We got to spend a day in the cities before we headed off to Ely. Billy's cousin, Leif, was getting married to his long-time girlfriend, Jennifer, and we were lucky enough to be able to attend their wedding. Since it was an evening event, we spent the day at the Mall of America. The kids had so much fun! I wish we could've been there for a longer period of time, but what we did get to do was a lot of fun.
We found a game store, and we bought a couple of fun games to play on the trip. Billy bought a murder mystery game, and we had a lot of fun playing that with his family up in Ely. It was a great find! Then we went to some fun kids stores and played in the arcade. We grabbed lunch, and we ended up in a Barbie store that Khloe was super excited to be in! What a fun day at the BIGGEST mall!
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| Blowing bubbles and playing around in Aunt Cherrie's nice, new back yard! |
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| Allie's first time in a big girl stroller. The kids are excited to be at the Mall of America! |
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| She got a new Barbie at the Barbie Dream House store ... she was pretty happy! |
Leif and Jen got married at a beautiful garden park in Minneapolis. It was so lovely ... hot but lovely! The bride was gorgeous in her gown, and everyone looked so great. I was surprised (but I'm not sure why I didn't realize this before) that Steve Carlson was performing the ceremony ... duh! Steve and Jen are first cousins ... and Billy and Leif are first cousins. So, I was super lucky to see Daisy and Steve at the wedding, too. What a fun night! Their reception was at a converted Firehouse, and it was very beautiful. I'm so glad we were able to attend!
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| The lovely couple. |
After the wedding, we got a few pictures of the family. What a gorgeous wedding site!
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| My gorgeous kiddos! |
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| such a cutie! |
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| love this girl |
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| brother and sister love |
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| Family shot! Thanks, Jerry! You may see this one again, come Christmas card time! |
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| Thanks to an Ellstrom marrying a Carlson ... a Reynolds and an Ornopia are finally related! High School Tasha and Daisy would be psyched to know that we would be related someday! Ha, ha! |
We left after the reception for Ely. We got in around midnight, and we were all exhausted! The next morning, I woke to a beautiful sight ... the lake! I love it up in Ely. It's such an amazing vacation ... so much fun to be at the cabins, playing games, canoeing, shopping, hiking, swimming ... I look forward to this every couple of years.
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| The LAKE! |
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| These were growing all over the property. They looked so gorgeous everywhere! |
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| A little orange slices with our lunch. |
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| Ellie and Khloe are such good friends. They really get along with each other. I hope their bond continues for a lifetime! |
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| Everyone loves baby Allie! Ellie was getting in some snuggle time. |
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| Ellie wanted to hold Alice. She was a big fan of her little cousin. |
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| We majorly found our feet over the trip. |
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| Had to try some blueberry pop .... not so good, though. Blech! |
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| More lake shots! |
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| That sky! |
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| We had such fun walking around the property ... the gorgeous weather! I love it! |
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| Uncle Ken got some good baby holding time ... luckily, Allie let any one hold her. |
Every Ely reunion, the guys take a day to go golfing. This year, it took most of an entire day, but Billy had fun with his uncles, cousins, dad, etc. And every reunion, the ladies have a brunch together at The Chocolate Moose ... a great cafe in Ely. They make the BEST omelets. I, also, got to continue a tradition of getting a spa treatment in downtown Ely ... my Swedish massage was amazing! What fun treats for all of us!
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| Khloe took this picture of Grandma at our ladies brunch. |
As with all of my kids (each one has been to the lake as a baby), Allie loved munching on some of the last pickles that Grandma Ellstrom (their great-grandma) made. She sucked and gnawed on a pickle one evening at dinner ... and I know Grandma E would have been so thrilled. She loved to see people enjoying her pickles.
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| That giggle! |
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| I love this girl! |
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| She was in such a great mood! |
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| She even giggled with her big sis ... that laugh is infectious! |
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| gnawing her pickle |
I love the water time. This year, I didn't get to spend as much time down at the lake as I would have liked. It's tough when a baby sleeps two naps a day (morning and afternoon) for two hours (or more) at a time. Plus, our cabin wasn't as close to the water this year (we needed a bigger cabin this year)! But when I did get down to the water, we had a lot of fun! Here are some shots from our lake-time.
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| Abel is such a great older cousin! He spent quite a while building a sand castle with Khloe ... and then he even let her knock it down once they finished. |
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| Khloe and Abel's finished product! |
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| Godzilla stomping it all down! |
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| Checking out a crawdad. |
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| Cousins having water fight fun! |
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| Cousins' kids: a new generation--Debbie's, Billy's, Sayle's, and Jeanette's kids. |
For the second reunion in a row, there was an Ellstrom Family Games (Survivor Style). We had enough people participate to have four teams of four. This year, you had to swim out into the lake to get a greased watermelon ... push it back to shore ... and carry it your designated table. Then two different teammates had to put together a word puzzle. After they finished that, a third teammate had to throw sticks at three larger sticks stuck into the ground ... they had to knock those sticks down. Our team was Billy, Alan, Debbie, and me. We won! It was super fun!
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| Headed down to the lake for the games! |
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| Those are the four guys swimming out to the greased watermelons. |
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| Here they are coming back ... Billy is in the lead. |
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| Debbie and I put this puzzle together. We worked perfectly together figuring it out! |
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| Alan brought up the tail end by knocking our three sticks over before any one else even got to start throwing sticks! |
Every year, we all go get ice cream at Dairy Queen. The kids really look forward to it, and we all have a good time hanging out together. This year, Alice got to try her first bite of ice cream ... and well, she LOVED it!
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| First taste ... |
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| This little laugh tells me she likes it. |
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| Allie loved Daddy's ice cream cone, too! |
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| We were done ... she, clearly, was not happy about that. |
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| Khloe loving her Dilly bar. |
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| Colton enjoying his, too! |
On Sabbath, we went on our annual hike. Luckily, the weather was so gorgeous. Last time, it was raining. We decided to go on a 3 mile hike (instead of the 5 mile), because we thought it would be easier on the walking kids. Colton did really well. He got Grandpa to carry him at the beginning ... but that didn't last long--too heavy, that kid! Khloe walked the whole way, too ... well, I guess Billy did carry her a bit.
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| A quick family photo at our first stop. |
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