A day in the life

Samuel just left for school. Why is this significant? I'm sitting here writing this blog post, and Samuel is on his bike by himself. I had to run after him to give him a hug and a kiss. He was already on his way without a look back. I either get a pat on the back for raising a confident and reliable kid who knows how to navigate the road and cars by himself (he is still riding on the sidewalk, but still, he has to cross multiple streets and LOTS of driveways) OR I'm the most negligent mother on earth. I'm voting for the first one. Proud and anxious at the same time.

That said, I texted a dad that I know who is always at drop off to ask him to tell me when Samuel gets there safe and sound :)

We had the opportunity to stay in a lake house for a week, so we invited Peter, Cindy, Ben and Jonah to join us for the quintessential Minnesota experience.

I did not take any pictures of the mosquito bites, but rest assured, we did have that quintessential Minnesota experience as well.

The cousins had a great time together reading books

There was a lot of running around, and general silliness

Uncle Peter made sure Samuel and Shira had their first experience with fireworks

Shockingly, no burns or trauma occurred. There was a lot of discussion about Steve's scarring fireworks experience as a child.

Note the scratching of mosquito bites

And Steve applies mosquito repellant to the kids, yet again. Where'd that deet go?

And we had the opportunity to introduce Ben and Jonah to their first s'mores experience.

Hmm... I think they liked them

Eating breakfast together

One rainy day we went to the movies - Monsters University - Shira's first movie

And Cindy had the pleasure of driving the kids back, crammed in the backseat of her car.

The lake house came equipped with plenty of toys and games

We provided the necessary craziness

When the Brooklyn Kafkas left, it sucked a lot of life out of the house. The kids really missed their cousins, and the lake house became very quiet. It took about a day for us to change gears and get back to enjoying our much smaller family again.

Samuel went to mini golf for the first time at camp this summer and loved it, so when we drove past a Pirate miniature golf course on our way up to the lake, we were pretty sure we would be returning to give Shira her first crack at it.

We started out taking score, but the competitive nature of one of the smaller family members made that NOT FUN AT ALL. Things got better when we got rid of the score card.

Shira had a hard time deciding whether she was a lefty or a righty. We seemed to really hit our stride on the last hole. The kids loved starting over and over again, to see if they could get a hole in one. We probably stayed on the last hole about as long as we were on the entire rest of the course.

The combination of some yucky weather plus Shira's and my extreme aversion to mosquito bites that swell and take over our entire bodies, drove us inside and inspired what was ironically and inarguably the biggest hit of the whole trip - an indoor waterpark at a hotel. Not surprisingly, we pretty much had the place to ourselves - I mean, who goes to an indoor water park in July in Minnesota? The answer - California tourists whose children love to swim, but are tired of running away from mosquitoes. Anyway, the place was empty, we never had to wait in line for the water slides, it was blessedly climate controlled, the water was clean because we were practically the only ones there, they ignored the size requirements for the waterslides, so Shira could go down on her own and Samuel didn't have to wear a life vest, and Shira learned how to pop out of the water while swimming and take a breath to continue swimming. We all had a fantastic time.

It wouldn't be a trip to Northern Minnesota without a few Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox sitings

In a fit of brilliance 50 years ago, a business owner in the sleepy town of Nisswa brainstormed the idea of turtle racing for tourists to bring people into town and away from the lakes in order to spend money at local businesses. Nisswa continues to hold the races every Wednesday during the summer season, and we attended on our last day at the lake. Steve couldn't believe that they truly draw in over 500 people a week to race turtles, but they did indeed. And those are just the actual racers, not counting the family/spectators. For 4 bucks you get a button and the privilege of renting a turtle for a race or two. They capture the turtles from the wild in April and May, race them in June, July and August, then return them to the lakes. Completely bizarre, but it works. I'm sure many people spent money they had no intention of spending in downtown Nisswa.

The inner white circle is where they stage the buckets of turtles before each race. The racers stand between the inner white circle and the yellow circle. The turtles start at the first yellow circle, and the first one to make it to the outer yellow "Finish" circle, is the winner. The outer white line is the "Spectator" line - spectators can't cross.

The mascot - can't remember his name.

The turtles

Picking a turtle to race

Getting ready to race

Getting the turtle out

You pour water on the turtle to try and make them move (hopefully toward the finish line)

And the next morning we got up, packed up the car, and headed to Grandma's and Grandpa's house.

The kids have their favorites that they like to do on every trip to Grandma's and Grandpa's, like the Zoo,

the Science Museum, the Children's Theater

and ice cream at Sebastian Joe's.

There always a few new things to do too - this time we happened to be in town for the Aquatennial (I know, I have know idea what it is either) and had the opportunity to watch people race boats they had made out of milk cartons. I don't know what was more fun, watching the people on the boats that fall apart end up in the drink, watching the boats that were super fast make it to the finish line, or listening to the talking head announcer with her super cute Minnesota accent.

The guys in the picture above looked like they were about to sink the whole time. Someone fell off the moment they got into the water. The life guards were so convinced their boat was going to fall apart, they've got two canoes following them.

The long boat in the above picture has been winning for 15 years. Pretty impressive since most boats are lucky if they hold up for 15 minutes.

And the newest greatest toy at G & G's is the Lego train! Hours of fun to build and use.

We tried out a new pool. This one had an obstacle course, and looser rules on their waterslides. Samuel has inspired me to be much braver - he always wants me or Steve to go first, and how can I say no?