A Drive up the North Shore for Lunch........

We went up to Duluth this past weekend to visit Todd's Grandma Vi. We stayed with Todd's mom & stepdad and on Saturday, the 4 of us drove up the North Shore approximately 15-20 minutes past Grand Marais. We went to a restaurant & lodge called Naniboujou. Todd's mom has told us what a great place it is so we finally went there for lunch. :)

Naniboujou has a very colorful dining room. Todd took this picture of the ceiling & the lights.

There is a huge rock fireplace at one end of the dining room.

This is the wall on the opposited end from the fireplace. Behind the window is the gift shop.

Todd, Jerry (Todd's stepdad) & Jan (Todd's mom) waiting for lunch at Naniboujou.

Todd & Sonja in front of the fireplace. The fire was really nice because it was a chilly, damp day by the lake.

What a beautiful view of Lake Superior from the grounds of Naniboujou! :)

When we pulled into the parking lot, before lunch, we saw a cat sitting on the roof of an SUV.

When we went back to the truck we found that............

...............our Saturn VUE hood was a good place to move to.......I'm sure our engine was nice & warm after our 2 1/2 hour drive up there. :)

Todd let him know that he could not stay there for our trip back to Duluth. :)

Todd outside of the Naniboujou restaurant. We did stop in Grand Marais on the way back & look in some of the shops........and we got a pizza from Sven & Olie's to take back with us. We heated it up for supper that night. :)

We had a really fun day...........even if it was pretty cold. :)

Todd.....The Host of Studio Go! Game Show

As promised.........here are a couple of pictures of Todd as the host of Studio Go! Game Show for Summer Sunday School. He was Wade Win-a-lot..........your exceedingly Hawiian host. :)
Thanks, Liz, for sending these to us. :)

Wade Win-a-lot asks one of the girls to recite the memory verse.

In this picture, Todd is way over on the right but it does show one of the cool buzzer booths where the contestants stood for the Bible Challenge Round when they asked questions about the lessons. The kids would ring the buzzer & the red light would light up when they knew the answer to a question.

Camping 2009

This year I decided not to go to Higher Ground Music Festival to take the kids camping. I decided we would try the Rice Creek Camp Grounds in Centerville. It is a really nice campground close to our home. I took 4 nephews & nieces and we went from Friday afternoon till Sunday. Todd came during the day & went home to sleep in the air conditioning...........he doesn't like to go camping. :)


Emily pounding in a stake for the big tent that the kids slept in.

Evan pounding a stake into the ground while Sophia watches.

Sophia pounds in a stake for my tent while Emily & I watch.

The 4 kids playing in the screen tent with the toads they caught with their bug catching kits that my sister, Angela, bought them. Emily, Evan, Nicholas & Sophia.

Four toads that the kids caught...........they even named them............Hoppily..........Sir Warts..........Toady.............and Mickey. :)

Evan, Nicholas, Emily & Sophia............they played with those toads alot! :)

There was even a lake in the park reserve that we could walk to, so we went swimming on Saturday afternoon. It felt great since it was so hot & humid this past weekend. Sophia, Emily, Evan & me.

Sophia, Emily & Evan. I went in the lake with the kids. Todd decided to stay on the blanket on the grass & take pictures.

Nicholas perferred playing in the sand on the beach. :)

They had a nice playground at the lake, too. Emily climbing the pole of one of the palm trees.

Evan, Nicholas & Emily in the pirate ship of the playground.

On the way back to our camp site from the lake, we collected sticks for kindling for our fire. Sophia, Evan, Emily & Uncle Todd.

Todd carried the sticks in Emily's Bratz towel............... ;)

Walking back to the camp site & looking for sticks. Evan, Nicholas, Sophia, Uncle Todd & Emily.

Uncle Todd impresses the nieces & nephews by building the camp fire. :)

Emily, Uncle Todd, Sophia, Nicholas & Evan.

The kids started out trying to roast their own hot dogs for supper, but the sticks were too short. Todd & I had to roast the hot dogs for them............but we got a good picture first. :) Next year we will have to buy some longer sticks.

Evan, Sophia, Nicholas & Emily.

Relaxing by the camp fire........Sophia, Evan, Emily, Nicholas & Uncle Todd with his "poking" stick..............for the fire............not the kids. :)

Evan & Nicholas playing with the toads in the dirt..........no wonder they got so dirty. :)

Sophia, Emily & Nicholas in the screen tent where we went to keep dry during the downpour. It started raining around 7:30 pm or so. It was pouring so hard that we were worried about our camp fire. We really wanted to make smores when the coals were right & didn't want the rain to put out our fire.

The rain let up and................

....................our fire was still burning. Yippee! I washed about half of our supper dishes and it started pouring again............so...............

.................back in the screen tent we went.

Sophia, Emily, Nicholas, Evan & Nana (Aunt Sonja)

This time I had quickly grabbed the Uno game out of the van before going to the screen tent, so we stacked up some food/drink supplies & played a game of Uno. :)

Evan(hand & legs), Emily, Nicholas, Sophia, Nana (Aunt Sonja)

The rain did eventually let up again & our fire was still going so we were able to roast marshmallows & make S'mores. Yummmmmm! :)