Little For A Little While: SUMMER WIND DOWN.

There are so many pictures to share, so many words to tell the story. Days are long, but yet there is very little time for myself...and blogging. I've got about six posts just waiting to be written. In a effort to get these memories down before they escape me, words may be few, but pictures, well, they're always plentiful.

So here in a nutshell, is how we've been savoring the last few weeks, days, and moments of the hot MN summer.

CEDAR LAKE...
Nick's work schedule is always busy. Which is a good thing. He works very hard to balance being a business owner, husband, and father. Work usually trumps being home during the week, and family trumps work on the weekends. It isn't ideal, and of course we'd always love to see more of him, but he's doing what he needs to do to be successful and provide for us. We are so very proud of him for it.

With that said, I fly solo a lot of week nights. Topped with being a stay at home mom, some days I'm just plain tuckered out after dinner and am out of ideas on how to keep my kids busy and entertained until bedtime. This particular night was hot. And I didn't know how many more nights like this we were going to have, since it is after all, September. I had a grand idea to go to the beach. Nugget was thrilled, so with a quick toss of some towels, suits and toys into our beach bag, we were headed down the road to Cedar Lake. It started out beautiful. The air was warm, the water cool, and the beach quiet. But then I quickly learned how hard it is to take two kids to the beach by yourself. Nugget wanted me to splash in the water with her and build sand castles, while Brother cried when his feet touched the water, yet ate sand when parked up on the beach. It was truly a moment where I wish there was two of me, or I had the ability to grow a few extra arms and hands.

We made the most of it, me running between building sand castles and sweeping sand from Brother's mouth. When Brother quickly grew tired, Nugget was not ready to leave. I thought I'd soften the blow with a promise of swinging through the McDonald's drive through for a milk shake. Guess I should have thought that one through before I opened my mouth, because in my dash to get out the door, I left my wallet in the diaper bag. That made Nugget very, very sad. Then, I'd forgotten how sand gets EVERYWHERE. I wasn't planning to bathe the kids that night, but I just could not put them in their beds with sand stuck all over them. Long story short, my grand idea to have a fun night at the beach quickly turned hairy. But I conquered and am still glad that we seized the moment and attempted something fun.

STATE FAIR...
No summer feels complete without being capped off by 'The Great MN Get Together'. We lucked out with some cool weather and actually enjoyed the fair without sweating to death. The kids were calm and content and a great time was had by all. I probably ate my weight in tasty food, but it was worth it.

We checked out some award winning produce...

Made a 'Jesus' necklace....

The other morning at breakfast Nugget was talking about something, I can't remember exactly what, but I leaned over and said 'Jesus loves you' and she replied 'I know, Mom.' Melted my heart.

We paid way too much for a carousel ride that nobody really enjoyed much...

Brother couldn't take his eyes off of this sky ride...

While I went and fed Brother in the 'Lactation Station' (which was amazing by the way), Nugget and Daddy went into the Little Hands Farm and she came out with this...

We visited some fun booths...

And took our annual photo booth pictures. It was a little challenging to fit all four of us in this year, but it was fun...

Oh, and check out my sweet manicure. Nugget has been asking me for weeks if she could paint my nails. I finally caved.

We indulged Nugget's request to see some animals...

Whew. It was the longest amount of time we have spent at the fair yet, but the cool weather made such a difference. More fun was had by all and our feet were tuckered out by the end.

RASPBERRY PICKING...
It was a splendid, quiet day at the orchard, and Nugget kept saying over and over 'This is the best day ever. I love picking raspberries with you.' I love days like these.

There were so many, we just kept skipping from bush to bush picking all those big, juicy raspberries. We popped too many to count into our mouths and took home five basket fulls.