finally finished

The painters are finally finished. Having the shutters darker really makes a difference. I'm still not 100% crazy about the color of either the house or shutters but it looks good. Now we just have to finish up the planting, put new rocks down and start watering the grass again.

Making progress

Well it is a very different house! In one light it looks a little too peachy or yellow. We think we like it though. These guys have been working all week and still have a lot to go. Hopefully they will be able to finish up tomorrow.

The shutters are going to be a darker brown, I think it will add a needed contrast.

Cutie Pies

One of the things the girls love to do is play dress up. Piper pretends she's the Mom and Reagan gets to be the Dad, complete with necktie. Luckily I have Piper trained to not tie it around her neck, she tucks it into her shirt or dress. It's pretty cute! little angels - they even posed for the camera together

house in progress

Well here is the house after day one of scraping and priming. Not a very pretty site. The primer you see in some of the pictures is actually the color we chose for the house. These poor guys scraped and scraped and then primed a bit and then told me at 5pm that they have even more scraping to do. They also said the boss gave them the choice of a house with a lot of scraping versus a house with less scraping. They might have chosen wrong when they decided on the job with less. Of course that also gives me hope that we aren't the worst house around.

Our 9th Anniversary already

For our 9th Anniversary we thought it would be fun to visit the 1st place we ever camped together up in Chippewa National Forrest. We camped at site #9, which is a long story on why I remember that 12 years later, but we were lucky enough to get our old site back again. The pictures are out of order but here are a few.

We had the hiking bug, we went on a quick trail to the Lost Fourty, which is 40 acres that were left off a map many years ago and never logged. The pine trees are 300-400 years old and as you can see they are huge.
By the expression on Jason's face it looks like he's trying to lift the tree.

Jason setting up his tarp

#9

On our 2nd day we took off to explore. We first hiked a 1 mile trail and then decided to hike to the Joyce Estate which was someone's 4500 acre cabin back in the 20's and 30's. It was a 3 mile hike each way.

Here is a map 2 miles into the trail. If you follow the You Are Here arrow down, in between the two lakes and find the little "P" for parking, that is where we started. If you follow the arrow up and around the bend to the Camping triangles that is where we ended. I have no idea why they don't allow vehicles or even 4 wheelers on the road, it was a road at some point and it was in great shape.

This was so pretty, this was the 1st trail we took that day.

We came to a clearing and found a little creek. 4 ducklings scampered upstream as we walked out.

I took this picture for Piper.

At the end of the 3 miles we stopped to dip our toes in the lake and cool off a bit.

At the Estate, they had built I think around 20 different cabins, here is the remains of one of them.

A view from the penninsula, actually atop the "bath house" where they set up a sunning patio.

The Bath House

Taking a break along the trail.

4th of July

We had a fabulous day on the 4th. We had a lazy morning and after naptime we headed to the State Capital for the tea party. It downpoured right before we got there but there were still a few people hanging out. Piper loved the capital and thought it was a cool building.
she was totally posing for the camera

Reagan checking out the crowd

I've always been fascinated with the horses After the capital we headed over to Dad's for dinner and visiting. When they got on the boat to go over to the fireworks we headed into Excelsior over to Mom's to watch from her front step. I think we found our new tradition for when we are in town, we had a guaranteed parking spot, a perfect view, and the best part is, after the last firework we were one of the only ones in the car and on the road. It took us 30 minutes to get home which is the normal amount of time it takes to get home. Mom said cars were still gridlocked leaving the parking lot at 11:30, we were home and in bed by then.

I don't know what Piper was doing here she's so funny. The girls were so tired, as soon as Piper got in the car she requested a pillow. They were out cold before we hit 494.

Before the fireworks we ventured down to the park to look at all the boats in the bay getting ready for the big show, then we stopped by Licks for some of our favorite ice cream.

We had a great 4th and now are looking forward to celebrating our Anniversary later this week by dropping the girls off at the cabin with Grandma and Papa and heading to the first place we camped together 12 short years ago.

Happy 3rd of July

We went over to Bloomington's Summer Fete this afternoon and enjoyed some treats as well as some entertainment
It's hard to tell who enjoyed the magician more, Jason or the kids

Reagan was very patient while Piper ran from bouncy station to bouncy station, she preferred to stay close to Mom and Dad

Piper had a blast!!!

cupcakes I made for Church's bake sale last weekend

Reagan loves to line up her cars....

and her babies, including Brecken

I attempted a little tummy time with Brecken and Reagan had to say hello!

We finally moved Reagan into a toddler bed, Piper's old bed