Thursday, August 24, 2017
Monday, August 21, 2017
Our Vacation
Here are some of my random vacation pictures. The birds are spruce grouses. They survive the winter by eating spruce needles. Doesn't sound very filling, does it?!
Sunday, August 20, 2017
Our Vacation
I forgot to include a picture of Danielle's when I posted the other day. It has a funny story to go along with it.
We had a rodent problem in our cottage. After awhile, it got a little old. We were supposed to leave Saturday morning, but after finding another mouse in the house on Friday, we all agreed we didn't really want to spend another night. Of course, we didn't decide this until we were getting ready to roast marshmallows around 7:30 in the evening. We packed up the car - what that really means is the kids made a couple trips up and down all those stairs to get the rest of our stuff to the van - and then enjoyed our s'mores. Around 10pm we left the mice alone in the house to have their little party, and we made the 40 minute drive into town. We had to find a place to dump our trash since the cottage didn't have trash service and the dump was closed. We drove around a shopping plaza, taking lids off various trash cans and stuffing our bags inside until we got rid of all 3 bags. We stuffed the bag of dog poop in the trash can at the gas station. It was kind of funny. By the time we finally got on the road, it was midnight. I drove so Ron could make some calls in an attempt to get a hotel room a couple hours away. We had no problem finding a hotel room for the four of us and the dog on the way there, but we couldn't find a thing on the way back!! I drove until 2:30 and then handed the wheel over to Ron, who drove for another hour. At 3:30 am we pulled into a service station to get a couple hours of sleep in the van. It really was a fun adventure. The dog settled down and before long all 4 of us were asleep. I woke up almost exactly 2 hours later. I woke Ron up so we could switch places and I could drive us a little further before everyone woke up, but when we attempted to start the car, it just clicked. In case you're wondering, no one really wants to help someone jump their car at 5:30am at a random service station in Canada. We had jumper cables, but it was hard to find someone that was willing to help. Maybe Ron looked a little questionable in his glasses and stubbly chin? Finally, someone had a change of heart came back to help, and the van started right up. By this time we were all awake and got to enjoy the beautiful sunrise, which Danielle captured in this picture. It was all part of the experience. :)
We had a rodent problem in our cottage. After awhile, it got a little old. We were supposed to leave Saturday morning, but after finding another mouse in the house on Friday, we all agreed we didn't really want to spend another night. Of course, we didn't decide this until we were getting ready to roast marshmallows around 7:30 in the evening. We packed up the car - what that really means is the kids made a couple trips up and down all those stairs to get the rest of our stuff to the van - and then enjoyed our s'mores. Around 10pm we left the mice alone in the house to have their little party, and we made the 40 minute drive into town. We had to find a place to dump our trash since the cottage didn't have trash service and the dump was closed. We drove around a shopping plaza, taking lids off various trash cans and stuffing our bags inside until we got rid of all 3 bags. We stuffed the bag of dog poop in the trash can at the gas station. It was kind of funny. By the time we finally got on the road, it was midnight. I drove so Ron could make some calls in an attempt to get a hotel room a couple hours away. We had no problem finding a hotel room for the four of us and the dog on the way there, but we couldn't find a thing on the way back!! I drove until 2:30 and then handed the wheel over to Ron, who drove for another hour. At 3:30 am we pulled into a service station to get a couple hours of sleep in the van. It really was a fun adventure. The dog settled down and before long all 4 of us were asleep. I woke up almost exactly 2 hours later. I woke Ron up so we could switch places and I could drive us a little further before everyone woke up, but when we attempted to start the car, it just clicked. In case you're wondering, no one really wants to help someone jump their car at 5:30am at a random service station in Canada. We had jumper cables, but it was hard to find someone that was willing to help. Maybe Ron looked a little questionable in his glasses and stubbly chin? Finally, someone had a change of heart came back to help, and the van started right up. By this time we were all awake and got to enjoy the beautiful sunrise, which Danielle captured in this picture. It was all part of the experience. :)
Saturday, August 19, 2017
Our Vacation
Here are a few pictures Tyler took while we were on vacation.
I love it when the kids take pictures. It's always neat to see their perspective.
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| A sunset over one of the lakes on our way back to the cottage one evening. |
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| The wet boardwalk along the Spruce Bog Trail. |
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| Relaxing at the cottage |
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Back to School
I have no idea where the summer went. One day we were watching fireworks with friends and the next we were shopping for school supplies. July seemed pretty much nonexistent. We had a good summer. It was busy. Both kids had a lot going on, so it was difficult to find time where the three of us could go do something together. We fit in what we could, though, and enjoyed it. I enjoyed time separately with the kids, too. I have a lot of pictures from this summer and several from vacation still that I'm planning to post once we settle into a routine and I have a couple minutes to myself in the evenings. In the meantime, enjoy some back to school photos.
