What I did this summer....or too much to do and too little time!

Wow! What a fast, crazy summer!

Here is a pictogram of our fabulous memories...

First of all, we had a HUGE strawberry field!

We ate so much shortcake, jam, strawberry pie...yum!

We were lucky people to have baby animals everywhere on our farm this summer.  

We had 3  batches of call ducks, 2 sets of free range chickens, and 16 kittens born to 3 mamas

grace our little hobby farm this summer!

 And after 18 years of using this tiny, old fashioned, leaky, moldy, pink-tubbed, 

no-storage-space, no-outlet, no-exhaust fan bathroom

 (although it kinda looks cute here....go figure).....

We were blessed with this....

Tadadada!

Did I mention we only had the one bathroom?

It was worth using this for 20 days!

We did a fair share of hiking, picnicking,movie going,concert seeing,

 and letterboxing, 

(see atlasquest.com)

We visited Lee in Wisconsin Dells.

He works at Moose Jaw Pizza so if you ever go,

have your server tell the chef (Lee) that his Mama loves him.

Really, do it...it will be funny!

John and I took a historical tour of  Quarry Hill

KTTC came along, too!

I was on the teaser the night before...

My leg was on the regular news article!  

WHoo hoooo! 15 seconds of fame for my leg!

We took a letterboxing day near Stockholm.

Here we are on the bluff above Pepin.

We didn't find the box but we sure had an awesome time looking!

The second letterbox of the day was beside this lovely stream!

The third one was here....

Letterboxing in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little Plum School

outside of Pepin.  It was hidden in a desk!

Levee Park underwater

GrandDad's Bluff

Picking blackberries on State Lands 

 We picked enough to make jam and pie!

We picked Graham up at the airport in Minneapolis and 

went with him to his girlfriend's going away party.

They left the next day for Atlanta, 

where he lives and works as a civil engineer!

Lake Park....one of Maeve's favorite places to hike.

I love the Farmers' Market!

We bought a share in a CSA this year....

it is fun to pick up our veggies every week!

Letterboxing outside of Canon Falls

Whitewater...ChimneyRock

Sorry about the poor resolution,

but we were lucky enough to see 

GAELIC STORM at Harriet Island's Irish Fest!

I LOVE those boys (and one talented fiddle playing girl)

 Maeve and Sorch dressed up for the concert!

What lovely ladies they are!

I would drive 120 miles for cookies...

Fionn had a little surgery on a planter's wart..

several times actually.

Here he is being carried out after the first time...

We also were lucky enough to replace our 14 year old kitchen floor

with this beautiful stuff....RESILIENT...looks like a huge agate!

 Ya, it was tempting....

It only took 2 days to do the kitchen and mud room.

Nice.

Sad but true, we only had one craft day.

One.

Wow...I am slipping.

Here we made sun catchers...lovely!

We did just a little traveling this year....

Indianapolis in July to see Shae, Chris, and Wren:

We went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum:

Oh, yes, her first LETTERBOX found in downtown Indy

Sorcha at the FIREWORKS of GLASS in the museum.

SO COOL!

Then

 we took the RV to Duluth in August...

We began our journey at Nelson for ice cream!

All good days begin and/or end at Nelson!

Split Rock was wonderful!

One  night we stayed at Gooseberry Falls.

John and I walked from Lake Superior all the way 

up to the Falls...awesome hike!

We spent a night right downtown Duluth.

We had to walk over the lift bridge 4 times to do our

sight seeing and shopping!

We took a moonlight cruise on Lake Superior

This really is one of my favorite places in the whole world!

I wish to always have rocks in my pockets and wet pants to my knees!

The last two weeks in August we got one of the best gifts ever...

Shae, Wren, and Chris stayed with us!

Great Grandpa bought a bunch of small gifts for Wren...

she had a blast opening them!

We fixed up the playhouse for Wren!

 We had many tea parties

 She loved doing chores with Grandpa O'

Oh, Pippin loved her!  

Graham flew home also...he had 3 weddings and 1 bachelor party in 2 weeks!

Crazy!

My sister, Stacy, came to visit

 Game night

This lucky duck chicken got sucked under my car

and rode all the way to Lewiston...unharmed!

Although, I don't think she laid eggs for days!

Shae and Wren visited my classroom...what a silly kiddo!

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit, too

We also went to Lark Toys for a carousel ride

We headed over to the Stone Barn for Secret Pizza Farm pizza...

not really a secret but certainly not advertised....tasty!!!

Wren loved the beach at Latch Island

Trampoline fun!

checking on the newborn kitties

Here are our last moments for this visit with Wren.

I cannot believe how much I love this little girl!

So, was that not a fun, full, frantic summer?

What you didn't see are many pics from July as we vegged.

The house has central air finally!

John's dad required it when he moved in with us last April.

I totally enjoyed the cool, refreshing air.

I did not enjoy the $300 electric bill!

Yikes! But I would do it all over again...run the AC everyday in July. 

We have one more adventure planned before school....the Renaissance Fest!

I would love to hear about your summer fun!

One last beautiful thing.....

Kwik Trip...we missed you!  No more running 12 miles for gas/milk/bananas!