... my 20 month old can still climb out of it!!! Do they make lids for cribs? I'm out of ideas. Night time is a nightmare at our house these days.

 Sometimes they are really nice to each other.

 Spending the day at the Tamarack Nature Center in White bear Lake. The kids got to help harvest the vegetables from the garden and then they got to try some mashed rutabaga.

 Washing the tomatoes that they picked.

 and getting a taste.

 and there you go! Tooth number 5 is gone. They all seem to fall out when grandma is around.

 My favorite thing is when Andrew wakes up from a nap and then realizes that he wasn't done.

 Then the sickies hit our house.

 He kept finding cans of olives all day. He would bring them to me and say, "eesh" (please). 4 times after eating a half of a can for lunch.