Minnesota Niceness

It's hard to believe that it's nearly a month since we've been home in Minnesota. We had such a fabulous time! It's probably the longest period of time that I've been home since I was 19 years old. We packed a lot of visiting and fun into the time.

Some highlights:

• Going up to my grandpa and his wife Alice's cabin.

One day my brother and I went up there together to spend the day--Troy biked all the way up there to meet us. Later, Troy and I got to stay there for a night by ourselves, which was excellent after all of the moving stress. We relaxed, had a nice dinner, took a sauna and yumped in da lake! Here are a couple of pics from the cabin.

Ahhhh, the sauna

• Biking with my dad on the Mesabi Trail.

There's an excellent bike trail system right in our backyard that I had never ridden on before. We had a nice day riding with my dad and even ran into Courtney and Kevin's mothers--or as they call them "The moms."

• Visiting with Courtney
  

I stayed for a night with Courtney at her dad's beautiful and secluded cabin.

• Hanging out with many old friends and meeting a new one.
  

We got to see so many old friends and we met LeeAnn and KC's new little girl--Lukah. What a cutie! We ate bacon sundaes, camped, had bonfires, took a moonlight canoe ride and told hilarious stories to remember our friend Brad.

Lukah Gracy!

They serve strange things at the Country Kitchen in Virginia, MN!

Here are some pics from our camping trip to Fenske Lake near Ely. What a gorgeous site it was! And we had great weather and a full moon.




I was surprised by how warm the weather was in September and excited to go swimming!

My best friends from high school.

• Troy hit 2009 miles!

This is him as he reaches and surpasses his goal. I had to point out to him that his pants are too big the other day. He doesn't realize when he loses weight and thought nothing of adding new notches in his belt until I said something about it!

• Visiting with family

Here we are doing shots of Jag with Troy's family after a party they threw a great party for us at Poor Gary's Pizza. What a fun time! I wish I had more pics, but there were so many people who came out to send us off that I forgot to take pictures for once!


My mom and Tim had a "coffee an'" in our honor. For those of you who aren't from the midwest, this means coffee AND some other things--typically sweets, but my sis also made a taco dip and some tortilla roll-ups with the cream cheese and dried cranberries. Yum. We had a beautiful cake and a great time visiting with everyone.

Us and my fam -- minus Patrick and Shelly :(

My uncle Rob with his wife Dione and their sweet girls, Mahryn and Carina.

Troy and his mom

Grandma Jean and Roy


Ethan and a pregnant Laura :)

Patrick wasn't able to be at the party but thankfully we had some time to visit with him and with Shelly beforehand.

Patrick and Amelia

Shelly (my step-sister) and her adorable daughter Amelia

On our last day in Minnesota we were lucky to catch up with my aunt Barb and uncle Hank and their family for a bit and then Patrick picked us up and brought us to downtown Minneapolis, where our friends Aaron and Angel have a swanky new pad. We all went out to Brit's Pub for some food and beer. An excellent, final send-off!