One September Weekend

It was a great weekend here in the south despite temperatures that have remained in the 90's, ten degrees warmer than usual this time of year. I don't know about you, but I really love Fall and can't wait for the cooler weather so I can wear blue jeans and sweaters and drink hot apple cider. Anyway, this weekend we used the GEM to get around, we even made it all the way to a neighboring town. It feels really good knowing we saved all that money in gas and didn't add to the lovely smog. Here are a few pictures from the weekend, we went to a parade and a carnival.


This was Alia's first carnival ride. She was nervous at first but started laughing once she saw how much fun Avery was having.


This was how much candy we ended up at the parade, it filled our trick or treating bucket. I never realized how competitive it could be to get candy at a parade. Even the older woman next to us was diving for candy. Alia got the hang of it near the end and started to go for it. Avery was a little more timid and insisted that we help him get it.


Alia's favorite part of the parade was the beads and the beanie baby bear. Avery's favorite was of course the candy!


She thought the bear needed to wear the beads

Converted

Over they years we have noticed that we have progressively made more environmentally friendly options. We have continued to look for ways that we can improve what we do on a daily basis. It all started in Knife River where a single garbage bag of trash cost $7.00, but recycling was free. We were broke and quickly learned to recycle absolutely everything. Then we moved to Madison where we continued the trend and decided to raise our kids on homemade baby food and use cloth diapers. Over time we have continually learned to conserve more and use less. Then we moved to Georgia where most people still don't recycle and conservation is much less prevalent than in the Midwest.. However, Peachtree City boasts one amazingly unique feature. In Peachtree City almost every family uses electric golf carts to get around town. We have decided to adopt the trend to help us do what we can to decrease our impact while trying to influence others towards conservation.

We are trading in one of our cars for an electric LSV (Low Speed Vehicle). Below is our brand new used 2003 GEM vehicle. It is street legal and has a top speed of about 25 mph. The advantage in Peachtree City is that we can use the 90 miles of golf cart paths as well as the streets. We have been out and about with it and it seems like it will work for our needs quite well. We can get around just as quickly as in our car but at significant savings for our wallet (about 2 cents a mile) and the environment. Oh, and the children LOVE it!

Laura's Wedding

We had an amazing weekend last weekend. First because it was my sisters wedding and second because it was August in Duluth. When we lived in the Twinports we spent the other 11 months of the year longing for August. We were not disappointed. The weather was a perfect 80 degrees, with bright sunny skies, a light lake breeze and no humidity. We decided to extend our wedding trip and turn it into a week long vacation. We started our adventure by staying at a little cottage on Lake Superior. We spent that evening down by the lake throwing rocks and enjoying the views.
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Avery being the typical boy isn't happy throwing the millions of 1" rocks, he has to pick the 30 lbs one to make a "really huge splash".


The next day we decided to visit some of our favorite places around Duluth. We started with Enger tower and then progressed down to Canal park. The kids loved Enger tower more than ever. Avery thought it was a castle and Alia just loved climbing on the rocks and stairs.



The views from Enger were as spectacular as we remembered.


And of course no trip to Duluth is complete without watching ships go by while eating a caramel apple.





After our day of fun we moved into wedding mode. It was an outdoor wedding and the weather was perfect again. Duluth has a city rose garden that overlooks the lake and was the perfect place for the wedding. We were all in the wedding. Alia was the flower girl and Avery was the ring bearer.





After all of the wedding fun we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's. We spent 3 days enjoying everything the area offered. We went swimming, canoeing and fishing. Between all of that we stopped and fed the ducks, played at several different parks, and even played with Grandpa's backhoe. We packed more into three days than I could have imagined. But through it all it was fun and relaxing. The kids obviously loved the beach and never really complained about the cold water. One of their favorite parts about the trip was Grandpa's garden. Each morning they would walk out with Grandpa and Grandma and pick their breakfast. They ate so many beans and tomatoes off plants that they weren't really hungry for breakfast when we actually made it.

Canoeing the Bark Bay Sloughs to Lake Superior.


The water was crisp, clear and COLD. It is fun to walk ankle deep or take a quick dip but after that, it is mostly beach time. Avery accidentally fell in neck deep and started crying. He can't swim yet so asked it he was crying because he was scared. In between chattering teeth he said "No, I'm not scared, I'm crying because I'm sooooo cold".


Eating 'breakfast'.


Avery and Grandpa wasting time.


Grandpa was excited to take his new $50 boat out and take Avery fishing. We went to a small lake and after the first cast Avery caught a small fish. Second cast was a bite right away and was bigger than the first (about the size of a matchbox car). Avery was excited and having fun. His third cast snagged a fish right away and instantly bent his little pole. He held on and fought it in. When I pulled the fish up, he was so scared/excited he threw the pole over the edge of the boat! Here is his big fish.


Our last day we went to Bayfield for dinner. We just couldn't pass up the ice cream from the Bayfield candy shop.


After looking back at the trip we are happy that we came from the Midwest and that Laura decided to have her wedding in Duluth. The trip made us reminisce about our former life in the Midwest.