Yesterday Tyler started 10th grade and Danielle started 8th.
I'm not sure how that happened since they are both still this size, right?!
They both had good first days. After all, it's the second best day of the school year! ;) The first day is always so full of hope and high expectations. And then comes the second day. (Just kidding!)
I started my 7th year in the kitchen. Most days I enjoy it. It is a struggle getting back into the routine of standing for 7 hours straight, though, after being off all summer.
I came up with the idea for this year's back to school cake pretty quickly, which is rare. I still stressed about it for a solid week before hand, but I at least knew what I was going to make. Tyler is taking his honors chemistry class for college credit this year. It's through a community college but taught at the high school. He had to apply to the college and test into the class, so it was kind of a big deal as a sophomore. I thought this theme was fitting. (There isn't an element with just the letter "L", so I picked "Li" because "lithium" was smaller to write than most of the other "L" words!)
I stress over this every year, but every year I know how excited the kids are about it and how much it means to them. I think it means even more to them now that they're older. And as stressed as I was, I was very much aware that I only have 2 cakes left that will include Tyler.
Yesterday Tyler started 10th grade and Danielle started 8th.
I'm not sure how that happened since they are both still this size, right?!
They both had good first days. After all, it's the second best day of the school year! ;) The first day is always so full of hope and high expectations. And then comes the second day. (Just kidding!)
I started my 7th year in the kitchen. Most days I enjoy it. It is a struggle getting back into the routine of standing for 7 hours straight, though, after being off all summer.
I came up with the idea for this year's back to school cake pretty quickly, which is rare. I still stressed about it for a solid week before hand, but I at least knew what I was going to make. Tyler is taking his honors chemistry class for college credit this year. It's through a community college but taught at the high school. He had to apply to the college and test into the class, so it was kind of a big deal as a sophomore. I thought this theme was fitting. (There isn't an element with just the letter "L", so I picked "Li" because "lithium" was smaller to write than most of the other "L" words!)
I stress over this every year, but every year I know how excited the kids are about it and how much it means to them. I think it means even more to them now that they're older. And as stressed as I was, I was very much aware that I only have 2 cakes left that will include Tyler.
Friday, August 11, 2017
Our Vacation
Here are some of Danielle's pictures from vacation.
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| The kids had fun exploring the trail around our house. |
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| The mushrooms were interesting shapes and colors. |
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| We had lots of these guys in our "yard". There were also a lot of woodland jumping mice. They are golden and were cute to watch. They also stayed out of the house, so that was a plus. |
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| This is my favorite. |
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| We thought the moose looked angry but the deer looked rather carefree. We didn't see any moose or deer. I saw a bear. Everyone else was ahead of me on the trail and didn't see it. They joke that I "think" I saw a bear, but I really did. He was watching us and when he realized I saw him, he moved away. We also saw 2 foxes. Ron and I saw a mink swimming in the lake one morning. I saw a skunk when I took Clara out to go potty when we were at the hotel on our way there. Thankfully I saw it long before Clara saw it or it saw us, and I was able to avoid an "encounter". We were disappointed we didn't see more. |
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| This was on the logging museum trail. It was a little rainy that day, which kept people away. We enjoyed it, though. We pulled out our umbrellas and made the most of it. |
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| This was on the Spruce Bog Trail. It was our favorite trail. It was the trail we were on when I saw the bear. We also saw some spruce grouses. I'll post pictures of those later. We felt like the rain made it a little more fun. |
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Our Vacation
When we were discussing where we'd like to go for vacation this year, Tyler suggested we stay at a lake in the woods in Canada, so we did. It was not my favorite vacation, but we did have a nice time and made lots of fun memories. We took Clara with us, so that was also an adventure.
Our house was on a steep hill. Our "driveway" was at the top, the house was about 2/3 of the way down the hill, and the dock and lake were at the bottom. We knew it was like this when we reserved the cottage, but I don't think we were prepared for the condition of the steps leading down to the house and dock. The steps were steep, at odd angles, some had handrails, some didn't, and some had missing boards, some didn't. The hillside fell away to either side of the steps, so you certainly did not want to make a wrong turn. Going down them after dark was quite an adventure. Danielle counted them one day and said there were 92 stairs. The steps to the dock were patio pavers that flipped up when you walked on them or divots cut into the ground, followed by a stringer of 10 or so wooden steps without a handrail. It was all very precarious. We had to adjust our plans a little when we realized how difficult the stairs were for Clara to navigate, so that was a little disappointing. Here are some pictures of the stairs. They in no way do justice to just how scary these things were!! But, we will always remember our adventures of climbing them and attempting to carry luggage and groceries up and down them!
