A Visit to Duluth

Jamie and I packed our bags and headed to Duluth last weekend to witness the wedding of our dear high school friend, Stacia. Stacia and I go WAY back. I remember playing with her on the playground, making jokes with her in the lunch line at Holy Redeemer, recording vocal duets together at her house, attending her birthday parties, and sitting with her at the high school lunch table. I'd define her as energetic, positive, hard-working, genuine, and FUN. I don't see her much these days so I was delighted to get an invitation to her wedding. Jamie and I decided to make a weekend of it and we had a great time. Other than dealing with the crazy road construction around Duluth and me risking our lives with my terrible driving, we had a great time! The wedding reception was fun. In true Stacia fashion, there were long emotional speeches, lots of laughs, and lots of happy tears. Jamie and I spent the night in Duluth and spent Sunday morning/afternoon hanging out on the shore of Lake Superior. Jamie getting a drink before our 30 minute guided lighthouse tour. Our "guided tour" was really moving from one spot to another spot about 10 feet away while a member of the US Army Corp of Engineers spoke about lighthouses.

There were a lot of seagulls near the lift bridge! One of the best parts of the day was watching the little kids chase down birds. We'll have to take Weston up there next summer.

At the shoreline

By the lift bridge

There was a big ship off the shore. It was waiting to be able to load grain to take to Michigan.

This is one BIG lake. It was just like looking out over the ocean!

Jamie by the lift bridge

We also toured the maritime museum that was right on the shore line. We had a good time taking in all the sights and sounds. It was a beautiful day to be outside with a good friend! It was so beautiful that I even got a slight tan and my fair-skinned friend got a sun burn and about 1,000 more freckles :)

Getting ready to head out for the wedding

Just like old times!

The rest of the pictures are from family days this week. Aside from dealing with some car problems (having car problems really stinks-but you know that already!), we had a really great week. We had a lovely dinner with the Ten Eycks, attended a jazz concert in the park, and spent time soaking up the wonderful weather we had this week.

This photo is Westonator and I at the jazz concert. Local businesses were serving free lemonade, cookies, and popcorn. I'm pretty sure Weston ate three bags of popcorn. The kid is an eating machine! He was shoveling the popcorn into his mouth by the fistful, making loud inhaling noises as he scarfed down the buttery popcorn. He even managed to find all the little bits of popcorn that fell into the grass. I'm sure he ate some little bits of dirt and grass with those fallen popcorn kernels... I'm so impressed by how much he eats now. He can eat almost all the same things we eat and we don't have to cut it up as much anymore.

One of the jazz groups that entertained us

Clutching his bag of popcorn

Westonator and Daddy

At the park

What a winning smile!

This photo is Westonator and Dada going for a wagon ride to the mailbox. I really dislike that our mailbox is so far away but it's a good excuse to hit the pavement on a nice summer day so we use that to our advantage this time of year. We put the mail in the wagon with Weston and by the time we got home, he had thrown every single piece of mail out of the wagon. Good thing somebody was walking behind and picking it up!