The Patterson's: Up-North GULL LAKE 2012

ANNOYING!!! So, whenever I blog (which I know was two months ago the last time!!), I usually have to go through the pictures and upload them in reverse order so that they then post IN order. Well, apparently blogspot has changed and I no longer have to do that! SO, you are getting the picture in reverse chronological order... ARGH:)

Elliott, Em, Olive, and my Mom and Denny, and I all went up to Cragun's on Gull Lake the weekend of Father's Day. Elliott have a voucher to go racing in a Spec. Car on Brainerd International raceway, so we decided to make a weekend of it.

We were fortunate to borrow El's friends boat, and hope to get one some day.... it was such a blast! We had beautiful weather on Father's Day, until about 6:15pm, so El and Em were in the boat from just about 8am-6pm! Emma did take a little break so she could go swimming on the fantastic playground they had set up on the beach.

The weekend in pictures...

We spent Monday afternoon in Nisswa, a fantastic little touristy town, before we headed home. We had pizza, then shopped a bit (both families made a purchase), and then rounded out the day with some fantastic ice cream. You can see in the picture below that Olive really enjoyed some of Elliott's Superman ice cream! I NEVER would have even thought of letting Emma try that at that age! The things you'll do with a second one!

On Father's Day, the Patterson clan was responsible for dinner - T-BONE steaks from Costco = HUGE! Emma's favorite food is steak, especially the bone. The picture of our little carnivore is almost more than I can handle... eww...

Elliott took us all out for a boat ride Sunday afternoon, about 4ish. We could see dark cloud s coming in, and once we got out past our little inlet, on the big part of the lake (Gull lake is HUGE), there were little white caps and poor Em was FREEZING! She hid under the seat and wheel, wrapped up in a towel.

We got in to Cragun's Saturday about 4pm. Sunday morning Emma and Elliott were out the door and on the boat about 15 minutes after Emma woke up! Emma decided that she would be in charge of netting the fish (thank goodness for the kids fish net from Florida!).

Once she got the hang of it, she was FEARLESS with the fish. She kept getting them out of the livewell, petting them, picking them up, and then putting them back in! She was also a great champion of mine, encouraging me as I HAD to be the grown-up and bait my own hook with the worms! GAK!

Holding the Rock Bass - BIG GIRL!

Grandma Loerch and Olive Grace

Papa Loerch and Olive

So this is actually the first fish of the morning - the elusive Walley! Elliott sad that just a few seconds before he took this picture she was almost crying because she did not want to hold the fish. He told her if she didn't hold it they were going to go back in to the cabin! He knows her so well.... By the end of the day, like I said, she was all over the fish. Man, I LOVE the smile on her face in these two pictures - pure joy and delight!

Father's Day.... I had asked Emma questions about Elliott - "what is your favorite thing to do with Daddy", "What do you like daddy to call you", "when is Daddy the silliest,". He most certainly enjoyed the writings, and I framed them for him to save today.