Skip to main content

All By Myself (While The Fam Enjoys the Cottage)


I had planned on going to the cottage with the family, but I was set to travel that Monday to Florida. Plus I've been hard at working getting the rental half of our duplex ready.
 
 
Meadow was off school for MEA week and I had already taken PTO months ago. It was kind of weird to go to the cottage without Scott. We stopped halfway to take a lunch/playground break. 

We always have to say hello to the lake when we arrive. 
 
 
Meadow helped fill the bird feeders. 

My parents brought up pumpkins for the kids to carve. Both of them are still too afraid to touch the guts. 

Meadow's has to have a bow of course. 


Theo's was just himself. 




I had to get drywall for the crumbling plaster wall in the rental living room. Which meant renting a Uhaul. I thought I'd run some other errands in the meantime. My first stop took me to the basement store.

I found two basically new dryers. This saved us a bunch of money since I'd just placed an order for two laundry sets.

I did in fact eventually end up at Menard's to get the drywall and a number of other items.

I also stopped at another surplus store specializing in Home Depotish stuff. I also came home with an battery operated snowblower, weed whip and a hackzall.
 
I guess it was a good thing Scott stayed home.  
 
Meadow and I worked on making a fairy garden.

I had this fairy custom made for my mom. 

 We checked Dollar Tree for fairy garden stuff but I guess they were done for the year. Instead I found these knock off legos.
 
Do you want some waffle with that whipped cream?

 
The next day I ran errands with my buddy Tyler's car.

As you can see I picked out a couple of bath mats. 

And I was about to pick up this suitcase for my work trip until Brooke told me to check Home Goods.

I'd bought the middle suitcase, but later regret not getting the larger one on the left.
 
Meadow and I added more to our fairy garden. 

On our way to go hiking we saw an estate sale. I wish we had a way to get things home. I would have bought almost everything. This couch would have been perfect on our porch. Plus everything was half off today.

How cute for the kids.

I do regret not getting this for Meadow. It was only $10. 

I wanted to bring my parents to the other section of the Sam Campbell trail. I took the cheater way again that Brittany and Chelsea taught me. 


My dad watches a guy on YouTube who cleans these out. 

I love this section. It's so pretty in all the pines.



 

Last I picked up some groceries. This was a very exciting weekend...

When I got back I saw Tyler's kiddos for the first time in years. They were so grown up!
 
I couldn't believe either after Scott texted me this photo.  

My buddy Nate invited me to another Minnesota United game. Can't say no to that. 



The ambience is worth the price of admission.


The lake was so pretty in the morning. 

With Scott not here I had to help bring the dock in for the year. 

I thought they'd be gone for the year but there were so many wolf spiders. 

To get the boat lift in my dad ended up pulling it out with his bobcat. 
 
See you in the winter cottage!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chicago Chrismukkah + Michigander Xmas

 Before heading out on our trip we let the kids open their Christmas gifts from us. A knitted sweater for Theo and a kitty dress for Meadow (I fixed the straps for her) both made by me. I wanna a sweater. Scott got them new compact sleeping bags. We all got smaller sleeping bags this year and we'll now have a lot more room in our car. This year we had talked about hosting my family at the cottage. Then meeting up in Milwaukee, then meeting in Chicago. But in the end we made stops in Chicago and Lowell this Christmas. We left on a Sunday which was nice to have a few days to prepare. On the way down to Chicago we stopped at our favorite roadside restaurant, Foster Cheese Haus. We had plans to break up our drives so we didn't have to rush like we normally do. We had made it just before the cheese haus was set to close for the winter. Just not enough folks stop here in winter and snowmobile season is becoming shorter and shorter this far so...

Backcountry Camping with Kids in Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Day 1  Back in May I stumbled upon Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I had no idea there was a National Park in North Dakota and that it was the northern end of the Badlands. Usually our summer vacations coincide with Scott's work trips. Since he didn't have any this summer I thought we should take advantage of actually taking a vacation. What, my workcations are always classics? I suppose a second real vacation this year wouldn't hurt. We definitely have more time than normal. As long as we took Covid-19  precautions and avoided people. We finally settled on a time to go. Blake joined us so we borrowed our dad's van so we could ride together. Scott had just driven from Michigan the day before. Blake had met my parents in Wisconsin to get the van and then drove from Duluth to pick us up. I offered to drive since I literally only drive twice a month.  I was still pretty tired from a long drive home. Since we were near Fergus Falls we had to stop by the abandoned state ho...

Work Trip: Carlinville, Illinois and a St Louis Walk on the Hill

Every few shoots for my main client I end up somewhere I'd never heard of before. This time it was Blackburn College in quaint Carlinville, Illiniois. Apparently famous for it's chili factory and its parlor. The family friendly chili parlor faces the town square, meanwhile the Anchor Inn faces the street behind it where the chili is also served alongside beers and rail drinks.  I was informed the chili comes with a kick and that was no lie. Knowing this fact I went with the chili mac and I'd do it again. Even though Carlinville is much closer to St Louis, the Anchor is definitely a Cubs bar. This town rules. After my shoot at the tiny Blackburn College I drove back to St Louis, where I'd flown into, for dinner. Well, one of the inner ring suburbs that's more urban than parts of Minneapolis. Anyways, Balkan Treat Box may have been the best meal I've had all year. After dinner I drove over to the Hill, an old Italian neighborhood of St. Louis. I don't know wh...