Ball

Isaiah has started his second year of machine-pitch. We are off to a super start. Here are some highlights of the first game of the season.

It was team photo day. Here is the customary shot. Isaiah is in the standing row and is second from right.

Isaiah's first swing of the season. If you look very closely you'll see his eyes are shut. I'm going to just guess I got him while blinking. I don't "think" he shuts his eyes when he swings.

Do you see that blur of blue? Yep, that's Isaiah running from 2nd to 3rd base. That's speed, pure speed.

And here we have Isaiah about to hit home. It appears as though he didn't run a straight line and veered wide a bit. Actually, he's multi-tasking and will be picking up that bat between him and home. He had to veer out to grab it mid-stride. Amazing, I tell you.

Mama Robin

We weren't the only ones moving in last week to the new place. A mama Robin was making fast work of a little home for her babies. She is living on our patio under the overhang. We can see her sitting in her nest from our living room patio door. I'd post pictures but I'd have to find the camera and charger first. Stay tuned...



Unlike the Killdeer incident of last spring I have no worries of feral cats ruining our fun and Mrs.Robin's hard work. I think she's high enough and protected well. I thought for sure that little nest was going to blow away yesterday, it did not. Oh, me of little faith.



For now, we look out the patio window and see the very exciting act of Mrs.Robin sitting as still as a statue on her little clutch. Personally, I'm more excited to see hatchlings, this part isn't all that fun. Anna, however, is excited to see the Robin so close and unmoving. Maybe she's just more patient.

Ice Fishing

We had a fun get-together with family, neighbors and college friends this past weekend. Here are some highlights:Here we have Marcus (my little cousin), Isaiah and my cousin Courtney's girls, Josie and Grace, chit-chatting around a fishing hole.

My Uncle Doug (Marcus' dad) came up from Milwaukee with Marcus and my Grandma.Matthew somehow convinced my grandma to get in the truck and actually go on the ice and fish. Grandma had never done this before. Matthew kept her toasty in the truck while she fished out the window. She caught one heck of a fish too but it hopped off the line just as Matthew was landing it for her. He was bummed as he would have gotten the fish mounted for her as a souvenir.Our buddy from Bavaria, Manfred, and my dad. Just discussing the ins and outs of ice fishing I'm sure.My sister, Sally, Manfred and my dad. I think something was very funny.We had some snow angels grace our presence while on the ice.This is an Anna-angel.Matthew's college buddy, Chris, took the kids for rides on the ice with his 4-wheeler.Anna went for a ride, too. Apparently Anna was ready to go and Chris was speaking with someone on the sidelines. I hope he was prepared to fly. That girl likes speed.There was even some inside fun. Anna had a blast playing her best friends. Ally and Emma are the twins across the road. I believe they were all the mommies and they were taking care of their babies.After a long morning on the lake we all had some lunch in the shop. Matthew's taking a break with my Uncle Doug and Marcus.Just some more folks eating lunch.
My cousin had never had a snowmobile ride before so Matthew took Marcus for a spin.

Manfred, from Germany, had a lifelong dream of riding a snowmobile. His dream was achieved and apparently Manfred spend the evening and much of the night playing on the snowmobile. Later, he walked into the shop and said he had had the best day of his life. Ha! Snowmobiles are only used by ski slope workers and rescuers in Germany. There is no way members of the general public can ride sleds.After lunch we toured around the animals. We are all saying hello to the sheep here.
We were watching the chickens in this photo.

It was a long and fun weekend. We had a great time hanging out with friends and family and thankful for the memories.

Christmas Celebrations

We had a super duper Christmas. Lots of fun, many memories and laughs. It started with Christmas Eve. We have a birthday party for Baby Jesus. What's a birthday party without cupcakes? We spent a few minutes in the afternoon decorating birthday cupcakes.




After supper Matthew read the Christmas story from the book of Luke and then a children's story about the first Christmas. Then Anna, being the youngest, got to hold the Baby Jesus from the manger scene as we all sang Happy Birthday.

After an evening of gifts around the Christmas tree...


we watched the Christmas Story, the one with Ralphie...Matthew had been waiting 9 years, since we found out Isaiah was going to be a little boy, to give his little boy a real Red Rider. Christmas Eve, during the movie his waiting ended...Christmas Day we opened stockings and then went to my mom and dad's for the day. We all had a fun time of gifts and food. My mom made the most amazing meal that day. Thanks, Grammy.

Opening hand painted ornaments that Grammy secretly did with the kids one day so they could give to us during Christmas.

My mom and grandma made a sock monkey for Anna.

Isaiah and Anna made recipe cards for Grammy. Anna did a recipe for blueberry pie and Isaiah did one of his own creations Po-tacos. It's where you get all the fixings for tacos and pile it on a baked potato. It's actually really good.

