Strider Bike

Well this video should make up for the lack of posting....here is Blake on his strider bike--a new hobby! We can barely pull him off his bike each night! Enjoy!

Cabin and Baptism....they both involve water!

If you were missing the video of the haricut from our last post, it's there now. Sorry, I must have had some technical difficulties. Our July started out with trip to the cabin. For those of you who don't know, it's my dad's family cabin, built by his dad and now owned by my uncle. We usually try to get up there at least a couple times a year...well I do. Once it's with the family, and once with my girlfriends. [Those pictures won't be in the blog! :)] Anyway, this was a nice vacation for our family along with my parents. Although if you ask my dad, it wasn't really a vacation as much as a entertain Blake week. But we all had a great time. Due to the state being shut down we couldn't "legally" go into Itasca State park which is just miles from our cabin. That is one tradition I was very sad about, I've never gone to the cabin and not gone over to the park. I was really hoping we could go, as I know Blake would have had a good time trying to scale the rocks. But I guess we'll just have to spend extra time there next year. Oh well. Amidst the dear flies and 'squeeters we did a couple meals by the fire and just had a relaxing time. Blake took his first Heart Lake boat ride, which consists of a troller motor on a fishing boat. So not very fast...just his speed. He wasn't too sure about the boat, but loved his life jacket--so I guess we're all right. We went over to see Paul Bunyan in Bemidji, another tradition that we used to do as kids. It's changed quite a bit since I was younger...it used to seem so big!
After the statue, we went to Paul Bunyan Animalland which is basically a wild life refuge in Bemidji. Interesting to say the least, but Blake had a blast feeding all the animals. He even took time to say by to them as we moved  on. He is a very considerate little boy, gotta love him! Here are some pictures and videos from the week.

A new tradition hopefully we can do each year as it was such an enjoyable time. But if you thought our summer was just winding down...think again. We finally got Blake baptized at the end of July. We had delayed this ceremony for a couple reasons, one is that we didn't have a church family, and secondly we didn't want to just get him baptized anywhere. So we joined Immanuel Lutheran Church in January, and decided this is where he should be baptized. The ironic part of the whole thing is that my Grandma Soholt [mom's mom] was very adamant about us finding a good church home and getting Blake baptized. She was elated this spring when we told her that we joined a church and July 31st was the B day! Sadly, we lost Grandma Soholt, just days before the baptism. She was 94. Although it was an emotional Sunday I knew secretly that she was looking down upon us with a smile on her face knowing that her wish had come true. Blake was her shining light, and he always made her smile-so it was very fitting.

Below is the video of the baptism. It's a little long, but feel free to fast forward to 4:48, needless to say Blake was totally fine watching the other girl get baptized, but when it was his turn...NO WAY. The full arm brace and "daddy" came out, which led to a needed comic releif to such an emotional event.

Until next time...

THE Haircut

So I figured in lieu of the HOT day we're having I would post Blake's latest haircut. I figured we needed to cut it so he wouldn't be so sweaty...no one wants a sweaty toddler!
We're off to the cabin next week, so I'm sure I'll have some fun pictures when we get back!