Vacation!!!!

Every year we try to get up to Breezy Point for a week. This year's vacation provided us with a new challenge - milk goats! We are so thankful for our wonderful neighbors who were willing to milk our goats, morning and night, for a whole week! (Lena, we couldn't have done it without you!! Thank You!!) :)
We love Breezy Point! Up there we do a lot of swimming, reading, shopping, playing, sleeping, and some resting! :)

We figured out that if we went to the pool right at 9am, when it opened, we would have the pool to ourselves until about 10am. After swimming we headed back to our unit for math.
Isn't it terrible to have to do math on vacation? Getting behind in math can be really miserable, so we faithfully plug away at it. (And I am a stickler for completing school books by the end of the year.)

























Every afternoon we spent time in the gym playing family soccer - three against three. Instead of coming home from vacation relaxed and refreshed, I came home with stiff muscles and lots of bruises and scrapes. :) We had way too much fun playing soccer, and sometimes it even got pretty competitive. :) Speaking of competitive, climbing the fire tower is another way the kids compete. This year all the boys were brave enough to get to the top. When not competing physically, the children are pitted against each other in card games or board games.





























We had our Thanksgiving dinner up there this year. Of course the turkey was awesome! :) On Black Friday we went shopping in Brainerd and later in the day to Nisswa. We have our favorite shops we go to every year. In the evening, they light up the town with lights (every building is covered in lights and they turn them all on at the same time.) Then they have horse drawn hay rides and Christmas music playing. The fun evening was brought to a close with an awesome fireworks display. It was a great day!















Since it's good for our children to practice mealtime etiquette, we go to Antlers restaurant every year, where they experience fine dining. We each bring one set of nice clothes along just for this occasion. :) Then Mike and I always have one night that we go out alone. We spend this time planning, which is what we do on most of our dates. Since our vision for our 2010 season is not clear yet, this tends to be the topic of our "talks".














It's a blessing to be able to get away from it all for a week and have some fun family time together. Again, we are so thankful for our friends that were willing to do chores for us.