Late Summer Variety

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...

Are we related or what?

We were just taking pictures of ourselves in the back of Grandpa's truck. We didn't plan to have identical facial expressions. Oh my little mini me, I'm pleased and concerned.

Football, Fall Picnic & Indoor Fun

Ezra and I haven't been letting the dropping temperatures keep us in! We were lucky enough to catch Uncle Nate's last football game of the season, as is captured in the first photo. It was chilly but Ezra kept snuggly and well briefed in Grandpa's arms. Nate's team the Park Rapids Panthers got creamed by Detroit Lakes Lakers (pretty clear who has the lamer name, however), but they got less creamed than they thought they would, so that's good!

The next pictures in the series capture Ezra hanging out around Grandpa's house. He and Uncle were having a lot of fun on the rug, and I took a video to be seen here to show exactly how much fun. (The music may be nostalgic for you too.)

The next few pictures were just taken this morning when Ezra and I took a trip to Deep Portage Nature Reserve. We took a nice long hike to the bog where we had a picnic of turkey sandwich, chips, carrots, and an orange. To wash it down we brought mango lemonade, although by Ezra's expression you'd think it was Wild Turkey. It was a lovely walk, even though it was cloudy, windy and gray. Ezra had a lot of fun running down the hills, as is showcased in this video. When we were done with our hike we went into the main building and found that there was a quilters' getaway going on! We watched some quilting (there were approximately 40 quilters sewing, cutting and pinning like crazy!) and then were invited to share in the candy buffet they had put together. We were sad we had forgotten desert for our picnic, but the Hershey kisses, double chocolate cookies, and candy corn made up for that. Quilters don't move around much, so I think it was best that our active bodies absorbed some of those sugary calories.

The last two photos showcase Ezra's new blocks! Holy cow, there are so many blocks. I bought them at the local thrift store on Friday, 10 bucks for a vacuum cleaner box full. I think Uncle will really enjoy this collection as well.

Ezra finally decided what he's going to be for Halloween. I will give you a hint, in Spanish he will be a caballo. Photos soon!

Ezra's cousin will be born any moment now too, so congrats to Mama and Papa Finc!

What a Weekend!

This past weekend Ezra and I ventured to Bemidji, a special place for a number of reasons. Most notable, it is the birthplace of Paul Bunyan. Now I don't want to hear any arguments about this, in the museum near these statues there are a number of Paul's personal belongings, including his finger nail clippings, sealing the deal that this is his rightful birth place (take that Brainerd!). Also, Babe the blue ox is so blue it's almost too blue, it's breathtaking blue, it's authentic blue.

Another great thing in Bemidji is this old train ride that yours truly remembers riding when she was as wee as little Ez. The other rides that used to delight are all gone (insurance reasons I hear) but this little choo choo will still take you on a lovely trip along Lake Bemidji for $1.50. You know who was ecstatic, although as usual I didn't capture his enthusiasm on film.

The awesomest part of Bemidji for this visit was seeing our old pal Max and his gal Tracy. They let us camp out in their back yard under a big, shady tree. Max took Ezra out on his skateboard, which was even more overwhelmingly exciting than the train. I captured a little bit of this fun in the following video, although it does not show his beaming face sadly, but you get the idea:

Another fun thing about Max is that he has cool stuff! Bongos, devil sticks, skateboards, but guess what they ended up playing with?

An empty beer box. Ezra started this by putting it on his head and pronouncing that he was a robot. I found this pretty hilarious and took the following short video:

The night that we spent in the tent in the backyard was magical. There was some thunder and lightning, along with a light rain. Ezra was a little scared at first, but with me going on and on about how cool it was he caught on pretty quick. We stayed dry and woke up the next morning feeling fine.

Then it was off to Grandpa's house! We had received word that there was going to be some music at Itasca State Park (very close to Gramp's) later that afternoon, so after a nice nap we headed over to enjoy hot dogs and a symphony under the pines. Here's a little glimpse of the pleasentness:

Last night I didn't sleep well at all because there was a stupid mosquito in our room that kept biting Ezra that I couldn't manage to get rid of until like 3 am, so we spent today napping for the most part. I finished my last final last night so I can do that now! For the next two weeks actually- yip yip yippee! Anyhow, we did get out a little in the afternoon, and here's Ezra playing with Nate who was in sore shape too because he had his first football training last night. Sorry Nate, but now the whole world knows your butt hurts! (Listen close, you'll hear.) Hardy har har. I really like how Ezra throws the baseball, notice his full body wind up. I think the leg motions he must be getting from the occassional Twins game we watch.

To continue attempts to embarrass Uncle Nate, here's a short clip from a few weeks ago showcasing his saxophone skillz:

What a guy! More from the relaxing weeks of break soon..

(Paradise) Lost Lake: A Photographic Journey

Bonus relaxation shot:

Bonus tiny tee shots:

(All of a sudden Ezra's shirts were all dirty, with this 0-3 months onsey as the only option.)