Yes, there are places more north than Duluth

We recently got a spontaneous invite to join Adriane, Steven and Zoella at a cabin on a lake in Ely. Spontaneous is usually the easiest way for us to roll. So we said, YES! I zoomed home after telling about 200 people, that I was indeed holding a live snake at the local Thomas the Tank Engine event and we hit the road. Side note: all of the melting down overwhelmed small children wearing train shirts confirmed that we made the right decision NOT to attend this event with Lu. Maybe next year. 

After a beautiful drive through the wetlands of northern MN, we arrived in time for dinner. Lucy and Z warmed up fast and pitter pattered all over the cabin and the grounds. 

It was a great little get away and lovely to catch up with the Morabito-Teeters. Feeling lucky to know such nice people. 

Ry's photo playing with the HDR effect. The guys, Steven, Scott and Ryan chased what they thought was a moose swimming. Turns out it was "just a swimming deer". Awe well. 

Right before these girls just decided to go for it and get very wet. 

EE girls and their girls.

What a cutie.

A moment of collaboration amidst challenges sharing.

Always with the rock throwing.

Another beautiful sky. 

A walk and some beach time in the morning. Then right before we left it seemed like a shame NOT to go for a little paddle. The water was like glass. There is something so very wonderful about being in a canoe. Lucy paddled too with her wooden spoon paddle. We also looked a wide variety of bugs that had landed in the boat, passing them back and forth on the edge of our paddles/spoons. After a quick trip into Ely to see Adriane's children's garden and have lunch we headed back to Duluth to see Grandma Pam. 

End note: We found a little pool in a garden in Ely that had fish in it. Lucy's statement to me was: "Mama, I can't see their faces." It was hilarious to see that she's so used to seeing fish in an aquarium setting where you can indeed "see their faces". 

The most relaxing weekend in a long time...

Erica Henry came to visit. She is a friend from our time out west. It was so wonderful to have her here. She lives in the Keys so we thought she'd be right at home on the beach. We took her to two. Rocky beach (Brighton) and sandy beach (Park Point). And we ate amazing food. And went for long walks. And played games. And lounged in the sun. It was wonderful. 

Father-daughter twinseys.

Erica pondering the freshwater sea.

This was right before she went pretty much all the way in. What a water baby.

This is the carving of our whole chicken that we roasted on the grill. (The photos of how pretty it looked are on Ryan's phone). We did the beer can chicken thing. Turns out our neighbor even had the official grill pan to make the bird stand up straight while it roasted. It was delicious. Totally recommend it. SUPER easy. And no, we didn't use a dark beer. We poured some Summer Shandy into that can. 

Running in Lester Park. 

Hide and seek was a huge hit. And a strong motivator to keep hiking. We also did some bribery with food. You gotta do what you gotta do to keep the troops moving. 

Where's Erica?

Surprise!

Looking at bugs under rocks. That's kind of how we met Erica. It seemed pretty appropriate. 

Adventure girl! 

She's wearing my watch and kept asking us "Do you know what time it is?" Her response was frequently "36 o'clock". Lucy's clock apparently has more than 24 hours. That explains why bedtime is such a struggle. She thinks she's got 12 more hours of fun ahead of her. Oh, honey. If only those hours existed, I know a few people that could make use of them. For work. For play. For cleaning our house. For sleeping. For updating our blog. 

Erica studies butterflies. We thought this game would also make her feel at home. Although she reports rarely seeing fun elephants on her remote island study sites. So I guess that means that we win!

Mash-up Part II

These are truly a mash-up of events that occurred over the last few months. 

The Mattsons are back! Lucy and Maarit whooped it up and giggled and screamed and collected treasures and built chipmunk traps. You know, the usual. 

Lake excursion with Ryan. Beautiful photos.

An art easel from Grandma and Grandpa Erickson has been a huge hit. 

A quick visit with Uncle Ben and Aunt Trish in NH.

This pretty much sums up our trip to NH except for some serious play in the water time. 

Lucy and Charlotte (my childhood best friend, Sara's, daughter). It's crazy to think that Sara and I have known each other since we were this age. A total awesome afternoon.

Riding in Grandpa Matt's boat in NH.

We also went to VT for a night. This was the 4th of July parade. What a super cute event. 

Although when they turned up the volume she spent the rest of the parade like this and in my lap. Parades are not her favorite thing ever. Let me rephrase, loud things are not her favorite thing ever. Is it the tubes in her ears? She can certainly get quite loud herself...anyway parades are out for a while but visits with cool fun friends are definitely in.

Atlantic ocean tide pool time in NH.

Our fairy tree stump stool at the new house. Lucy is turning into quite the climber.

A hat that matches Mimi's.

Lucy and Charlotte. See what I mean about the bubbles. Seriously we went through SO many. Although toddlers also really like to just straight up dump them out. So that probably accounts for at least 2 gallons of bubble mix. 

Family photos at the beach. 

I don't love this photo except for the people in it. We're all a little squinty but I promised my mom that I'd include it. Here you go Mom, Love your squinty eyed daughter.

The Mattsons had a welcoming ceremony for little Gustaf. What a lucky sweet little kiddo. I look forward to getting to know him.

This is a pretty common occurrence. Do you think she could pay for college busking?

Erin and Frank came for dinner and Lucy invited Frank into the "pool" for a swim. "Whew, what a core workout', reported Frank. It was for the rest of us as well because we were laughing so hard. Good times. It has been wonderful to have moments like this this summer. It counters the total absolute crazy-pants everything else that is going on.

Spring Summer Mash-up Part I

So let's see. What has happened since February? Well, winter went away...by the beginning of July. And we moved to a new house (pictures of that forthcoming in a later post since we haven't taken any yet). And have traveled a bunch for weddings, family visits, and to see the sights. Lucy turned 3. She attended her first "school friend" birthday party. Big stuff.

I promised some folks some pictures. So here we go.

Taking in the rays at our "old house" aka "the green house" which Lucy occasionally asks to move back to. (cue parental heartbreak...)

Lucy, Kailey and Jackie living it up at Kailey's 3rd B-day party. 

Lucy and Linnea sharing a good book.

"Cheese!"