We gave my sister a toaster but how fun is that to open so we spiced it with a little mystery. First she opened blueberry jam. She was thankful but understandably a bit confused with a jar of jam. Later, when she opened gift #2 she was even more confused when she opened a wrapped package of Lender's bagels. She was a very gracious recipient. She laughed and said she was probably THE only person that received bagels for Christmas.

Isaiah had a keyboard unit in music class this fall and LOVED it. Auntie Sally thought he should continue the skill. She thinks he'll receive a Julliard scholarship one day. I personally feel she may be a bit biased but, we'll see...

Gramps and Papa putting the Nascar racetrack together. Gramps and Isaiah are the champion racers for sure.

We are so thankful for the fun of the last week and are the most thankful for God's gift of His most precious Son, Jesus. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Refreshing

Isaiah goes to a public school. Nothing private about it. Yesterday was his concert at school. This was the title of the concert, "A Christmas Celebration". Can you believe it? They actually referenced Christmas!

There are only three grades at his school kindergarten, first and second. Each grade sang four songs. Each grade sang at least one song that actually mentioned the REAL reason for the season. It was absolutely wonderful. The kindergartners sang a song entitled Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine. The first graders sang, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and the second graders sang In a Manger. Nobody was pretending that Christmas has nothing to do with Jesus' birth. I was amazed and impressed and very thankful.

Colonial Dinner

Yesterday Isaiah's school concluded the big 2nd grade social studies unit on Colonial times. They've been learning all kinds of neat things about the Pilgrims in particular. His school has an annual celebration that grandparents attend. The 2nd graders are allowed to invite two grandparents to the Colonial Dinner. My mom and dad were scheduled to go but at the last minute my grandma was able to come from Milwaukee to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. This means my mom and grandma were the lucky ducks ate a traditional turkey dinner with Isaiah at lunchtime yesterday.
Great-Grammy and Isaiah. Notice the neat Pilgrim hat Isaiah made.

Great-Grammy, Grammy and Isaiah, awaiting the Thanksgiving feast that the amazing lunch ladies put together.

Isaiah with the best 2nd grade teacher ever, Mrs.F.

After the dinner an elderly lady, 80 years old, got up to speak of the earlier times in America. I believe she was speaking more of the early 20th century America versus Pilgrim times. This lady was apparently a teacher in a one-room school and was speaking on the importance of women's aprons, at the time. Isaiah knows that my grandma is 87 years old and he did the math. Isaiah figured that Great-Grammy was 7 years old when the speaker was born. In his 2nd grade mind I believe he thought the speaker to be telling of her personal experience with Colonial times. This lead to the question he asked my grandma.

"Great-Grammy, does this mean YOU were a Pilgrim, too?"

I am very thankful Grandma has a wonderful sense of humor as she was laughing when she told me what Isaiah said.

Morning Glory

Dear God,
Wow, that was beautiful.
And the rainbow? Amazing.
Magnificent, only You could create something like this.

Thank you!

Matilda the Brave...... or not

My dear ol' puppy dog Matilda can be a very, very brave and ferocious canine. There is a little "family" of bees that fly around our front stoop and have made a home somewhere under the threshold of our front door. They haven't bothered anyone yet and Matthew regularly sprays to keep them away.

Matilda did NOT authorize their location of residence and is not going to stand for this utter lack of regard for her opinion. She often asks to go outside only to stand guard of the pesky intruders. Matilda will fearlessly wait quietly for just the right moment and then....SNAP..... kills the pesky bees in one foul swoop of her ferocious jaws. I have seen her do this on many occasions. I do not have photo documentation of this, however, as I do not want to be close enough to the receiving end of an accidental miss. I can't imagine the bees enjoy being stalked, caught and bit by Matilda and so if she does happen to let an angry bee go I want to be far away. Please know that I am entirely truthful on this matter and am very thankful Matilda is doing what she can to control the bee population attempting to invade our home.

On the complete opposite side of this dear doggy's personality she is a major wimp. Usually this only occurs while it rains. It could be misting or full force tornado warnings and she reacts the same. I've heard of dogs that are afraid of thunder and strong winds, but mist? She will not go outside if it's raining, misting or the shingles are being blown off the roof. She doesn't even lay down in her favorite spots. Nope, not Matilda. She has special precipitation hiding spots. I now know of four. They include:

1. behind the entertainment system
2. on the landing of the stairs
3. under the utility sink in the laundry room

and today's new spot......

4. the bathroom, as far under the toilet as she could fit

I'm really impressed actually. Being that we've only had our dear Matilda for about 7.5 months we do not know her history and where she came from or who took care of her. Somebody did a remarkable job teaching her the all the safe locations during a storm. I do not know why she feels it necessary to hide in the bathroom while it's merely sprinkling outside though. There's no thunder or lightning at this time.

