July 4th 2013

We went back Up North for the 4th of July holiday.

We had a really wonderful time and made lots of great memories!

On the way up we met my Mom for dinner and had a wonderful time!

The first morning was so fun, the kids all hung out and then had a puppet show!

Then I took all the older kids to town and we stopped at the store and each kiddo got a fun toy!

Then we went to get some ice cream and chocolates!

They walked hand in hand down the streets.

They all wanted to show me their colorful tongues!

Then we found a cute little popcorn shop that just opened and we HAD to get some goodies!

Unfortunately Molly, Jeremy and the kiddos had to travel back due to contractions and not feeling well. We totally understood, but were sad to see them go.
Lily ended up staying and the next day we woke up and went straight on the beach to look for good size rocks to paint...pj's and all!

Logan found just the right one!

The kiddos began painting away!

They all did really well painting!

On the actual 4th we got a little crazy and busted out the crazy hat!

At dinner Jackson and Lily had a great time sharing the IPAD. 

Unfortunately I didn't have such a great night, I ended up getting food poisoning from the restaurant :(

We had great times boating!

We went by "Santa's Cottage" and we said hello. 

I took a video and it just cracks me up!

The kids at the cottage waving to Santa.

http://youtu.be/G7_l-aA24u4

Patrick got some great flips in. This is the year he finally mastered it!

Here he is killing it wakeboarding.

It is so cute to see how interested Logan is when his Dad is wakeboarding.

I got a video to remember his cute little voice saying it,

http://youtu.be/2IdEwOkyh_w

Beautiful Summer Day, not a cloud in the sky.

More flips!

I believe this is right when Patrick threw to rope to tell us he was "Done", I think it's a cool action shot.

The kids have nicknamed this, "The boat peeing".

Logan being "Oh. So. Cool".

Stud.

Me and the Hubs.

This is one of my ALL TIME favorite photos from the summer. 

It makes me so happy.

We had lots more fun on the boat, as witnessed below:

Hope you all had a fabulous 4th and enjoyed all the beautiful sunshine!

Luke's first birthday!

While we were up north, Patrick's cousin's little boy was having a birthday!

Baby Luke turned ONE!

We went over to Torch Lake to celebrate with family and had a wonderful time!

Luke was busy climbing stairs!

Grandpa Tom was helping him up and down!

There was an animal scavenger hunt and the kids loved it!

After that game, we did "Pin the nose on the clown". 

We got a tour of their new cottage and I love the beautiful yellow kitchen!

Grandma Susan and the birthday boy!

Cruising around!

Birthday celebration!

Jackson was excited to be outside checking out all the fun stuff.

Here's the cute parents and the birthday boy!

We enjoyed eating outside and seeing the beautiful view!

Then we all headed down to the beach!

Patrick doing his traditional, "testing the water temp with his toe" pic!

LOVE this one of Patrick's mom! Beautiful person, beautiful water.

The boys sat down for JUST a split second to enjoy the view too.

We love Torch!

Logan played on the beach for a little while and then it was time for the birthday boy to have cake and open presents!

Present time!

The boys found construction vehicles in the forest and desperately wanted to check them out!

It was a wonderful party and shortly after we had to go back home.

We got a phone call that our basement flooded due to all the rainstorms.

Our sump pump went out and so we had a big mess on our hands.

Our drive home was horrible.

It did this most of the way.

After the long drive, we got home and I threw my rain boots on to get to work.

We brought up wet junk for hours and hours.

After about 4 hours of cleaning, the basement was cleaned out and empty.

Luckily the water didn't damage much of our food storage!