This is the Life!

Our family along with my parents and sister spent last week enjoying the wonderful outdoors and the pleasant surroundings of the Brainerd Lakes Area. Carissa's boyfriend was also able to join us for the first couple of days which was fun. We stayed in a great house right on the lake which was awesome for boating, swimming, and fishing. Besides being on the lake we also enjoyed eating meals outside, grilling, the Paul Bunyan Biking trail, a little shopping in Nisswa, and a really neat scrapbooking shop. Charlie and I also took an evening to celebrate our Three Year Anniversary. We went to the old fashioned 371 Dinner and then took a spin in the go-carts at Billy Bones Raceway. It was fun to try something new with the go-cart racing.

It was amazing how much stuff we took and how we completely took over the house while we were there, but I think it was one of the best vacations. I loved not having an agenda to follow and it was nice be able to walk the lake for a ride in the boat without all the packing to get there each time.

A Few of our Favorite Things on Vacation…

Lydia – Swimming! She loves to splash and even enjoyed a couple boat rides.

Charlie – Fishing!! He could be found down on the dock most evenings and was an early riser a couple mornings. We definitely appreciated the fish which was lunch a couple of days.

Jessica – Scrapbooking! I brought my stuff along and was able to catch-up with Lydia’s pages for each month since her birth. And I absolutely enjoyed the store.



Biking on the trail ------Lydia sleeping in bike trailer

Eating on the picnic table------Enjoying a tour of the lake

Carissa and Ike knee boarding

Rollie Pollie Ollie

Our little cherub loves to roll around and I have now learned the lesson the hard way that she will even roll off the bed. My heart has never beat that fast!!

Besides that terrifying lesson, the week got more interesting. Charlie loves softball and plays every Wednesday night on a men’s league. Last Wed. he played first base instead of outfield. The batter hit the ball right to Charlie, who was expecting to catch it in his new glove, but it unexpectedly hit the ground and pop up right into his face. He went down and the next thing he remembers is me calling his name as I ran out on the field. I ended up taking him to the emergency room where the inside of his lip was stitched up with 3 sutures. A cool/interesting fact that the doctor shared with us is that the suture material is made from cat gut. While we were in the ER Jake and Jen were kind enough to watch Lydia, but she wasn’t too thrilled about the new surroundings and pretty much cried the whole time. Jake was the only one that was able to keep her calm for a little bit, but she wouldn’t even take a bottle.

Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed watching the parade with Lydia.

Our own little Shrek! We put ear plugs in her ears for the fire trucks at the beginning of the parade.

My cousin's little girls loved having "the babies" around as Madison and Lydia were refered to. Here is Morgan giving Lydia a kiss. Lydia adored all the attention!

Great Grandpa enjoyed seeing all the kids and Lydia thought it was pretty cool too.

We tried to take Lydia out in the boat, but she wasn't too keen about her life jacket. We settled for a dip in the baby pool and even enjoyed floating in the lake.



Lydia and Madison enjoyed cooing, sharing toys, and touching one another.

Vineyard Update - We now have all 250 vines in the ground and it is amazing to see how fast they grow. Almost all the posts are in the ground and the wire is strung. Our next project is to finish the perimeter fence so no more critters nibble on the vines and to start training the vines on fruiting stakes. As you can see in the picture, some plants already have fruit, but in the next couple of years it will be important for all the growth to be in the stock, so we will strip the fruit before it gets much bigger than below.

Guess Who's Teething!?!

This week we have had lots of firsts!! Lydia is now joining us at the dinner table in her high chair. And when cousin Kyla came for the evening on Saturday, Lydia even shared her high chair. They girls were pretty cute together because one would coo and the other would respond. We picked strawberries on Sunday. Twenty one pounds of strawberries to be exact and Lydia slept the whole time that Charlie, Abby (one of my students from this year), and I picked. So this week was spent making jam, wine, pie, and freezing some. It was a “berry” good time!! On Tuesday we took Lydia to the baby pool for the first time and she absolutely loved the water. She enjoyed walking in the pool, bouncing in the water, and even sitting in an inflated tube. We have it all on video tape and lots of pictures as you can see. We went with our friends Amy, Abby, and Katie. Then yesterday Lydia was chewing on my finger and to my amazement, I found a tooth popping through on the bottom. No wonder she has been crabby, on a nursing strike, and wakeful at night!! Then upon more exploration, there is also one getting ready to pop through on the top as well. I talked to Charlie’s mom last night and she said that all the kids had their first tooth by 4 months. Early teething must run in the family