Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Last Days in Minnesota

We're about to start our drive down to our new home in New Orleans tomorrow (which we haven't seen yet). We're all packed up and really excited to start, especially because we'll be stopping in Chicago along the way to see our friends Mat and Karen. Then, next week we're flying to New York to hang with the Central New York crew before we start life in N'awlins'. So, here are some pics of our last week in Minnesota.


Joey in a bucket: Pike River Bathtub


First family picture with everybody in it!


Family fire tower trip

Lindz and Becky on a stroll through the woods to the fire tower.


Lindz and I on the fire tower outside of Soudan, in Northern, MN




Joey and Derek in Canal Park


Shelley, Joey, and Derek looking at a pier.




Derek threw a suprise party for Shelley's B-day and it was super fun, these all are of Shelley's work buddies.

I finally got to see them, the Finnish reggae band Conga Se Menne! They were playing at Ely's Blueberry Festival.

Here's the Aysta clan enjoying the rocking Finnish reggae.

Well, we're off tomorrow on another one of our adventures. Thanks so much to everybody for helping us pack and making Minnesota such a great home for the past year or so. We'll miss you Minnesota!!

Monday, July 21, 2008

Summertime Fun

The photos are all out of order and it keeps underlining! I'm not very skilled at this!!! binzerAuntie Susie, thanks for the solar shower you got me years ago!!!
Brian got McNasty on his portage-the Burmese skirt is soaked with mud and the bugs loved it!
After portaging....the bugs were horrific in the swamp!
Brian learns to portage the canoe.....



Honeymoon shot.....
Only the best of the best can teach Bri how to portage....No, no Binzer is spelt with one "i"
I even taught him to portage vertically.
Blue herons nesting behind the cabin!!!!

This is a portage-notice on the right...if you keep going straight in the canoe-it's over and into a massive waterfall!



This was a portage that Brian had to walk through with the canoe on his head-not pretty!!!!




We are now officially jobless. Here's Bri and his co-workers when they were out on a project up North, GPSing manhole covers and water shut off valves. I believe several people referred to them as "The Ghost Busters." We'll miss you Duluth!
Every year, the Burgess family reunites in Tower for the Tower 4th of July parade. This year, we showed Brian what the 4th is all about!



So, many of you may recognize our two friends from the wedding...Three weeks ago, our wonderful friend, Amanda, who sang at the wedding, surprised us, saying she was driving up from Chicago to visit. We came home from work, and received a message, "I'm coming up! I'll be there by 8!" We were pretty pumped to see Amanda before she embarks on an adventure in teaching in Burma this year. When she arrived, she asked Brian to help pull out her suitcase from the trunk...and who should pop out, but Chris Cimino from the trunk, Brian's good buddy from high school in New York (who played guitar to Oh Happy Day at the wedding.) Cimino had a layover in Chicago for a short two days and he hooked up with Amanda, whom he met at the wedding and they together drove up 8 hours to surprise us for two nights of fun! We were pumped to be able to see Mr. Cimino before he leaves to teach this year in Japan!

SAUNA TIME!
The Burgess boat kicked the Cebelinski's boats' butt at the Floatilla on July 4th! (For those of you who don't know, it's the largest water ballon, water fight on Lake Vermillion!)
We went on our honeymoon, and I was able to stop by and visit my wilderness camp I worked at for two summers. We stayed a night in a cabin..of course, no electricity and my old bunk, and we met the new staff. It was so nice to be up there after 5 years of hiatus!


It's almost time for the Binzer and I to jump in our Penske ( Uhaul ) truck and head down to New Orleans. We're moving next week on Wednesday...and still don't have a place yet! So, this week is all about packing and also looking for a place. We're not in freakout mode yet, but it could be here on Friday. We also just bought tickets to fly to New York to see my family! We'll be flying out of New Orleans on August 5th and then return to our new home in time for me to start my job in the middle of August.

So, we've got a lot of pictures from this summer; The 4th, our Honeymoon canoe trip, hanging out at the cabin, and such. Enjoy!

We took a side trip to see pictographs-this is of two men and a war canoe-they think it was from a massacre 500 years ago.