Brainerd Bunch

July 15-17, we drove to Brainerd, MN to visit Ben, Becky, Nole, Cally, Owen, and Izzy.  Since this post is nearing a month past and how relaxing the weekend was, it will be mostly images and not a lot of dialogue.  You all just come for the photos anyway, so I am sure you won't mind.

Lilly was very eager to leave and visit with her cousins. I picked her up from daycare one day, and her teacher asked if we were going away for the weekend, Lilly had mentioned visiting her cousins.  This was nearly a month before we were leaving.  So, created a calendar for her to mark off the days.

We left Friday morning after Nick completed his usual Friday morning paddle and stopped in at work. While Nick paddled and worked on packing up the car, I took the girls to the park.  Both girls were super happy.  Greta got to swing and watch cement trucks, Lilly picked out a book from the little free library and read.

Per usual, we left later than we planned but we had a remarkable drive to Duluth, our first formal stopping point.  We stopped first, however, in Iron River to get some of the best doughnuts at Bee's Busy Bakery.  So amazing, so delicious, and so cheap.  Unfortunately, since we hit the road so late, the pickings were pretty slim.  No long john with chocolate frosting for me.  But, they were still wonderful.  What was also remarkable about the drive, Greta quietly fell asleep and slept until we pulled into the Aquarium parking lot.

Lilly had been very excited about the new feature at the Aquarium, the sturgeon touch tank.  When it came to actually touching the sturgeons though, she decided she was going to wait until she was six.  It is so fun to bring the girls to the Aquarium a few times a year, they both show different interests and excitements every time.  Greta just loved it.

Greta did lots of pointing

After examining fish, we went to the park right next to the Aquarium.  It was a nice reminder of how nice it is to live in a small town.  The park was packed and it was lunchtime on a Friday.  At first we were going to have a picnic in the park, but Lilly opted for more playing time and lunch in the van.  We were hopeful we'd wear Greta out at the park and she'd take another nap in the car, since we had about two more hours to go, but no such luck.

Friday afternoon we arrived at their house and hung out.  In fact, that was pretty much the MO for the weekend.  We played in the gym, played outside, and the kids decided to make cupcakes. (I also apologize for no more side by side type photos.  Picmonkey isn't working tonight and I want to get this post finished!)

Nick's parents were going to come Saturday, but surprisingly they decided to hit the road on Friday and arrived late Friday evening.  While Greta slept horrendously, Lilly slept in Cally's room and had a successful night sleeping.  It took her awhile to fall asleep, but she did it and stayed in Cally's room all night.

Owen and Grandpa have an intense game of Stratego

Nole and Grandpa have an intense game of Stratego 

Grandma brings Greta down to the dock

Fun in the quite cold water

Paddle board ride with dad

All the big kids in the little pool

In the morning games were played and water fun was had.  We had lunch, Greta napped.  We hung out.  Really, that's all we did.

Garbage

Some crazy game with snow plows crashing - Lilly asked Nole
to play a little less crazy

Izzy

You can never be too safe

Back for more "swimming"

Again, safety first.

We had delicious grilled food for dinner, played corn hole toss, and chatted outside.  Then some of the kids made s'mores.

Photobombing

Chilling and chatting

A pause in the action

Saturday night was another great night of sleep for Lilly and a horrible night for Greta.  Not as bad as Friday night, but still bad.  I ended up sleeping on the floor with her - and man that girl scoots in her sleep!  I had to pull her back to the blanket many times.

Another game of Stratego

Sunday morning guess what we did?  Hang out.  It was a bit chilly.  Good times were had on the driveway.  Becky took me to Costco, which was a rather terrifying and overwhelming experience.  But I got some food we tried at their house and liked and then we picked up pizzas for lunch.  

Ben trying to beat Nole's new record of soccer ball
juggling.  It was a competition all weekend.

Greta actually let Uncle Ben hold her.  Lilly probably
never would have let him get that close.

The big game for the weekend was find the Minion.  Becky received this from Dianne for her birthday, and the kids had a great time moving it from door to door, much to Lilly's delight.  It was hard to tell exactly how much Lilly believed and how much she was playing along.  At one point, Nole hid and Cally and Owen told Lilly he had been taken to Minion land by the Minion.  

We rushed to leave after lunch to get Greta in the car for a nap.  It took awhile, much crying and fussing but eventually she fell asleep.  Lilly also fell asleep (a few days without naps and no real downtime) but not after taking lots of photos of the drive.  Both slept for a short time though and both woke up crying (that was awesome). We raced a storm home and made it inside soon enough to check the radar to assure ourselves we should not start unloading the van.

It was a wonderful weekend, Lilly having a great time with her cousin and Cally doing a wonderful job of taking care of her.  We'd lose Lilly for long chunks of time, and she'd be so completely engaged with Cally (and Cally was so great to play whatever crazy imaginary game Lilly would come up with).