Sydney turns 10.

I arrived in Rockford on Friday evening just in time to have dinner with Jennie and the girls. We hung out, watched the opening ceremony of the London Olympics -- pretty low key evening.

Little Leo thought we were pretty boring....

Normal Saturday morning, then Mom and Dad arrived. Sydney fired up her new Kindle Fire and started right in teaching Gma new stuff and playing words with friends. Lunch, errands before pool party. Sydney and Cass both had a friend attend her party at Peak -- rock climbing and pool time.

Sunday was family party day!

It was great fun. I'm sure there are more stories here, but overall it was good, family fun.

Last week I was home for 2 days, then I was here:

For work, of course. Home again for about 8 hours before heading to Rockford for Sydney's bday weekend.

Funtown USA (aka Bloomington IL)

Yes, I spent a whole weekend in Bloomington IL! Good thing I really like Jen and Kenny.

I arrived Friday night where Jen met me at the airport with both Evan and Austin in their Batman PJs. I wish I had a picture of that, but I don't. The boys went to bed in no time and we caught up over a couple bottles of wine.

Saturday morning Jen and I were up bright and early to run the McLean County AIDS Task Force charity 5k race. We walked over to her pick up her Mom while Evan biked along. The race was not well attended. ...even so, Jen and I won 2nd and 1st place in our age group respectively. I must say, it is the first time I was awarded a ribbon in any race as an adult. The whole event was good fun and for a great cause. Temps climbed early, but we powered through!

Breakfast followed. Then it was off to Evan's soccer game. Thanks to the drought, this picture looks like it could have been taken in Africa....

It was hot, hot, hot watching (and playing) soccer. Luckily the kids got Popsicles after the game. Austin spent the game cheering for Evan, playing with his friend Chloe and generally getting dirty.

We made a quick stop at home and for lunch before lounging at the pool to cool off.

Then it was NAP TIME!! Yay! Evan may have been the only one that didn't nap very long. He wanted me to wake up and when I continued to rest, he stockpiled toys with me on the couch and curled up with me to play with them. Pretty sweet.

We dropped the boys off at the daycare "parent's night" and headed to downtown Bloomington (or was it Normal?) for dinner at Rosie's. They made me exactly what I wanted for dinner, so I was a happy camper. Afterwards, we had time for a quick nightcap at a nearby wine bar before picking up the boys.

Sunday was also a big day for us! We went to the David Davis Mansion, where Jen's Mom was volunteering, to take part in Civil War Days. We all played a little dress up, watched a battle and saw Abe Lincoln!!! Super fun.

Great friends! Great fun! Thanks Jen, Kenny, Evan and Austin. Now it is your turn to come back to Minnesota.

North Shore camping

After some errands on Monday morning, we loaded up the car (as full as possible with 2 people and 2 dogs) and headed north!

First stop: Duluth
It was a quick stop for lunch. I really wanted to grab a beer and lunch at Carmody's Pub, but they didn't open until 3. So we settled for lunch at Fitger's Brew Pub. I had an Elk burger paired with their El Nino IPA. Delicious.

Next stop: Gooseberry Falls
We stopped at the wayside and the dogs were both ready to get out of the car. It was hot, so we just did a quick hike past the falls (away from the lake). Both dogs were happy to splash in the water.

Next stop: Campsite at Lamb's Resort
After the hike, it was time to set up camp. We reserved a fabulous site right on the shore of Lake Superior at Lamb's Resort (highly recommended).

Here is the view from camp:

Before dinner, we walked up to the beach and the point with the dogs. Great views. And fun.

We cooked up dinner and had a campfire. Ahhhh.

Next stop: Temperance River
We decided to hike one that was just up the road. The plan was to get to the top of Carlton Peak, but we were really just planning to enjoy the day. The trail started with several waterfalls through a gorge.

There was a bit of traffic through there since it was right close to the road. We stopped to admire the gorge for a while, then hiked on past the crowd until we found a quiet spot to chill out for a few minutes. All was well until Jordy (attached to T's backpack) ran into the river at full speed ....chasing a stone that T was skipping. I retrieved the backpack, T dumped the water out and we decided to move on.

We continued to climb for a while. Great scenery. Nice hike.

Jackson started to get tired, or so it seemed, so we abandoned Carlton Peak and headed back toward the gorge. [what gorge?] On the way back, we found a great pool to cool off at one of the falls along the way.

