Minnesota Summer

We just got back from a three week trek to Minnesota for nearly the month of June & into July. We drove up the morning after the dance recital, so that Aaron could play in a golf tourney with his dad, his brother & his brother-in-law-which was a pretty neat experience for all of them (and they won 2nd place!)

Then I headed up north to Brainerd, MN to work a Maritz program for 2 weeks. I stayed at Madden's on Gull Lake which is this wonderful resort that included water bikes, kayaks, canoes, paddleboats, water toys, shuffleboard, croquet just to name a few. It was a spectacular place and for the 1st week I worked alone and then the 2nd week I had help-which made it nice for our meals and stuff just to have someone to talk to! I had one day off in between so Aaron & the kids came up for the day and we took a boat out and water skied and tubed, which of course is heaven on earth for me.

While I was up north, Aaron was busy interviewing in Minnesota (both for jobs there and on the phone for jobs elsewhere). Amanda and Kevin are back in Minnesota with Levi, and Andy was living back home till he finds out about PT school so it was a full house-but a fun one! Amanda babysat the kids while Aaron was job hunting and then as soon as grandma & grandpa could get home from their work days it was even more fun. They did all kinds of activities: Big City Little Kid, walks to the park, swimming (Hannah's getting so brave), Build-A-Bear, celebrated Father's day at a Japanese steak house, and the list goes on and on.

I came back from my work experience and then we decided to stay through the 4th holiday-and I'm glad we did. We ended up going to Aaron's grandparents cabin up north on Friday the 3rd for the best beer butt chicken ever, plus paddleboat, pontoon & Hannah's 1st fishing experience! She doesn't know that we never had a hook on it, but she was surprising good at the cast!

Then on Saturday the 4th we headed over to his aunt & uncle's house to see the Grapentine's (his mom's side) with tons of games: hillbilly golf, bean bag toss, bocce ball, badminton and more-it was so much fun.