The Blanchard Family: Labor Day at the Lake 2013

We headed back up to Minnesota to my parent's cabin the week before Labor Day weekend. The Reisetter family was able to join us for the week, and then head home on Friday; while my parents weren't coming until Thursday night for the Labor Day weekend. We left on Sunday, the 25th as soon as Erik was done at church. We only stopped once, and were able to make it to the cabin by about 8:30 in the evening. Reisetters weren't there quite yet, so we were able to get a few things settled before they arrived. As soon as they got there, the first thing Jentry said when she walked in the door was, "We are going to have a slumber party" with this dead serious look on her face, I just started laughing and replied, "yes, yes, we are!". :)

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were beautiful days. It was hot and humid, so we spent lots of time at the beach digging and playing in the water. The kids enjoyed taking the paddle boat out for a spin, as well as the kayaks. Tuesday we even got the big boat out, as Mason wanted to go for a tube ride. The other four kids decided that riding the tube behind the fishing boat was enough for them. :) Wednesday the Dads got brave and took 4 of the 5 kids in the canoe and kayaks down the channel. It was so nice to just hang out, relax, and do whatever we wanted while enjoying time with each other's families. Here are some pictures from the beginning of the week:

Monday:

Mason, Jentry, and Norah playing in the sand

Norah and Mason on the tube :)

All five kids paddling out to sea :) (We joked about the fact that next year we'll have two more to fit on there!) :)

Taking a paddle boat ride

Monday was Erik's birthday....posing with his cake :)

Happy Birthday Erik!

Tuesday:

Good Morning everyone!

Kyler ready for the beach!

Norah and Mason digging away

Mason riding the tube

Wednesday:

Kyler and Norah ready to ride the canoe :)

Ready to go...

The whole gang :)

Kyler and Mason in a water fight :)

Thursday it was supposed to cool off so we decided that it would be the day to head over to Itasca State Park where the headwaters of the Mississippi are located. We got up and got ready to go after breakfast. We all got in our vans and headed off. About five minutes into the drive, it just started down pouring, Erik said to me, "I can't hardly even see the road!", because it was raining so hard, but we kept going. :) After a few minutes the rain started to let up a bit and actually stopped for a little while on our way there. We arrived and the rain had started coming down again, so we made a stop in the gift ship for about 10 or 15 min. Soon the rain stopped and we could see the sun starting to come out, so we went down to check out the headwaters of the Mississippi. After the headwaters, we loaded up and drove to the other part of the park to have some malts at the grand lodge before heading back to the cabin. Here are some pictures from the headwaters of the Mississippi.

Norah in the Mississippi for the first time!

In the Mississippi :)

All the kids

The Reisetters

Our family

The two preggos :)

Shakes at the lodge :)

After we had our shakes, we headed back to the cabin for lunch and naps. After naps we got ready to head into town for pizza at one of the local places there. When we were done with dinner, we headed back to the cabin to re-arrange things, as my parents were arriving later that evening. We enjoyed one last night together as the Reisetters would be heading out the next morning.

Friday morning we got up and got breakfast and then the Reisetters got ready to head home. Here's is one last picture of our time with them!

We had so much fun spending the week together. We didn't have a lot planned, but we enjoy it that way! :) It had been two years since we had done this, and it was fun to see how the kids had grown and changed since the last time. Hard to believe next year there will be two more kiddos to add to the mix! :)

After Reisetters left we enjoyed some time playing on the beach and hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa. The kids had been asking to go fishing, so Friday evening Grandpa and Daddy took Kyler and Norah out in the boat to fish. :)

Getting ready to go!

Heading out!

Saturday and Sunday were spent hanging out and doing some odd jobs around the cabin. It cooled off a lot, and even rained a bit on Saturday, so we got creative and did some things inside. Sunday we started getting ready to pack up some things since we had to help close down the cabin on Monday before my parents headed home. Monday we enjoyed out annual Labor Day breakfast at the pot over at the neighbors, just like we do for the 4th of July, and then it was time to get to work! Erik helped my parents take the boat out of the lake and into town, take the fishing boat out of the water, and take the dock out of the lake. They also packed up some of the outside furniture and deflated all the tubes. Late afternoon, mom and dad headed for home since they had to work on Tuesday. We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon, a pizza, and a fire with s'mores for our last night at the lake for the summer. Here are a couple pictures from our final evening. :)