15th Birthday!

Birthday morning!

 

Our first baby turned 15 yesterday! It is hard for me to believe, but she doesn't seem phased by it at all. We didn't do much to celebrate the day, but we did have a nice lunch and steaks for dinner. Today we are having lunch with Grandma and Grandpa P. and they are bringing a cake so that we can do the candles and singing thing. Neither of which is Abbie looking forward to -- apparently she is too old for candles and singing -- LOL. As for presents, she received presents from Marge and Pat the last time we saw them (just in case they didn't make it for another visit before we left MN), but she will have to wait until we get home from the cabin to get the rest of her presents. 

In the yard

Speaking of the cabin, we have been having a lazy summer vacation and Abbie has been taking advantage of the downtime to get all of the files on her computer organized and to stockpile some social media posts that she can use for her business when the school year gets hectic. Lest you think that we have been doing absolutely nothing, we have been berry picking quite a bit. Over the past few weeks we have brought home about eight quarts of raspberries to eat fresh and also on top of ice cream.

Berry picking

The girls have also been taking regular bike rides to a neighboring town where they can treat themselves to either freshly made mini donuts or ice cream. We also took a day trip to Duluth and dipped our feet in Lake Superior, which was incredibly clear and refreshing. We also tried to go to the local arboretum but we chose a day that was too hot for doing much walking and the horseflies were making Chad crazy, so it was a brief visit. The girls did manage to take some nice photos, though, and Abbie was kind enough to touch up the colors for me.

Arboretum

With just about a week left to our vacation, we are trying to enjoy the time that we have but also starting to think about the new school year. Abbie will be in-person, masked. She is a bit anxious about it, but there is no online option for her this year and it will (hopefully) be good for her to get back to "normal" life. The first week that we are home she will be spending her afternoons volunteering at a French camp that her French teacher has organized. It is being held at her school so it will definitely help her get back in the swing of being on campus.

Of course, being 15, the other very obvious item on the to-do list is for Abbie to get her driver's permit. I'm sure that I'll have more to report on that in the near future! :)