Lake Vermilion - 1

Sharing some summertime memories!

I'm not quite ready to let go of the summer yet.  Maybe these pictures will make it stretch out a little bit more.

 



Up at Lake Vermilion.
Svea with Soren.

Viggo with Oliver.
Whittlin'.

 

Oliver, Viggo, Isaac, Alexander - or is that Alexander and Isaac?

 

In case you haven't noticed, there were a LOT of kids up there!

 



And Isaac and Alexander were identical twins.

And they were identically adorable.

I am not saying they need to marry my daughters in 30 years.

I'm just saying I approve.

 



Before marriage, though, we need to face facts: they are busy boys.  Especially on an island in northern Minnesota.  They get in kayaks and . . . just disappear.  Here, their mom Heather's best option to track them down was to get in a kayak herself and try to locate them.

 

Don't worry.  We found them!

 



 Svea and Elin work on some cooking skills with Grandma Zeke.

Annabelle and Liliana were also a part of the pudding crew.

It's a fact: chocolate pudding tastes even better on vacation.

 

We went to see the bears at Vince Shute's bear reserve.

 



 

Don't be afraid of bears!  There's no need to fear!
Now that you've read this sign I'm sure you feel much better about bears - maybe not so much about bees, other people, and cars, though.

 Annabelle was a very sweet helper!

We found a hungry hummingbird.

And then the bears got tired of the nine children we dragged along with us to the reserve and left.

 



 Svea did clues one night.
She drew a picture of an object on a piece of paper, then hid a candy by that object.  You had to guess what the picture was, and then find it.
She made what - 13 or 14 individual clues one night?
We hunted around and found every one!  It was like a little treasure hunt.  Thank you so much, Svea!

On a rainy afternoon we watched Duck Dynasty (on a laptop).
We turned it into a classy, quasi-Swedish event with caramel rolls and cardamom bread freshly made by Lois.

 Sculpey clay.  Worth its weight in gold!

Crazy wet afternoons.

Elin would run to the end of the deck - and then slowly climb into the water.

 Skorpa fever.

A leopard frog we found on a walk.

Some beautiful fungus.

And fungus that was perhaps not so beautiful.

Teeny-tiny ferns.

Nate and Kevin escape to fish.

 



Annabelle plays the harp.

Kevin enjoys the view of the lake.

Lois took Heather and I to the farmer's market in Ely.
Competition for buying rights of certain homemade goodies was fierce - the market opens for business at 5 pm sharp.  Before that, you can only look and hope you're the first in line for the Ukrainian sweet bread!

Then we enjoyed listening to The Boundary Waters Boys.
They were like The Beach Boys - only much more hip.

Liliana and Jojo were boat buddies.

A little more swimming.

 



Girls on the porch!

Everyone lined up for a picture.

 Yes.  There were all of these children.
Friends and cousins with Viggo, Svea and Elin made this the best week of summer ever!

 Annabelle wanted a photo with Jojo.
That was easy.

The the little girls wanted a photo with Jojo.
That was not so easy, especially when Jojo rolled over and started knocking little girls left and right.

 Finally we got a good one!
Jojo was highly posed in this picture.
I'm pretty sure someone forced him to sit there and stay put.

 Fishing.

Counting crayfish.

 Elin and s'mores.

Annabelle had her birthday at the lake so Jim made a pineapple-upside down cake in the dutch oven.

Flipping it over!

Perfect.

Happy birthday!

Oh Viggo.  He loves every second at the lake.

 Cinnamon rolls for breakfast under the birches.

Stilts!

The local tree monkeys.  Can you spot them?

Saying goodbye from the pier.

A rare photo of Heather actually sitting down.  We had no choice but to sit on the boat (I love boat rides.)  It had been a busy week!

Before our friends left, Nate and the twins watch the boat lift at work. 

We had a great week with our cousins and friends!  It was super-crazy but so much fun!