Feeling Joyful

Just feeling really grateful for these kids. Today was a great day. Zachary got the second tip on his karate white belt. Jeremy and I spent the day at Totter Otterville with the Kruse family.

Below are some photos of last Saturday. Besides a soccer game, we had fun at the pumpkin patch. We met Lisa (Beck) McMahan and her family there. She was my next-door neighbor growing up. Now, she's a fellow Lovelander. Her son Christopher is between Zachary's and Jeremy's ages. They got along great and had big fun at Blooms and Berries.

A Week In the Life

I just finished a fun week of taking photos and documenting the life of our family. I actually have created and ordered an album from snapfish. I'm not sure this will work, but here's a link to the album:

http://www1.snapfish.com/memorybook/ordertype=HMB/orderId=172677500/orderstatus=SHR/ownerid=25280692/upc=Memorybook+-+Leather+Cover/u_=1112406268041312_xfc3f3ba45f218d4_xfc1000131_xfccarolc1999%40juno.com_xfc1000000_xfcSFOPRD02_xfc1_xfcUKt.1eQsbB2BPgr61nhzfg--/t_=25280692

Or, the raw photos are here:

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=233666870/a=25280692_25280692/t_=25280692

This is only for those of you with alot of time on your hands (Dad!). I took a lot of photos. It helped me see how beautiful this place is where we live. And how precious these moments are.

Love to All!

Funny Guy

This boy is fun!

Catching up

What a busy weekend! But first, here are some photos:

Preview nights/First days of school (Jeremy's first day was posponed THREE DAYS due to the power outage!) (Note: We now have 2 different schools and 2 different bus stops. That's 4 trips back and forth to the bus stop per day for a total of about 1 mile of bus related walking. Josey is loving it.)

Zachary with his best friend Tommy (above), and Zachary with his AWESOME teacher Miss Gill.

We had a great weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. Friday night they had a chance to see Karate class. Zachary had an AWESOME class. Saturday morning was Jeremy's soccer game (with Tim coaching!). We had a chance to stop at "Granny's Garden" at Zachary's school. Zachary, Grandma, and I were able to pick some flowers from the learning garden. Then, Mom and I went to see the gardens at Earthshares and to Old Loveland to do some shopping. Actually browsing. It was lots of fun. Then home for Zachary's party. Grandma Hicks, Mike, Louise, Lauren, and Jackie joined us. So much fun!

Here's Zachary showing the card that Jeremy gave him. Jeremy wrote everything himself!

The boys used Zachary's birthday money to buy Spongebob popsicles from the ice cream truck. Fun, but where, oh where, is Mr. Softie. There was nothing like getting that soft-served ice cream right from the truck with the ringing bell.

Blackout

We are officially out of the dark! From Sunday afternoon until Wednesday afternoon, we had no power thanks to the "hurricane that hit Cincinnati" (as the news stations are now calling it). Because of a neighbor generous sharing of his generator, we only lost SOME of our fridge and freezer. That was probably the most stressful worry - saving our food! Especially all of those delicious garden veggies I had painstakingly prepared and frozen. I'm happy to say, all the veggies are again living safe and sound in my freezer. Now, where are the yellow pages? I want to buy a generator!

Patio

Yay! On Tuesday, August 26 our patio was completed! It was a year and a few months ago that we started sledgehammering our old 10x12 concrete patio, and finally we have a new one. We'll be adding some landscaping this spring or fall, but for now I'm SO HAPPY!


BEFORE (Easter 2003):











DURING (May 2007):











THE CREW (Just kidding!):










FINSHED PROJECT:

Minnesota Day Eight

What a beautiful day! The day started with an early morning walk with Tim and Josey. Then a BRISK swim. We made the boys' day by having blueberry pancakes for breakfast. We launched Mike's boat today, played in the lake, AND Jeremy caught his first fish. The weather was perfect, too. It doesn't get any better than this.

Minnesota Day 7

Thursday was a chilly, rainy day. We ALL enjoyed having a lazy day in the cabin. Friday was jam-packed. The boys were thrilled to go to the laundromat in the morning! There's nothing like putting those coins in the machine and watching the clothes go around, I guess. We left Mom there to have all of the fun while we went to storytime at the library. Miss Kate might just be the best storyteller ever.

It's a HUGE weekend in Ely -- the Blueberry Festival. There's really nothing like it. Tons of craftspeople and vendors. The boys mostly had fun eating corn dogs and fried cheese curds. THEN, we went BACK to the library for a magic show. What a blast. Zachary let the dove sit on his shoulder for a photo!!

Tim arrived at the cabin on Friday night at 11PM after a 15 1/2 hour drive. Today we played around at the lake and just hung out. Mom made a blueberry rhubarb pie. Outstanding! It was windy all day, but tonight when it got calmer, we went out in the canoe. We got a little too close to an adult loon and its 2 babies when suddenly the mate was shooting out of the water not 5 feet from the canoe. It suprized the heck out of us. Now Tim's putting the kids to bed. I'm SO glad he's here!

Too many photos to post, so you can find them at http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=233177242/a=25280692_25280692/fromupload=true/imagecount=14/videocount=0/t_=25280692

if you're interested.

Minnesota Day Four

Bear 101. No - we didn't see one in the woods. We went to a talk about bears at the Township Hall across the street. Lyn Rogers was there, but he did not give the lecture. There wasn't much that we didn't already know. The one interesting thing (for those of us living less than a mile from a guy who feeds and studies wild black bears, anyway) was a study of 3 groups of orphaned bears that were collared and tracked. One group had very little contact with humans before being released into the wild, one had a moderate amount of contact with humans, and one had daily contact. They were released into the same area, and all had the same likelihood of becoming "nuisance bears." The bottom line: BE BIG; BE STILL; BE LOUD. There you go.

The day was PERFECT weather-wise. A little breeze, beautiful skies, temps in the upper 70s. Awesome. We played and played outside. I took Z out in the canoe. Unfortunately it was a little TOO breezy, and I still haven't learned my lesson about how I should head out INTO the wind. When it was time to turn around, I could barely control the canoe, and I wound up WALKING it along the shore back home. My paddling skills could definitely use some improvement! Of course this all happened with an audience, as the Knapps and a group of friends were all out on their dock. Nice.

Minnesota Day Three

Yesterday, Zachary learned how to play the card game Golf. He's now obsessed with it, and he and Grandma played all morning. We went to town today and had lunch at the Ely Lodge. We even got to go to the Ely Farmer's Market ("The farmer's market with the shortest growing season in Minnesota.") They actually had lots of nice stuff. Lots of herbs, some awesome homemade breads (including lavender bread - YUM), kale (which is out of season at home), other veggies, and even free range meat from a farm in Embarrass, MN. So fun. It was a long day in town. We did get a chance to swim when we got home. That made for a very late dinner, but the boys were GREAT. What a beautiful day!