Flooring!

A deer greeted us to the cabin for our last long weekend of the season.

 

Cousin Gus came over to help for the day. Great to see him and catch up, we don't get to see him that often since he's an International Man of Mystery.

Last piece of the guest bedroom.

Looks great and sure does change the look of the room! We got distressed  flooring for the old barn board look. Love getting our wood from the local mill. Conrad built a special tool to distress the wood and we were his first customer. It's a bit rougher than we wanted, so will have to do some sanding before finishing it.  

Campbell spent the day in town with both sets of  Grandparents and came back with quite the haul. 

Getting started on the loft.

Matt & Jared came to help. We made a great team. 

Matt took some cool night shots with his nice camera. See the moon peaking over the cabin on the picture on the right?

  

FINISHED! Looks awesome! A long day, but we knocked out roughly 800 board feet!

Getting started on the Master Bedroom the next morning. 

  

Thank you guys for your help! Couldn't have gotten it done  without you!

Time to start shingling the sauna and insulating the inside. 

Uncle Jim & Aunt Velura had a sauna stove they weren't using, so they let us take it. The only catch, it was on their island on Rainy Lake and had to be moved to our island. Garet, Gabe & Tez were the moving crew. That stove is heavy! And how many times did it have to be put in/taken out of a boat.....yikes! Gabe is so excited to get the sauna up and running.  

Visitors from Alaska

Reading 'Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site.' 

Uncle Stan & Aunt Michelle stayed with us for a night on their trek back to Alaska. We love to see them, come again soon!

Moving from Melrude

A whole bunch of the family helped out this weekend to help Ginia-mom & Papa Stan move from Melrude where they made their home for 37 years and into a perfect single story house 2 houses away from my parents in town.

A lot of work, but sure was nice to have so many helping hands!

 

Taking a break from hauling furniture to catch a flying boy.

Hauling Flooring for Bedrooms & Loft

We were early picking up Daddy from work so stopped at a park to get our wiggles out before another long drive

It's fun to go see Conrad & his samill, East Dhu River. Who would think there was such a state of the art operation in Wolf?

We've got flooring!

Bye! Another weekend with Papa & Nana



Both the fall colors and the weather was spectacular. The pictures don't do it justice. There's only a few days of peak color and we got to be there. It was gorgeous.

This is the easy way to get wood loaded! 

 

...And hauling stacks by hand is the hard way. Solid oak flooring is not light. Started out by hauling 4 inch wide planks. Working our way up to 8 inch boards. SO HEAVY.    

  

Bringing the barge back. What an awesome night with the full moon and fall colors. And even better because we finished the hauling!

Just when we got all the paneling up on the walls and cleared out of the living room.....here's more wood! Excited to see what it looks like installed.

Egg Food Challenge

Time for another food challenge at Children's Hospital. Gabe couldn't come this time, so I a bit worried about flying solo. Pretty confident that he won't react because he's been having eggs in pancakes for quite a while now. What I'm more nervous about is that Blake cooperates this time than at the Milk Challenge where he refused to drink. He's older now, so I have my fingers crossed.

Getting settled in

Here it goes, first dose of egg powder mixed in chocolate pudding. No trouble this time, he was chowing! Slowly increasing the dose every 15 minutes and continually checking for reactions. Starting from just a miniscule amount and working up to the equivalent of 2 eggs by the end.

And he's outta here. HOORAY he can have eggs without any worries!!!. Very proud of the little model patient, so cooperative and sat so nicely for about 4 hours. His nurse was very complimentary of how good he was. Making up for last time! :)

French toast and scrambled eggs for breakfast the next morning. Breakfast now has a whole lot more possibilities!

We've knocked out milk and eggs. What a game changer! Only peanut and soy left. What an amazing feeling.

Sherrill Family Reunion

The Sherrill's came together to catch up with family, experience Northern Minnesota in fall, and celebrate Ginia-mom's 85th Birthday!

45 relatives traveled from 8 states and some all the way from Okinawa, Japan! We shared meals at Deb & Paul's and Velura & Jim's, braved a frigid boat ride to our cabin on Lake Vermilion, and enjoyed pasties at Ginia-mom & Papa Stan's. It was a wonderful 3 days of visiting, staying warm, and of course, eating!

This was the last big gathering at Ginia-mom & Papa Stan's house in Melrude before they move to town in a couple weeks. I was feeling very sentimental and sad thinking we won't be coming here anymore. So many memories of this place growing up. But, I am so happy that they found a perfect 1 story house in town that will be more manageable and convenient for them. More happy memories to be made there!

Just a few pictures from the weekend....

Cousins!

Same steps....seems like it wasn't that long ago.

2nd generation of the cousins

Love this tree! Spent countless hours playing here growing up.

Gabe and our cabin neighbor helped shuttle ~40 people over to the island. It was a really cold, so I felt bad for those not used to the cold weather. Of course the weekend before was in in the 70's....isn't that Minnesota for you? Dede co-hosted with us, so basically she took care of all the food. Couldn't ask for a better co-host, she's a pro, she puts on the best spread and SO GOOD! Can't thank her enough!

She even made customized silverware for goodness sakes! She thinks of everything!

Cabin all cleaned up so we're heading to another reunion party!

As a surprise for Ginia-mom's birthday, Deb gathered the family's pig drawings that Ginia-mom had done over the years and make an awesome book. What a treasure! I'll have to get some pages scanned in....

For Christmas, Mariah made this awesome book of all the pictures from the reunion. Another treasure!

Blake being a goof on the drive home.

Blake's First Day of Preschool

Blake's first day of preschool this year. He'll be going 3 mornings a week. I'm glad he went a little last year with his big sister as his guide because he seems very confident this year. At drop off, I told him I'll be back to pick him up. He said, "I won't worry, Mom". Such a big boy!

Now what am I going to do child free for 7.5 hours a week? Hoping to keep up with workouts and do errands very efficiently. Perhaps a little relaxing?

 

  

Celebrating the first day at School of the Wise, love this little bistro so close to home!