I have a blog post to do about our weekend in Brainerd visiting Nick's brother Ben and his family, but there are lots of photos and I need to sort them. But, here are some photos from last weekend, a busy, hot but fun weekend.
Nick did a stand up paddle board race on Saturday morning, getting on his board in Ashland at Bayview Park, paddling along the breakwater and lighthouse and then heading over to Washburn's West End Park. A seven mile jaunt. His race started at nine, with a pre-race meeting over in Washburn at 7:30. At 6:30 in the morning he headed to Washburn, registered for the race, listened to the safety meeting, and watched the start of the 14 mile race.
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| 14 miles is a long way - Washburn to Ashland and back |
After he watched the start, he drove home. Lilly was asleep until 8:00, when Greta and I went to go wake her up. I was wearing Lilly's monitor, but then Greta wanted to. And wore it for a good 20 minutes or so.
The original plan was we would drop Nick off at the start and pick him up afterwards in Washburn. Since Lilly slept in however, there was no way we were going to get out the door in time to get him to his start. I really wanted to see the start, but Lilly really didn't want to see the start. Nick had taken video of the 14 mile start and Lilly didn't want to hear the air horn to start the race. I finally got her to leave with a promise of playing at the park and that she could stay in the car when the race started. All that was moot because we missed the start anyway.
Greta and I did see the Voyager canoes take off. These are canoes that the French Fur Traders used to travel and can hold many people. The race is mainly stand up paddle boards, but they allow other water craft, they just don't get awards.
Since we missed the start, Greta and I got Lilly out of the car and the two played at the park. They had fun riding the teeter-totter together (with me pushing down Greta's side while holding on to her).
After the Bayview Park, we went to the Ashland Baking Company and Farmer's Market. It was Kids' Day, and while Lilly was reluctant to go at first (she just wanted to go to the bakery and leave), she ended up having a great time. There were bubbles, face painting, lots of her friends, free snacks, and games. Greta was particularly intrigued by the automatic bubble machine. Not the bubbles coming out of it, but the actual machine. She seems to be super interested in how things work, and tends to want to destroy them to figure out why they do work that way. Another perk to kids' day was the bakery made kid-sized muffins and scones.
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| Getting her unicorn on her face |
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| Making giant bubbles |
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| Bean bag toss |
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| Greta's figured out the easy way to do it and win |
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| She wasn't totally unimpressed with the actual bubbles |
I caught up with my cousin Abby for awhile, bought some of her soaps, and finally we left in effort to make it to see Nick's finish. We piled back into the car and headed up to Washburn. We parked, headed to the finish line, to see Nick standing in the water, chatting away with people. Once again, we missed his race.
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| Her unicorn, I forgot to get a picture before she started touching it |
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| I forgot back up clothes . . . |
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| Helping us out by carrying dad's life jacket |
It was hard work getting the two to leave the beach and head back home for lunch and Greta's nap. Luckily, Nick needed to head back at 1:00 for the award ceremony, so we were able to convince Lilly to leave just to head back once we got home. A rushed job of unloading the car, making lunches, but Nick and Lilly made it back up to Washburn for the award ceremony. Why did Nick feel the need to head back? Why, he won his division (based on the type of board one paddles). He gave his "trophy" to Lilly.
Lilly played at the park for awhile, then the two headed back to Ashland. Nick unfortunately remembered he needed to go to work for a bit, so took Lilly with him. They ended up staying longer than necessary because Lilly was having too much fun playing with the model kit and sharing a V8.
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| Just making up molecules |
I took Greta for a walk and we played in the backyard. Greta is our ornithologist as well and notices birds in the sky. She excitedly pointed a bird out to me, which turned out to be an eagle flying over our house.
Our friends Luke and Haley came over for dinner that evening, grilling brats and veggie burgers. We had a great time with them, went for a quick walk while Lilly rode her trike like a crazy woman, and a quick game of kubb. They headed home and the girls headed to bed. For the worst night of sleep we have had in ages. The two girls tagged teamed us, taking turns being awake and needing our attention. Greta cried out every 90 minutes or so, and Lilly was essentially awake from 1:40-3:00 in the morning. Fun times. Especially on a day where Nick had totally and utterly physically exhausted himself, pushing himself harder than he had in ages (did I mention his longest paddle before this seven mile race was about 4.5 miles?).
Sunday we all slept in, thank goodness. I think we walked to the bakery, played at the park, and spent time at home. In the afternoon the sprinkler came out and great fun was had by both girls. We thought Greta would have no interest since the water was cold coming right out of the hose, but we were wrong.
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| Where'd the water go? |
After the sprinkler fun, it was rushed baths. Nick and Lilly headed off to a birthday party for a three-year old friend, John. I stayed home with Greta, who seemed to have a low-grade fever and a VERY runny nose. Lilly had an amazing time at the birthday party, and eagerly told me all about it when they got home. For a weekend at home, we certainly crammed quite a bit in.
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