With Ellaina and Aaron's family visiting from Oregon, Sarah and Daddy managed to join them for five fun-filled days at Bowstring Lake. Here's Grandma Gordon with her pride and joy, Sarah, Maddie and Ella.
The girls chow down at breakfast.
Ellaina and Aaron had never been to the Losty Forty (!), so we made a visit there on Friday. Here we are hugging "our" big pine tree.
Lost Forty Ladies.
Awwww! We saw a pair of wood-neckers.
Grandpa Gordon has been planning all summer to build a treehouse for the grandchildren, and with much help from Uncle Aaron, it became reality this past week.
Maddie stayed busy pulling stuff up from the ground with a rope tied to a bucket.
The treehouse trio.
"We're way up high!"
Grandpa, Aaron and Rich worked to clear a path where a zip-line will go. There will be a cable running from just beneath the treehouse to the tree in the foreground, and the kids will grab a handle and slide down the wire away from the treehouse. Wheee!
On Saturday we all went to the annual huge swap meet in Grand Rapids and spent a few hours walking around looking at all the "goods."
Sarah got "bitten" by a metal alligator sculpture Grandma G. is holding.
That's a metal frog sculpture on Maddie's head.
Three little chickies wait in the car while Uncle Aaron buys a gun barrel for a buddy back in Oregon. Sarah's holding her new red horse, which she aptly named "Snow White."
What would a visit to the lake be without a little bit of tubing? Here's Uncle Aaron and Ella taking a spin.
Later, Ella helped Uncle Rich drive the boat while Maddie was on the tube.
Grandma and Grandpa Gordon's house and lakefront.
Uncle Aaron took a spin on the old John Deere tractor that Grandpa G. won in a raffle at last year's swap meet.
Grandpa Gordon used the tractor to pull out five or six stumps in the zip-line corridor.
On Monday we drove to the North Shore of Lake Superior to see some sights. Here the girls are posing in front of a map of the lake at Split Rock Lighthouse.
Maddie, Sarah and Grandma.
It was windy at Split Rock Lighthouse!
Daddy hadn't been to the lighthouse since middle school or so. (It looked a lot smaller!)
Split Rock Lighthouse, which was built starting in 1909.
After visiting the lighthouse, we drove down the shore to Gooseberry Falls, where the girls spent a couple of hours wading around the river with Uncle Aaron and Rich.
"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!"
Daddy's favorite picture of Sarah during the trip.
Daddy's girl.
After all of that wading, Sarah caught a catnap during the 30-minute drive to Duluth for supper.
With Erin working all of last weekend, Rich decided taking the kids to the cabin at Bowstring would be a good way for Erin to get her sleep. So Sarah, Lucas, Caleb and their friend Tristan got to enjoy two days at the cabin. On the way there, we stopped in Deer River for the annual Wild Rice Festival, where Sarah got to meet two of her favorite TV characters -- Dora the Explorer and Boots the monkey! She was both shocked and awed.
Later, Sarah took a ride on a bumblebee.
"Hi, Dad!"
We pulled Grandma G away from her duties making root-beer floats for a church fundraiser, and she and Sarah rode the merry-go-round.
Waiting in line for the rollercoaster.
This was Sarah's first-ever ride on a rollercoaster ... and it was a DRAGON, no less!
Sarah and Caleb, burning their last ride tickets.
We brought north two of the three ducks we'd been raising in our backyard for the past two months, and Lucas and Caleb released them.
"Go, Runner, go!
The ducks had never been swimming before, and they beat it straight toward the shore and hung out in the mud for a while before disappearing into the nearby bog.
The boys, Sarah and Daddy went tubing behind the boat, but we didn't get any pictures. It was another first for Sarah! After that, we went fishing for northern pike. Here's Sarah in the bow of the boat.
Tristan and Lucas. Everybody caught at least one fish during our visit. Thanks, Grandpa!
Sarah's third "first" in one day ... her first fish! She was excited, but didn't want to get too close to her catch!
"Look, Dad! I can drive the boat one-handed without looking!"
Grandpa G and the boys head back out. Watch out, fish!
