On the St. Croix with the Qualleys

A little over a month ago I found out that Britt has never been canoeing - NEVER. So we planned a date towards the end of September to take a trip down the St. Croix.

Saturday was the day - the day started out quite gloomy and I was really worried we were going to get rained out of our fun day. But when the time came to put the canoes in the water there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It turned out to be a beautiful day full of laughter and turtles.

We did not do the long trip from Taylors Falls to William O'brien this time - instead we took out at Osceola which is 'just' 7 miles instead of 17. Needless to say the boys (and everyone else) were over joyed when we saw the Osceola bridge come into view.

Mason holding a baby snapping turtle:
The picture Gabe took of the cliffs along the journey:
Owen and Brian competing to see who has cuter eye brows - Owen wins, hands down:
A picture from the Captains chair of everyone (except of course the Captain - Me):
Britt, Owen, Gabe and Matt paddling away:

Can this be considered crafting?

So it has been a while since I've done any 'crafting' and a couple weeks ago I saw some cool glasses at MOA made out of beer bottles. I decided I needed to see if we could do it ourselves. So today we produced what Brian refers to as our 'Proof of Concept'. As is, it looks like we may actually be able to make some more of these things. Now I just need to find some Glass Etching Cream, some cool beer bottles and we'll be able to monogram some of these for fun.

Wine Weekend

5 wineries, 45 different wines all in 2 days.

Wineries:
-St. Croix Vineyards
-Alexis Bailly Vineyard
-Cannon River Winery
-Falconer Vineyards and Nursery
-Northern Vineyards

Best part about the whole weekend - spending some much needed time with Mary Schuh!

Mary and Me at St. Croix Vineyards:


Mary and me at Falconer Vineyards:

Mary and me pretending to stomp grapes at St. Croix vineyard:


...I think my grapes are all stomped.


Evidently visiting wineries and tasting wine give you some abilities...
such as the ability to hold water fountains...


Or to squish bird houses with just your fingers...

Family BBQ

On Saturday we hosted our first family barbecue at our house. We had three grills going, tons of food and tons of fun. Our garage door broke the night before and thanks to three of my brothers we were able to get it back into operation.

Unexpectedly Rock Band was a hit with the kids and "Eye of the Tiger" was played over and over again with many singing, Jacob on the guitar and everyone else rotating through on the drums. ...it is a good thing Rock Band 2 has a no fail option.

The kids enjoying lunch:
Natalie rocking out like a rock star:
James loading up on food:
Brian keeping an eye on all the grills:
Ben, Rudy, Lisa - Ben does NOT like having his picture taken: