The Fourth | Two-Thousand Ten

We just got back from a big trip out to the Iron Range for the Fourth of July weekend and I should be sleeping, but I'm writing a blog. So it goes.

Rather than write out a story of sorts, here's a list of what was done:

6 hour car drive w/ kids (ugh!)
Fishing
Eat
Laura's 10 year reunion
Eat and drink
Gilbert(?) street dance
Breakfast w/ our friends: Nate & Emily Goltz
Gilbert parade and fireworks (no fingers were blown up)
Aunt elsie's lake cabin (swimming, cousins, lots of meat and chips, tubing, sandbag-thingy game, etc.)
Sunburn
Exhaustion
Split Rock Lighthouse and Beach trip
Eat
Sweat and frigid lake superior water
Great Grandma Doty comes
Eat
Sleep
Eat
Fishing (we saw a baby loon on the lake, as well as a bald eagle almost swoop down and take part in the circle of life.)
See ashton, renae, scotty when they visit, too.
Eat
Say our goodbyes
Drive 6.5 hours back home (ugh!)


LAURA'S CAKES

ava and i made a cake for laura.


carol, laura's mom, also made a yummy cake.


we like cake.


ava *really* likes cake.


the cake shot.



GILBERT PARADE | FIREWORKS

auntie renae and gavin @ the parade.


ava enjoying a sucker that pelted my shoulder from a float tosser. parenting hurts sometimes and the kids enjoy the fruits from our toils sometimes, too.


watermelon and fireworks.


throwing those snappers on the ground.


grandpa. grandma. scotty. renae. ava.


renae spelling 'ava' w/ a sparkler.


uncle scotty going in circles.


ava w/ a sparkler. her pattern represents her aberrant nature.


my sparkler air guitar.


everyone enjoying the evening.



RANDOM TRIP PICS

house plant.


backseat ava.


backseat daddy. (appeasing gavin so we can make it to splitrock.)


vaulted ceiling.


as per ava, she "caught" a spider in her pink "trap" in her wading pool.



SOME GARDEN @ SOME ROADSIDE EATERY

enjoying the view.


resting. not ava, hehehehe.


ava. tiny chair. and flower.


flower, yellow.


laura and gavin. heart-melting.



SPLIT ROCK LIGHTHOUSE

the fam (-chris).

lake superior view.

laura gavining.

let us in!

they didn't let us in.

view from top.

still looking.

pretty.

inside the lighthouse.

more inside the lighthouse. (unfortunately, i did not get to learn much about this very cool lighthouse due to extreme humidity and a tour guide who wouldn't wait for us to come back down before talking about it.)

gavs and i sweating & smiling.

not posing, i swear. i wanted to sit.

still not posing, i swear it.

okay, now we're posing.

yep, posing.

yep, that reconditioned lighthouse for tourism is posing.

nope, not posing anymore.

i'm not posing, but gaving is.

sweet sweet moses. that kid's cute.

whoa. cute baby and a daddy who seems to be sucking in the gut.

posing altogether.

another shot. thanks to a friendly random stranger!

@ the beach.

throwing rocks.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

@ first glance, she seems to be relaxing, but she's just shaking some stuff off of her foot, folks.

crunches?

phlewkwehlkareafnsdkjf.

look, it's quartz!

THE DOTY'S

gav and momma.

ava. she loves sand.

and making mud.

checking out grandpa and grandma's garden.

whoa. little ashton's "the flash"!

somehow, great grandma caught up to him!

playing!

ashton and gavin meet.

cute. wait, that's very very cute.

omg, that's a great picture.

THE END.