Krassimir's birthday!

Seventeen years old - next year he will be officially an adult (whatever that means!) AND will break even on number of birthdays celebrated with his family instead of without. *Almost* there.

As a food hater, there's not much to make for a fun supper, so we did pasta and sauce, which is a less-hated meal, and Rinnah made home made chocolate pudding, which was robust enough to hold seventeen candles!

He doesn't blow, but he's seen enough birthdays that he knows what to expect, and likes have the fuss made over him!

 We certainly don't need any more *stuff* around here, so presents were few, but one thing Matt and I found for him hit the nail on the head - it's a rubber dog toy - a textured ring - and he and his new ring are inseparable!

Family vacation: Day 1

 First step was to bring Mira to her buddies at Crescent Cove. They do a *really* good job there of knowing the kids who stay and of caring for them while they're there.

Kisses goodbye, and she's off.

Next step: load the van! (AND the trailer!) We don't usually use all of the seats in Big Blue because it's pretty tight, but when we need to, we can do 3 (the wide one which used to be the old back row), 3 (the narrower one) and 4 instead of the normal setup where we have the narrow 3, then the 2, and then the four. With this set up, and Mira not with us, and Owen coming up a day later, we had room for the girls' friend, Hope. Here we go!

Our first step was at our dear friends, the Martins (if you've read this blog long enough, you'll remember Chad as the guy who came and helped Matt with all sorts of things on the addition!  (He's mentioned in this post and here are some of his kids at the bottom of this post! Oh - and one with a photo!) They moved away a little over two years ago and WE MISS THEM!!) This was our first chance to visit at their house and see their farm-in-progress, and they made room for us to spend the night.

All of the girls (except Bobbi) in one room!

Got a kick out of this - this is our old bathtub that we removed from our old bathroom before putting on the accessible bathroom! They're using it in an outdoor shower area he's creating.

A few couch cushions, and the trailer behind the four-wheeler worked to bring Bobbi (and the rest of us) on a tour of their property!

It was hard to leave the next day. These people are so special to us, and their home was such a welcoming oasis permeated by the love of Jesus. I hope we can make it up there again!

Our whole crew...and Hope. I just realized that we're almost all color coordinated! Pinks and teals and royal blue? You'd think we planned it!

This one just makes me smile. :)

And then we were off for Duluth, aiming to arrive there at noon...but that's another post.

North Shore!

 Here we all* are! (Minus the woman in the tie-dye shirt looking away from us toward the falls.) We didn't take everyone on all of our outings, but Gooseberry Falls is so accessible to so many people that it worked out well for us all to go.

More pictures later.

*All of us includes me and Matt, nine of the ten kids, Grandma, Rose and Shehan (her husband), and our niece (and her two year old - her husband had to work) and nephew.

**Oops (thank you to my sister for catching it) - and our friend Hope! We joke that Hope is our seventh daughter and that Owen is her family's fourth son. :) From the amount of time that he spends there and she spends here, it sure could be!