Minnesoota! Ya, you betcha! Part 1

We recently got back from a 17 day trip to our home state of Minnesota! Buddy was able to be away for 10 of those days and it was fantastic! The following is a brief pictorial of our first week. We stayed at Buddy's brother's cabin for 6 nights. We were with his entire family for most of the weekend. That's four kids, their spouses, each with 2 kids, plus Grandma and Grandpa. Lots of fun, lots of laughs, not enough time in the days and nights to just hang because we were so tired by the end of the day from so much fun and laughs and, okay, alcohol! I wish we could do it every summer! Enjoy:The dock was long. Like, 400+ feet long. Maya had to take it all in: the dock, the lake. She wasn't quite sure about the water...

Then Daddy got her into it. She did have a little issue of getting from the dock to the pontoon. Basically she fell through the gap between the two. Twice. The life jacket got her stuck the first time. Just a minor scrap and bump from the second time falling completely through to the water. Eeeek! Makes me cringe each time I think of it. She fell through to the water and they couldn't pull her back through the opening because her head wouldn't go through. What?!?! She fell all the way through, head included, but they couldn't pull her back up. Luckily, she kicked to stay afloat and my nephew went under the dock to get her back to Daddy. From then on, she waited for someone to help her over. *cringe*

This girl has no fear. No matter what happens to her, her apprehension always fades and she's all about getting crazy!

And then there's Hayden. Sweet, apprehensive, watchful, leary, Hayden. It took him a little bit to get the life jacket on. Then to get him on the jetski.

But he did it! He was a little scared, he didn't like to go fast,

but he did it. More than once. Yay!!

Then when it came to actually swimming in the lake, he was not having it. Nope, not liking that at all. It took me some thinking (that's takes a bit), but I saw my nephew's feet and his water shoes. I figured, Hayden may just do it if he had something on his feet. The ground was lovely and sandy, but he did not like it.

Those things made all the difference!! Were it not for Grandma and Aunt Dawn out shopping, this never would have happened!! Thank you!

Me and my H. He had so much fun playing with his cousins. We live so far away and he used to forget who they were, where they were and all. Now, he knows and loves being by them. Even if for a short time.

My Miss and I. She had fun too. She may not remember it, but she has been talking about our vacation like crazy. She loves her sweet girl cousins and I think aspires to be like them one day. Yes, they are 7, but for her, it's idol status!
One day, we went mini golfing. I don't remember my score. Don't think it was great. But it was fun. The kids played together, the guys played together and us ladies played together. Hayden had fun. He had some words for me at the end of the game:

"Mom, you just have to get it in the hole. That's all." Thanks, hun, I did try, it just didn't always go that way. =)

Maya even got in on a little golfing. It was a pirate themed course. This is her saying, "Aar, Matey". She does it with one eye closed because she doesn't have a patch.

And me and Bud. Maya snuck in there too. I had a better one on here, but Blogspot is being a crapper and deleted it for me and then isn't cooperating with me to get it back on here easily. *Breathe* Sorry, I'm irritated. Anyway, we had a blast! I can't say much more than that. Long lasting memories for sure. These pictures don't get close to capturing our first half of vacation. I think the total at the end of 17 days was 368, so I had a lot to weed through.

Thanks for the fun everyone!