Father's Day Breakfast...

Fit for a king!



Warm and creamy ebelskiver pancakes topped with Dove mango sauce and whipped cream. Can we say spoiled!

Days on the Farm

Summer is wonderful for many reasons. The air grows warmer, the days grow longer, and the earth grows greener. In addition, the fields and gardens yield their abundance to the willing laborer. As a result, I am very fond of the summer and all of its beauty. One of my favorite summertime activities is our annual berry picking trips. Someday I want the berry and fruit picking to be done in our own backyard, just as our vegetable picking is, but for now we'll settle for visiting the local growers instead. Here are a few shots our our kiddos and the Ercanbrack children busy with their strawberry buckets.







The setting on the FireFly Fruit Farm is beautiful indeed, and their strawberries and raspberries are well worth the drive across town. Here are a few shots of our own garden too. This year we grew potatoes, lettuce, peas, onions, peppers, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers and our lovely "three sisters" crops corn, beans, and pumpkins. (You can read more about this on our homeschooling blog.) Nick also planted some sunflowers--just for the fun of it. They were supposed to be a dwarf variety, but they ended up dwarfing the whole garden. They did look really lovely though--and Nick was pretty proud of the wonderful sunflower seeds he made from them. We'll be set on sunflower seeds for the rest of our life!!





In addition to visiting the local fruit farms, one of my favorite Rochester traditions has become the annual breakfast on the farm that is put on in conjunction with Rochestfest each June. It is also a bit of a drive, but once you arrive they tractor you onto the farm,



and serve up a hearty farm breakfast.





Then the kids can look at and pet all of the farm animals including the cows,





piggies,







sheep,





and of course, the big animals--aka tractors.



They offer horse pulled carriage tours of the farm while you're there too. It's an excellent way to spend a summer morning. If I'm lucky, we'll be able to host our own breakfast on the farm someday soon as well.

The Minnesota North Shore

At the beginning of this year, Grandma and Grandpa McArthur announced that they wanted to gift each of their children a week in their RCI timeshare. They gave each of us the website and their log-on information and told us to all pick a place where we would like to visit. After much consideration, Nick and I decided to stay fairly close to our Rochester home and get to know our own state a little better. (Especially since we might be leaving it very soon.) We had already become familiar with southeastern Minnesota, and with the twin cities, as well as with the north-central area of Minnesota (we saw this when we went to Lake Itaska--the famous headwaters of the mighty Mississippi); however, the place everyone talks about visiting when you're vacationing in Minnesota is the Minnesota North Shore. (For non-Minnesotan's--the North Shore refers to the northern coastline of Lake Superior stretching from the rustic city of Duluth all the way up to the Canadian border.) In the short two years we have lived in Minnesota, many people have recommended taking a vacation to this beautiful coastline, but honestly, we didn't really think much about it. We had, after all, just lived and toured extensively along the entire eastern coastline. What could the shoreline of a Minnesota Lake possibly have to offer that we hadn't already experienced?? Still, the timeshares looked pretty nice up there, and a closer location would save us on travel expenses and maximize our time off. So, in the end, we decided to give the jewel of Minnesota a try. And we are so glad we did!

From the minute we began our initial descent into Duluth, Nick and I fell madly in love with the beauty and wonder of this land called "the North Shore." When looking out onto the lake, one would never guess it was in fact a lake. Rather, it looks in every way like the ocean. And the city of Duluth is like a port city in every respect. As we drove through town, it had such a nautical feel we were sure we had somehow been magically transported to the coast of Maine or Massachusetts. It was the strangest thing ever! Here we were, in the middle of the United States, gazing out onto the most beautiful body of water, and watching the ships cut through the waves on their way to this unloading dock or that. It was surreal. We later learned that at the turn of the century, Duluth's port passed New York City and Chicago in gross tonnage handled, elevating it to the leading port in the United States. At this time it also was home to more millionaires per capita than any other city in the world. These facts were shocking to us! Who has ever even heard of Duluth? I certainly hadn't, not until I played the game Ticket to Ride that is. And I certainly wouldn't have guessed it was the largest port city in the U.S. at any given moment in time! Still it was. And visiting it made me feel as though I had just come across one of the United States best kept secrets.

But the fun didn't stop at Duluth. After exploring the harbor, and driving past the historical mansions, we took the scenic byway that heads out of town and continues for miles right along the shoreline of beautiful Lake Superior. Along this drive, the scenery suddenly changed again. Within just a few miles, we suddenly shifted from a nautical feel to the feel of driving into the woods. In fact, I told Nick that the drive was so similar to the one I made from Rexburg to West Yellowstone time after time my sophomore year of college that I could hardly believe it! I half expected to pull up to the cabins in Island Park at any minute! It was so unbelievable to me! Was this place magical or what? It had somehow successfully combined two of my favorite places into one. On the one hand, you look out and see the rocky shoreline, dotted with trees and light houses and feel like you're in Maine. On the other hand, you look out and see aspen's and pines and waterfalls that make you feel like you are on the outskirts of Yellowstone National Park. It was like this place was made for me. And Nick felt strangely the same.

