Happy Birthday to my niece, Kirsten!

Our trip to Duluth, Minnesota

This weekend we took a quick trip to Duluth. I just love the natural beauty of the area. Here we are at a museum in Two Harbors.
Walter was so excited to see some real trains! He got to see some old steam locomotives and some modern diesel locomotives in action. He was on cloud nine.

We also stopped to see the Split Rock lighthouse(you can see it if you look closely in the background). Jeff and I hiked to it almost ten years ago on our honeymoon. How time flies when your having fun!

On the second day we took our longest Ranger ride ever! We went from Moose lake to Royalton, Minnesota. Almost two hundred miles round trip! It was fun to see different territory. We saw a couple of nice depots, two raccoons,deer, a skunk, mice, and beautiful birds along the way. Then we got into our vehicle and saw a coyote as we where leaving. It was a fun trip.

The beatiful Copper Country

Today we picnicked and hiked as a family.
Check out the view of the Centennial mine

and the rolling hills in the distance. We could even spot the Lac La belle ski mountain.

Walter has become quite the little navigator and ever since our walk has been busy drawing maps of the trails and mining buildings from this area.

Our Ranger trip to Munising

Today we took the ranger to Munising, Michigan. Here is a picture of us on one of the scenic bridges.
Walter was so excited to see real train tracks

and the icing on the cake was that we got to see a train on our way home. The engineer parked in front of a motel to go in for the night. Walter begged to stay there too of course! Mr. Walter is adding to his list of" when I am a grown up" constantly these days. Here are some of the items he plans for the future.1 To buy a house across from the school 2. Put his own train layouts in it 3. Drive trains for a living. 4. Eat sugar by the spoonfuls. 5. Stay-up every night as late as he wants. 6. Answer the telephone whenever it rings! Ahh to be a grown up!


Rose E is finally feeling back to her old self. Thank goodness. We had a very low key week last week with her breathing problems. Anyway, she got to watch a little t.v. She made me laugh because she was watching a cartoon and a part scared her so she said "I runned away because that part was scary and I didn't want the t.v to see me." Goof.

Our little Rose E gave us quiet the scare. She spent last night in the hospital because she was having a hard time breathing. She is home now and doing much better, the doctors said it looked like she had pneumonia that brought on asthma symptoms.

Here are a few pictures I have been meaning to post!

The kids had a fun Fourth of July. As we where getting ready for our gathering Rose E said "the fourth of July is coming to our house." Then I thought well sort of since the parade goes right past our house!
Every year since Rose E was a baby we have taken the kids picture in front of these roses. It is fun to look back at how much they have changed in that time!

A couple of weeks ago my mom came to visit for almost a week. The kids had lots of fun with her.

This summer is already zipping by for me. I just started an online class too and that has been keeping me busy, I have mainly been working on it when the kids go to bed so have had a few late nights.

Trail Boss

Walter is out for a ride with daddy on the new (to us) Trail Boss to see an old trolley and a beaver dam up behind Lake Linden.