Girls Weekend!

So, I'm a little behind on posting pictures so I'm trying to catch up! The girls from our small group at church stayed downtown Mpls the weekend of June 23rd while the guys went to Ian's family's cabin. Here are some pictures from our dinner at Brit's on the roof of the restaurant and then dessert at the Melting Pot.

No new pictures yet

We went out to the lake yesterday but due to some medical issues in our builders family there hasn't been a lot of progress. He spent a week at the Mayo clinic with his family, but the basement floor did get poured and the well is either dug or ready to be dug this week (we couldn't tell). But, our builder is back this week (just in time for the storms and the holiday) and is optimistic that they will get the roof up. The roof trusses are all put together so they just need some last exterior walls to be framed and up they go!

This coming weekend we are going camping with Momentum (the young adults group at our church) at Lake Maria State Park which is only about 15 minutes from our lake so we'll probably stop by and hopefully have some more pictures to show you!

Last weekend was our 5th wedding anniversary. Dan and I went to Duluth on Friday and spent the day at the canal watching the boats come in and sitting on the beach. On Saturday we went hiking and saw some beautiful water falls and then went on a 12 mile train ride up the coast. It was nice weather all weekend so we had a great time being outside and just being together.

It will be nice to have Wednesday off for the 4th of July - it really breaks up the work week. We are planning on spending some time with family during the day and some friends that night to watch fireworks. Hope you all enjoy the day!

Friends stop by at the lake

Since we are headed out for the weekend with our small group we came out today with a couple friends to show them the progress and also was a good time to have some pictures taken of both of us together in pictures!

Nothing much has happened with framing since Saturday given the rain but they did get the plumbing roughed in down in the basement. Hopefully the basement floor will be poured yet this week.

The two of us in our living room window
Looking up at the cabin at Dan and Heather
Ian and Christina hanging out

Ian, Dan and Scott testing how well the wall is framed

Ian, Dan, and Scott being silly

View from the driveway of the septic (red flag extending back across the "front yard") and the rest of the house
Looking out the front door onto our front yard and the septic system

Well, we'll hopefully be back out to the lake next weekend and can put some more pictures out there then. It will be our 5 year wedding anniversary on June 29th so we're not sure if we'll be gone that weekend yet or not, but hopefully we'll be around for part of it to see the progress!

1st floor progress

Yesterday we spent a couple hours out at the lake to take new pictures, but as soon as I opened the camera the battery was dead. So, these are taken on Dan's camera phone which is why the quality isn't the best. It is fun to see the first floor take shape! This week they have to finish the east wall and then start on the roof. The heat this last week really took a toll on the builders, but they made great progress in one week.

Ever since we started a trend with all of our animal friend stories it seems like we run into even stranger situations! Yesterday we were looking around when this big black lab ran into the yard and started following us. He proceeded to find every stick around to try and have us play catch, and then would walk approximately 6 inches from our legs when walking around. We went swimming and he jumped right in with us and again swam about a foot away from us all around the lake! We have no idea whose dog it is but apparently he thinks he is ours! When we finally left that afternoon he was very sad to see us go and chased us down the road. He may sound very friendly, but he was a little too clingy for our taste especially since we don't know where he is from. You'd think if he were someones dog they might start looking for him after about 5 hours of him being gone??

This view is from our shed and looking at the east wall that is yet to be framed

Here is the silly dog with me in the master bedroom

View from the first floor living room

This is a view from the lake looking back at the cabin

This is the front door view

The basement prior to rough-in plumbling and then cement - I'm standing in the basement family room.

We are planning to go back out this Wednesday since Dan and I are both gone next weekend with our small group - the guys are going up to a cabin (one that is finished!) and the girls are staying downtown Minneapolis in a hotel and will go shopping and find some fun restaurants to eat at. Maybe the roof will be started by Wednesday?!?

More pictures from today

Dan rowing us around the lake to take some good pics!

Heather standing in the basement

Looking out the basement patio door

View of the entire lake (everything that is full of brush in the middle is ours - you can tell where our neighbors property starts because it is kept up better)

Nice day at the lake

Today we went out to lake to see how things were progressing. Although they are behind because of all the rain, it was still fun to see the basement walls up and the basement framing almost done. Next week (if there is no rain!) the plan is to move very quickly. The deck will go on, framing on the main floor and hopefully also the roof by Friday. At the same time that is happening, the final backfill will be done and the septic will be dug in. Soooo, please pray for the storms that are threatening to happen next week to stay away from South Haven! After the roof is done we don't care how much it rains

Dan standing at ground level of the first floor close to where the front step will be
View from the boat looking back at the construction (with a crane down by the water - see! so many wildlife animals!)

Driveway view of the floor trusses ready to be laid next week

If everything goes well we will go back out next Saturday and take more pictures. I'm sure it will be very different if the main floor and roof is up!

More Rain Delays

We decided not to go out to the lake this weekend because not much has happened with all this rain! Steve said that they do have all the drain tile put in and approved and about half of it has been back filled. They are hoping Monday they can finish back filling and then Steve can put the deck (the top of the basement) on so that at least on the basement side it will be completely covered so they can lay the cement floor. He is being optimistic and saying that the rain helps to really settle the land so we won't have a lot of shifting later on, but of course we don't like delays! It has been raining all weekend so I'm not sure if they will be able to back fill or not but we'll keep you in the loop.

Also - more wildlife news :) Apparently there is a 27 inch snapping turtle that really liked all the piles of dirt around the lot and looked like she might try and lay eggs in them. So, Steve had to move a bunch of the piles in hopes that she finds another place to nest. Personally I don't like the idea of having little snapping turtles all over our lot and the lake, but I know they are just part of nature!

Well, more to come later and if they do get some work done this week we will definitely go out next weekend and take some pictures of the progress to post.