Uncle Shawn and fishing.

If there is another person that loves living on the lake and fishing more than Boo it has to be Uncle Shawn. We love when he comes cruising over in his boat.

It all started with some lost car keys.....

Tom and I didn't have any big plans for this week-end, until we got the call from Chels that Coco had lost her car keys where they were camping with friends by Jackson Hole. So I decided we'd turn lemons into lemonaid and told him "This isn't a bad thing. W&C are at their cabin, lets drive 5.5 hours and take the keys to them". So now he is excited, we're trying to figure out how to get out of town, get packed, get off of work on a Fri afternoon and we get the call that someone else's brother is heading up and taking the extra keys to them. We were so fired up to get out of town that we went anyway. Why not?  We've done alot of that spur of moment stuff lately. Life is to short not to.    

The cabin down the road from Wendells was having a family reunion & this was out front. Not sure if it's Homer Simpson or  a monkey, but I liked it.



This is a bridge to a cabin for sale that we looked at. This is the only way in. We didn't buy it.



Carole & Wendell with their travelling companion Moose who they were babysitting for the week end.

On our way to Jackson Hole.

Killians Papa's.







I never get tired of the view of the Tetons from Wendells cabin.



Where are our keys????

Looks like he had fun camping. They claim this was after several feet washings.

www.killian.com

Gavin asked today if we could look up
http://www.killian.com/
He must be missing him. So we checked it out and it was a pretty cool website.
I told him to look up http://www.mccarty-party.blogspot.com/ if he wanted to see pictures of Killian.

Crinkles

Boo told me I looked beautiful in my dress today. I was thinking he was about the kindest little 5 yr old I ever met, then he asked me "But why do you have those crinkles in your skin?"  I explained to him they were laugh lines and you get them from smiling and being happy your whole life. Not sure if he bought that or not.

More Timpanoga Caves Day

Did I mention it started pouring on our hike down and we got drenched?  This made it even more memorable.

We also saw a little boy about Boo's age hiking with a prosthetic leg. Boo's first question was "How does he wear flip flops?"

Boo got sworn in as a Junior Park Ranger. He got a badge and took it very seriously. The Park Ranger told him to report to work tomorrow morning at 6:30am. As we were leaving he asked "Are you bringing me back in the morning for work?"  He wants to be a policeman but kind of liked that the Park Rangers could carry guns also and be outside.

Timpanoga Caves

I got this bright idea that Gavin needed to see Timpanoga Caves. I had this same bright idea 25 yrs ago when we took Clay & Chels and Tom had to carry Chel most of the way up. When I called to make reservations, the gal on the phone (very friendly and in her early twenties I'm guessing)  told me we may want to come early and allow extra time since I told her we were grandparents taking our 5 yr old grandson. She had me scared by the time we arrived. We took our time, took lots of water & snacks, and it was great.

I'm hoping in another 25 or 30 yrs Boo will hike up with his kids and tell them about the time he hiked it with his "old" Mimi and Papa. Tom said he thinks this will be the last time he hikes it. Unless Killian wants to go....

3/4 of the way.



Made it to the top. Yah!



Beautiful inside.

The "heart" of Timpanoga's.

Boo Bits

Boo:  "How far is it to Killians?"
Me: "Six Hundred Miles or 9 or 10 hours"
Boo: "Is there a shortcut?"  
(Tom told him yes, it is called an airplane.)

While watching TV a cute girl comes on and Boo and I started talking about what kind of girls he thinks are pretty. He thinks his mommy is pretty. After naming several I asked him if he thought Lacey was Hot.
He said "Hot, like sweating"?

We spent Sunday cruising the St Croix River.

Captain Dave & YvonneAn interesting boat~you can also drive it on land.

It's called an Amphicar.

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The oldest lift bridge still working in the U.S. It raises almost every hour and causes quite a traffic jam for the cars waiting to cross the bridge.  I walked across the bridge on Sat because the WI state line was on the other side and I wanted to say I'd been in Wisconsin.

The water has this brown tint to it but is one of the cleanest bodies of water around.

Hot ladies on the bough of the boat.

Dave & Yvonne's House

The front porch.

We had fresh flowers in our rooms. They made us feel so welcome.

Brandy, the cutest puppy dog eyes ever.

LaVyrle Spencers Moving Sale

LaVyrle Spencer (a famous author who writes romance novels) lives near Dave & Yvonne and was having a moving sale. We drove by and we really wanted to stop but the boys were waiting on the boat for us. I loved her house.

Jason & Jans House in Chanhassen, MN

We found out my cousin Jason's House was only 1/2 hour from our hotel on Mon night so we went to see them. They bought this old farmhouse several years ago and have raised the roof, dug a basement, built on,  and remodeled most of it. Wow, lots of work and its very nice. As a bonus my Aunt Helen & Uncle Lloyd were there from Nebraska along with two of their grandsons. So fun to see family when you're far away from home.

Stillwater, MN ~ A lumbering town in the late 1800's. Now a tourist town with antique shops, stores & restaurants on the St. Croix River.

The Freight House Restaurant. We had dinner here Sun night and it was so good we ate lunch on Mon also. They served a good Willy Sandwich. It was chicken salad sandwich on cinnamon raisin bread, cheese and a pineapple slice on top

Had to put the guys in Day Care so we could go shopping for a bit.




 

A mural of what the river looked like in the late 1800's.



We climbed 156 steps to get this view of the St. Croix river. The next day the tour trolley drove us up here.

Many of the lumber barons beautiful old homes are now bed and breakfast inns . They were beautiful.



Bucket List

Just got home from MN. Killians Great Aunt and Great Uncle invited us and his Papa Wendell & Nana to their house in Stillwater, MN. It was a wonderful couple days. The bonus was I got to  go to The Mall of America also today. This is one of the places on my bucket list. I felt like I was going to Disneyland this morning. It wasn't that good, but it was fun.

A few pictures inside the mall~we were wishing Gavin & Killian were with us.

All made out of Lego's.

We started at the aquarium, went shopping, then went back to the aquarium before flying home. They had really nice displays.

Tara told Killian "Ethan is coming tonight". 

K said "Ethan and Chloe?" ( his cousins)?

Tara said "No the OTHER Ethan (Clays friends son)

K: "and the OTHER Chloe?""