I guess it's better to be safe than sorry though so, I allow her to hide. We used to try to comfort and reassure her when we first noticed this behavior. No use. Matilda will not come out and only peeks out from under wherever she's hiding when all forms of precipitation have stopped.

Milltown to Luck

Yesterday we needed something to do. We needed to explore something or discover something. We decided to go for a little ride on the Gandy Dancer Trail. This trail runs along an old train bed that went up to Superior. The trail isn't that long now but it goes through our county and Burnett county to the north of us.

A person over the age of 16 needs to purchase a trail pass, either a daily pass or an annual pass. Matthew nor I had a pass so we went to the trail head in St. Croix Falls at the Polk County Information Center and got all legal. We knew Isaiah wouldn't be able to make a really long trip, this being his first. Knowing this we decided to pick two towns with very minimal miles between them. We decided upon the section of the trail between Milltown and Luck. I believe they state the mileage between the two towns as 3.7, it came out a little more than that in actuality.

What we did was drive up to Milltown and park near a section of the trail that was accessible from the road. We unloaded all of our gear and started up the trail. Being that it was an old railway bed there were some nice trees along both sides of the trail, this helped with the shade.

This section of the trail crossed over a few roads, mostly little used country roads but at one point we had to cross over Hwy.46 where it splits from Hwy.35. I make Isaiah get off his bike and walk when we cross roads, we all do that. Matthew was the road crossing instructor and would tell Isaiah and I when to cross. It really wasn't bad but we were just being careful.

We initially had a lunch packed in a cooler that Matthew strapped to a little rack on the back of his bike. Had it just been us we'd have just munched our lunch and continued on our way. Being that the kids were hot we decided to take a little break at the Wren Cafe in Luck. They had really yummy food, organic and all natural. This cafe cost a bit more than we wanted to spend, since we had a FREE lunch in the cooler, but we were making use of the air conditioning for the kids. Oh well. There's also a restaurant in Luck called the Main Dish that has pretty good hometown food. We ate there for breakfast once and will probably go back there next time. It's cheaper.

We will also try other stretches of the trail occasionally, I know there is a nice looking park in Centuria that is also along the trail. That would be a nice town to stop in with a picnic lunch, next time.

The last photo of Anna shows her sans helmet and front flap of trailer. She normally wears a helmet in the trailer but since we weren't riding on a road and it was hot I thought she'd catch more breeze on the way home without the helmet. She seemed more comfortable this way.

I'm sure we'll be doing more summer rides on the trail and exploring different sections. Matthew and I are both looking forward to the fall rides, however. We are thinking the kids may enjoy it a bit more when it's not 83 degrees. All in all it was lots of fun and we are all looking forward to doing this again.

As a bonus when we were about 20 yards away from our truck at the end of our ride two fawns walked out onto the trail in front of us. The camera was behind Anna in the trailer so I wasn't able to shoot a picture without spooking them so I'll let you imagine the sight. We all stopped on our bikes and just watched the fawns try to decide it they should cross the trail or turn around and go back from where they came. After much deliberation they stomped at us a few times and then turned around from whence they came. It was a fun little treat to see the babies up close.

Sighting

Have you ever noticed that not all towns have their fireworks display on the 4th of July? I suppose I can understand the point if you think of it as a way to draw folks in for the other events that may be happening but, I don't like it! Call me crazy.

As a result of this breech in etiquette ( 5 points if you know what movie that phrase is from) my fam. and I went to the beautiful town of Amery for their 4th of July fireworks that are ON the 4th of July. Their display was amazing. It was finale after finale in my opinion. The show was so long that my kiddos couldn't even make it through the whole show. We had to leave early, after 50 minutes, they just couldn't make it and we had a bit of a hike back to the car. We never even saw the real finale. I can only imagine. Next year, I know we'll make it next year.

Also, before the display they played the Star Spangled Banner and we all stood and could see a flag hanging from an extended firetruck ladder. So, Amery had 4th of July fireworks ON the 4th of July, an American flag AND the national anthem. This just doesn't seem to happen anymore.

Besides all the patriotic wonder of the night guess who I saw? It's crazy really..... Can you guess?

I saw KRISTI and KELLI ! Kelli and I ran to each other like you see in dream sequences in movies but, I won't get into that part. How cool!

Happy 4th of July

Sprinkle Fun

We had some sprinkler time this week. Earlier the temperature was a bit warmer. Yesterday the kiddos didn't spend as much time running through the water. I still heard lots of screams and giggles but high 70s just don't compare to low 90s.





Isaiah and Anna had to go "warm up" on the swing set in between sprinkler runs. Don't worry Grammy, nobody's lips were turning blue.




Matilda, on the other hand, stayed warm and dry and just watched.