Vacation Days

The Fourth of July in Minnesota was a blast!  Haha.  Bad play on words, I know.  We played a neighborhood golf tourney, the Firecracker, in torturous heat but still managed to have fun.  Afterwards had a pool party, BBQ and fireworks.

Fireworks princess, doesn't even know there is a pool party going on.

What topped off the pool party for me was the belly flop competition.  It came down to two final contestants and my Uncle Joe took the prize!  You can see how red their stomachs are from multiple rounds of belly flopping.



Around 8pm a wild and earie storm hit the area with tons of heat lightning and big winds.

Video of the crazy storm

The storm passed and the fireworks show was on.

 

On the Fifth of July we headed to Lake of the Woods, Ontario, Canada for some fishing and fun.  This is an annual trip for my parents and a large group of their friends that they often refer to as Camp Wannamingle because the men and the women stay in separate bunk houses.  Tuff had a blast catching fish and the first day fishing, along with my dad, caught the camp's dinner, fried walleye.

The boat is packed and we're ready for the nine mile ride to the island.

Captain and copilot.

Boating in Lake of the Woods, you really need to be aware of what is in the water.  There are hundreds of rock formations and islands all over the water; many unseen.

Camp Wannamingle.

Upon arriving Tuff and my dad took the boat around the island fishing.

Oma, Grace and I never went out to fish but instead enjoyed each others company on the island.  In the picture below Oma rocked Grace to sleep.

Day 2 of fishing.  In the background is the women's bunkhouse.

Grandpa and Grace.

Catch of the day.

Shore lunch.  More fried walley this time caught by Uncle Joe.

More down time on the island.

It turns out that children under the age of 16 only need a birth certificate to travel via driving across the United States/Canadian border.  That is how Grace made the trip.  No passport for her yet. 

Inside the main cabin.  Tuff rocked Grace to sleep this time.  

Trying to hit golf balls from our island to another.

 The morning before we left Tuff was out on the dock of the island fishing by 5am.  Here he is with a nice sized small mouth bass.

Morning of departure.  Waiting to get all packed up.

Packing out.  You can barely see Grace because she is already sleeping.  The sound and movement on the water puts her right to sleep.

For those of you unfamiliar with Lake of the Woods, here is a little tidbit I found on Wikipedia that helps:

"Lake of the Woods is over seventy miles long and wide, and contains more than 14,552 islands and 65,000 miles (105,000 km) of shoreline. It would amount to the longest coastline of any Canadian lake, except that the lake is not entirely within Canada. Lake of the Woods is also the 6th largest freshwater lake located (at least partially) in the United States- after the five Great Lakes."  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_of_the_Woods)

Here are some in between happenings including Grace's first swim!

Putting those thighs to use.

Today we are in Colstrip, Montana for about a week stay before coming back to Minnesota for Tuff's first competitive golf tournament.  Go Tuff!  For our next blog post you will get to see how each of these went.  Until next time...