Back at camp, we let the dogs rest and decided to go for a swim in Lake Superior. Cold, but refreshing! T decided to swim out to the rocks and try to find a good one to "dive" from ...which he didn't.

Then we decided to play some scrabble....

For dinner we picked up some wild rice turkey brats from a local joint to grill at the campsite. Yum! Then we watched the sunset and lit another campfire.

Next stop: home (boo!)
Wednesday we made some coffee and breakfast before packing up camp and heading home (through the rain). We can't wait to go back next year!

the gang is all here...

Last week I had good quality friend time:

Lunch with Jane.

Surprise visit from Heather on Friday night.

And the LaChappelle's had a baby boy, Emerson, on July 15. So I have a new friend too.

everybody clean up

Sunday T and I did a Minnehaha Creek clean-up, sponsored by REI and Leinenkugel's.

We rode our bikes over to Hiawatha Lake. REI had free bike "inspections" - I had debris removed from a brake pad and the chain cleaned and lubed. Sweet! Then we grabbed garbage bags and headed out to several creek locations.

T and I decided to wade in the creek and pick trash right out of it. We had two bags nearly full by the time the 90 minute clean up was complete. Several creek path users shouted out "Thanks" for our effort to keep the creek clean. I found part of a hockey stick, LOTS of beer cans, some plastic bottles, t-shirts, shoes, etc. It is amazing what ends up in our waters.

After the clean up, we had a BBQ with a couple Leinie's brews.

The mission was to collect 2 tons and we met it, had some fun and did some good.

Another Saturday night

We got home late afternoon on Saturday. After doing some unpacking and dog walking, we decided to head out on the town.

First up was dinner at George & the Dragon. The tap beer selection was so-so. I had a Liftbridge IPA. The food was good+. We started with pretzel bread (my favorite!). I had a spinach pesto salad and sausage rolls for dinner. The sausage rolls were housemade sausage rolled in phyllo (super yum!). Definitely a neighborhood place to stop at again, but maybe not a regular spot.

Next up, the new Spiderman movie. It was great!

the 4th, a hot one.

the two of us and two dogs hit the road....

We headed to Wisconsin on Tuesday afternoon. My Dad intercepted me and we headed to the cabin, while T headed south toward his family's cabin. The thermometer was pushing 95 and was expected to climb higher as the week went by.

Dad and I arrived back in time for happy hour with Mom and the girls (so sad that my sis wasn't able to join).

The girls entertained themselves after dinner by scooting and stacking wood. ....one of those sounds fun.

Wednesday we headed out on the boat in the morning and parked it by the "islands" in Post Lake. We explored the islands (and the lily pads) for a while to beat the heat before heading back inland for lunch.

The afternoon was spent with some playing in the basement, making 4th of July videos for Jennie, and cooling off with water balloons.

We went out to the islands again in the late afternoon to cool off, but didn't stay long. Happy hour, grilled dinner, then staying up late for fireworks. Cass insisted all day long that she would "try the fireworks" this year. In the end, she decided to stay home -- and was so tired that she fell immediately asleep!

Thursday morning we headed out on the boat again. It was hotter(?) and we stayed longer enjoying the lake time!

T drove up to join us in the afternoon and we all enjoyed some ice cream!

Afternoon lake time was at Summit Lake today. There were some "holes" in the lake floor which made people watching entertaining, as they stepped in them and fell face first in water. T found this out the hard way. We found a nice flat, stable spot and played in the water for a few hours. The girls had lots of fun goofing, swimming (and so did the adults ...even gramps went in the lake for a while!)

Thursday evening we had a campfire!

Friday morning was more lake time before Mom, Dad and the girls headed back home.

Did I mention that Cass was stuck like glue to Jordy??

T and I headed to Jack lake on Friday afternoon. It was a nice summer day, not too warm. So we swam for a while, then headed back to the cabin. He read, I napped. T really wanted to hit up a Friday night Fish Fry, so we hightailed it to Billy Timber's in Summit Lake. The wait was long, the Old Fashioned drinks were good, and the fish was excellent. It was a hopping little joint on a Friday night.

After dinner, we sat outside watching the storms form and roll in until the mosquitoes drove us inside. Strong storms rolled through overnight. We even lost power at the cabin for a few hours.

Saturday we waited in line at the dump, then drove home. ...with a quick stop at Sarah's in Hudson.