The Bracken's: June 2014

Monday, June 30, 2014

June Misc

We made it to the lake at Foster Arrend finally! The weather has been nice and chilly for the longest time, but finally summer is here to stay. Talya loves going to the lake. They call it the "beach" here in Rochester. Everytime we mention swimming, she wants to go to the beach. It extra fun when we get to have friends join us!

Gavin and Talya

Ty had a rough time keeping the sand out of his mouth. It was a bad age for the lake this summer.

Oliva and Ty

We love to go "downtown" here in Rochester. Especially on a weekend because it is so much less busy. With the Mayo Clinic being closed, there are not a lot of people or traffic out and about. This particular night, Colten needed to print some stuff off at the school so we took her bike and we went for a walk while waiting. She loved it and also loved seeing "Her Castle" aka the Plumber Building.

This past school year we had a little play group with Talya's friends from church. We met every wednesday morning for 2 hours and rotated houses. We got together one last time in June for a brunch and swim party. Pictured: Stockton, Gavin, Maeser, Natalya, and Leah.

Kemp's had a semi-truck/trailer Museum parked outside the grocery store one day. We went inside and Talya got to milk this cow, plus we all got a free ice cream sandwich!

The kids tagged along everyday for summer volleyball workouts.

As a medical student, Colten has only had to work a handful of Sunday's. Unfortunately, Father's Day was one of those. We headed down to the hospital after church to visit him. The kids loved seeing him, especially Talya loved seeing her doctor daddy.

Grandma sent a package with Frozen PJs!

The kids and I headed to Utah at the end of June to stay for a month.

My bed partner.

Mass Lego caos at Grandma Bracken's. The kids love this activity.

Lego Derby.
Everyone races their lego built cars into the middle until your car is completely demolished and can't drive any more.

Talya just loves all her cousins. And these older girls are always so nice to play with the younger cousins.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

North Shore 2014

After our half marathon race in Duluth, we started our weekend vacation later in the morning beginning in Silver Bay, Minnesota. We headed north along the North Shore and stopped occasionally at a few water falls and rivers until we got to Grand Marais.

Right before the US/Canadian border is a before state park called Grand Portage. We hiked the little path to the largest waterfall in Minnesota.

Ty LOVED watching Talya on Grandpa's shoulders

Next we continued into Canada and stayed 1 night in Thunder Bay, Ontario in a nearly brand new hotel. We enjoy a dinner out and then swimming at the hotel. The next morning we tried to find a place for souvenirs and got a couple things at a store and Wal-Mart. It wasn't until we stopped at a trade post store just back inside the US border that we found a ton of Canadian stuff. We got a lot more stuff there.

Scenery driving south of Thunder Bay back towards the US.

We drove more down along the coast. Unfortunately it was foggy and we couldn't see much at all of the lake.

We stopped at Lutsen Ski Resort to ride the alpine slide and for the second time in my life, it was not operating that day. So we rode the gondola ride up to the top of the mountain.

One of our favorite state parks along the North Shore is Tettegouche State Park and we love the 1 mile round trip hike down to the river and waterfall.

Our next night stay was back down in Duluth. We again enjoyed a fun night of swimming with the kids. The next morning we toured Canal Park before driving back down south to Minneapolis. I flew with Grandma and Grandpa back to Las Vegas while Colten had to stay home and continue with school/work. I was super grateful for the help with the kids and am NOT looking forward to flying back alone.