Every summer since returning to Minnesota from Pennsylvania, we have taken the week of July 4th to go to Woman Lake Lodge with Catherine’s extended family (truth be told, its our sister-in-law’s step-mother’s family that’s been going there for 60 years!). Here’s the view of Bungey Bay from the beach at the resort:
Its a prime example of the beauty of what’s “Up North” in Minnesota. This year, the kids were completely and utterly ready, counting down the days until we “go to the cabin”. We spent the week relaxing in mostly wonderful weather. The kids got to play with their cousins and the adults got to relax. It was great fun. Here’s a couple of pictures of the week’s activities:
Zakari (with his cousin Colin holding a play fishing pole in the background) showing his best “Why did you interrupt me when I was showing CoIin how to cast out a fishing line” face.
Carolina getting ready to re-enter the brisk lake water.
Carolina, Zakari, and their cousin Ben compare heights.
An example of the wildlife found at Woman Lake (”Papa Bill” got wonderful pictures of the Bald Eagles, Loons, and Herons he spotted during his boat rides around the lake).
Zakari and his cousin Colin preferred riding in the front of the boat during our sunset boat rides each evening.
Carolina and her cousin Ben confirm the boat isn’t about the crash by careful examination of the depth finder.
This is why we go on sunset boat rides at Woman Lake.
Carolina actually went water skiing (more like water “boarding”, in that the boat dragged the board and she hung on to it, but she insisted it was fun.
Aita and Zak went for a jetski ride around the lake which Zakari ended up declaring “awesome.”
Not to be outdone, Catherine and Carolina also jetted around the lake as well.
Catherine is an amazing digital scrapbook artist (so say I, her husband and digital scrapbook admirer). For the last few years, she has put together calendars featuring our children and family. Here are a few of her more recent calendar pages: / Catherine es una increíble artista digital. Durante los últimos años, se ha creado unos calendarios de nuestros hijos y familia. Aquí teneís algunos de sus más recientes páginas del calendario:
[Catherine wanted me to note that many of the graphical elements in the above images were from CottageArts and they should get the credit for the artistry of those items.]
And here are some “goodbye” notes to the kids pre-school teachers (yes, the kids actually dictated the notes to Catherine) / Y aquí hay algunas notas de los niños para despidir de los instructores pre-escolares (sí, los chicos efectivamente dictaron las notas a Catherine)
At 9:22 pm this evening, after over 3 weeks of having a loose front baby tooth, Carolina was pretty calm about it until she realized the tooth was actually out, but she came through like a trooper. Here she is: / A las 21:22 horas, después de 3 semanas de tener un diente delantero flojo, Carolina perdió su primer diente de bebe. Ella era bastante tranquilo, por lo menos hasta que se dío cuenta que se había perdido su diente. Aquí ella está:
Sorry for the lack of posts for the last six months. I can assure you the children are still growing and as you might imagine, life is as hectic as ever. A few months ago, as Christmas gifts to our family, we had some family photos shot by Catherine’s friend, Keely Wojtylak who runs “Tender Images by Keely“. The pictures were excellent and Keely was kind enough to give us permission to place those images online for your enjoyment. The photo below below is just one of many shot that day. Click on the photo for access to the full album.
Disculpame por no escribir ningunos “posts” para los seis meses pasados. Puedo asegurarle que los niños todavía están creciendo y como usted puede imaginar, la vida es tan loco como siempre. Algunos meses atrás, como regalos de Navidad a nuestra familia, conseguimosalgunas fotos de la familia sacado por el amigo de Catherine, Keely Wojtylak que funciona “Imágenes de Keely“. Las fotos eran excelentes y Keely era bastante bueno darnos el permiso de poner esas imágenes en el red para su disfrute. La foto abajo debajo una de muchos sacados ese día. Haga clíc en la foto para el álbum entero.
Well, this past weekend we went to a resort in Nisswa to join my parents and my brother, Dan, and his family. Since Dan lives in Spain with his wife, Itzi, and my nephews Mikel (4 years old) and Julen (2 years old) I don’t get to see them often. In fact, the last time we were all together was 3 years ago! So this was in fact the first time I met Julen and the first time my kids could remember meeting their Spanish cousins. Este último fin de semana fuimos a un lago en Nisswa a reunir con a mis padres y mi hermano, Dani, y su familia. Como Dani vive en España con su esposa, Itzi, y mis sobrinos Mikel (4 años) y Julen (2 años), no consigo verlos muy amenudo. ¡En hecho, la vez última que estuvimos todos juntos era hace 3 años! De veras, esto era la primera vez que conocí a Julen y que Carolina y Zakari podrían reconocer a sus primos españoles.
Here’s some photos of the reunion / Aquí tenemos algunas fotos de la reunión:
Dan and Dad learn to canoe. / Dani y Aitite apprenden usar el canoe.
It does not go well. :) / No lo aprenden muy bien. :)
The Cabanela men stand together, looking at the lake. / Los hombres Cabanela miran hacia el lago.
The patriarch really has a thing for those crab apples. / El patriarca realmente le gustan esas “manzanitas”.
An awesome group photo of all the Cabanela family. / Una foto buenisima de nuestra familia entero.
