a little worm on a hook...

Thanksgiving in Wisconsin was awesome. We are extremely thankful for our amazing friends and families.

We had an incredible week with great friends and the great outdoors.

When we got home Sunday night we were thankful for our pillows that will carry us off to a good night's sleep.

The drive was not as long as I thought it would be. It was really pretty to drive along Lake Michigan up to Green Bay. From there we could tell it was beautiful because we had camped a few times in that area when the kids were really little. We arrived at Post Lake in the dark so we were anxious to see the sights the next morning.

There were many hunters along the way - Drew was cautious driving through the forest area, watching for deer, because there were already lots of spots on the road where you could see deer had been hit. There were a few snow showers as we arrived.

It was exciting to wake up the next morning to see the sourroundings. It is so beautiful, just like you are living in the middle of a Christmas tree farm. There were naturalized tall pines, white pines, balsams and firs all around.

Thanksgiving morning began with a light snow shower. Nothing accumulated but it was like glitter was coming out of the sky.

Outside the boys were decked out in camoflauge and blaze orange with their animal calls. Alex called in a buck, they were pretty excited. Wearing blaze orange was not just a fashion statement, it is a necessity because it was the middle of deer hunting and it was going on all around us. You could hear gun shots often in the not so far distance. The boys were happy to be shooting pop cans with their bb-guns.

Ashley & Paige started inside weaving bracelets to get a start on Christmas presents.

The was the most natural Thanksgiving I had ever experienced. Each time I turned around something amazing was happening with a different vegetable. Joanne, her mom "Mrs C" & I (mostly them) cooked much of the morning. It was fun and it smelled so good! We started out with the pies. Pumpins were roasted, scooped out and made into "Pilgrim's Pumpkin Pie". The pumpkins looked really beautiful. I have seen turnips raw & cooked but from the same family I had never seen rudabega cooked. It was purple & white then peeled it was white, like a turnip. Cooked, it was orange. Mrs C. mashed the rudabega & it was so good!

Things got a little exciting when it came to cranberries. They had fresh cranberries from a local cranberry bog. Joanne & her mom went back and forth about how the cranberries would be cooked and they turned out delicious.The stuffing was even made totally from scratch & they made it all look like they could do it with their eyes closed. The kids were good helpers, they filled the pies. Once dinner was underway, we all went down to the cabin on the lake. What a beautiful view!
The kids had fun checking out the thickness of the ice from the dock.

Inside the beautiful a-frame cabin we found the guys catching some of the Packer game. After a short while we went back to the house to check on dinner. Joanne, Jim, Drew & I went up to a local watering hole to catch the end of the Packer game. We must be in Wisconsin now! When we returned to the house, a fire was lit outside and inside. It was discussed that we should eat outside similar to the first Thanksgivings but we ended up eating inside. The kids made the fire outside and yes it was almost warm enough by the fire to not have a jacket on but the consequences of proving a point usually come in an icky cherry flavor.

It would have been cool to eat outside- it was beautiful, about 34 degrees, a roaring fire going and a little snow falling.

The kids all ate together and went around to say what they are thankful for. Unanimously we are all thankful for our friends and family.

After dinner the kids went back out to make interesting things out of melted aluminum cans.

The next day we took Ian to the local clinic to verify that he didn't have strep throat. Phew, he didn't yet but it was a good precaution to take the medicine.

Drew, Jim & Ashley went down to one of the beautiful dams. They were climbing on the rocks and downed trees. The area is known obviously for deer but also black bear and porcupines. Who would have thought that they would encounter the biggest porcupine they had ever seen! Drew & Jim said it was the size of a small black bear (or Daisy) - with out it's quills out! They said that thing was huge and it climbed up the tree near them very quickly. Ashley saw it before Drew & Jim then held onto the tree she was climbing a lot tighter.

Friday night we sat by the fire, the moon was full and really beautiful. The halo of ice crystals around the moon was amazing enough to inspire Ashley's upcoming astronomy project.

Isn't Jim's coon hat great! Jim is a natural comedian and the hat topped it off. To please him, Alex would have been happy to shoot a squirrel to add to his hat collection. Luckily that was not necessary.

We have learned so far that the ring around the Moon is caused by the refraction of Moonlight (which of course is reflected sunlight) from ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. The shape of the ice crystals results in a focusing of the light into a ring. Since the ice crystals typically have the same shape, namely a hexagonal shape, the Moon ring is almost always the same size.
Less typical are the halos that may be produced by different angles in the crystals. They can create halos with an angle of 46 degrees.

Saturday was r&r day. Then we visited another watering hole and everyone ended up back at the cabin at the lake for dinner and poker.

Each night the lake froze a little more. Saturday night the lake was almost all frozen. It was really pretty with the moon shining on it.