Our house was on a steep hill. Our "driveway" was at the top, the house was about 2/3 of the way down the hill, and the dock and lake were at the bottom. We knew it was like this when we reserved the cottage, but I don't think we were prepared for the condition of the steps leading down to the house and dock. The steps were steep, at odd angles, some had handrails, some didn't, and some had missing boards, some didn't. The hillside fell away to either side of the steps, so you certainly did not want to make a wrong turn. Going down them after dark was quite an adventure. Danielle counted them one day and said there were 92 stairs. The steps to the dock were patio pavers that flipped up when you walked on them or divots cut into the ground, followed by a stringer of 10 or so wooden steps without a handrail. It was all very precarious. We had to adjust our plans a little when we realized how difficult the stairs were for Clara to navigate, so that was a little disappointing. Here are some pictures of the stairs. They in no way do justice to just how scary these things were!! But, we will always remember our adventures of climbing them and attempting to carry luggage and groceries up and down them!
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| Last few stairs to the dock |
Tuesday, August 08, 2017
Happy Birthday to Danielle!
Danielle is 14 today. I'm not sure how that happened because it wasn't that long ago that she was this size.
But she is. She is a pretty special person. She has a smile that lights up a room, and she goes out of her way to be kind. She's good company. I love having her around and miss her when she's gone. She's thoughtful and smart and funny and determined. I'm so thankful she's my daughter.
Today I took her and her BFF to lunch and then to the store to play with the puppies. The 4 of us went out for dinner tonight and then celebrated with presents and a birthday cookie (her request). I think she had a pretty good day.
But she is. She is a pretty special person. She has a smile that lights up a room, and she goes out of her way to be kind. She's good company. I love having her around and miss her when she's gone. She's thoughtful and smart and funny and determined. I'm so thankful she's my daughter.
Today I took her and her BFF to lunch and then to the store to play with the puppies. The 4 of us went out for dinner tonight and then celebrated with presents and a birthday cookie (her request). I think she had a pretty good day.
Sunday, July 30, 2017
Getting Faster
Danielle's final tournament of the softball season ended with the All Sanctioned World Series. Her team participated in this last year, too. On opening day they have a parade of teams, skills competition, and all star games. She competed in the "touch 'em all" competition again this year.
She improved her time from last year, which was her goal. Last year she finished in 11.96 seconds and was 43 out of 134 competitors. This year she finished in 11.81 seconds and was 22 out of 153 competitors. And the neat thing about that is that she's on the younger end of the age bracket this year. She beat a lot of girls that were older than her.
She worked on her speed a lot during the "off season" (is there such a thing?!), and training for track helped, but she wants to focus on that even more this winter. I think she'd like to turn a few college coaches' heads during showcases and camps over the next few years. The most important time is the time from home to 1st. At tryouts last season she was recorded under 3 seconds. When I took her out a couple weeks ago, one of her times was 2.96. At the high school and college level, anything under 3 seconds is good. Anything under 2.7 seconds is exceptional. She's at 3 seconds in jr. high. With as hard as she works, I think she has a good shot at reaching 2.7 seconds at some point in high school. Even if she doesn't, I will enjoy watching her work her hardest to be the best she can be.
She improved her time from last year, which was her goal. Last year she finished in 11.96 seconds and was 43 out of 134 competitors. This year she finished in 11.81 seconds and was 22 out of 153 competitors. And the neat thing about that is that she's on the younger end of the age bracket this year. She beat a lot of girls that were older than her.
She worked on her speed a lot during the "off season" (is there such a thing?!), and training for track helped, but she wants to focus on that even more this winter. I think she'd like to turn a few college coaches' heads during showcases and camps over the next few years. The most important time is the time from home to 1st. At tryouts last season she was recorded under 3 seconds. When I took her out a couple weeks ago, one of her times was 2.96. At the high school and college level, anything under 3 seconds is good. Anything under 2.7 seconds is exceptional. She's at 3 seconds in jr. high. With as hard as she works, I think she has a good shot at reaching 2.7 seconds at some point in high school. Even if she doesn't, I will enjoy watching her work her hardest to be the best she can be.
Saturday, July 22, 2017
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