Minnesota has over 12,000 lakes. In fact Minnesota has more shore square footage than Florida, California, and Hawaii combined. National Geographic has ranked Northern Minnesota as the #1 island destination in the country.

We were elated to have an extended stay in Minnesota this summer to enjoy this beautiful state and spend time with family. 

Danielle got her first experience with a wood splitter.   

My parents bought a swimming pool at Mills Fleet Farm for just $70. Being the owner of www.cleanmypoolmyself.com I was excited to see how this small pool with filter would work out. It turned out great and I would highly recommend an above ground pool like this for people who would love a pool a few days a year.

We even had a few Pool Parties.   

We would hang out by the fire and enjoy the beautiful Minnesota weather.

Nevaeh carrying Bailey on our daily walk. 

Mike likes to eat the leaves on the Basswood tree.  

Minnesota’s State Bird is often referred to as the Mosquito. This mosquito won the battle so Danielle ended it’s life and won the war.

My dad LOVES to hang out with The Traveling Pomeranian. 

We had a date night in Otsego Minnesota at the Pour Restaurant where they had live music. 

We went to the Como Zoo. It’s a free zoo in the Twin Cities.    

The town of Princeton put on a free event downtown with live music and TONS of things to do. Vendors lined the streets with their booths. It was great to see some old friends I grew up with.

For years as kids my brothers and I would ride bike with neighbor kids to Mark Park to play baseball. Now they’ve added on and they have Splash Park for kids to cool off in the summer heat. 

A very good friend of mine (Mike Ternes) that I played football with for the Princeton Tigers is now a Defensive Back coach for the team. He invited me to come take pics for a scrimmage one morning. It was not only great to head back to the local high school but to watch the action and remember the memories our beast of a team had growing up. There were many life lessons learned on this practice field.

A typical night out with Justin Haehn…

On the way to the River to Canoe Bailey thought it would be a good idea to hang out on the dash.   

I may have fallen asleep…

My mom pushing Danielle around at Target!  Target is headquartered in MPLS and Danielle got to shop in the sky-scraper this summer. 

A random Minnesota Pond.

One of the Minnesota County Fairs

One of our many games of horse. 

Nevaeh learned to ride bike without training wheels!

My parents have a nice garden. They have 4 acres and they allow a local farmer usage of their back 2 acres for planting a variety of vegetables. Look at this zucchini that my brother has! Bailey ate a lot of fresh vegetables as well.

Before the Sunflower opened. 

After

The Traveling Pomeranian made herself right at home.   

Notice nobody is smiling…This was the farewell, I didn’t want to leave but the journey calls.