Cousins!

Lilly adores her cousins Nole, Cally, and Owen and is eager any time she can go visit them.  She is also incredibly distraught anytime she has to leave them.  At the end of April we all gathered in Brainerd - even Uncle Matt from Brooklyn - to have one big celebration before Sam and Suzy's baby comes at the end of July and Lilly and Greta get one more cousin added into the mix.

Before we left, the girls daycare had Beach Week, the super awesome experience that only rolls around every few years and understandably so.  The teachers adjust the furniture in the preschool area, put out a blue tarp and cover that tarp in hypoallergenic sand.  The heat gets cranked up and the kids come to daycare in their swimsuits.   They had a popsicle stand, listened to beach music, and had a live feed from an aquarium on the TV screen. Super awesome, super fun, but man alive, I can't imagine the work to set up and take down.

So we hit the road right after school and had an amazing drive to Brainerd.  Lilly did absolutely nothing the entire drive but look out the window and listen to audiobook.  Greta did well but needed toys and things to entertain her for much of the drive.

Friday night, we watched the kids play their crazy game riding their plasma cars and trying to score goals on the nets that were protected by barriers they set up.  The adults also got in on the game (Sam and Matt) and they also tried out Cally's stilts.

The safe and smart people watching

One other reason for the entire get together was Brainerd had a 10K, half-marathon, and marathon race that Saturday morning.  In fact, it was my fault the whole weekend was going to happen because I was going to do the race with my friend Petra, whose aunt also lives in Brainerd.  Petra couldn't do the race but I did the 10K anyway.  I hardly trained at all - it is hard to fit longer runs in doing the school year.  It was a beautiful day for a run and the course was also scenic and fairly easy, just a few rolling hills throughout.  Nick and I went to the race.  He was there for the start and worked in the car until my estimated finishing time and caught me at the end.  I wasn't thrilled to pieces with my time but I did run the entire race without stopping, which with how little I trained, that was an accomplishment. and my main goal

After the race we headed back to Ben and Becky's house and hung out.  Greta mostly remembers Nick out on his paddle board, riding waves created by Ben driving the boat.  To this day (early July) Greta still talks about daddy falling off into the cool cool water wearing his life jacket nearly every time she sees his paddle board.  We also made our own noodles and Matt whipped up some delicious sauces.  We also shared the top of Sam and Suzy's wedding cake to celebrate their one year anniversary.  The kids played and played, read and built a fort.  "Scary" stories and "funny" jokes were told.  Everyone just had a great time.

Last time we left Brainerd, Lilly was in major tears.  This time she pulled it together and handled the goodbye well.  We went to Superior, stopped at Jimmy John's for dinner and headed back to Ashland.  The ride home went well and we all had a great weekend!

Then a few weekends ago we met back up with the Brainerd Branch of Robertsons, this time in Duluth.  The kids had a soccer tournament.  Before we left, Nick went out for a paddle around Long Island, one of the Apostle Islands with his friend Matt.  It was cold and rainy but they went anyway.  Nick didn't get many photos but snagged these cool ones:

Now back to the Duluth trip.  We only made it in time for Cally's game but watched that in the cold and wind (well, Nick watched the game from the sidelines, the girls and I "watched" from the van!).  Then we went to a late lunch, the Aquarium (we adopted Cally and Owen while Nole, Ben, and Becky checked into their hotel), played at the park and then played at the rock beach.  Lilly was so proud of herself for reading the kid's menu, thinking they had grilled cheese, but rather it was grilled chicken breast.  The poor girl was so disappointed she couldn't pick out anything else to eat.

While at the park we decided we should get a picture of all the grandkids.  We got them all lined up in the circles and while snapping away, Lilly fell backwards.  She was fine, just a little bit scared and I think a bit embarrassed.  I managed to get a perfect shot of her falling though.

Side by side kind of cut off Greta and Nole, so here they are without the side by side feature:

Closer to all the grandkids save Greta, who was swinging

After the park we went to the other side of Canal Park and met on the rock beach.  It was the time to wrap up the fun and say goodbye.  

Lilly and Owen had some game involving good guys and bad guys going on

Another attempt at a grandkid picture.

Greta doesn't ever really sleep in the car but she conked out really quickly.  We were trying to decide what to do for dinner on the way home. Before leaving we had mentioned stopping to get grilled cheese.   Lilly requested a humus sandwich from CoCo's, not a possibility in Superior.  Rather than letting us go through the Culver's drive-thru, we stopped at the grocery store to get the food to make her sandwich.  We were hoping Greta would just sleep the entire way home, but she didn't.   When she woke up the first thing she asked for was a grilled cheese sandwich!

Saturday morning before our Sunday in Duluth, I did a 5K Color Run here in town.  This race Petra did with me but I was worried it would end our friendship.  She was not a fan of the color tossing or the route.  I thought the route was nice and while the color tossing wasn't awesome, it was kind of fun.  And the people tossing did a great job of aiming low so you didn't inhale a bunch.  

My number, which Petra let me have since I love palindromes.