Annual Minnesota Trip!

We just love coming to this place every summer.

It is always so good to see my parents and to let the kids run on 2 acres of land and get as dirty as possible. I couldn't resist posting lots of pictures so bear with me!

My mom has this cute little red wagon that she loves to go for walks with the kids in. Ethan is getting too big for it but he loved pulling Ellie around in it.

There are wild animals roaming around like crazy!

Turkeys in the backyard,

and deer in the corn. We also saw an adorable little raccoon family searching for some grub nearby as well.

What was really amazing was seeing a family of bald eagles who live just a few trees down from my parents house. It was amazing to see these beautiful birds soar over the lake. They didn't like us getting too close and would chirp at us as if warning us to get away. There was a mommy, a daddy and a little baby. Mom said that the other brothers and sisters had flown away earlier in the year. Their nest was huge!

Ellie is definitely our little animal lover and I think she got her quota filled for the year!

I love this picture. Knowing Ellie's personality I can totally imagine her thinking, "Oh yeah... What are you looking at?"

We went on a pasture ride at Uncle Mike's farm to see the cows and the little baby calves.

This picture was taken right before the cow stuck out her humongous tongue and licked Ethan's arm. The look on his face was priceless!

Mom and Dad with their one and only granddaughter. They are such cute grandparents :)

Ethan sat in all the farm machinery he could! Semi trucks, big tractors, combines, skid-loaders, you name it. This place is pretty much heaven on earth for little boys!

And for little girls too...

This kids loved playing outside with all their tractors and were always filthy by the end of the day. I think that definitely means that they had fun!

I thought this next picture was so sweet even though I'm almost positive that he was taking something from her :)

Mom got the kids these cute little chairs. Ellie enjoyed carrying them around the house more than actually sitting in them.

Justin went to put Ellie down for a nap and when I went to go check on them I found this... so sweet!

Justin and my dad worked down in the basement studding it and doing the preparations to sheet rock it. There are always projects to work on with dad around!

Ethan joined in on the action and made a tree house. With supervision of course!

Dad and Justin cleared some growth down by the lake too. It was sure hot!

With a lake for a backyard, there are always opportunities to fish. Ellie didn't like the fish too much though.

Justin and I went fishing out on my cousin Brock's boat, and Brock caught somewhere around a 10lb catfish on a daredevil! It was so fun!

Brock also took us out jet skiing and we had a blast!

It seems as if these small farming communities love any excuse to throw a city party with a parade or two. It is always so fun to see more people in the parade than those watching it. Gotta love small towns! Ethan thoroughly enjoyed his bag of popcorn,

an Ellie devoured her fudge bar. They threw out some good stuff at this parade!

It was so cute to see my dad reading to Ethan and Ellie in the evenings. Ellie especially loved bringing books to grandpa and sitting on his lap while he read to her.

One afternoon, Justin and I took the kids to Lakefield's public pool. I was quite impressed with this facility considering there are like less than 500 people in the whole town! Ethan was a pro with going down the slide!

One of our last days there, we went up to the Loon Lake Cemetery. There are all sorts of rumors that this place is haunted and there are some creepy stories out there! Google it if you are interested. It was a neat place to visit and see such old graves. Those pioneers were amazing to want to settle in a place this cold in the winter! On this sign, I counted 37 buried infants. So sad.

I just love these next few pictures on the way back from the cemetery. She loves to ride around on Justin's shoulders.

Ellie doing what she does best... running away from us!

My mom has 2 really pretty wind chimes that Ellie loved playing with. I think this picture is so funny because I accidentally caught her mid-pooping while playing with the chimes!

Justin likes to give my parents heart attacks with throwing Ellie up in the air like this. It sure makes for cool pics!

I don't remember what was happening in this next picture but I though it was so sweet!

We had a super long layover in Minneapolis so we spent pretty much the whole 5 hours in this one play place they have there. Play places in airports?! Genius! Ellie was happy as could be

spending the majority of the time in this space ship.

She meant business if another kid tried to get her out of it too!

We always love spending 2 weeks of our summer with my parents in such a pretty part of our country. We love the laid back lifestyle and could picture ourselves living there if the winters weren't SO darn harsh :) Thanks mom and dad for having us!