Gunflint

Hans' parents have a cabin on the Canadian side of Gunflint Lake. Hans spent his summers up there as a kid.  This summer Hans took John and Gus up there to spend some time with his parents.

 This is the view from the cabin.  Beautiful!

The boys checking things out.

 The boys went on hikes, took baths in the lake and showers in the falls, and put one foot in Canada and one foot in the U.S.

 When they weren't outside they were hanging out in the lovely cabin.

 They played checkers...

 ...and chess.  I wonder how many fights this caused.  Gus doesn't look too happy.  Or maybe that is his thinking face.  I can't tell the difference some times.

In the evenings they roasted marshmallows in the stove.

Fun times were had by all.

The boys had a great time telling me about their adventures.  They weren't sure about the outhouse...but I can't really blame them on that one.

Sophie's Birthday

Hans, John, and Gus actually left for Canada on Sophie's birthday.  So we said goodbye to them, then Anders and I went to party with Sophie.  Sophie turned 13 this summer.  13.  I don't like teenagers...but I'll keep her around.

Anders had to be standing right next to her the whole time she was opening presents.  I kept calling him away and he kept going back.

Her big present from Pam, Debbie, and Glenn was this Ferris Wheel set.  That is one excited girl right there.

After present opening and ice cream cake we made our way to Medieval Times.

Anders takes his sword wielding very seriously. 

When you enter Medieval Times you are in a large room.  Trumpeters announce the presence of the king.

The king will knight the special guests.  The announcer called Sophie to the front.  She was not at all happy about this.  So Anders went up with her.  The announcer called him her bodyguard.  He's a cute little bodyguard.

They even put a little cape on him.

Once it was all over I think Sophie had fun.  But she is not one to draw attention to herself in a room of people she does not know.

Shortly after this the knighting the tournament hall was open.

We were cheering for the yellow knight.

Sophalicious and her mom.

Our knight did not win, but we all had a blast.

LegoLand

While in Texas we went to LegoLand in Grapevine.  The boys have been in a crazy lego phase for a year or two now with no end in sight.  Any opportunity they have to spend some time building, reading, watching, imagining and creating they take with great enthusiasm.

The first thing we did was watch a 4D Lego movie.  What makes it 4D you ask?  Well, there are gusts of wind and you get sprayed with water.  The boys thought it was amazing.  I was glad we adults managed to score seats that received only a light misting and not a torrential downpour.  Seriously.  There were some seats left with standing water.

There were some little rides there.  One of them was a little racetrack where you drove little lego cars.  Here they are showing the kids what to do should they get stuck on the track.

John did pretty well.  He didn't hit the curb.  It gives me a little hope that he will be able to drive a car one day.

Anders, well...

it was a good thing he paid attention to what he needed to do when he got stuck.  He got stuck many, many times.  It was very cute.

Gus did pretty well too.

We discovered a pretty, pink castle.  In the castle there was a stage with karaoke.  I though the boys would love karaoke.  Anders really wanted to try it out and John was trying to keep him from going to the dark side.

I tried to convince John to go in there with Anders.  John would not step foot on the pink tiles.  He was not amused by me.

Eventually he gave in because he is a super awesome big brother.

He even stopped giving me dirty looks long enough to sing Old MacDonald with Anders.

Anders was not as interested in building his own car to race down these awesome tracks, so he played in the huge, soft lego pit.

I'm sad I didn't get any pictures of the race cars the boys built. Or the actual races.  But the older boys and my dad had a good time designing, building, and racing their cars.

This LegoLand also had a fun splash pad.

I constantly had to remind Anders not to drink the water.  That is so gross.  

Can you tell that my mom and Hans are enjoying their time in the Texas heat?

They actually had a lot of fun.  Hans is a big kid himself, and my mom just loves watching the boys having a great time.