It seemed almost weekly Brynn would beg for a dog and I'd have to go through the list of our reasons why we aren't getting one. Finally when I explained to her a couple of weeks ago that it wasn't so much that I didn't think she would take care of a dog, it was more that I don't want a dog licking me in my own home and having fur everywhere. So, then a week or so after that she asked if she could instead get a hamster.
She spent that weekend researching about which type would be best to get and how much everything would cost. She presented all her info to Dad and he agreed to go to Petsmart with her to check things out.
That was last week Tuesday. Meet Eddie. :-) He is four months old, but a chubby little thing, I guess. They were all out of the exercise balls that they can roll around in outside their cages, so she is still planning on getting one of those for him, I think.
Early this past summer a friend of Dana's whom he went to college with and his wife (Brian and Ashley) took over ownership of Kohl's Resort near Bemidji. They invited a few of the families from their large college group of friends up this past weekend to stay and to help out with some projects they had been wanting to tackle this fall.
Dana and I took off Friday afternoon and enjoyed the pretty drive North.
We stayed in this huge cabin with two other families (one of who was David Lindblom, one of our ushers in our wedding) and David's cousin and his family. So, three of us couples have two kids each and David and his wife are expecting their third. There was plenty of room for all of us, though, with four bedrooms and two bunk beds up in a loft as well as three bathrooms.
Our view looking out to Big Turtle Lake from the deck.
We brought the four-wheelers up with us.
Clara ditched me so I kept walking on my own for a bit farther.
At the lodge, they have the office, sell ice cream and operate a small kitchen where they serve food out of. So, we dined in there for Friday night's meal.
Summer Shandy on tap! Can't go wrong with that.
Dana and Clara made pancakes on Saturday morning.
Clara and I checked out the beach that morning. Although the temps didn't get very high, it was calm and the sun was out, so the weather was really nice.
So, they have this nice beach area, stocked with sand toys as well as a bait shop which is the brown building there on the right. They also have several boats that you can rent for the day.
All this playground equipment was conveniently right next to our cabin.
Back in the pool...
Ashley had let us know about a craft class was being held at the resort on Saturday morning. I wasn't sure what Clara would do if Dana was helping with projects and such, so I just signed Brynn up so that I could hang with Clara aka watch her swim.
The craft was personalized trays and signs. I popped in to see how it was going and snap a few pics.
I thought it turned out great! She had fun doing it she said.
Clara was hanging with some of the other kids, so I took advantage to go on a quick walk. The fall colors were in their prime while we were up there and honestly put our Fargo leaves to shame.
Doing a glitter art project for Ashley's daughter's bedroom. Super exciting for the girls, but you know how glitter is, horrendously messy.
The guys threw meat that everyone brought on the big grill for Saturday night's dinner.
I thought these minnow bucket lights were neat.
Everyone was pretty pooped after a big, fun day on Saturday. Clara cozied up with Everett to watch a show.
I had brought my camera, but didn't have it out much, except I couldn't resist to try and get some sunset pics.
...and to get ice cream one last time. It was super yummy.
Brian and Ashley have a really nice dog that Clara tried to befriend.
We had quite the stir in the house once we returned back home. Brynn discovered Eddie had escaped his cage. You may have noticed those green porthole covers on the ends of his cage. Well, one was off and lying next to his cage on top of the dresser. That chalkboard that was in the first picture was on the floor near the dresser. But, Eddie was no where to be found. So, somehow he survived getting himself down off of that high up dresser. We frantically searched around Brynn's room and some other areas downstairs before we zeroed in on a big cardboard box Brynn had a blanket and some stuffed animals in. As she was taking out the stuffed animals, we could hear a rustling in the box. Once we got all the stuffed animals out, there he was at the bottom. It really was the best case scenario that he had put himself in this big box which made it easy for us to find him and catch him to get him back into his cage. So, now the porthole covers are duct taped shut. He's a squirrely little thing apparently!
Clara Rae with Ashley Rae. Clara got a huge kick out of them having the same middle name.
We had an absolute blast up there. There is so much to do at the resort as well as just around the Bemidji area anyhow, as Christel and John know, I'm sure. It was fun to be up there with the fall colors changing, but besides the obvious peak summer season, I would definitely come back during the winter as well. There is a ski hill only about five minutes away from Kohl's. And they have snowmobiling trails around the resort, though Dana sold his snowmobile. Anyhoo - if you are looking for a resort to stay at in that area, we'd definitely recommend it... and not just because our friends run it. That just made it more fun for us in particular. Ha. They sure have their hands full with all the things they offer and have going at the resort, not to mention two young children of their own, but they're doing a great job with it all.
After all that excitement with Eddie, we decided to go out after dinner to harvest the rest of the carrots from the garden.
On Monday I was back out on another grower visit to get some more drone footage. One of our growers was finishing harvesting his soybeans near Crookston.
Unfortunately it was a pretty windy day. I don't know what necessarily had gotten into Icarus (the drone's name), but it crashed in the middle of the field. I was recoding video at the time, so I was able to watch the crash later on back at the office. I still wasn't really able to figure out what happened, but I was pretty low and going fast over the soybean plants and it just took a dive, it seems. I'm not sure if some wind caught under it or what, but I immediately ran out into the field to try and retrieve it.
I searched for quite a while, stepping over the tall soybean plants, searching up and down the rows. I foolishly had cropped leggings on so the plants were scratching up my legs as I was hurdling over the rows in slow motion...I mean I was trying to move quickly, but not like track-hurdling pace over these plants or anything like that. Anyway, I kept thinking what a rookie mistake that was, and that I should have known better as a former farmer's daughter than to not wear jeans to the field.
Our grower was in the combine with his son and I didn't know if they had seen it go down or noticed me frolicking through their field as around the time it went down, they were about full and then went to go unload when I was beginning my search. Craig, the grower, did see me out there finally and came to help me search for a bit when I finally found it upside down on the far side of the field.
I was so annoyed that it crashed and worried because I couldn't find it right away, but very relieved that I eventually located it.
It was picture day at school for Clara on Tuesday.
I had to document Brynn getting up with me this morning for my 5:30 AM exercise class. Wednesdays is the dance (fun) class and one of our regulars said he was going to bring homemade ice cream for our group. Brynn wanted to get in on some of that, but I told her she had to come and get it herself. Hehe. I think she was still have asleep for most of the class, but she made it! And she didn't even go back to sleep when we got home.
This week, however, secondary grades started full distance learning for the next two weeks as they try to get ahead of some positive cases that popped up at the middle and high schools recently. After those two weeks, they'll go back to the hybrid model.
Then we found out that in two weeks Clara will be going to school in-person four days a week and home on Fridays.
I am still working from home the days that they're both at home, so today was one of those days. We three girls had set up camp at the kitchen table for a while, but Brynn and I move around a bit for when Brynn is logged in for her classroom time and I need to stand for a while.
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-Amandad N. : )