A Swedish visitor - TUBING!

One of the great things about having another person with us is that we could finally try out the tube that we bought for the summer, and Izzy and Jasmin were more than happy to oblige :)  Anyone that really knows me knows that I'm terrified of bodies of water that I can't see the bottom of (so basically everything except pools and hot tubs (and there are even exceptions to those), and I've been worried that Izzy will pick up on my phobias, but this photo shows me that she's going to be nothing like me in this area :)

We didn't stay out too long because there were storms rolling in, and we made it back to shore and all packed up just in time!

But we were back out the next day, and it was gorgeous and sunny!!!

We also took a little trip to Minnehaha Falls.  I absolutely love it here as I think it's such a little gem!  I hope Jasmin liked it too!

Random summer post....

This post isn't about anything at all....they're just a collection of photos taken at random and different times that I want to remember :)

Could she be ANY cuter?

A trip to the zoo, visiting the cows (my favorite part of the zoo)

Doesn't this just scream summer?

Clearly, Izzy loves the boat as much as Joacim does (she's watching an iPad under the towel...the sun was getting in her way that particular day :)

4th of July weekend with Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Bri

We were lucky to have Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Bri make the drive up here to help us celebrate the 4th of July.  They usually come around Izzy's birthday, but there was something going on around that time (can't remember what it was though :) but this actually worked out better.

We had a tremendous amount of rain in June (over 13 inches!!!), which ended up moving the annual Taste of Minnesota (typically held on Nicollet Island) out to the Carver County Fairgrounds.  I thought this would be a whole lot of fun, and that we'd get a chance to sample some of the local restaurants downtown, but I think that the move caused a lot of restaurants to back out, and we were left with your typical county fair fare :(  We made the best of it, though!

There were a few carnival rides there too, which Izzy had to sample.  You can't tell, but she WAS having a good time :)

And then that evening, our friends Jessica and Blake offered to host us at Blake's parents house, which is right on Lake Waconia.  This is usually a fantastic spot for fireworks, with them normally being set off from the island in the middle of the lake.  However, due to the rain again, they had to have the fireworks launched from the far side of the lake.  Our view wasn't as great as it could've been, but it was still lovely, and we had WONDERFUL hosts!  Plus, when we were leaving, the fireworks from The Taste started going off, so it's like we got a two-fer!

 It had been unusually chilly the night before when we were watching fireworks, so I was relieved when we woke up on the 5th to warm, sunny skies.  Perfect day for a boat ride!

The boat ride was followed-up by a yummy steak dinner on the deck

And then our own fireworks that Grandma and Grandpa brought with them :)

Later that same evening I was able to get this great shot of the moon.  I don't have the best equipment for moon photos, but I'm pretty happy with this one :)

Weekend activities

This was a really nice weekend!  Izzy and I got to spend some time together, which was nice because the week before may have been the busiest work week that I've ever had.  Activities included:

1. Joacim was traveling, so I was single-parenting
2. Gymnastics
3. Gymnastics photos
4. All-day work meeting followed by all-evening boat cruise
5. Drive to Canada
6. Drive back home from Canada

We started off the weekend by playing with playdoh.  We got her a cupcake factory and more playdoh as her old stuff was drying out.  I think we played with this for 2 solid hours :)

Izzy's cookie

And my chocolate chip cookies (not bad, right?)

The next day we went out on the boat.  This was the first day that was truly, truly a nice day to go boating.  The sun was out....it wasn't really all that windy.  Perfect.  Whenever we go, I have to make sure I pack up a lot of options in the cooler for her, and I think that was our only saving grace on this trip.

Luckily, Joacim caught a fish...a tiny one, but a fish nevertheless....

And Izzy was...well....bored.  She can fish for about 10 minutes, and that's being generous.  We're going to have to figure our some way to entertain her besides shoving food in her!

Cruise along the St. Croix

I had a chance to take a cruise along the St. Croix river this week.  It was a work-related excursion, but I managed to see a few cool things on my trip.

This is the Stillwater lift bridge....one of few existing....cool, right?

While we were on our little dinner cruise, there were 2 hot air balloons that came over the bluff a little farther up the river and then they headed down to Stillwater.  This one you see right here is dipping the basket in the river....CRAZY!!!  Turns out he was showing off for a classic car gathering there, but it was pretty cool to watch (and a little scary at first too ;)

There was also this cool car/boat thing that we saw.  These people must've been at the classic car show, and then just drove into the water and took off.  So cool!

VACATION!!! Sanibel Island Day 2

Wow!  What a great day (but I'm guessing that the first whole day of vacation always feels this way :)

Izzy, enjoying her donuts with an ocean view....

Joacim was still asleep when Izzy and I woke up, so we decided to let him snooze a bit longer and headed down to the beach.

It was a beach filled with all sorts of stuff!

I have no idea what kind of sea grass this is, but it's pretty freaky looking....like a bunch of strange worms....

A hawk carrying it's breakfast

We found a brochure at the hotel that described a boat outing with a naturalist, and it sounded perfect!  I mean, if we're going to spend the money, we might as well learn something along the way, right?

The boat headed out to Picnic Island, which is a small, uninhabited island in the middle of the bay.  Did you know that the average depth of the bay is only 4 ft????   I was shocked (see...I DID learn at least something!  Money well spent!)

Once we got to Picnic Island, we got off the boat and used the nets provided to search for creatures.

Pretty as a postcard!

Here's a tiny little seahorse that someone collected....it was wiggling all over the place!

She held it!!!  I can't believe it but she DID IT!!!

Here's a quick look at all of the little critters we got to see up close!

This sea slug was pretty cool...it squirted purple ink!!!

Izzy wanted to get her picture taken with the naturalist (Lindsey)!

Wooohoooo!  Dolphins successfully spotted!!!!!!

It was a GREAT trip!  We used Adventures in Paradise Cruises, and I would HIGHLY recommend them to anyone!!!

After the cruise was over, it was back to the pool!

We decided to go off the island for dinner.  I had 3 separate recommendations for Doc Fords, so we HAD to try it!  Needless to say, it didn't disappoint!

I don't even know what the heck kind of mojito this was, but I CAN say that it was damn tasty!

And we had a beautiful sunset as we crossed the bridge back to Sanibel from Ft. Meyers.  What a glorious, wonderful day!!!