Changing Seasons

The weekend started early for us, taking full advantage of a Friday night restaurant outing. Having enjoying a Friday night family restaurant trip last week, we thought we would try it again this week. This time we tried a new restaurant and it was a nice place to have a beer. If you were looking for a nice ambiance, good service, or having any of the food that is on the menu then this place is a good place to have a beer. We did skip dessert at that restaurant and headed to a second place to fill the kids with decadent chocolate cake before trying to wrestle them into bed. Strangely the slept late on Saturday, attributing this more to the recent time changes then the evening before. Sophia had yet another birthday party to go to, so Merrick, Lisa and I spent some quality time indoors at the mall. While the forecast was poor the weather was nice, but even nicer inside and Merrick needed a new pair of shoes. He is very content with his "little mercury shoes" being light-up shoes with toxic elements embedded inside of the shoes to make the lights come alive as he stomps. He did wear them home, stomping through the mall, on the back of the drivers street and generally everywhere he went the rest of the weekend. Later in the day, with Sophia in tow, we headed for the bike trail for the first trip of the spring season. Sunday was equally quite around here, Sophia and I took a hike along the river while Lisa studied and Merrick napped. We also were able to work the garden a little bit, planting some seeds and mixing in some of last years ash. Spring is almost here, but almost isn't here.

Sylvania Snowshoes and Sun

You can freeze strawberries from a late spring harvest and can beans from a summer garden, but there is just no other way than memory to preserve an early March day in Sylvania. We took the kids snowshoeing in the UP wilderness area and the day could not have been any nicer. The temperature was about 50 degrees and there was more than four feet of snow. It was the first time that either Lisa or I had been on snowshoes when they were a requirement. The snow was as deep as the sky was blue and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We drove up early on Saturday morning and had a light lunch by the truck before hiking from the "A-frame" to the boat landing on Clark Lake. There was only one set of cross country ski tracks on the route we took to the landing. Sophia and Lisa built a snow man and Merrick slept at the turn around point. Lisa and I pulled the kids most of the way in the sleds and Merrick slept most of the way, while Sophia did have her snowshoes on for about a quarter of the hike. The kids were both soaked by the time we got back to the truck. We stripped them down and changed them in the truck, plied them with fruit snacks and headed back to Eagle River to check into the hotel for the night. After an early evening supper we hit the hotel pool for an hour or so and then the kids were crashed for the night. Preserved only in memories and proofed only with photographs, but it was truly a weekend that could not have been planned any nicer.