Christmas tree!

We got our tree up and it was a lot of fun. I tried to take one of those fancy pictures of all the kids in front of the tree with the room dark so you just get their silhouettes from the glow of the tree. Hmmm, well we have an LED lit tree so you don't really get that soft glow. Plus the kids (boys) don't hold still for beans! So this is the best I could get and these have been edited, big time! haha, I tried. (=

Merry Christmas everyone!

Ely, Minnesota

We recently got a new internet provider and so I am finally capable of uploading our pictures from our amazing trip to Ely, Minnesota!
When Ki was younger his family had gone up to Big Lake Lodge in Ely, and they always had a great time so naturally Ki wanted to take us. We all love camping and being outside doing anything so it was kind of a given that we would enjoy the trip.
We went up the last week they were open, so that was the last week in September. It was a great family vacation and we were lucky enough to have the company of Gramma and Papa with us.
We were there for a week although it seemed like the 3 days to get there was longer then when we were actually there.
We had some car troubles along the way and at one point (or 2 points or 3 points or most of the road trip) I was ready to throw in the towel and head home! We lost the air conditioning and then one of the axles went out and we had to leave our car at the dealership in Minnesota, then finish our last 6 hours of the road trip in a rental. Luckily Gramma and Papa flew in so they picked up our rental and met us at the dealership.  We transferred everything over to the new car finished the last 6 hours to the cabin and enjoyed our stay, (mostly)!
We had the rental for the week and when we left we went back to the dealership, picked up our van and Papa took the rental back to the airport and flew home. Gramma was nice enough to drive home with us.
 The scariest part of the trip was not the car drama, it was the Rudy drama. It seems to always be Rudy, lol! But at one point everyone wanted to go out on the boat. I however did not sleep well the night before and neither did Monte so we decided to stay in the cabin and take a nap.
About 25-30 minutes after they took off I heard the walkie talkie going off and it was the girls saying hi to me. We talked a bit but they were getting so far away that I couldn't hear anything but static anymore.
It was really quiet and I was just falling asleep when I heard the static again, and again, and again. I tried to tell them to stop because the noise was waking Monte but it just kept coming. I was about to turn the walkie talkie off when I heard Moms voice. "fell. find emergency room. Chuck." My heart started pounding! I kept talking into the walkie talkie hoping to get more from them. Luckily they were getting closer, and even though it was still very static like and hard to hear I could make out what she said this time. "Rudy fell, he's ok but he needs stitches. Go ask Chuck (the owner of the lodge) where the closest emergency room is"  I sadly could not find Chuck and we had slim to no service there so it was hard to look up a hospital. But I found one, and when they made it back to the dock someone found Chuck, I can't remember who. I guess what had happened was that Rudy was told to sit and he refused, he kept running back and forth and no one could hold him still. So he had fallen and busted his lip in half. We left the girls with Dad and loaded everyone else up into the van and headed out. Luckily Mom brought her topical numbing medicine so I held it on his lip for the 40 minute drive. The bleeding made it look worse then it was, but he was a champ, he cried and freaked but he is 2.
When we got to the hospital there was no one there so we were admitted right away. The doctor was very nice and patient. We opted not to put Rudy to sleep while getting stitched because he is so young and Bea had a bad experience with that kind of medicine, so he got held down on what they call a papoose board. It's basically a plastic board with straps that go across the legs, the abdomen and the arms. He got more topical, then a numbing shot and then the 4 stitches. The wild little bugger got his feet loose from the board but luckily he wasn't able to thrash around. Ki and I were sitting next to him and it was hard to watch, I don't get queezy easily but something about seeing your 2 year old monster all bloodied and screaming with a needle going in and out of his little lip made me sick. I started feeling really light headed and seeing spots, I wanted to hurl! I had to step away and I swear the second I did Rudy screamed louder and harder. Mom stood next him holding Monte and Ki kept holding his hand and talking to him and trying to show him a movie on my phone. It felt longer but really it only lasted maybe 10 minutes, that doctor was awesome! His lip looks great now but he will not let anyone near his mouth or nose anymore, which stinks because right now he has a cold, it's not pretty but I don't think I blame him.

