The summer lakehouse 2014

The summer lakehouse didn't exactly feel like the summer lakehouse this year. It was chilly (we went at the end of the summer, instead of our usual 4th of july weekend), and the summer was so whirlwind for our family that it really didn't feel much like relaxing. Instead it was a bit more like "one more trip on the rollercoaster ride that we call the summer of 2014". It landed plop between Dallas, camping, and Nathan's wedding, so we were home for a total of something like 12 days in the month of August.

Don't get me wrong. The lakehouse was fun, even with the chilly weather and we took the boys to Mackinac Island for the first time, which has such a soft spot in my heart. But, I'm totally looking forward to being back on track with relaxing, reading, laying in the sun with nothing to swallow up either weekend ahead or behind of the trip.

This year the lakehouse gets a pass given our crazy schedules. Next year, it gets my full undivided attention. But, not to treat 2014 as the year of the forgotten lakehouse- here are the photos of our fun.

Two wheels!

This summer Collin learned to ride his bike without the training wheels. It was a little bit difficult to get him to start at first, as he's a bit prevention-oriented. That is, Collin doesn't usually like to try new things for fear of hurting himself or not being able to do it successfully the first time, so it often takes a little bit of convincing to get him started in new adventures.

So early in the year (Easter) we got the two wheel bike and early in the summer we started to bring up the idea of taking off the training wheels. He wasn't exactly on board, but I knew he could do it since often when he was riding with training wheels he'd get going and both trainers would be off the ground.

So off they came. We tried it out  a few times on our road with limited success. Lots of "don't let go!", so Drew stayed right behind Collin and let him take his time.

In early June we took our first camping trip and brought the bikes. This trip was cold, damp, stormy and FULL of mosquitos so the faster you rode, the less likely you were to get bitten. There campground was really really empty, so we used the wide open space to our advantage and worked on riding the bike- covered in rain jackets, hoods and layers of sweatshirts to fend off the blood-thirsty insects.

Collin took to it after a few tries and then was off like lightning. Even though this trip was otherwise miserable, it still makes me smile to think of his success that weekend. We rode everywhere around the campground and it was so great to see him so proud of himself!

After this trip he had going straight down pat. On the next two trips he worked on stopping (Which is still difficult), turning and going down hills. While we were at governor dodge state park he rode with me for about 1.5 hours, Collin leading the way. There were many loops and declines here (although not too steep) that gave him great practice. I was so proud of him. By the end of the year, at the lakehouse he was riding around like a pro.

Way to go buddy! We're so proud of your skills!

Adventures in camping

Camping.
Camping is like the equivalent of happy childhood.
Or at least is was for me growing up.
so it must be true for my kids, too, right?

Well, we're definitely trying to create the circumstances for it to be and maybe we're at least a little successful, because the boys seem to like it quite a bit.

Last year was our first year to get into the swing of serious camping. We were warriors of the storm, removers of leeches, killers of mosquitoes and finders of ticks. We were on our way to becoming rangers or something.

This year, we started our season in another torrential downpour at St Croix State park. Apparently that's how we do it. I'm pretty sure the mosquitoes were as thick as they are in the summer in Alaska and that the 8 ticks just in our first trip made for a great start! Even so, even with rain and cold and ticks and bugs, we still love it. All of us. Its a great time to hangout in nature and explore. Its a great time to learn about each other. Its a great time to be a family.
 
Collin even learned to ride his bike on our first trip without the training wheels, but that of course, is another post all of its own.
Our second trip was nestled in the 4th of July weekend at Governor Dodge state park in Wisconsin with Anna and Agnes-Grace, which was loads of fun and excitement, the sun gods blessed us, we took the boys canoeing and in good karmic spirit, there was not a mosquito to be found. There was however, my new friend Ricky the raccoon.

The first night I slept next to Owen on a air mattress. He was closest to the tent wall, and I was on the inside. In the middle of the night I woke up to the characteristic chatter of a raccoon. This racoon was chattering like he had things to say, which was annoying and woke me up, but not a huge problem. Not until he decided to harpoon the tent side.
Ricky, my friendly raccoon was insistent that our tent was a better place to hang then the bushes outside and repeatedly chattered and ran into our tent, battering ram style. Now, as you know if you are a mom, the idea of a wild animal getting between me and Owen is not my idea of a fun. So first I pushed the racoon away. But apparently it took this as a cue for a game of Ricky Raccoon ping pong and came back again with more intention. At this point I hit it, hard, in the face, three times, but the damn thing kept on. And then I yelled to Drew, on the other side of the tent (sleeping next to Collin) to wake up, and do something about Ricky. Just as I yelled to him though, the little asshole raccoon wandered away.  To top it off, after being awake during this fun adventure, I noticed the air mattress must have a leak, and I was now laying on the hard floor. It made for a fabulous rest of the night.
Ricky wasn't done with us though. The next night he visited our food tent while we were sitting by the fire and put his scrubby little paws up on the table and stared down Drew, to which Drew responded with loud phrases to scare him away. Ricky was un-phased and decided to just circle the wagons until we went to sleep. To top it off, we headed to a local town for the 4th of July fireworks while camping, and when we got back to the site the racoon was INSIDE Anna's tent!
And so, I woke up on day two and thought: I'm done with the tent. Its time to get off the ground. For reals.

 Since we plan to have more babies, the idea of going rouge to get a camper wasn't exactly alien. Changing diapers on the ground doesn't sound very much fun, so its been brewing in my mind. We're camping purists though. Camping doesn't feel much like camping without tents, so we had to think on it for a bit. We rationalized that a pop up was as close as we could get to camping, and so we decided it was time.

A few weeks and a bunch of craigslist ad reviews, and voila, a camper!
The boys adored it and we were anxious for our first trip. Off to Lake Itasca we went. The trip was wonderful- amazing biking trails, a day of canoeing, beautiful fires, the Mississippi headwaters, no bugs or mosquitos, but alas, even with the camper, I had a visit from a raccoon. 

Feeling rather accomplished one night I was walking back from the shower house to the camper and sure enough, there under the camper was another Ricky, trying to get into our garbage bag. I yelled across the road to Drew about the raccoon, which he thought was rather hilarious, while I took the raccoon visit as a personal attack from all MN raccoons.The rest of the trip was fantastic though, and it made for a great third adventure.

We took the camper to Forestville/Mystery cave for our final camping trip of the year and luckily, there were no racoons! The caves were very interesting and while the park doesn't have any bike trails, it has great sites and nice hiking trails (although poor Owen got stung by a wasp while we were hiking). But wouldn't you know it, we got back from our trip and that very night, in our own backyard was a big old raccoon lumbering across the fence. At first I was confused as we've never seen a raccoon in our yard before, but there it was. And so, I'm convinced its me vs the raccoons.

Until we meet again next year Ricky.