Lake Miltona Minnesota 2009

Katie and I have just returned from a week with the family at a cabin on Lake Miltona in Minnesota. We had all sorts of fun activities to do all week long. Here are a few photos from the trip.

Katie and I arrived ready to relax...


Grandpa had a fresh set of stories to share with the girls.


There were boating adventures aplenty.


Lots of fishing...


... and even the occasional catch (he'll be ready in another 3 years).


Grandma on the jet ski.


Of course, many silly faces!


Play-Doh is always a crowd pleaser!


Kids of all ages enjoyed the amusement park.



The cabin was in the perfect spot for some amazing summer lake sunsets.



And finally, our group photo on the beach at sunset.

Philadelphia Birthday!

We celebrated my 34th birthday recently, and since my mom's birthday is the day before mine, we made a weekend of celebration out of it. We started with a Friday night dinner at Gian Marco's, an Italian place I'd been wanting to try for a long time. It didn't disappoint! Afterwards, we came home to a homemade peach pie that Katie had made. We picked the peaches ourselves, right off the tree in Chilton County.


On Saturday we headed up to Huntsville. We took mom to the Huntsville Botanical Gardens, which is where we stopped to get this nice picture.


The main attraction is the very large butterfly house. Mom spent lots of time watching them fly all around her.


It was a really hot day, so we took a lot of breaks. Here Katie and I are taking a rest in a very unusual garden.


A couple of days later, all of my birthday gifts were in place and it was time to open them. Katie had been hinting that it was a themed birthday, but I had no idea what the theme was until gift opening time. The theme was Philadelphia. Genius! She got me an It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia DVD set, an Eagles shirt, the Original Philly Cheesesteak book and a box full of TastyKakes! Amazing set of birthday gifts!



Do you think I was excited about the TastyKakes?


I couldn't have asked for a better birthday. And yes, as you probably noticed, my gift to myself was a birthday beard. First time for everything!