Giddy Up

 One of our favorite things to do is to head down to Indianola and ride horses at Uncle Phil's. This year, with transitional living, we were excited to head down there for an afternoon! The kids love riding on the horses! Phil has a great set up with a big riding barn to ride around in.

Garrett...a future cowboy?!?

Trigg and the ladies taking a lap

Giddy Up!

B was so brave to ride a horse all by herself...and she had a ton of fun!

Trigg may also have a future as a cowboy!

Heather going for a ride around the barn!

So much fun and a great way to spend an afternoon! Thanks Phil for letting us come down and ride!

MN Fishing Trip - Fall Edition

With school starting on a hybrid learning schedule the boys were in schools on every Monday, Tuesday and the every other Wednesday...that got us thinking, Camp Liberty has Wi-Fi, what if we head back up to MN for a fall round of fishing. My dad was on board, he packed up the boat and headed up there on Saturday. We worked and had school Monday, Tuesday and then headed out early Wednesday morning for the lake!

We got up there in the afternoon and got unpacked and settled in. Nothing much was biting the first day, but it was just good to get up there!

Thursday morning, my dad and I headed out early for some bass fishing. My dad caught this nice 2 pounder!

I found a nice one too

And then pulled in this 3 pounder! Pretty good morning, we take a walkie talkie with us on the boat and the boys radio out once they wake up...

They were snuggled on the couch when we got in!

We tackled school online and then headed out on the lake for some afternoon fishing! It was overcast but Garrett and Grandpa drove the boat to the "hot spot" on the next lake over!

We hooked right into some good blue gills! All smiles from this guy!

Trigg got some too!

Fish are getting bigger...and so are the smiles!

The lake we fish at is on a chain of lakes connected by small "rivers", so we cruised down the river to Crow Wing 9

Headed back in for supper, Trigg got to drive the boat!

Friday morning, time for some school work!

The boys worked through it pretty quickly, its good motivation knowing that the fish are waiting!

Found some more blue gill!

Oh yeah!

Managed to pull in a few bass too! The boys have been practicing their casting, so we trolled the weed line casting for bass!

This is late in the season for Camp Liberty, Todd was busy winterizing cabins. By Friday, we were the only ones at the resort, so the boys had full reign on their bikes!

And the fall colors were in full display!

Saturday turned out to be over cast and rainy...but we didn't let that stop us. Garrett wanted to learn how to fish a popper, so he and Grandpa headed down to the dock for some lessons.

Tossed on the rain jackets as it started to drizzle...

Trigg practicing walking a surface frog through the weeds!

Picture perfect!

We headed into town to let the rain pass and stopped at the World's Largest Tiger Muskie!

The rain let up, so we went back to the "hot spot" on 9!

Big smiles from the front of the boat!

G with another fish!

A few of the fish we brought in!

We packed up the boat Saturday night and then hit the road Sunday morning. We stopped for breakfast at our traditional stop, Countryside Restaurant in Motley, MN, the boys rant and rave over their breakfast!

Thumbs up from Trigg...

Thumbs up from Garrett...

We needed another stop for gas and to stretch our legs...Cabela's in Owatonna seemed like the perfect pit stop...and we found a few fishing lures to replace the lost ones from the trip!

All in all, it was a great trip up north! Big thanks to my dad for letting us tag along and sharing the boat and cabin with us for 5 days! We had a blast and are already asking how long until we head back there in June...

As always, Todd at Camp Liberty is fantastic, if you are looking for a resort in the Park Rapids area, be sure to check them out!

Hillcrest Ct

After 7 years in our house on Hillcrest Ct it was time to sell it and move on to our next adventure. The boys share a room and for now that has worked great, but we have had in the back of our minds that we would love to have 1 more bedroom so everyone has their own space. We have been looking for over a year and we finally decided it was time, so we put our house on the market.

 

After 7 years, we have remodeled every room in this house, the pictures turned out great, so I thought it would be a good time for a tour. Here is our front entry way. We opened up that coat closet and added a drawer for snow gear, hats and gloves. We added the barn door for the powder bath.

Here is a look into the library/toy room. One of my favorite projects was trimming out the Billy bookshelves from Ikea to make a library wall!

Another favorite project was our kitchen remodel. We opened up the backside of the house and it became a great space for hosting parties and simply living life!

Another look at the kitchen

Family room

Heather does a great job decorating and turning spaces into warm and welcome spots!

Painting all the trim white made a huge difference around the fireplace, it made it brighter and feel bigger!

Adding the grid of LED lights was a big change too, made it brighter and warmer

Another look at the library/toy room

Entry way

Looking back at our front door

Backyard

Basement, Heather's desk made from old fence wood

Play fort that went to our friends the Hammer's for many more years of playing!

Basement

Another look at the basement. I added those windows and it was a big improvement and a great way to let light into a dark basement

Guest bedroom downstairs

Basement bathroom

Staircase to the basement

Boys room

Kids bathroom

Blythe's room

Master bathroom, this was the last remodel and it turned out great!

Master bedroom

Master bedroom

Fireplace

Backyard firepit

Front yard

Powder bath

Basement

Family room

Deck

Library

Basement

Kitchen

Another look at the kitchen

Library

Family room

The hardest part to this move was saying goodbye to our neighbors. Over the last 7 years we have gotten to know our neighbors pretty well, lived life together, shared meals together, watched our kids grow up. Our house sold after being on the market for 4 days, so we are packed up and onto the next adventure! We will definitely miss Hillcrest Ct but we are exciting for what is ahead!