On Sunday of Labor Day weekend Ezra and I went over to Itasca state park, determined to bike from the headwaters of the Mississippi to the overly-hyped Douglas Lodge. It's roughly 5 miles of hilly, winding terrain, riddled with bumps and inexperienced tweens careening downhill double wide. Sounds hazardous, but we did it! It's actually a trek that I've done many, many, many times in my life (mostly as a tween ironically) so it was a nice trip down memory lane. It was harder with 35+ pounds of Ezra on the three speed cruiser, and I walked up hills that I breathlessly cruised over in my youth.
Ezra slept through about an hour of riding and I appreciated the opportunity to exercise and enjoy being outside whilst my anti-napper snoozed.
We made it to the Lodge and met up with Gramps, Unk, and "Dofia". We ate some dishes that sounded exquisitely delicious on the menu and turned out mediocre. The hit of the meal were the sweet potato french fries. I got the Wild Rice Hotdish which was just a pile of over cooked wild rice with some water chestnuts thrown in. Note to self: next time just get the salad bar!
Back at Grandpa's house Ezra enjoyed going on a go-cart ride with Unk! He also helped out in the garden, picking carrots, beets, and radishes. He also scored a pumpkin that he's been bugging me to carve. I guess it's never too early to carve a pumpkin? I guess since we won't be here for Halloween after all. I can't remember seeing any pumpkins in Guatemala...
Hanging out a Grandma's is always interesting...
I haven't been posting as much lately because if I did the pictures would all pretty much look like these. Boating, boating, boating! Although the neighbors have been inviting Ezra on their super fast boat lately, but I'm too busy holding on for dear life to take a picture. Yes, they invite Ezra and I think "Could I let him go with them alone?" and I try to entertain the thought but quickly realize that no, I am not quite ready for that. I would be SUCH a wreck the whole time he was gone, and I already have enough grey hair sprouting. 
On a happier and less disturbing note, Ezra attended the Kids' Fishing Contest here in Hackensack this morning. His rod didn't even have a hook on it, much less bait, but he seemed content to dip his bobber in the water and watch the other kids catch Sunnies and Northerns. Then this little know-it-all professional fishergirl had to butt in and insist Ezra have a hook and worm. She tore a worm in half and laced his body with the hook. I swallowed hard and informed her that in the case that he should catch something she would have to remove it. She agreed, and his true fishing began. Luckily, he didn't catch anything. A clever little Bass snuck the worm off the hook (we could see him not far from the shore), and then we quickly made our way to the minnow races so I didn't end up lacing any worms myself. (I'm not squimish about much, but I do not like piercing worms bodies with hooks, nor removing hooks from fish.)
We also caught a spelling error in the nearby general store.
We made a cake at Grandma's last week. Ezra helped to clean up the beaters.
Ezra had his very first fishing experience this morning! He is quite fond of the idea, although he didn't catch much. Well, he didn't catch anything at all to be perfectly honest. He was really looking for those fish, as is captured in the following video:
Other ways that Ezra keeps himself busy is by tormenting Lucy the cat. He calls Lucy "Puss Puss" however, I guess because the cat at our last house was named Puss Puss. I do find it entertaining to hear him say Puss Puss, so I am not correcting him as much as I could. Here's a short clip showing how gracious Lucy is putting up with his antics.
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