Birthday Chairs

The Birthday Chairs

I tend to be a person who gets ideas in their head at times and can obsess about them until I complete a project.  These chairs were like that.  I recently got a library book by Ana White.  She is a DIY furniture-building guru who I have followed for some time.  She had pretty simple plans that she has developed herself.  Like me, she started as a complete wood working novice, and she has made a ton of things, and I am super impressed by her.

She has a website if you want to check it out:

     Ana White Website

Last fall, when Luke and I made the bed frame, it actually came from directions from her website.  She also has a few other items that I am really excited to make.

When I was flipping through the book I really liked the look of the Children's Adirondack Chair, and I could just imagine them in my back yard and Marcus playing with them.  In my mind it was a really great visual.  He LOVES furniture that is his size.  So I wanted to make them—since I have the workbench and all—why not?!!

I picked up all of the supplies for the chairs and realized how ridiculously inexpensive the lumber came to – $8.00 per chair.  I was amazed that it took so few materials to make an awesome chair.  I read all of the directions thoroughly – although there were a few items that confused me at first.  But now I was ready to create – look at the outcome!

I think it looked pretty good.  It took me about 3 hours, and to be honest, I made a few mistakes along the way.  I am okay with that because I am learning and have never done anything like this before.  So I started to obsess a bit, and I thought it would be fun to make 4 chairs instead of just one: two for Marcus (for when friends come over), one for Sophie, and one for Beckett.  I could just imagine the three of them hanging out in the chairs together!  Now this was a bit more involved, so I created a list of the lumber and the cuts I needed to do this.

Once I created the list I ran to the store and got all of the supplies – as well as some spray paint for each of the chairs.  With the spray paint, it brought to total per chair to approx. $10.00 each. Once that was done I was off to work.

It took me approx. 3 hours to completed these chairs—quite the improvement over the 3 hours it took me to complete the first chair.  I think they are super cute.

Now time to paint them!

They are fun, and I can't wait to see the little guys hanging out in them!

Three cousins.  Three chairs.

Lake Carlos State Park

Lake Carlos State Park

—Carlos, MN—

After we left Glendalough we quickly made our way to Lake Carlos – it was another drive that was really short as a bird flies, but too many lakes were in the way.  When we got to Lake Carlos, Luke stopped and spoke with the ranger.  She was super-friendly and gave Luke lots of  information on the park – but no clues for the goecache!

This was our first stop—it nicely told us that there were only 3 to go!

We programmed the next location into the GPS, and it was not very far, so we parked.  The layout to this park is kind of odd – when you drive in half of the park is on the other side of the entry road – so it means that you have to park by the rangers office and then cross a kind of busy road.  There have been a handful of parks with a similar set up.

Once we crossed the road we were on a nice hiking trail – it was a great trail for the stroller to roll on.

As I was walking and looking down at the GPS – I was pretty certain that that was the next location. 

So I looked at the back of the sign—No luck!  We looked in the woods behind the sign... No luck there either...!

Luke figured it out... this park ranger was pretty sneaky, and it was in a small hole on the sign post.

So we were on to the next.  The bugs in this park were pretty heavy, and since we were in a wooded area, it felt like we were under attack – this is added motivation to finish a geocache sooner!  We had Marcus in long pants and shirt, but his poor face was still exposed (we also covered him with a blanket for added protection).

We hiked a bit down the trail a bit and quickly came to the next stop.  See the log – it was a perfect spot to hide the next location's coordinates.

Since it was so buggy, we entered the information and kept moving.  It was a ways down the trail to the next stop.  We got a chance to hike by some ponds and a lake.  It was a very pretty sight.

There was a very cute look out—right near where our final stop was located, but we took some time to take in the view.

Luke climbed under the overlook and quickly found the box (it was nicely tucked away).

No worries about flooding here... It was at this time that Marcus and I decided to hightail it back out of bugland and get into the car—I actually ran most of the way back.

We did find a cute little critter on the way back and watched him awhile... he moved pretty fast!

We got back into the car and were ready to head out.  It was still 100 miles to our stop for the night – Grandma and Grandpa's house.  (Incidentally, on the way back through Long Prairie and Little Falls there were town festivals going on in both places with fireworks as we drove back... Holy law enforcement out on the roads that night!!)

One last view!

This weekend geocache adventure was finally completed, and we made all of our goals!