Sunday afternoon family fun!

My aunt & uncle were in town, from Cape Cod, over the weekend and on Sunday afternoon we took a beautiful boat ride around Lake Minnetonka. It was a little rainy and chilly, but we all had a wonderful time anyway::

Waiting for the boat::

Here it comes::

Ama & Anna::

Looking up the stairs at Jacob & BopBop on the upper deck::

There she goes::

Each of the kids {well, not Anna} got a chance to have a turn actually driving the boat. Cool big ship wheel and all! {Joe was sure we were on a pirate ship} The captain was such a great guy: friendly and patient as can be. He probably answered 65 questions from Jacob alone!

Captain Joe::

Rebekah takes the wheel::

Lydia's turn::

What kept us movin' along::

Handsome boy::

Catching a little homework time. Very little, I might add. Who would want to waste their fun boat ride doing their homework?::

Anna & Denise watching for passing boats::

Back ashore. Ringpops for everyone. Thanks, Pete::

The whole big bunch of us::

On our walk around downtown Excelsior we saw some really cool little shops and I noticed this sign and LOVED it so I took a picture {plus, Grace is Anna's middle name}. Within about 2 minutes of noticing this one we saw signs with {pretty much} all of our kids middle names on them, except for Joe {no "Carl" stores in Excelsior, I guess!}. This place was called Grace. There was a "Joy" shop too {Lydia's middle name}. We walked by a Masonic Center {I counted that one, since Jacob's middle name is Mason}. And . . .
Check this out::

First and middle for Rebekah. The sign above was commemorating something {honestly, my dad noticed it and I didn't even read the whole thing} and was on the side of the building that housed "Cynthia Rae" {Rae being Rebekah's middle name}. How cool is that? Is it just me or do you find all that really cool too? Grace, Joe, Mason{ic} and Rae all on the same block! Too fun!

It was a wonderful day spent with some wonderful people. What a great weekend!