Minnesota Trip- July 2010

From July 3- 13th, all four of us went to visit my parents at their new lake home in the SUPER small town of Lakefield, MN. My mom inherited property on a lake and for the past 3 years they have been working and saving hard to build her a home there. She was raised there as a farm girl and is excited to be back. 3 years ago, Justin went up to help my dad clear the land. Last year, we all went up to help them put the house together ( it is a pre-manufactered home), and this year we helped out where Mom and Dad needed us to.

We arrived on the 3rd and got to my parents house super late due to flight delays. On the 4th, we woke up and went to church and then afterwards, we joined my parents, my uncle and cousin and watched the Okobena parade!

Ethan loved seeing the firetrucks, trucks, and tractors (old and new)...

But who am I kidding...what he really loved the most was the candy! That kid scooped up the candy off of the sidewalk super fast and had a look of pure joy on his face while doing it!

Grandma held the loot in her shirt until it was over-flowing with candy. Then, we filled up the back pack.

Ethan was so funny when people would throw him objects other than candy... For example, someone threw some bead necklaces at him and he looked at it on the ground, kicked it back on the street and said, " I no want necklaces. Only candy!" Spoiled? I think so :)

Miss Ellie and I enjoyed watching the parade/ her big brother as well...

While Ethan was shoving his mouth full of candy, Ellie was chomping away at my hand! She loves to do that.

After the parade, we went to the nearby park. Ethan and daddy had fun playing on all the equipment. I just love this picture below! Pure happiness!

That night, we went over to my Uncle Mike's house and the boys popped some firecrackers. Ethan was "so afwaid" and insisted on hiding from the firecrackers like this....

He is so funny. Everything seems to be ok if he has his back turned to whatever he is afraid of!

Ethan loved riding the 4-wheeler with daddy until Justin took him by the hog barn, showed him a dead pig, and then parked the 4-wheeler right in front of the hog barn fans! He wanted nothing to do with the 4-wheeler again! I think that's enough to scare a poor little 3 year old!

But Ethan definitely couldn't get enough of all the tractors and dirt. Little boy heaven!

We worked hard outside doing things like:

Helping grandma put up the bird feeders. Ethan especially like this one. He called it the temple :)

Hauling dirt to fill in low spots....

Clearing some more of the lake view

Using the tractor to pull the freshly chopped down trees to the burn pile...

And watched this good looking guy work hard :) (The wind was blowing his shirt. He really isn't a hunchback)

The work was totally worth it for a beautiful view like this....

Isnt their view beautiful?! They get to look out at this from their back living room window!

Honestly though, I really didn't work very hard doing the things mentioned above. My husband, father and mother? Yes. Me? Not so much. I was busy taking care of these little cuties :) I dare say that I had the best, most fun job!

I know. Gasp. Ellie is actually without a headband!

But my mom would occasionally take breaks and read with our kiddos. This is her most favorite thing to do and Ethan loves to read with her!

We had a great trip and it was so much fun to get to see my parents again! We thoroughly enjoyed having no cell phone service, internet, etc. and just chatting in the evenings and spending time together. Thanks Mom and Dad for having us! We are already looking forward to next year!