Meeting Harvey

We got to meet baby Harvey. What a sweetie! He's already got his aunt and uncle wrapped around his finger!

Camping

Despite our many changed plans this week, we still managed to get in a night of camping. Ater church on Sunday we packed up and headed over to Flandrau State Park in New Ulm. We found a nice quiet spot in the "rustic" area. Here is our new tent set up outside. It fits a little better than it did in our apartment!


We did a little hiking and Brian did a little geocaching. Here are a few non-cache discoveries of Brian's...


We pumped water...
...which Brian enjoyed.
And we made tin foil dinners...
...which Brian helped me eat. Yum!
I returned the favor :)
We made a campfire, made smores, and counted the number of state parks we've been to. Brian's at 18 and I'm at 10.


The next morning we slept in and then packed up and went to the Pizza Ranch for brunch. Here's Brian holding the tarp down while it dries.
It was a great little get-away...no bugs, a near empty campground (Sun-Mon camping rocks!), and perfect weather! Now it's back to work for both of us :)

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

One Year

Happy anniversary to us!

Change of plans

Brian took Thursday and Friday off this week so that we could take a trip up north to visit my mom (who is in MN for a few weeks) and her family in Park Rapids. Brian has never met my grandma or aunt Jane. We were going to camp and go up to Itasca State Park. On Wednesday night we got all our camping stuff out and even set up our tent in the living room to make sure all the pieces were there.


We decided to wait to pack the car until the morning since it was so hot. Unfortunately for our plans, I woke up on Thursday morning with a UTI (too much information? oh well!)...very uncomfortable and annoying. Instead of packing up the car and heading north, I spent the morning in the doctor's office and pharmacy. Then I spent the rest of the day alternating between the couch and the bathroom. We watched four straight episodes of CSI! The good news is that the medicine is working and I feel 100% better today.

So now, instead of going north for a night, we are going to head over to Rochester to meet Harvey, who was born five days ahead of schedule. So much for making plans! :)

Our new nephew

We are looking forward to meeting our handsome new nephew Harvey Jonathan, born early this morning! Congratulations to Jon, Mindy, and Natalie!! We love you!!

Last day of vacation...finally!

The last day up north started with a moose sighting...actually three moose, a mom and two babies.

After a good breakfast, we set out for a hike to Magnetic Rock. It was a beautiful day for a hike and we were able to see a long way thanks to the fire from a few years ago. It would have been nicer with the full forest, but it was also interesting to be able to see so far.

Magnetic rock is crazy in that it just sticks up out in the middle of nowhere. Here you can see it off in the distance.

The boys, of course, had to climb it, but no one got too far up it.


After the hike, we headed back to the cabin for more relaxing and another beautiful sunset

On Monday, we headed back home along with the Goldies. We made sure to take time along the way to enjoy the trip...first, the world's best donuts...

Time on the beach in Grand Marais...


Another stop for pastries along the north shore, a late lunch in Duluth, and ice cream in Minneapolis. It really was an amazing trip. Can't wait till next year!

A good cause

Over the weekend, some friends of ours from church hosted an event called Livestock in their backyard. This was the second year of the event to raise money to buy animals through World Vision for people around the world. We had great weather for the event...maybe a bit on the hot side, but it was a great day anyway. There were five different musical artists/bands and food. So far, they've raised over $6000. Brian and I sponsor two children through World Vision...Arkar in Myanmar and Brigida in Guatemala. We donated money to purchase goats for each of their families. We also bought two chickens in Natalie's name (we have a little thank you gift to show her at some point when we get over there). Here are some photos from the event...


They had a stage (courtesy of Gustavus physical plant) set up for the musicians



Every hour or so, the kids would do an animal parade to provide a visual demonstration of how many animals we had sponsored. Here is the animal pen.This guy helped bring in visitors...


Here we are enjoying the music.

Titles? Who needs titles?

Day three consisted of another nice breakfast followed by a 2-3 mile paddle into the Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Area. The BWCAW has lots of restrictions to keep it as natural as possible. There were no motor boats and very few people where we went.
Everyone but me hiked over a hill to the next lake in the BWCAW and had lunch. Me, I was catching dinner. I found a great fishing hole and just had a blast catching some and releasing some. On our way back paddling across the lake a super windy gust front hit us, pushing us home. We actually could stop paddling for the most part and just rudder to steer the kyaks home. When we got home the wind storm calmed down. We relaxed in our own ways. The "boys" went out again to fish and catch a sunset from water level. Ahhhh.

Carter prepping the kyaks for the big journey.


A scene on the lake with a rare view of Jody in the lead.
Bass at the fishin' hole
The Dale family home safe after a day of lake travel.
Dinner (first course)
Dinner (first and second course together)Tough guy relaxin'Brian and Sydney taking in the sun on the deck.
Jody and Heather spying on the birds.Bathroom break? Nope, just sneaking up on seagulls snacking on fish fillet remains.Here is some of the forrest fire remnants. Here is life emerging from the ash.

Many of the trees looked like this. The rock peeps.Sunset on the fire damage area.

The island in front of the cabin.



Always a nice sunset to top off the day. Vacations are good.