Sunday morning after we got all packed up we went out to cut a tree for their front porch up north, for home and for Mrs C's house.

So what does a little worm on a hook have to do with any of this? Well, back when Alex was in kindergarten there was this pretty little girl sitting next to Alex who proclaimed that she puts her own worms on her hooks when she goes fishing. Last Christmas Paige & Alex were Mama & Papa Snowman for the 3rd grade play...

Thank you to the little girl who puts her own worms on her hooks, her family and Mrs C for an amazing Thanksgiving break. Thank you so much for having our kids at your house each morning before school for this 4th school year. We are looking forward to the next opportunity to visit up north again. The little lady with the worm says winter is her favorite. I'm not about to question her.

Alex's Weekend Adventures

Over the weekend I saw a big buck but we let him go but only for fifteen minutes he was out of rifle site then BAM! he gets nailed in the ribs. uncle bill shot the buck. then we shot a doe from 100 yards away. then she ran 800 yards from the thicket with a bullet in her belly then i called in a coyote with the rabbit grunt and coyote yelp when we were packing up at deer camp. and at astro overnight I slept in the star dome but they didn't turn on the stars because the guy who operated it left. it was fun anyways, i got badges for it.

After Mom & Ashley asked questions, this is what there is to add to Alex's story...
Alex & dad left for Astro Overnight right after school on Friday. When they got there, they played games like "The Weather Changing Adventure". It was a cool game that you pushed buttons where the guy got stuck in a snowstorm, had to hug a tree in a wind storm or other situations like that. Alex won the game because he got his guy sucked into the tornado first. They learned how clouds are forms and they got to touch it. He says it smelled like cigars. They watched a 3d time in space movie and went through time warps to see how the dinosaurs died. Alex said he thought it was funny that his scoutmate, James, freaked out when the 3d dinosaurs came at him (they didn't really though because it was on a movie screen). At 11pm they went to sleep in the star dome. Alex said the coolest thing about astro overnight was learning about Leo the Lion and Orion the Hunter, constellations of stars. They got up early the next morning, left at 7:30am, got home at 8:30 to shower and left again for hunting.
Ashley & mom left for dancing at the same time Alex & dad left. Alex & dad got down the street and had to turn around and come back because they forgot the tub of bullets, dad's hunting liscence and the deer tags (all things that are probably pretty important or the trip would be useless). On the way up Alex read the Deer Hunter's Bible to dad. He learned where to shoot a deer (on its body), where in the country it is most popular to hunt and what caliber rifles to use. Drew used a 7mm rifle. When they got to Uncle Bill's barn, they got their camo and blaze orange on and went right out to sit in the blind in the corn field right next to a patch of clover. 15 minutes later they saw the deer Bill would shoot. Bill shot the buck and it ran about 20 yards then hit a birch tree, did a front flip and landed with it's antlers in the ground. He shot it in the ribs, which Alex says is a good place to shoot it because it will die quickly. Uncle Bill and dad wanted Alex to track down the deer because he had never tracked a deer before. Tracking is where you follow a blood trail to find the deer where it finally drops. Drew walked past the doe and when Alex went that way, he saw the doe. The buck had dropped on Bill's property. They strapped the buck on the back of the four wheeler and drug it back to the old camp site, took out the guts and left it in the back of Bill's truck for the night. They checked the deer in at the check station at a bar near Bill's property and went out for dinner. After dinner, they went back to the barn and hit the hay because they would have to get up early at 5am to get ready and get out to the blind while it was still dark. It was important to get out there before the animals start moving. Alex & dad sat in the blind with hand warmers and ate beef jerky. When it was light out at about 7:30, there was the doe with 2 baby bucks in the field grazing off the clover. Dad saw them first. Alex heard it but didn't see it until after Drew shot the doe. He saw her drop to the ground, she dashed right under the barbed wire fence and ran off. The little bucks went on their way. Alex said it wasn't too sad to leave them out there because they looked tough with their antlers. They got out of the blind and couldn't find her so they went back to get Bill to find out who they needed to talk to about finding the doe because she went on the neighbors property. They all went out, found her and strapped on the 4wheeler to bring it back. The doe got the 4wheeler all bloody and dad's pants too. After that, they gutted the deer and the heart from the Bill's buck was found with coyote munches out of it. Drew & Alex checked in the doe and looked at all of the other deer from other hunters. One of the other deer had a missing bottom jaw from being hit with a slug. It took a few hours to get the deer so they took the deer to the butchers and came home.
Alex said it was more exciting than he thought because a lot more happened than he thought like seeing coyotes, hearing the turkeys and seeing all of the guts of the deer. The coolest part of hunting was tracking Bill's deer because he didn't know what he would find. The worst part was tracking dad's deer because it took so long. It was cold but Alex good pants and boots so it wasn't too bad.
Alex is tired and tired of answering questions. He did say he wants to go again. He said it will be cooler to eat it knowing that he hunted it.

