Lake Vermilion. 3.

Lake Vermilion. 2. Birthday!

Elin's birthday lands at the end of June so that lucky duck gets a party at the lake.

{We had celebrated with my parents and sister's family in Illinois the week before at Stockholm Inn in Rockford, IL. My dad reserved a Carl Larsson room. It was so pretty. I carefully packed my camera. When we got there, of course I wanted to start taking pictures.
No memory card in my camera. My mom only had a couple pictures available on her camera. My sister's camera battery was dying. It was a bad night for cameras. You will have to take my word for it that it was wonderful and that Elin had a great time.}

So here's birthday attempt #2, complete with camera card.

This little girl is such a blessing to us.

Birthday morning kayak ride.

Nate put her in the kayak with me and off we went.

I think a kayak ride on your second birthday is a pretty sweet deal.

Happy in the kayak for about half an hour; then time to get back on the pier and be with Grandma.

Beautiful live harp music.

Svea and Elin waiting for present time with the best guy ever.

For her birthday, Svea gave Elin some binoculars.

Mainly so Elin would stop borrowing Svea's all the time.

They were put to use immediately.

And since then, I have not had to separate two screaming girls from crying over who gets the binoculars. Best $8 I've ever spent.

Viggo took a break from reading his current Star Wars novel to read the cards. What a nice big brother :)

I gave Elin a child's broom set. Because I am tired of trying to hunt down the adult versions at our house, or having to take my broom from a very upset little girl who would prefer to take care of all the housework herself.

Now we each have our own broom and can hopefully have many pleasant afternoons of sweeping the floor together. :)

Waiting for cake.

Grandpa is the Dutch oven pro so I asked him early on to please make a birthday cake for Elin.

This part makes me a little nervous. Hot Dutch oven over head . . . not for the faint of heart.

And that's how you make a birthday cake at Lake Vermilion.

Happy birthday to YOU, Elin! Far better than any store-bought cake ever could be.

When it was time to sing, Elin was loving all the attention. She looked at everyone and smiled. She knew this song was all for her! She was so happy. She is such a wonderful little girl.

Happy birthday to you, sweet Elin. We love you like crazy!

Lake Vermilion. 1.

It's summer!
Time to go to the lake.

Nate and Svea went to Scheel's the night before we left and picked up a pretty blue kayak. Viggo had no idea! So fun to surprise him with such an exciting purchase.

Viggo had left with Nate's mom and dad two weeks earlier. So he had two full weeks of fishing and lake fun under his belt before the rest of us came to to join him and his grandparents. We were so excitd to see him!

He kinda sorta thought he knew how to tie knots. So he met us at the marina and attempted to tie up the pontoon to the pier "his way". Grandpa intervened. But it was a good try. Better than what I could accomplish - I don't ever remember learning how to tie knots in Girl Scouts. Too busy selling cookies.

Timbuktu.

Viggo got to DRIVE a boat! This happened more than once. When you get old, I guess you get to do everything. For the record, I got to drive this boat too. I was fully supervised as well.

My mother-in-law suggested Nate and I go to Duluth to go to a local folk concert. Nate wasn't feeling the love for that. But when I found out April Verch was going to be there, playing the fiddle and stepdancing simultaneously . . . well, who could turn that down? Lois happily came with me, and we met Nate's aunt and uncle there too; Nate was spared a night of fabulous music and company. Too bad for him. We had a great time! Bill and Kate Isles were also totally wonderful . . . it was just lots of fun. And I got to meet April Verch and even said hi to her. Whoa.

After the trip to Duluth we settled into the wilderness with intentions to go nowhere fast.

Svea was eager to help out Grandma in the kitchen at all times.

I was surprised one morning to come down to the lake and find Viggo paddling around with Elin perched in the kayak with him.

With the addition of the blue kayak, we can now fit 4/5 of our family onto the water in kayaks at the same time. A ratio of 3 kids to one adult - on the water. Sounds like fun . . . ?

Viggo never kayaked before but had the hang of it before we knew it. He was very careful with Elin.

I just can't believe she sat so still for him. When she was in the kayak with me she was a major wiggleworm after 20 minutes or so.

Time for a scary story. And a true one.

Nate told Svea that he thought there was a bear close by.

Sure enough, we spotted one. Glowing eyes. Creepy!

We talked about The Bear while we finished up dinner.

Nate decided that someone had better go take a look at it.

Svea was not volunteering.

After some persuasion Svea clamped herself onto Nate like a little koala and they went to check it out.

Guess what.

It wasn't a real bear.

It was a wood splitter.

Svea repeatedly reassured us all that the bear wasn't real.

But she was clamped on so tightly to Nate, she had to be pried off of him anyway.

More lake photos coming up!