On the way to the hospital

Swollen lip and 4 stitches

Happy to be back at the cabin, but he told me the boat was bad and refused to get back on it, that day! The next day he was ready to ride again.

Clean stitches

This post will mostly be pictures, but I will try and have some captions or thoughts along the way as well. (=

Here are some scenic pictures we took. It was so incredibly beautiful there! The colors were amazing and there were so many great sunsets.

This was our dock and the swing on the edge of the rock looking out onto the lake right by our cabin,

Some islands that we saw out on the boat.

I just thought this looked cool. You can see that the whole tree and the bed of the roots lifted right up.

Do you see the eagle?

We were on the boat a lot so please forgive any shaky/blurry pictures

We did a few different hikes and walks as well so it was fun to see all the pretty scenery.

This tree was growing right out of the rock! 

This was our fire pit area.

I could not get over the sunsets!

This was our dock and Papa's spot! If we had any down time or we couldn't find him, this is where he was!

This was our cabin and our rental van, LOL.

I loved all the colors. I miss seeing colors like these!

The moon was so beautiful over the lake.

OK, OK, OK enough scenery pictures. Here are some boat and fishing pictures. (= We spent a lot of time on the boat. It was Daddy and Papa's favorite thing to do because it meant fishing. The owner of the Lodge showed them where the sweet fishing spots were and they scored pretty big a couple of times, (now I am craving fish). This was great because this is how we convinced Papa to join us on our trip, all the fishing that we were going to be able to do. (=

Don't be fooled, that may be Bea's baby life vest but that is Monte Moose wearing it. 

There are a lot of pictures of Rudy because he was the most entertaining.

It may look like Papa is fishing but really, Monte was  running the show.

I know they look a like but I promise this is Monte, not Bea. (=

His perfect smile makes me swoon every time!

Rae the turtle

He was falling asleep!

A new day out on the boat, it was much warmer this day

He loved playing with the water in this bucket.

Fish!

Rudy's catch!

I don't know why, but this is the only picture I got of Raeanna's catch. Papa was nice enough to help her.

Bea's catch! 

 a pike!

All the activities are a blur on what we did on what day. But on whatever day this was, the guys caught us some yummy dinner!

Ki and I tried the paddle boats, but it wasn't as easy as we thought it was going to be.

On our last full day there, as we were coming in from our boat ride the boat died! I don't remember why but we were so close to the cabin that if anyone of us had been on the land we would have seen and heard the yelling for help. The waves brought us closer in but not close to a dock. Gramma had a great idea. It was to throw the anchor out and slowly pull our selves in. It worked! We made it to a dock that was like 2 cabins down from where we were but luckily it was walking distance from ours. 

Luckily the owner eventually heard us as well and came to tow the boat back to our dock so he could figure out was had happened.  These pictures just crack me up, the tiny boat towing the big one, hehe.

"I think I can, I think I can, I think I can"

These are pictures hanging in and around our cabin.

They let their guard down and did the dishes by hand. This is some dangerous information in the wrong persons (Mama's) hand. 

Boy are boys

The front of the cabin.

Who doesn't love tin foil dinners!

Tin foil dinners and desserts. These apples covered in cinnamon, sugar and butter were to die for! 

I want a swing like this!

Rudy wants ice cream sandwiches like this.

This little chipmunk kept visiting us so the girls gave him some bread and he quickly became very friendly with them.

Yeah, this happened.

There was a small playground there and the kids enjoyed it when all Mama wanted to do was take pictures.

Collecting firewood

The hiking was my favorite part so we went on like 3-4 hikes in the 6 days that we were there. 

This was when we hiked the island that Ki's family actually rented out one year. 

Being carried while hiking is hard work.

Even Rudy got tired.

Oh my gosh! My girlies got squished by a huge rock!! tee hee

Rudy collected so many rocks that he started shoving them in my pocket because he couldn't carry anymore.

We also got to go to the International Wolf Center and see the wolves play around. 

We had an absolute blast and we all would go back again in a heartbeat! Now I need to put together the post from the road trip, all those pictures are on my phone. (=