Winter already?

This week started out beautiful! It was sunny and warm. We took advantage of the nice weather and had dinner at the Arboretum one night.


I ordered the kids crochet Lois dogs and they finally arrived this week! They are SO GOOD. They look just like her! Even the pattern of white on her chest! They love them.



It snowed a bit Friday and yesterday. Kasper's last soccer game was cancelled yesterday because of the weather. We basically stayed inside with the fire going all day. Today we needed to get out for a bit.
















Also! I don't think I've mentioned it on here but I opened an Etsy shop this summer! I am selling gemstone "candy" necklaces and some knitwear! It's called MarkaMade and I'm having a lot of fun with it. Check it out!


Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Picture ready

Another busy week! Will it ever be anything but!?

We had a weird week of October weather where we had one day of 90 degrees in a week otherwise full of cold and rain. A storm came through to cool us back off and it was a thing of beauty.


We had family pictures this weekend so Rob figured he'd fall down running and ruin his face. Weird flex but ok.


Pictures with Gina! I CANNOT wait to see these.


Bothering Grandpa after pictures.


That's it! Kasper went to a sleepover last night. Today we did chores, watched the Vikings win, Marlo went to a birthday party. Tomorrow is the start of another week! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

11 years!

We had a fun week this week!

Monday we heard a steam train in the area so piled into the car and raced down to the train tracks. We got to see it just as it was rolling through! This is a passenger steam train and the whistle was unmistakeable and SO LOUD. It was fun.


Watching a phone.


Rainbow day!


On Friday Rob and I celebrated our 11-year wedding anniversary! We went out to dinner at one of our favorite places while Grandma Sandra picked the kids up from school and got them home and fed.


Yesterday after soccer we packed up and headed out for first ever family camping trip! We hadn't been able to do many spontaneous things with Lois at home so we're taking advantage of the empty house. We went down to Frontenac State Park south of Red Wing which was a new one for us. It's beautiful down there! It was a sunny day so we parked the car and went out for a hike. This area is interesting geologically (the glaciers didn't slide through so it's steep bluff country), and it is also on a bird migration flyway. We saw several kettles of soaring turkey vultures!










After 2 miles and 400 vertical feet each way down and back up the side of the bluff we set up the 2 bedroom tent we bought years ago but still hadn't had a chance to use. In a word, it's HUGE.

The view from our campsite


It was chilly!



There is a smaller room on the left and a huge room on the right. You can stand upright in it.




We all slept great! We woke Marlo up at 8:30. It was raining so we just hung out in the tent for awhile.





It didn't stop raining so we went out for breakfast! After breakfast we checked out foggy Lake Pepin before breaking camp.






We stopped for lunch at a great burger place.


We made it home with enough time for Rob to set that enormous tent back up in the garage so it can dry out. It's basically the size of the garage! Marlo "helped". Meaning she sat in a lawn chair, eating cheetos and getting up to run around. Why get another dog when we essentially have a puppy who is in kindergarten.





Whew! What a great weekend! Hope everyone had a good one.