A Little Trip on the Chip

Again this weekend, by choice, we were able to live outdoors.  Spent a couple hours on Friday afternoon hiking through the hunting woods.  It is of course a tangle of briars and low brush this time of year but it made economic sense to stop.  We were headed to EC for a canoe trip and I wanted to set some stands before the bow season started so rather than drive back and forth twice we just included the EC forest in this trip as well.  It did make for a longer drive but the kids enjoyed the short hike.  We were really dressed wrong in shorts and flip-flops and after about a hike of slowly picking our way through the berry bushes, tag alders and prickly ash, we had all had enough and it was time to head to the car.  The woods was very thick and Sophia said she only liked that woods in the Winter and Merrick didn't want to go back until everything was dead.  We will be back in October and I think they will both enjoy it as much as they have in years past.    I did take the kids through the old neighborhood showing them all the places I did stupid kid things and stopped into visit the Great-grandparents as well.  Everybody walked away with a loaf of banana/zuchinni bread appropriate for their size. We were able to go out to eat with Grandma when we arrived and then had a pretty chill evening and morning before heading to the dark waters of the Chippewa River.  The ladies of the families dropped us off at Hobbs with three deer watching from the opposite shore and we headed down river.  The kids were excited to do everything at once and after about 6 minutes in the canoe they started asking when we were going to get out and camp.  We pushed on for several more hours and didn't make camp until around 5ish, stopping along the way to play on some smaller islands and scout for descent place to camp.  We passed up several below par camping areas before settling on a large island and a great site.  We think the island is called Pasture Island.  With camp set and the kids off exploring and making forts supper was started and wood was gathered.  We watched the sun set and the rain clouds move in but as the day disappeared we did play about an hour of "Telephone" around the fire which lead to breathy giggling whispers in everyones ears and some of the best campfire entertainment that I have had in a very long time.  The kids were exhausted and went to sleep with the start of the rain and slept until almost 8 the next morning.  We stayed dry and warm and slept as well as anyone sleeps on the ground.  Sophia did wake up once and ask what that sound was, our tent was only 15 feet from Grandpa's tent and his snoring was clearly audible.  When I told her it the noise was grandpa snoring she snuggled back into her bag says that the bears would get him first.  After a leisurely morning of coffee and breakfast and slowly packing up we again hit the water and headed downstream.  We had been seeing eagles and herons but this morning we also saw two golden eagles.  Merrick caught good size bass while in grandpa's canoe.  Ollie and Evan munched on black licorice in my canoe while Jake fished like crazy in Brad's canoe.  Jake's persistence paid off and he too landed a small mouth bass.  We hit Caryville just a little before Becky and Mom pulled in with the shuttle vehicles.  We pulled back into the real world, with dirty hands and faces, puffy faces and swollen eyes, some new scrapes, scratches (and a bear tick that would also drive back to GB) and more memories of the commoraderie and  beauty of outdoor living.  (**All photo credits go to Brad, as I remembered my camera but not to charge the batteries).

3 Seasons in a Day

For the second year in a row, August has the feel of September after scorching July temps.  These are wonderful days, in which the mornings are cool and damp like spring and the summer sun heats the midday and gives way to evenings of fall that are dry and cool.  It has been an adventurous week, but with the return of school just around the corner it also seems that we are repeating some of the activities from earlier in the summer.  The changing seasons are beneficial in that it also allows us to change up our outdoor activities as the seasons dictate.  The rollerblades have been seeing a lot of attention for really the first time all year, and we did a combination rollerblade trip and geocaching excursion early in the week.  The 'treasure' was along a portion of the East River trail on a portion called the Bellevue Arboretum.  There are over a hundred different species of trees planted along this portion of the route and yet strangle the treasure was hidden under a large invasive buckthorn and even some really old barbed wire fencing apparently tossed in for good measure.  At any rate it was a nice way to spend a late morning and after lunch it was clearly time for a nap.  Neither kid was convinced that they needed a nap, even after they awoke nearly 2 hours later.  It is Shark Week as well, and this is the first year in many that we didn't make hats or even watch many of the new shows, we did head back to the Botanical Garden again.  We handed been there since the spring and I am always amazed at how beautiful it is as well as how much the grounds continues to grow.  It has become almost too large for a single day wandering and yet they continue to push back farther into the woods and cultivate and sculpt the landscape.  The kids watered the topiaries and ran through the maze near the the koi. Even made use of the new Hobbit inspired restroom built into the side of a hill with large round doors.  The fantasy continued with a trip to the Fairy Gardens.  Sophia, and I admit myself as well, became quite hooked on the idea of creating a fairy garden here at home.  So we spent the better part of a morning working with small herb plants to cultivate a large terracota pot on the patio into some fairy real estate. We did spend some time researching which plants would be best suited for their magical properties or at least warding off evil spirits. We have a lazy morning planned and then will head to the EC county forest for a short hike to check on some deer stands and then push on for some canoeing and camping on the Chippewa river.  It will be the kids first overnight canoe trip and I am hoping to hook them and have them hook a couple of fish.

