Day Twelve: Waiting...

Wednesday started with most of us sleeping in. By the time we got around to doing anything, it was almost lunchtime. Zachary had several altercations with Emily today, which eventually led to him slugging her more than once. So frustrating. What do you do with a boy who can't think of any other way than physical means to unload his anger and frustration? After lunch, we left Zachary home with Grandma and went to the dump, the Soudan mine, and Tower (Zups and gas for the boat). We just pulled into the mine on a whim. I wanted to show everyone the big engine that lifts and lowers the "cage" down into the mine. It really is cool to see. The Loughners found a thrift shop in Tower (they report: "Lots of junk. Some interesting things.") We swung back home to get Zachary and unload groceries, then we went to Bearhead for about an hour. The kids played in the sand and lake, and I joined Emily swimming for a few minutes.


We got home in time to help with the last minute preparations for dinner - a traditional cabin fried fish dinner. The Hicks family graciously allowed us to eat some of the walleye that Lauren caught and Mike cleaned. The Loughners seemed to enjoy it. Allison had fixed us "faux fried ice cream" with the cream-top vanilla yogurt we bought on accident. It was an outstanding dessert.
After dinner, Zachary hit Emily AGAIN and was excluded from joining us on a boat trip to Case island. I had a bit of trouble getting the motor started after having changed gas cans again, but I did eventually get it. We only stayed for a few minutes, but we had fun letting Goober run wild. Jeremy found a stick that he was excited about giving to Josey.


Zachary went to bed early, but the rest of us played games while we waited for Tim - Monopoly Deal, Blink, and Set. Tim called at 10PM saying he was in Duluth, but I should have realized that he was really in the driveway. He had Josey had a LONG trip, having left Cincinnati at 8AM. We were up late getting Tim's things unpacked and getting settled in. I walked to the end of the driveway at midnight again to try to see the Northern Lights, but I couldn't see anything but another amazing display of stars.