About thirty miles north of Duluth, we pulled into the town of Two Harbors, Minnesota and checked into my parents' wonderful time share at the Superior Shores Resort and Conference Center. Here we took a night just to relax and enjoy the ocean--er--lake views,



soak in the hot tub,



and play on our private beach--



not to mention enjoy an evening beach bonfire.





Then the morning brought more driving and more amazement at the sites we would see. Our first stop along the scenic byway was the famous (in Minnesota that is) Gooseberry Falls. It was located on the Yellowstone side of the highway and had every bit the feel and beauty of that great national park which I so love. We spent hours letting the kids play in the falls, (something they could never do in Yellowstone)











and hiking around to get different views of the falls.









After visiting the falls, we stopped into a few local places--for example, we poked our head into a little Mennonite grocery store to buy some bread and homemade sweets. Then we went to another famous destination along the scenic byway: The Split Rock Lighthouse. From the name, you can probably guess that this was on the Maine side of the road. They had a fun tour that took us right up into the lighthouse.





The kids felt like they were in Pete's Dragon! And they especially liked it when we got to hear the noisome fog horn blast through the summer air. The best part of the tour; however, was the light houses' private access to a beautiful little beach down on the lake front. We had to climb quite a few steps to get down and back,



but the view from the bottom was worth the effort. Both the view of the rocky Lake Superior shoreline,



And the picture we got in front of one of the most photographed light houses in the U.S.



Who would have guessed we would be touring light houses on a family vacation in northern Minnesota!?

After touring the light house, we took in dinner and some famous north shore pie at the Rustic Inn Restaurant. Then we hit the jacuzzi in our hotel room once more. Sunday we attended church in Duluth, and spent a little bit of time down by the harbor. And on Monday morning we were refreshed and ready for some more sight seeing. This time we decided to head further north and see if we could make it all the way up to the Canadian border. Along the way; however, we couldn't resist stopping to take in the scenery, and as it would turn out, we also couldn't resist the fabulous deals they had on rental canoes. The store owner helped us strap the canoe to the top of our car, and we detoured west into the uncharted Minnesota lake land. If you look at a map, you can see that the border between Minnesota and Canada is quite blurred by the web of small lakes and rivers. This area is known as the boundary waters. People camp and canoe up there all of the time. While we didn't have camping supplies, we did find a quiet inland lake and spent a good deal of our day canoeing about and enjoying all of natures splendor.





We were even lucky enough to see several of the mother moose bring their calves down to the water to drink. The kids just loved this!!



With a half day of canoeing, we didn't make it all the way up to the Canadian border, but we did get as far as the quaint little town of Grand Marais. Grand Marais has an adorable little harbor with it's own mini light house and tons of docked sailboats. It also is the home to Sven and Ole's famous pizza parlor. I might be willing to drive six hours from home just for a slice of their Wild Rice Pizza. Yes, you read that right: wild rice. Northern Minnesota is famous for its wild rice and believe it or not, it makes for an awesome piece of pizza! Stuffed with delicious pizza, we climbed back into the car and drove back to our hotel for a good night's rest.

While the Canadian border was calling to us the following morning, we resisted the call and instead decided to take another day being tourists in Duluth. We purchased their touring triple pass giving us access to the scenic train ride, the all freshwater aquarium, and a harbor boat cruise. Each was exciting in its own way.











After taking a late afternoon nap, we capped off our day with a bike ride around Two Harbors and a bit of fresh grilled Walleye--a local favorite.

The rest of the week, the kids and I stayed at the time share alone while Nick went back to Rochester to work. We mostly played on the beach, swam in the hotel pools, and played games, did puzzles, and watched movies. It was a vacation that finally felt like a vacation! When Nick came back to pick us up, we were all sad to go. We had no idea the spell the North Shore would cast on us! But cast it did--cast and captivate and call us to return. And return we will. See you soon north shore! See you soon.

Emma's New Look

Courtesy of Spencer.





When they first came upstairs after the crime had been committed, I simply began to scream! Then, we all cried. Even Maddi who had nothing to do with it all. Then we went to the hair salon to try to rescue Emma's self esteem. She actually looks pretty good with short hair. Here is that Easter picture I promised and it shows Emma's short hair actually styled a little bit.



Short hair simply fits her personality. But considering the previous dramas we had with her hair, and the fact that she has been growing it out so diligently, (I can tell her to eat or drink anything at meal time "because it will make her hair grow faster" and she will gobble it down) I have to admit that I am pretty sad about the whole ordeal. And Emma is split on the topic. Sometimes she cries herself to sleep over it, and sometimes she loves it short! (Like when her favorite nursery leader, Sister Chappel, came to church with new short hair too.) I guess she can't complain though. Apparently she is the one who asked Spencer to cut the dead ends off of her hair. Spence was just trying to do her a favor, and as he noted, "she just wouldn't hold still." What a fiasco! Oh well. At least hair grows back.