In August we went to Minnesota to help out at the lodge. August is by far the busiest month and also when we lose the summer help. Bad combination. So we loaded up the family and headed to Clearwater. The kids were so excited to be back at the lodge. We knew we had missed the place, but really had no idea how much we missed being there. Along with all the work we managed to squeeze in a 4 day camping trip. We packed food and gear, and set off on a our family's first overnight canoe camping trip. We found this detail to be funny. Here we owned a business that set up canoe trips and our family hadn't been on a trip together. I've been on tons of trips, and Ady has been on several with me. But as a family we had never done this together. But Brock was now old enough to go so off we went. The weather had been horrible. Solid rain and cool temperatures for days had dampened our enthusiasm slightly, but we decided to go out anyway.
Ady was definitely a pro on this trip. Since she had been on a few trips and Brock hadn't, she thought she was our guide. She had to tell Brock every little thing to expect. And give her credit, her experience showed at times. One day while Kasey and I were setting up our tent we heard this shriek and went running down to the lake. There was Ady and Brock fishing and Ady had caught a fish. She was so proud of herself, having set things up on her own and then hooked a fish.
Even with the less than optimal weather, the kids had a great time. They loved exploring the woods together and found time to occasionally "perform". Here they are dancing on a rock together.
In total we paddled across a dozen lakes and camped at 3 different sites. The kids favorite lake was one that was covered with lily pads and flowers. They made me stop paddling to take a picture of one of the flowers.
During the trip we experienced some interesting weather. This picture is us waiting for the fog to finish lifting one morning. It was so thick when we got up that we couldn't even see the island in this picture. One night we received more than 2 inches of rain. Seriously, I left a pan out to measure the ran and it was filled to the brim when I checked on it. We were able to enjoy a fire each evening and for the most part stayed dry. The last night it started raining right after dinner so Brock and I went out fishing while the girls hung out in the tent. Brock thought we were nuts to be fishing in the rain. He was even more surprised when we caught fish. He couldn't believe the fish would be caught in the rain, because as he put it, "don't they know that if they get caught they will get wet?". When we got back to camp it was dark but the kids weren't ready to go to sleep. I had to go out and make sure that the tent was going to stay dry and all the gear was okay. While I was making some adjustments to the tent I saw a frog. I caught the frog and was going to show the kids when I had an idea. I turned on my flashlight and shined it on the frog so that it's shadow was on the tent. The kids thought it was so cool. So then I went around and tried to find things to create shadows on the tent wall for them to guess what they were. The best was when I caught a crawdad. They were trying to figure out where I found a lobster! All in all, the trip was a blast and I hope to be able to do another someday.
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