Labor Day at the Lake

We left Friday (9/4) for Park Rapids to spend the weekend at Two Inlets Resort. The drive up took much longer than we anticipated (6+ hours) due to some accidents. Nothing brings traffic to a grinding halt like a car accident...Jenna decided she didn't really need to sleep in the car (even tho it was nap time), and spent what felt like the better part of the trip, crying, whining, and screaming.....we know we endured at least 2 hours of it, and are serious about wanting to invest in some really good ear plugs for Bruce, Andrew and I. She just really hates not being able to move about the car freely.

Once we made it to the lake she was fine, she just really isn't a happy kid when she needs to be strapped into a car seat. If it wasn't for the occasional laugh, or asking for a snack you would never know that Andrew was even in the back seat, he's an awesome traveler. We keep hoping that she'll notice how good Andrew is in the car, and decide that she'd like to give it a try too.

The weather at the lake was awesome. We had better weather in September then we did in July! The kids enjoyed swimming, kayaking, playing in the sand, fishing, and checking on the turtle in the turtle pond, and of course visiting our lake neighbors (Grandma & Grandpa Fullerton). Bruce and I enjoyed being able to go out fishing on our own a few times, and the extra hands w/ the kids. It was nice to have 2 extra sets of eyes watching them when they were running around outside.

Fishing w/ Grandma & Grandpa (about 10 minutes after we got there!):

Fishing Jenna Style (dunking her bobber in the water/sand/weeds):

Playing in the sand:

Surfing:

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

A few hours on the lake, lots stories, and here's what they came home with.... (it was worth it)

Helping with candles:

Happy Birthday Grandpa! Happy Birthday Dee! (they share a birthday) The kids added every available candle to the cake just to give them a challenge when it was time to blow the candles out. Didn't work - they got all of them on the 1st try.

Andrew Kayaking:

Jenna Swinging:

The resort has a Turtle Pond that they keep at least one turtle in for every summer. Every Labor day they release the turtle back into the lake. This year Andrew and Jenna were able to help with the release of the turtle.

Want to pet him?

Go Turtle GO!Watching for him in the water:

The ride home from the lake went much better than the ride up. Jenna actually slept during the ride, which is always a big help, and makes the time pass faster(& quieter). She was excited to pick up Sadie, and seemed a little sad when we put the boat back in the garage. Sadie must have had a good time with Lynn, Tom & Thor at the lake because she was exhausted. Once we got home, Andrew went to work on his project for school - he had to decorate a cut out of a person.....let's just say red sparkle glue and 4 year old is not a good combo. I went to get Jenna something out of the fridge and came back to him adding pants to his cut out that were made of glue. This was after he added 5 different colors of sparkle glue to it in the shape of a heart - the gob was at least 1/2 an inch thick. We didn't think it'd ever dry!