A look back before we go forward

Over the years...

1 Day Old

1 Year Old

2 Years Old

3 Years Old

4 Years Old

5 Years Old

............................coming soon, our two new 6 year olds!!!!

Our Brew Crew

Kids have been to 2 Brewer games this year. Jay took them after our July 4th celebration(while I wallowed in our kiddie pool decompressing from the day!) for their first trip. They sat through 9 innings and LOVED it, heat an all. Jay got a nice shot of Bernie doing his slide and Prince Fielder at bat.


A couple weeks ago on what seemed to be one of the hottest days of the summer, we spent the day at Miller Park with a tailgate and game with our friends Jill, Ted and their kids Ellen and Sara. I think the thermometer read 95 degrees on the way home. The kids were red faced most of the day but all held it together, thanks to plenty of liquids, through the entire game. Sara even had some cotton candy permanently attached to her sticky chest but made use of the handiness of the sweet stuff!

Family pic on our way into the park.

Below is my ALL time favorite pic of J and B as they celebrated our bottom(or was it top?) of the 9th win. Can you feel the heat emanating from them both?

Who would have guessed that I ( not known to be a fan of baseball) would have two baseball fanatics? I think they take after their dad and great grandma Joyce! Maybe someday, they too will be putzing around their own house while listening to a Brewer game on the radio.

Fourth festivities!

Kristi and I surprised ourselves at this year's July fourth when we estimated we had 200 people attend our neighborhood party. It is a whirlwind of craziness for about 3 hours as we try to stay on top of the activities from decorating bikes, to water balloon games while we keep an eye on the chips and salsa and dwindling supplies of frozen custard and try to catch glimpses of our kids enjoying the fun with their friends.

Sam adjusting Henry's hat while he fancied up his bike.

B bop rounding the turn in the parade on her patriotic pink bike.

We were lucky to be visited by some fun loving Madison firefighters who turned the hose on and let the kids take turns with the hose and cool off.
John not only filled up hundreds of water balloons but he also made huge bubble wands that were so fun.
Yes, Henry did get interviewed by a local tv crew. They asked him what his favorite part of the day was and he said it was the fireman's hose.

Bryn and Abbey

It didn't take either of us long to decide to jump into our pool, clothes and all after we cleaned up the park and headed home to relax.

Happy Birthday Finn!!

Has Finn really been a part of our lives for 13 years? Seems unreal since there are still glimpses of puppy Finn when he runs to great us each time we open the back gate. But most days we see his grey hair replacing his brown, watch him SLOWLY lays down to the groud, and realize we return much sooner on our walks than we did in the days of Missoula puppy Finn.

Since he doesn't get the attention he did when he was our "baby" we decided we needed to throw him (and his pal Clark) a fantastic 13th birthday party.

Elspeth made the spitting image dog cookies in honor of the big day!!

Mr. Sam not only was dancing it up with the kids but also helped make some pretty cool balloon hats.

Everyone diving in for a bite of one of Miss Elspeth's cookies. Delish!

Below are the birthday boys, Finn and Clark.

The party kids that helped celebrate!

Love ya Finny!

Cabin life

So once again we are totally behind in blog posts. The summer is just so jam packed with fun stuff that it leaves little time to sit still at a computer since I have so many other options that I would much rather do.

Anyway, once school ended we had our sights set on our northland vacation. As soon as we returned last year we asked the owner if we could reserve a week this summer and it was just what we all needed. A vacation to focus on each other with no distractions such as TV, computers, phones or a list of things to do around our house. The weather was much cooler than last year which didn't lend itself to swimming in the crystal clear lakes but we enjoyed them on our pick of boats, from paddle boats to canoes.

This year we ventured to Lake Tomahawk and watched our first game of snowshoe baseball. They have been doing it for 50 years and it was a blast. Kids got signatures of the players and we sat back and watched grown men play baseball wearing snowshoes and playing on a field of sawdust. Even got to devour a huge slice of cherry cheesecake pie while hanging out!


Not to be outdone, Jay was on his game all week long with plenty of good eats to be had. One morning as I was playing with the kids down by the dock he whipped up a feast and we enjoyed every last lick by the lake.



We did a TON of fishing. One of the first of Henry's casts reeled in this small mouth bass. He was in the paddle boat with me and the fiesty thing ended up flying off the hook and flipped all over our boat as we both screamed bloody murder. Not one of my proudest moments but we were all laughing once Jay and Bryn came to rescue us! My favorite is the fact that Henry would hold no closer than Jay's wrist!






Bryn was determined to cast all herself (which she does quite well) but eventually ended up with a tangle of line that got her quite frustrated. I finally convinced her to let me work on it and we eventually detangled the mess with the worm still wiggling so she could catch more blue gills.

The cabin is just off the Bearskin State biking trail so we did our best to out bike the mosquitos that were fierce that day.

Playing around under the bridge in Minocqua while waiting for the waterski show to start.

B's favorite were the girl skiiers, especially when they came out in tutu's for one stunt.

The dudes put on a great barefoot ski show. 9 guys all being pulled at same time on their bare feet.

A common scene as we tooled around the lake in our paddle boat.

Another relaxing vacation in Wisconsin's north woods! Looking forward to leaving the world behind and coming back next year!