Pictures from our Summer

I have finally managed to gather up all of our pictures from this summer and found that I missed putting a few fun ones on our blog.  These are a collection of fairly random pictures from our summer adventures:

From the Two Harbors Heritage Days street dance party this past July I found this gem of our friends from Norway-Correen, Aaron and Annemieke and Tarah and Kurt.  That was a fun night!

We met Elvis!

At the parade for Heritage Days they had a "Sons of Norway" float.  We thought it was appropriate for Gus to have his picture with the float as he is definitely a Son of Norway!

Maarit's Name Day this year was a fun filled day.  She chose to go to the Duluth Aquarium, one of her most favorite places on earth! She and Gus had a lot of fun looking at fish together.

Our little otters!

Later that weekend Maarit and I joined the Two Harbors Chalk-a-lot chalk art festival. We bought a square and chalked this tribute to our earlier Houseboat trip in Voyageurs National Park.  

Look Daddy!  Blue Hands!

Sadly, it was not the summer for hikes and canoe trips, but we did manage one little hike on a gorgeous day to Iona's Beach along Lake Superior.

Gus loves to listen to Daddy play his guitar.  He's a little music man.

Maarit and Auntie Lisa at a wedding this summer in Marquette.

Gus and Maarit with Nana Nana.

Gus and Maarit with Great Grandma.

Our little ones were lucky they got to see both Great Grandmas on the same weekend.

Maarit loved helping Grandpa in his garden while we were there just before our big move.
She (and I) can not wait until we can have our own garden this next summer!

Gus has finally, after months of showing white just at the surface, popped 2 bottom teeth.  At one point when he was 3 months old he had 4 partially popped teeth, then they receded and he has been struggling with them ever since.  Now 2 have fully emerged and he is much happier...and he now likes to bite everything, so here he is trying out a leaf.

  And here using those teeth to scrape the good stuff out of a pickle!

School has started for Justin and me.  On Tuesday Maarit is officially a Kindergartener.  She visited her teacher this past Thursday for an Open House and was excited to get started filling out the paperwork in her folder.  She is going to love school.  Her best friend Aiden is in her same class and she is looking forward to making new friends.  We are so excited for her.
Gus seems to really like Nancy, his daycare provider. He smiles when he sees her and has had good days there. We hope that continues. It isn't easy for me to drop him off in the mornings, but I have been really glad to see that he is happy and has no difficulties going there in the mornings.  He is tired when we pick him up, but it is much more active with other children than he is used to, so that is to be expected.  We are falling into a routine and even though our house is still a bit of a mess, we are making progress.
There is the slightest hint of fall in the air. We are so excited, we haven't seen a real fall in 2 years. It is my and Justin's favorite season.