Once Scott was done with work and the kids were home from school we headed to the cottage for Memorial Day Weekend. Two quick shoots and we were on our way. Along the way stopped by Lake Country Pizza for the first time in probably a decade or more in Turtle Lake.    You know the kids got the spaghetti and meatball pizza. We hadn't seen little Viola since Thanksgiving. She's grown up so much and already almost walking. She loves walking to her brother Nolan.  Today was also Blake's 33rd birthday. We missed his birthday dinner, but not the birthday balloons. Good to see that the Lake is still there. Memorial Day weekend means rummage sales. The Wisconsites at one house clearly didn't like their Minnesota gift.

After our stop in Dunbar for lunch, we drove the last hour to Three Lakes for Northwood New Year's Eve.  When we arrived we were greeted by Rudolph.  I love the addition to the Christmas decor this year. It was time for Second Christmas after all.   Grandpa must like playing with fire. Theo will not lose even if he lost. Deer pancakes for our first morning at the cottage. At least for Theo. The rest of us just got plain old pancakes. I'm not sure why, but they're always better when Grandpa makes them. I recently read that you should take a 30 minute walk after eating. Scott and I didn't bother getting dressed and headed outside. That was just my sister talking, but oddly I think it makes my reflux worse.    Another New Years with no snow. There was a tiny bit in the shade. Theo got to cut down the tree this year.

  On our drive to the cottage we stopped at our favorite ice cream shop: Klemish Creamery .  One of the farm cats wasn't looking so good and kept coming over by us so we finished our ice cream in the car.  He reeked.  That cat's gotta be put down.  Not a great endorsement, but ate our ice cream in the car and enjoyed it.  Meadow and Theo went straight to coloring outside when we got to the cottage. While waiting for breakfast we played a round of Cards Against Humanity family version.  Even baby Viola joined in. At least for a little while. Blake is always playing some sort of game with the kids. 

  This year we came up the night before the 4th. By the next morning it was already parade time.  I was excited for the parade, but feel like we missed out by arriving at the last second. (I'm always making this face when it's sunny. I blame my glasses). No Chelsea this year as she prepares to have a baby. Also I guess everyone is over the matching tie dyed shirts.  Or me since I was taking the picture.

On the road again. This time to Duluth for another one of Blake's graduations. Daniel wanted to show off the shed he had just built.  My parents were also here for Blake's grad party. We met up for dinner at The Shack in Superior. We were here for the fish fry, but of course we all had to get old fashioneds. Pardon my shitty food photography. The beers were quite large. We were all ready to go when my parents noticed the liquor store next door.  We waited, waited and waited some more for Gail and Mike to get some booze. They always have a buffet of booze whenever we see them at a hotel.

I had PTO to use up so we made a trip to the cottage for Mother's day weekend. It isn't too often we drive up on a Friday so fish fry was a must.  I would've stayed home and painted, but you guessed it, it was still raining. On the way we took a slight detour up to Lehman's Supper Club up in Rice Lake.  We've never ventured up here from our typical route, but it's kind of the start of Up North, which means lots of restaurants for the tourists. The kiddos got spaghetti. Of course we got the fish fry. I'd rank Lehman's as a mid to low tier supper club. Ambiance is meh. Fish was forgettable. Good salad. After reading reviews later I guess the main attraction is the entree's that include a relish tray and popovers.  But they do have a great bar. My dad has been busy working on Chelsea's bedroom upstairs. She upgraded to a queen bed and we needed to get the box spring up stairs.  It would not fit. Close, but we were really searching for a solutio...

The kids requested waffles, which meant that I was making my go to oatmeal whole wheat variety  using our Nordic Ware pans of course . A stack of library books means it's library day. Blake was in town for his annual Teamsters gathering. We had to take him to our new favorite buffet, Q.Cumbers . Salad buffet and Veganopolis. A match made in heaven.     Blake needed to get comfortable after filling his belly.   Blake's just a big kid when he's around Theo and Meadow. They adore him.

I  woke up to a nice birthday note from Meadow.  I had some PTO to use, it was Scott's birthday, the weather was supposed to be unusually warm and Blake and Daniel were in town. Since our ice rink was melting we thought we'd go for a bike ride.