Honey Badger Don't Care! or Up Nort' at Hub's Hotel

 
 

The dust is just begging to settle and the laundry is almost done after more than a week in Minong.  We rented a cabin with the Bryan clan and put on our relaxation faces.  The weather was great all week on the Flowage and everyone had a great time. The first couple of days were filled with fishing, swimming, canoing , paddleboating, campfires and smores.  Everybody was catching fish of some kind or another, there were plenty of sunnies and bluegills as well as a nicely colored pumpkinseed and a walleye, redhorse and northern tossed in for good measure.  To that we added a couple more species on long distance catch and release, but we did cook up the panfish one morning for second breakfast and everyone was able to get a little. The kids were able to swim all around the dock area as well as walk out to an island and swim on the sandy beach there as well.  We did take the canoe in tow behind the 9.9 horse to the big sand island but we didn't stay long as it was also used as a depository for all of the pontoon boat dogs and quickly headed back to our own little beach on the flowage. The rid to and from the big island however was an absolute gigglefest as Brad pulled the canoe at speeds never reached by paddle alone.  With me in the back of the canoe and Sophia in the front, I am pretty sure that only the back half of the canoe was in the water.  We were able to hike on a nice loop not far from the cabin and had regular morning and evening hikes and the loose sand was great for tracking, and we even found some very fresh bear tracks meandering on the same route as we had chosen in search of the last straggling summer berries before the hazelnuts come into harvest. The kids were able to arrive at Pogo's in the boat and Merrick and Ollie kept us safe from any shoreline ambushes as they guard our water craft with their dollar store guns and enough imagination to turn our boat into the PT-109.  They did get a kick out of going to and from the restaurant in the boat, although some of that may have been overshadowed by the adults hemoraging dollars to feed the video games and temporary tattoo station.  We did do a couple of day trips, once to Hayward and once to Duluth.  Hayward mostly to break up the week and a candy store and wilderness walk excursion are a requirement when in the flowage area.  While DuBecks was reminding her kids to stay on the trail at Wilderness so we didn't get kicked out I did notice over her sholder that Merrick was evacuating his bladder on the backside of an animal cage. It was a hilarious juxtapostion but it did remind me that I need to remind him that sometimes outside is still public. By the end to the trip I think all of the boys had found a tree somewhere to claim as their own. He did much better at the "Big Muskie Museum," also mostly outside, and asked me "is this public?" I quickly grabbed his hand and headed for an 'indoor shrub."  The kids were able to fish in a small pound under the musky with cane poles catching some blue gills and we toured the old boats, old fishing lures and prompted by a pair of strange anatomically correct big foot statues we also made up a new song that isn't fit to print but was sung by the kids with plenty of laughing. A little lunch at the Angry Minnow, with an angry waitress and it was a quick pass through the candy shop and time to head "home."  We ended up in Duluth because it was a cool, rainy Saturday morning and we weren't quite ready for the vacation to end.  The weather became increasing nicer while we were in Duluth until it turned into the weather pattern we have come to expect this year.  We stopped at Pattison State Park on the way up and hiked back to look at the impressive waterfall.  In Duluth we had a nice picnic at Leaf Erickson park and then played in the waves and looked for rocks along the Lake Superior shoreline. It was the kind of vacation where the days bleed together and the kids think it is only Tuesday when sadly it is Friday.  In that time the kids became pretty adept in the water and took the paddle boat out several times to use it as a diving platform.  With all five of them on the paddle boat on a windy afternoon there was apparently enough squabbling about where to place the anchor that Merrick dove off the boat.  The adults were on shore and I heard the kids hollering at Merrick to come back.  With his life jacket on I watched him swim about 250 feet to the island and then walk back across to shore, about a 10 minute trip for him.  When he got to shore I asked him what he was doing, he simply replied "I couldn't take it anymore, I had to get out of there!"

