Summer 2022 | Family, Traveling, Rich Rewards of Quality Time

Summer's End. It's the beginning of September. 

The light of the day is fading faster each evening, and the morning dew has that "almost Fall" smell to its coolness. The vultures, ravens, hawks, crows and eagles are soaring in big flocks around the place. The sunset sounds include bees buzzing from sunflower to hydrangea, tractors and balers clunking down the way, and geese, swans and cranes traveling together, even crickets are loud still. There are heaps of tomatoes haunting me everywhere I look; begging to be cared for and processed, and the zucchini are too big. It's just all so wonderful. And, to top it off, there are some brilliant red and gold leaves starting to pop up here and there. 

As a family we had a full summer, the way we thoughtfully planned it. We camped, adventured, traveled, had beach days, saw family, and did some fishing. Gardened, worked, and lazily played. We cooked outside on the smoker for months, and did so much to bolster our family with the wonderful days of summer. 

Highlights and things we want to remember:

• Titus turned 5, and loves his new bike with hand brakes
• Anna turned 7, and loves her new bike with gears and hand brakes
• Father's Day was 96 degrees, hot! But SO windy. We went to Garfield Lake and met new friends.
• Zoomerang VBS with friends in Bemidji
• My friend Iva "went hog wild" and ordered 500 Bare Root strawberries, and graciously shared with us. We planted something like almost 200 strawberry plants. Tim has done so much of the work!
  
• Camped at Mountain Iron with Jordan and the boys, Mountain Biked in Chisolm at the Redhead Mtn Bike Park. First time on the historic Iron Range trolley tour and the Discovery Museum. Also first time mini-golfing!
• Miller Lake Cabin with the Swedin's for Suzy's 60th Bday
• Amy's birthday was great for free iced coffees and my first "adult" Birkenstock sandals!
• Family Vacation; SD and CO
• Drove through ND, lunch at Chick-fil-A
• Drove to Custer State Park in the Black Hills of SD. Camped two nights! We loved the North Stockade Lake campground, swimming to the rocks at Sylvan Lake, the hikes around the large granite mounts, and driving through "the needles" and tunnels in the rocks. We visited Mount Rushmore where the kids became Junior National Park Rangers. We saw buffalo and explored along the wilderness drive. 
• Drove to Englewood to meet with friends, then made it to the cabin in Bailey. What a gift! Saw 8 or 9 moose that week! We relaxed, fished rivers, streams and lakes. Spent a day at Jefferson Lake up in the mountains... fishing, picnic, fishing, saw snow (in July!), swim, fishing, fishing, detangle lures from the trees, even more fishing and then saw moose again on the drive home. We spent a day down by Buena Vista, with friends... relaxing, adventuring and hanging out with friends. The kids did a little electric dirt bike, too. 
  
• A day in Littleton, toured the historic reenactment farms, dinner with friends *so good! and drove to Colo Spgs late that night. 
• Focus on the Family! Welcome Center, Bookstore, Adventures in Odyssey... Even Whit's End Soda Fountain where Cody ordered a Wod-Fam-Choc-Sod *World Famous Chocolate Soda
  
• Drove through Beautiful Wyoming to our campsite near the base of Devil's Tower. We set up the tent in the dark, in the rain with tired people, full hearts. 
• made it home to a happy homestead where Grandpa Bob had cared for everything in our absence. 
• Camp Shamineau for Anna, Jesse, and Cody
• A few times at Miller Lake Cabin
• Cody turned 11
• Beach days with friends
• Girls cousins time and then Boys cousin time at Swedin's. 
• Sadly, this was also the week we lost Kissu kitty to an under-the-car accident. We miss him so much! 
• Fishing trip to Bass Lake, and stayed at En-of-Trail Resort. The fishing was so-so, and the cabin was humorously small and simple for us to all be using and sharing with Mike & Suzy. Worked good though!  Each of the kids and Tim caught a few keepers, and the kids hadn't caught much for Northern Pike before this, so thought they were just the biggest fish ever! 
  
• Jesse had to catch a walleye or northern before the end of summer if he was going to keep a lure Uncle Kevin gave him. So he get's to keep it!
  
• Cody did a full turn on the knee board!
• We got a kitten: he is little, orange and spunky. We are calling him Wooton. Named by Titus and we all like it. He's a quirky lovable character in Adventures in Odyssey
• We started homeschool on Sept 8th! 
  
• Cody, along with Tim, went hunting on Winnie for his first duck hunt on Youth Waterfowl Opener. He shot his limit- 6 Ringbills. We are trying them tonight: spatchcocked and breasted out, smoked on the Traeger. 
• We spent a family day at Wolf Creek Farms trap shoot, where Jesse placed 1st in the peewee tournament, Anna took 3rd, and Titus got a blue ribbon. They shot bb gun at cans. There was fun, fellowship and a hayride too. 

We planted a few apple trees after Labor Day too, and have been enjoying home so much this year. I shot a few weddings, lots of family photos and edited many photo galleries. 

Lots of work goes into a full summer like this, and a lot of it was planned early on. So, somedays felt like all I did was wash laundry and buy groceries before heading off on the next adventure, but we all really enjoyed all the family time we had this summer. It's been full, rich, and wonderful! 

Now that we can taste fall in the air, we are super excited to welcome this next season as well. 

Next Up: my youngest sister Jessica and Tony are getting married in Duluth! We will be camping at Gooseberry Falls State Park and Jesse turns 9!