The great up North

We have a family tradition of spending at least one weekend up North in Ely, Minnesota each spring where we have a travel trailer on the lake, spend the days canoeing and fishing and cooking out over the fire, and usually travel into Ely to shop and wander. Our summer has filled up so quickly this year, but luckily, we were able to squeeze the annual trip in this weekend. It was just perfect that it fell on Father's Day weekend, since it's pretty much Josh's favorite place in the world.

We set off on Thursday night after work. Heidi was in a great mood for the trip, as she loves having Grandma and Papa in the backseat with her.


She especially loved the stop at McDonalds where she had her first apple juice (mixed with water by mean mama). She liked it a little too much, chugged her juice, and got herself a tummy ache. [sidenote: notice she has finally mastered the sippy cup!]


We arrived at the trailer on Friday morning after spending the night in Superior. Heidi began exploring the trailer and approved. Although she wanted to climb off of the couch constantly. She did not succeed.

Mostly because Daddy had his eagle eye on her...

This year Grandma and Papa got a new tent and Heidi liked to explore that as well. It was so nice and roomy that Mommy and Daddy decided to sleep in there with Heidi and her pack-n-play. The first night was perfect, Heidi slept in the P-n-P until 4:30ish and then came into bed with mom and dad. The second night she decided she'd rather just start off in the bed. Hey, she slept until 7:45 so we went complain.

Heidi was successful in crawling off of the air mattress. This was a super-fun game. Heidi actually stood up independently for the first time right after this. Even with slippery footed jammies on and in a slippery tent on a slippery blanket.

Finally Saturday afternoon we took Heidi down to explore the water. She loves water and immediately walked right in. She wanted to sit down, but Daddy said no.

Then we went out onto the canoe. Heidi didn't mind the canoe, but hated the life jacket. Can't say I really blame her.

So when we got back to shore, I let her sit in the water like she wanted. Her butt was wet anyway from sitting in the bottom of the canoe.

If I had to pick Heidi's favorite thing of the trip, it was climbing onto and standing up on this plastic white chair. [as you can see, under Daddy's watchful eye]

And on the way home, she's still smiling despite many many bug bites. I would say this was probably close to a perfect weekend for Heidi since she loves the outdoors and got to spend lots of time with Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Papa. Next year we'll have to put a fishing pole in her hand...