Relay for Life

We went to the Relay for Life this past Friday in Mankato. Every year we decorate bags in memory of Jim. Then we walk around the park and try to find our bags.

This is Jamie's bag. He sketched his golf bag. Sorry for the bad pictures. I did some with no flash to show the candle burning inside and some with flash.

He added a name card and towel to the one side. It says Jim Shaw on the card.

This is Jakob, Corrina, and Seth's bags. They happen to be all together. You can't see very well what the two boys did on there bags. But Jakob's bag is fishing and hunting, they are the two things he wishes he could do with Jim. Seth's was a variety of animals that he thought Jim would like.

This is the back side of the bags.

Then Saturday we just hang out at Cheryl's house. We each did a little shopping at the stores in town since all we have is Wal-Mart.

Jake wasn't feeling to good. He started out with a headache and now has a sore throat and cough. I took him in Monday and they have him on medicine, but I'm not sure if it's helping him yet. Poor guy.

And Seth watching the SpongeBob marathon with his stuffed dog.

He also got out his Thomas train set and played with that during commercials.

The Anderson's and a Surprise

My brother AJ, his wife Shelly and daughter Sidney came up this weekend. They got in late Friday night. When they pulled up Josh and I were in the driveway waiting for them. Josh asked if there was someone in the back of the van and I just said it must be Sidney. They parked the van and the back door opened and out came my mom. They surprised me for my birthday by bringing my mom along. I was so happy to see her. She has not been able to make it up to our house yet and it's nice she was able to get a little vacation too.



Me and my mom

Saturday morning Sidney headed down to the lake to watch Taylor swim. We were also watching Josh's dog for the weekend.

Saturday afternoon we headed up to the Apostle Islands. We took a ferry in Bayfield over to Madeline Island.

Waiting for the ferry to come back.

Ferry coming in.

Loading onto the ferry.

Heading out to the island.

Jamie said we could move to Bayfield, but only if we lived in that house in the middle. It was huge and beautiful.

Here comes the island.

Here is Tom's Burned Down Cafe. It sounds like there use to be a cafe and then it burnt down. Now they just have a tarp and some tin roofing. It looked like fun, but the kids wanted to explore the island some more.

Jakob, Seth and Sidney

Some guys car.

We drove around the island a little bit then decided to hang out at a park near the shore.

Shelly and AJ

Jamie was trying to get Seth to go into the water.

Testing out the water.

And it was cold.

Sunday we all just lounged around the house for awhile. The kids decided the van needed to be washed. And what better way to do this then with water guns.

And we also did a little swimming.

Mom was able to lay out and relax a bit.

While the kids were swimming Shelly and I starting making homemade bagels. We got the dough mixed together, let it rise, then we shaped the bagels, popped them in the frig for overnight and headed into town. We hit the candy store first, then did a little shopping in some of the other stores. Once we got home it was time for supper. We had fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, corn, buttermilk biscuits and chocolate cake for dessert. That is one of the best birthday meal ever. After supper Jamie took me and my mom and boat ride around the flowage.

Loons

An otter. You can't see him very good. The sun was starting to go down so there is bad lighting.

He didn't like us following him around.

Eagle

Sunset on the flowage.

The O'Connor Family

This past weekend my sister Bev and her family came up to spend the 4th of July with us. They arrived late afternoon on Friday. I think they would have gotten here sooner if the traffic wasn't so bad. Not sure why, but I didn't even think about bad traffic with the holiday weekend. Once they got there stuff in the house we headed down to the dock for a little fishing.

Michael and Jake.

Mason

Once Jamie got home and we ate Jamie took three of the boys and Mick out on the boat to do some more fishing.

The next day we packed a picnic lunch and headed up to Gooseberry Falls. This is about an hour or so past Duluth. Jamie kept asking me if we where in Canada yet.

Michael, Jakob, Seth, and Mason standing in front one set of falls.

Mick, Michael, and Mason

The boys hanging out on top of one of the cliffs watching the water.

The boys walked over to the other side and up some rocks to get to some of the falls.

The Boys.

Michael, Mason, Seth and Jakob. You can see Jamie in the bottom corner watching so they didn't fall off. Mick was next to him.

Everyone walking back over.

Can you tell they are starting to get tired?

Falls from up above.

The falls through the decorative fencing.

Seth and Jamie looking out over the park.

On our way down to Duluth Jamie decided to stop at Two Harbors. We walked the boys down to one of the light houses and then let them mess around on the rocks.

Poor Mason slipped and fell in.

And of course right after Mason fell in we told the older boys to get out of the water. Michael lost his sandal and Jake tried to get it for him and he fell in. Here are his shorts trying to dry.

Here is Jake trying to try.

We finally made it to Duluth. Once we got there we walked around some more.

Here is Jake trying to catch a Sea Gull. We ate supper, did a little shopping, got some ice cream and then decided we better find somewhere to sit for the fireworks. Here are a couple shots I took of the fireworks.

Upside down smiley face.

Poor Michael didn't make it.

The next day was Sunday and we headed into Hayward. The boys did a round of Mini - Golf and me and Bev kept score. We went downtown and did a little bit of shopping, got popcorn from the new popcorn store, then got some ice cream. Once we got back to the house the kids all went swimming.

Here is some action shots of Mason jumping to the trampoline.

Now jumping into the water.

And now action shots of Seth.

Jakob took this photo. Not to bad.

Action shots of Jamie. He's so graceful, like a deer jumping a fence.

Just kidding, not so much like a deer.