Meadow had spent the last week in the Fox Valley with her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. We then met up with them at Bay Beach. My parents were in Duluth last weekend and picked her up on their way home.    First ride: Theo and I on the helicopters. Scott isn't into this place as much he used to be, but c'mon where else can you have hours of fun for only $10?  It's still great, but some of the trees had been cut down, which made me sad. Also Theo isn't into the rides as much as Meadow was. Still great overall and looking forward to when they rebuild the actual beach . Grandpa and our nephew, Harvey, were getting brave on the classic ferris wheel.

We kicked of the 4th weekend with c ottage breakfast pancake art.  Theo couldn't wait to get in the water, but his cousins beat him to it. Grandpa brought up the wood chipper that used to be in our shed at the duplex. He got it sharpened and working order, but it doesn't work well. Oh, well. We tried. It's basically just loud. I was surprised by how few wood chips come out.  Harvey and Nolan started to make a frog habitat. I wondered aloud why the wetland on either side of us wasn't good enough.  

  We had a full house for Labor Day weekend this year. We started off said weekend with rummage sales and a trip to the new store in town, Little Dipper . We've been eyeing this place up all summer. They have classic Chicago Schwinn's for rent, seasonal flowers and an assortment of souvenirs and vintage items. It was pretty darling inside. The main reason we went was to get their Chain of Lakes puzzle. Blake had sent the historic map to the owner, so we had to get it.  

Back to the cottage again. This time we enjoyed our tamales at a trailhead for ATV and snowmobile trails in Cameron. La Loma is still the best tamale shop in all of the Twin Cities. Perfect to bring along on a drive to the cottage. We decided to come up for Nolan and Harvey's birthday. We hadn't seen them since Thanksgiving and probably won't see them again until next summer.  It seemed like the best time to spend some time with the Gostishas and Farbers. With school back in person in Wisconsin, we'll have to reevaluate when we can see Brooke's sisters. Covid sucks.   Since we hadn't seen Chelsea in a long time we had more birthday presents to exchange. Theo got a new water bottle. Back in February, when it was his birthday, Chelsea asked me what Theo wanted/needed for his birthday. We had recently lost his water bottle in Mexico so I suggested he needed a new one. I obviously forgot all about this conversation. Earlier today while grocery shopping Scott picked...

Rain and snow were  coming our way so we left Michigan right after waking and drove straight to the cottage. About a half hour from Three Lakes it started raining. When we turned into the road towards the cottage it got icy. We made it just in time.

As soon as Meadow woke up we let her open her present from us. A Captain Marvel dress. When I bought it I thought it was Wonder Woman. She still loves it. I think she likes it better than her Wonder Woman costumes. She can wear this one wherever. The birthday girl requested banana split yogurt for breakfast. She had some trouble blowing out a candle. While Scott ran out to buy an air conditioner, Meadow and I assembled fruit wands. Sadly the watermelon was bad and we were only able to make two. It was super hot and some special guests were coming to stay with us. Meadow's not great with heat. So I caved in. This year we had her party location at Beard's Plaisance on the other side of Lake Harriet. We had biked past there many times in the last year and it seemed like a perfect location for a gnome and fairy party. I was worried we weren't going to find a spot, but we were the only ones here! A little gnome was the first to show up...