Min-nen-so-da

A week ago we were enjoying our last day of vacation in "Min-nen-so-da" (as Braden calls it).  Billy's family has vacationed at Big Rock Resort on Leech Lake near Walker, MN since he was a kid. We've joined the fun once before, when Braden was a baby in 2009.  

We were a little apprehensive about driving 8.5 + hours with 2 kiddos, so we decided to break up the trip on the way by stopping overnight near Minneapolis. This meant that were able to sneak in a visit with the McNabb's, who were gracious enough to allow us to crash with them for an evening.  Billy has known John and Vicki since his days at Central College, and I got to know them when we did -pre-marriage counseling with John before he married us in 2007.  Braden had a blast burning off energy and playing with their grandson, Landon.  

We stayed up late visiting and watching the Olympic opening ceremonies, and then got to sleep in and relax on Friday morning before heading on up to Walker (since we couldn't check in to our cabins until 4:00 and we only had about 4 hours of driving left).  The kids did pretty well with the driving - Elise mostly slept, and Braden mainly played with his books and cars.  I had looked up tips for traveling with young children, and found an idea of having a "surprise bag."  Basically the idea is that at various intervals while traveling, the child gets a "surprise" from the bag if he/she is behaving.  Braden loved it, but we got a little tired of him saying, "Is it time for a surprise yet?" (I guess that is better than, "Are we there yet?" - ha!).

Anyway, we arrived at Big Rock around 4 on Friday, and were greeted with perfect weather (mid 80's and sunny - a great reprieve from our 100+ temps at home). We stayed in the same cabin that we were in the last time we went (which was kind of fun - I remember B taking his first steps in that living room!), and Grandpa & Grandma H. and Aunt Amy's family stayed in the cabin next door (our cabin is in front, theirs has the big deck in back).


It is so pretty on the lake; we ate most of our meals on the deck and I got to spend some time reading there too.

Once everyone arrived, the kids were excited to get into the water.  The water trampoline was a big hit, and it didn't take them long to get our there.

Braden LOVED it (of course) . . . the first words out of his mouth on Saturday morning were, "Can I go on the trampoline?"  We spent our days boating, swimming, did a little (not very successful) fishing, and a lot of relaxing and just enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery.  I was even able to read 2 books! :)  We typically slept in and had breakfast around 9, and were up late making s'mores and (since the resort has recently added TVs to the cabins) we also got to watch the olympics.

Braden played hard, and wasn't about to miss out on any of the fun by taking naps (although we did get him to fall asleep one day on the boat) . . . he loved every minute of it, and has asked to go back to MN every day since we've been home. ;)  (He did finally get a chance to catch up on sleep -- on Tuesday after swimming at the pool he went down for a nap at 4:30 . . . and sleep till 7:30 on Wed morning!)

Although Elise was too little to participate in a lot of the activities, she enjoyed lots of cuddle time with her Grandparents and cousins . . .

 . . . and was such a sweetie pie!

After almost a week of fun at the lake, we packed up and headed home on Friday.  We had to drive straight through to get home for a family reunion that evening . . . let's just say that the trip TO Minnesota was a lot better than the trip BACK.  We were all tired and were in no mood to be in the car all day.  Elise did ok and slept a lot, and Braden finally crashed and slept too.  Unfortunately I was also super tired which meant that I wasn't a whole lot of help driving and Billy ended up driving most of the way home.  But we made it! And sleeping in our own beds that night felt soooooooo good.