Feels like ...tube socks.

It makes sense really. Well at least in my head. You see, tube socks were a staple of my wardrobe when I was a kid, yes even in the middle of the summer. Nothing goes with short-shorts quite like a nice pair of tube socks with blue and red strips at the top. Wait, what was my point again? Oh, tube socks equals me as a kid in Minnesota in the summer. No obligations aside from the daily exploration of the backyard and the lake, looking for the elusive lake gator (which Avery found), swimming at the lake(except the water was flippin cold and we didn't "swim"), fishing for a few pan fish for dinner, and (now that I am a grown-up of sorts) relaxing on the porch with a cup of coffee.

I have a hard time believing that the water is really still 42 degrees in late June so I am convinced that some cold water just happened to blow up from the bottom the day we were there. It was lake superior cold. Still a nice day at the beach and Avery made a few fast friends. She is a skilled friend maker, that is for sure.

Fishing round one. A little too windy for any real luck but it was still fun. She is a natural with the fishing pole. AND, her bobber even matched her life jacket.

I ventured back out to catch us some dinner later. (Thanks Ginny for the use of your fruitful dock!) There are a few more fishies hiding behind the others, including a real nice sunny. Even tried my hand at filleting that Bass. Let's just say we had bass nuggets for dinner. Never filleted before + Not a fillet knife = really hard to do. But once they had a little corn flake breading on them and were fried up in the pan, they were very tasty.

We had a few calm days to do a little canoeing. On this day a loon landed right out in front of us as we were pulling out. We decided to see how close we could get and it let us get nearly 10 feet from it before he dove and swam away. Quite a sight.

The little man likes the piano.

And a few pictures of the countless hours spent running around grandmas back yard.

There were even a few of these guys there. Even though this isn't a mosquito, it's at least one of his ugly cousins.

And there was also one of these there. I mean, we were all glad to see Erin when she arrived. :)

I think this was from one of our many attempts to scare away the lake gator that Avery found under the dock.

It was a wonderful trip to minnesota. The weather was perfect for a guy that cries about the stinkin hot weather in Kansas in the summer. 70 and NO humidity. I am realizing every day that I have something back in my life that I have been dearly missing for the last 17 years. I am so thankful to have summer vacations again.