Cabin Trips/Tough Mudder

A lot to update! One piece of big news is that Dan has started a NEW job. He had been at his other employment since college graduation. His job title is Controls Engineer.

 The first week at the new job has been going smoothly and we're excited for what's in store. He needed some new challenges. I'm so proud of how long he stuck with his first job, and for getting this new opportunity!

 Earlier in July we were able to take a full week away, which included the Long Lake cabin (by Cotton, MN), my parent's cabin on Lake Ojibway (by Ely, MN), and finally one night in Duluth. We had off and on good weather, horrible bugs, and fun family time!
Here are the cabin pics...

The cousins on July 4th (Dane, Peter, Will, Sofia, Madeline, and Josephine)

Independence Day Feast

Grandma Peterson

Staying up late for fireworks! (The first year we let them!)

Madeline, Deb, Dane, and Lara on a kayak ride

Madeline, Josie, and Sofia (they look pretty threatening with those water balloons, huh?)

Ahhhh, this is the life! (Now at Lake Ojibway) (J, W, S, M)

Grandpa and I took Sofia and Josie on a canoe ride

Josie and Sofia posing with their paddles!

Another cabin feast

Madeline, Josie, and Sofia LOVE dessert

(and each other)

Will just hanging out

And a couple from Duluth...

Dan and his mom on Lake Superior. Nice salmon!

Fun day at Lester Park in Duluth (Josie, Sofia, Madeline, Peter, Dane, Anna, and Elsa)

Picnic at Lester Park

Bugs bring kids together

Madeline was excited to try a lime because she saw how much her cousins Dane and Peter loved them.

A HOT day in Duluth, cooling off in Lake Superior

Even Will got in Lake Superior!

And he got used to it pretty quickly!

Leah's oldest (Anna) with my youngest (Will)

This past spring Dan and some of his guy relatives decided to do the Tough Mudder. This is no 5k. Not even your typical mud run with a couple obstacles. It is an intense 10+ mile "challenge" with at least 20 obstacles (the organizers don't call it a race because it's not timed and it's supposed to be a team pursuit) and I brought all the kids to go watch. A lot of Dan's family/extended family were able to go spectate also (luckily, for me, as it would've been hard to handle all the kids alone in that environment!)

       It was pretty intense to even spectate. A couple of the people in our group had maps and we all tried to get to the obstacles to see our guys do them, but with all of our strollers we could only see a handful. We did push the Bob strollers through a corn field (with only a really rough path) and up and down a lot of hills. The girls and Will did really well. The girls were really quiet and subdued... quietly observing. I know if we didn't have the strollers, the girls wouldn't have been able to/willing to run around as much as we did. (Thanks, Lara for bringing your two strollers!)


 Here are some pics of these crazy dudes. These pics are all from Dan's dad...

Pete, Dan, and Charlie pre-Tough Mudder.

The team! (Pre-Tough Mudder, obviously- still clean)

Clean shoes

Lara and I liked this sign, so we had our kids pose by it :)

Early in the challenge, already muddy.

Rinsed off the mud in ICE COLD water

Getting over some logs

MUDDY!

MUDDIER! (ewwww look at Dan's teeth!)

Dan and Pete enjoying the post-challenge beer!

They all finished!

Yeah, Will was probably wondering what is going on. Not our normal routine!

The muddy shoes after Tough Mudder

This was the 3rd to last obstacle... We were watching others for a long time waiting for our guys. So many men and women needed help getting up the half pipe. I was curious how our guys would do because it was after all that running and who knows if they could tap into that energy... See for yourselves how they did!

The day after the Tough Mudder, Dan didn't mind staying back during nap while Lara and I went shopping. Hmmm wonder why!

Josie has started drawing people. Here is her rudimentary self portrait- love it!

This was a LONG post. Phew! I can't believe the summer is half over basically! I'm looking forward to the rest of the summer- we have an Apostle Island trip, a couple weddings, and lots of outside play! Have a great week, everyone!

Will just his happy self