Fastest Deer Hunt Ever

Drew called about 3:30 this afternoon and I knew it was good news but I had no idea how good it would be. You never get a call in the middle of the day if there is daylight and deer out and about unless he's got one already. Sure enough, they got a doe this morning. When he called they were just north of Milwaukee and he wants to pick Ashley up! This is where Barney's clean up song comes in handy to speed things up. I am going from totally alone and in my pajamas still to EVERYONE WILL BE HOME IN LIKE AN HOUR!!! Pleasantly that was the case. They all came home to a neat house, fire going, dinner slow cooking, Bears playing. Phew!

Drew & Alex left at 9am yesterday. They got up to Bill's place about noon and went out when they got there. Alex said they saw a buck but it looked small so they just watched it. As it turns out, Bill shot that one. This morning at about 7:30 they were sitting in a blind in the field and saw about a 3 year old, nice size doe. Drew shot it and it ran for about 1/3 mile. They followed the trail to a point where they would be in the neighbors property so had to go find out who's property it was, let them know they needed to find it on their property and brought it in.

I'm sure it was much more exciting than this but I haven't been able to get all of the details out of them yet. They are both really modest about it. Drew said it was strange, his shortest hunting trip ever and he is exhausted. I think the combination of the Astro Overnight and Overnight Hunting was enough to do both of them in.

The deer did not come home with them. Bill's property is still in the "cronic wasting management zone" so they took it to a butcher who will take care of it and we will have mostly ground venison and some summer sausages. We can get the meat possibly next weekend.

Hopefully more details and the rest of their pictures will come soon.

Sometimes good luck charms work out for everyone.

Happiness is...

when your guy gets his deer and comes right home.

Something to do again

The Magnificent Mile lights festival was awesome!

Ashley, her friend Sarah and I took the train to the city Saturday after Ashley's dance class and walked through the Ogilvie Center right out to the Chicago Water Taxi dock. The Water Taxi was free, it took us from the train station to Michigan Avenue, they had Christmas lights on board, Christmas music was playing and Fannie May was giving out chocolate bars along with coupons to stop in and get a free cup of hot chocolate! It certainly started things off great.

We walked a short way to the plaza on Michigan Avenue where we were able to deposit non-perishable items we brought for the food depository in exchange for a piece of cheese cake from Eli cheesecake. Yum!

There were lots of cool things going on. We tried a sample of pumpkin milk from Whole Foods. It was interesting to taste but we agreed once was plenty. We waited in a long line to try to win tickets to Blue Man Group and ended up with glow sticks (from answering questions about our festival experience) and a magnet.

Ashley was not amused by the magnet because it left us in the back of a very large crowd at the Radio Disney stage where Corbin Bleu (from High School Musical) performed at 4pm, for 20 minutes. As I watched all of the dads with little girls (preschool age) on their shoulders cheering "Corbin!", I thought of all the great things Drew has done for our prince and princess and what my brothers-in-law have to look forward to with their princesses.

Oh look in the performance picture, while getting pushed around and holding the camera up where I had no idea what we would see, there he is in the white shirt!

Ashley was beyond excited, her first celebrity sighting and it's Corbin! The video I took she wants on a dvd and loaded onto her Ipod to share with her friends at school.

All this video business was tough on the camera batteries so there was no battery power when he appeared later in the parade - not 50 feet from us. The video and audio is keeping me out of trouble for missing the close up shot.

The street was lined with hundreds of thousands of people. We found our spot and stayed there for over two hours, right on the edge of the parade route.

This is the first year this festival was televised "live" and was delayed apparently due to the Michigan State/Penn State football game running over. After the parade there was an awesome fireworks display set off over the Chicago River.

Our patience was rewarded by seeing the parade and the fireworks up close. It was really beautiful but Ash & I can't wait to return downtown when it is snowing with our snowflake glasses!

Sarah had never seen the holiday windows at Marshall Fields (Macy's) so we walked there and were really disappointed. This year's story is The Nutcracker. Only one side of the building was dedicated to the "cliff notes" version of the story and they had it end with Clara ending up in Chicago. ??

Ashley & I decided this was fun and we should do it again next year. It was fun to share today with Sarah.

On the way back home there were so many people that the train was 15 minutes late. We dropped Sarah off, went home, got Ashley's catching gear so she can sleep over at a friend's and catch for her pitching practice tomorrow morning.

That is adding up to me sleeping in this house for the very first time without anyone else here. I am clearly beside myself because it is 2:56am and I am here instead of asleep. Drew always says the sooner you go to sleep, the sooner tomorrow will be here. I best go to sleep, Ashley will return tomorrow and the guys will return Monday.