4th of July holiday in {photos}!

We were lucky enough to visit a good friend's mother's WI lake house over the 4th of July holiday (did you follow that relation?). We had so much fun! After being there for minutes, we wondered "why did it take us so long to come and visit?!"

We had fun riding the jet skis, pontoon boat, visiting the sand bar for some fun in the water, kayaking, watching sun sets, and ate a ton of food. We also brought our dog Niko with us, and he also had fun in the water and running around the spacious yard. 

There was also a beautiful garden that they build not far from the house. It was gorgeous complete with a drift wood door arch.

(photo by Sixpence Photography)

I loved that we had so much time to connect again with mother Earth, and just be in nature. Listening to the lake, the breeze blowing through the wild tall grasses, viewing the sunsets... it was just amazing. God's beauty and talent, in both nature and people, is so inspiring, relaxing and something to remember.

Life Is: Peaceful

Life is peaceful here on my husband's grandparent's tree farm.

Walking around the tree farm and gazing at God's beauty is one of our most treasured and peaceful moments! Michael's grandparents purchased this land in 1978 because they realized how much money people were spending on Christmas trees, and thought "why not grow trees and sell them?" They had the soil tested by a local forester and it was ideal for many types of trees! It wasn't until 1981 that they planted evergreens, walnuts, blue spruce, white and red pine, and cedar seeds. 

Before the land was a tree farm, it was farm land full of tall grass, corn fields and a cow pasture. There was a lot of work that went into prepping the land to get it ready to be seeded.

The great thing about a tree farm is that there is an abundance of fire wood, and the potential to have your own home grown annual Christmas tree!

Michael's grandparents had hoped that one day their grandchildren would benefit from the tree's harvest profit. The farm still has yet to be harvested, but one day in the future the farm will look quite different.

The tree farm has much sentimental value to our family with some of us growing up on the land, many of the grandchildren spending their summers working on the farm, and a few of us (me!) just have memories of visiting the farm to enjoy the beauty it has to offer. 

Having never heard of a tree farm before meeting my husband, he would recall fond memories working the land. There were always fallen branches to collect and feed through the wood chipper, lower branches to trim to help promote straighter boards with fewer knots, sick trees to weed out, and other tasks. I remember specifically hearing about the volunteer trees (trees that the squirrels planted, no joke!) on my first visit to the farm. After realizing hubby wasn't trying to fool me, I thought it was so interesting (and made perfect sense) that squirrels had helped plant some of the trees on the farm!

Little hubby helping on the farm. Isn't he so cute?!

Did I mention that before purchasing the farm land, Grandpa and Grandma Nelson acquired lake front property? This property is where they built a homestead in 1950, and still live there today, almost 65 years later.

The crisp, fresh scent of pines in the fall is something only God could imagine. Ahhhh, cedar too.

Michael and I were lucky enough to get our first Christmas tree from the Nelson tree farm (in 2008!). We hauled it the entire 6 hours back from MN to our home in IL, inside our vehicle. You don't want to lose all the needles, right?

The tree farm is also beautiful in every season, even during a Minnesotan winter.

Our dog Niko also loves to visit the tree farm. You should have seen him on his first visit! He loved to run around the 10+ acres off leash, tromping through mud puddles, chasing squirrels, getting a drink from the lake, and chewing on sticks! Oh there were sticks galore!

(Isn't our first little boy, Niko, so pretty? He is a Finnish Spitz, and we've had him since he was 10 weeks old. We love him so! He's now almost 5 years old!)

This tree farm has been in my husband's family for decades, and I hope that one day our children will have fond memories of the farm too. Grandpa Kenny's biggest reward since starting the tree farm has been that his grandchildren acquired a bit of love for nature because of it, and I definitely think that was accomplished!

This is one of my favorite pictures of us on the homestead. It's perfect with the lake and sunset behind us. This was taken in the beginning of 2008 when we were newly engaged! :o)

Nature seems to always help settle me and bring me back to my center. 
Do you have a place that you like to visit that automatically calms you and is peaceful? 

¡Viva México!

I'm excited to share some photos from our recent vacation to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico! We had an adventure and traveled to Mexico for my cousin's wedding. We stayed in a nice little boutique style hotel, that is basically rented out for the entire wedding group of family and friends. I've never heard of that or experienced it, but it was so awesome. Since we had Christian with us, it allowed for us to relax and not worry about having him out and about in the hotel since everyone knew each other! Plus if you put your stuff down and needed to go back to your room, you knew your camera and pool gear would be there when you got back.

We had an amazing view too which was breath taking! It was a corner room with a wrap around patio balcony. Being on the third floor had it's perks, and the view was the best one! :o) Our room was a suite style room, which had a common/lounge room with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms attached. My family and immediate family all stayed in one suite. 

Every day there was an open bar all day long. We are not heavy drinkers (not since college at least), but we loved having the option to get a drink whenever the moment struck us! I had a piña colada every day! Yum! Plus some others...

This was Christian's first trip on an airplane as well. He did great traveling on the way there, since thankfully there was an open seat right in front of us (and the other two passengers were willing to switch)!! On the way back was a little trickier since we had to try and entertain him on one of our laps. Boo. He got a C+ for that flight since he wasn't horrible but not great. We loved that we brought our Boba G3 with us, it helped a lot!

Sooner than later I will also be posting about our traveling arrangements and ideas for toddlers! I'm excited to share what worked for us and items that come in handy.

My little man ready for the wedding! Bow ties are cool.

We had an amazing trip! I wish we would have had more time to experience more of the culture and explore, but traveling with a toddler is difficult and time consuming enough. The massage (my first ever!), drinks, food, family, sand, waves and pool time were a lot of fun.  

Sigh. 

I already miss it!