Brittany and family came to visit for the first time in 5 years.  I finished up the temporary guest room just in time.  It'll do, pig.

  After being in school for only 4 days Meadow already brought home germs. I seemed to be the one that got hit the hardest and was sick all week. It was nice to get out for some fresh air after a week indoors.  We decided to go for a walk to the farmers market, but first needed to stop at the hardware store. September is the absolute best time to go to the farmers markets around Minneapolis. Brooke loves the downtown market, but this one has just as good of selection. Just fewer vendors. The temporary guest room was all painted and light fixtures were hung. Now I had to clean all the dust before our guests come next weekend.  It felt like a big step forward, but we still had two more rooms to finish patching. Well, the other bedroom was nearly ready, but the big room hadn't been started yet. I was busy finishing up the lower porch. I guess there was a few more items left on my lead remediation checklist. This will also be the exterior color on the exterior cedar shingles....

  Well, our garden didn't really grow like I thought it would. Everything seemed to grow really late despite planting early enough. I guess we'll try again next year.  We hardly got any rain and I'm wondering how much the old owners had added compost. We'll definitely be adding a bunch next year. Today was the East Isles-Lowry Hill Neighborhood Yard Sale. We had never gone before so thought it was worth checking out. I mostly wanted to look at all the homes in the neighborhood.  I was going to say the same thing. I mostly wondered aloud why people need such large homes. The kids were finding some good scores. Theo got a Star Wars wallet to hold all his chore money. Meadow got a Pinky Pie My Little Pony. The woman who sold us the wallet said it was good luck. It was her son's first wallet and now he has his own business. We picked up a free ghost decoration, Meadow got a strawberry dress, roller skates for her Build a Bear. a Lion King book and we got a wooden checke...

As we did 10 years ago, we ended this trip at the cottage. We cleaned out our car and shared stories from all of our adventures with mom and dad. The kids were excited to show them their souvenirs.  They got some really cool stuff. We were excited to see Daniel come along with Blake this time, even if he doesn't like getting his picture taken.  Since playing checkers the kids are obsessed with bored games. Theo was beating everyone in Snakes and Ladders.  Or is it board games?

Van Riper State Park had a bicycle pump track. I thought Meadow would have wanted to try it but she wasn't interested.   We had to make it the Keweenaw, asap.    Did we? We wanted to eat at the Drive In but it didn't open until 11. By some miracle we were up early and ready before it opened. To waste some time we played at Baraga State Park. We probably should have stayed at this campground as they had showers.  I guess Brooke meant for us to only stop for frozen custard. The food was meh. We mostly wanted to go to this place because they have frozen custard.  Then it was time to see the Quincy Mine. Scott somehow forgot how expensive it was to go.  We've been spending so little and having so much fun. Expensive museums just don't vibe with me. To be honest the Quincy Mine is worth the cost. They warned that it was cold in the mine and to dress appropriately. I wasn't too worried because last time they gave us coats. While waiting for the tour I only saw ha...

I guess Munising Falls is worth the stop and we totally got distracted and missed it. But outside of Christmas is Scott Falls. We had to stop for that. That's about right. Cute, but not anything special. So embarrassed. That's where Meadow gets it from.  Ha. True.   On our drive to Marquette we surprised the kids with a stop at Lakenenland Sculpture Park.  Only Theo would pose with me at the Happy Mother's Day sculpture. The kids loved the human sized scale.