Canada 2010 Lake of the Woods

**warning. week of vacation. heavy on the pictures.**

Once again, we made our way up to Lake of the Woods to spend some time at my aunt and uncle's cabins. I took Jon up there when we were ending our year in Rochester in 2004, and he was hooked. They welcome us up there every summer (except in 2006 I wimped out because Carter was so new).

Getting a family picture each summer is just like trying to get a Christmas card picture. There are many bloopers, and this is the best of the bunch.

Each morning I made Carter wait at least until there was "a nine on the first spot on the clock" before he could go over to my aunt and uncle's cabin. He would hold Graham's hand saying, "c'mon little buddy" and yell that he'd made it over there when he arrived.

We only had a couple of nice weather days, so we spent a lot of time inside. Legos, playdough, books, Toobers and Zots, and pillow forts made the days fun for the boys.

I took Carter's picture standing at the front of the boat to compare it to the first year we brought him up. He is 4 years, 4 months in this picture.

Here he is in 2007 at 16 months. Awww...

So, sure I needed to do it with Graham too! 22 months. He didn't know how to stand the first time we brought him last year, so no "front of the boat" pic then.

When we had a break in the blah weather, we headed out on the boat for an island picnic lunch. The boys were exploring the island as soon as we stepped foot on the sand (Carter loves finding crayfish parts).

Climbing a tree that had fallen over.

Graham couldn't climb this by himself, so he was happy having Jon hold him up in the tree.
Loving getting to have his life jacket off to eat lunch!

Carter was finding huge rocks to splash into the water.

An annual picture in front of Willie the Walleye in Baudette, MN.

Graham checking out Jon's walleye. Carter likes to see it's insides when Jon fillets them. Carter and my Aunt Mary Ann were talking about how if you hunt (or fish or kill) an animal, then you should eat it. So he says, "What about mice?" because they'd eliminated a few mice in their cabin while we were there. No, you don't have to eat the mice!!

On the nice sunny times, the boys dug in the sand, played in the sprinkler, and ran around. Graham did something to cause Carter an "owie" so he was apologizing by giving kisses on the hurt knee.

Braving the sprinkler!

And, daring to touch one of Carter's water balloons. Carter was a bit protective of "his" water balloons but eventually realized that Graham wasn't out to smash them all.