A little vacation

I love vacations, but if always feels so great to be home again. We drove over 1700 miles this vacation. I don't like riding in the car. I always want to fly, but my husband, pretending to be thrifty insisted that we drive this trip.
About 2 weeks ago Marissa went home with her grandfather. He lives in Isle Minnesota, which is about 100 miles north of the cities on Lake Millie Lachs (think that is spelled right). So we went to pick her up.
I am not an outdoorsy girl at all. Several comparisons were made between Eva Gabor from Green Acres and myself while we were in Isle. Oh my goodness..bugs. Yes, I knew there would be bugs in Minnesota, especially at a lake house. I just had no idea how many there would be. It was unbelievable. Luckily it wasn't hot, I don't think I could have done hot and bugs.

The kids loved it there. They have 85 acres of Minnesota forest. It was almost impossible to get Canyon off the 4-wheelers unless we were going to the beach. I believe that the lake is the biggest in Minnesota of course not counting the great lakes, but don't quote me on that. It was huge, looked like ocean from some views.

Here's the really bad part... ticks! Canyon had a tick, Marissa had a tick, and JT had several ticks. Not to mention the ones that were found crawling on our clothes and not stuck into us. I didn't have any, good thing, I may have had a breakdown. JT got a huge one in the back of his leg that he had to remove by himself in the mirror as I was having a panic attack and trying not to throw up in the bathroom sink. I know its ridiculous, but its me.

I did find a nice little local scrapbook shop in Isle. Surprising since the population is 700. It was a nice little shop and I did come away with a couple cute mini book ideas.

We went from there into the cities for 4 days, much more my speed. We stayed at the Radisson Water Park of America next to the Mall of America.

We bought wrist bands to the amusement park in the mall and the aquarium at the mall. We all had fun. Canyon tried everything he was tall enough for, including a medium sized roller coaster.

We can't forget the Lego store either, or how much of my money they got!

We also went to the Minnesota Zoo and the Children's Museum. Both were great. The water park was great also. I didn't get a whole lot of pictures toward the end of the trip. I filled up my memory card. I wish I would have just bought a new one.

Next to the zoo is a huge IMAX theatre. We saw Transformers 2 there. There was so much action on that huge screen it was hard to take it all in, but it was great. Canyon loved it!

We drove from Minneapolis to Albert Lea Minnesota to visit JT's aunt and his grandma. JT's grandma is in a nursing home. She will be 102 this August.

JT's Aunt and Uncle are amazing people. So interesting to talk to. Jim is director of operations at the airport, along with owing most of the planes there. We got to walk thru the hangers and look at all the planes, including a helicopter and a water plane. We stood on the runway while 3 planes took off and one landed, it was sooo cool. JT's uncle holds several aviation records and there house is like a museum. They once flew a single engine Cessna from Albert Lea to Antarctica and back making a stop at every single country in South America along the way. Among his other hobbies are skydiving, mountain climbing and running marathons. I love just sitting back and listening to the stories they can tell.

We got home last night, If I was clothes all day today and tomorrow maybe I can catch up! :)

I hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July!!