Some Road Time, Some Home Time

 
 
The oppressive heat has ended and we are back in action.  Spent last weekend on the road and visited the grandparents and cousins back in Eau Claire.  The kids ran the woods like a pack of wolves, well a pack of wolves with flashlights.  Merrick burned through most of grandma's supply of band-aids and bacitracin but that was required to keep the smiles and giggling.  Grandpa got the kids into two different boats and we played around in the river and Cold Creek for a while.  Merrick's giggle was very much audible over the engine when grandpa "Cannon."  The kids were having issues with the idea of "Canning it" and were quite sure he was saying "Cannon." There was some down time on Sunday morning before heading back home.  Monday we met some friends at Heritage Hill for some Music on the Green. Always a great summer activity, and the first time we have made it over there, due to Merrick's soccer was on the same nights. We take the bike trail over from the house, pack a brown bag dinner and the kids run through the weeds, do gymnastics and find a collective mass of other kids to play tag.  All of this with the wonderful sounds of open air live music from the large central gazebo makes the scene a little Rockwellish. We also were able to get back over to Bay Beach for a couple of hours.  The tickets are lasting longer than in the past as the kids have aged out of so many of the rides and into rides that I have no interest in riding.  Merrick hit the big swings for the first time, a gigglefest for him and a version of neurosis for me at the fear that he would freak out and try to climb out.  He did great and then it was off to the tilt a whirl and scrambler.  Boy wonder did blow out a flip-flop on the scrambler and he had to retrieve it when the ride was done--the kids are used to wearing shoes.  Merrick is still too short for the new roller coaster at the park, but we decided next time he will just wear his snow boots, that way the larger heels will add and inch or so and maybe he will come up to the all important red line and gain admission.  Yesterday was quite busy with the threat of rain we went to the newly opened children's museum and played around for about 3 hours before having some Ebert and Gerberts for lunch.  The new museum is smaller than the Appleton Museum but still offers some great exhibits including much of the old hands on equipment from the Packers hall of fame.  The kids had a blast.  We rounded out the day with a trip to a local water park and splash zone and played on the water slides and fountains until Merrick was convinced that the no running signs and my constant reminders were really just suggestions.  He slipped on the pool deck and cracked the back of his head nasty-hard and produced a monster goose egg.  His hair was all puffed out on the back of his head and he looked like a nubbin' unicorn.  His pupils looked generally normal but it was still time to head home and pack in a ton of tacos the likes of which can only be eaten by three people after a couple of hours of swimming.  Today looks like another gorgeous day and with these two for company it is sure to be wonderful.

Open up and Say SummAhhhh....

 

The summer has fallen into a familiar pattern in which we go like gang busters in the beginning and then tend to slow down in the middle before ramping up the pace to fit in those few remaining summer to-do plans before everyone heads back to school.  Merrick's last soccer game was cancelled due to the high heat, but we still got his team picture taken care of.  Plenty of pool time and friends coming and going but we still had to fit in a couple of dentist appointments last week, so it isn't all fun and games but we have shifted the balance far back towards fun since then.  With the high temps we have been looking for more urban was of beating the heat, so we headed towards the sprinkler park along the river.  There is a small button to push and then about 20 some jets of water come busting out from under the bricks.  It is the concrete jungles version of Ol' Faithful and the kids had a riot at intervals much shorter than an hour.  The farmers market is always a hit, and the kids and I were able to hit the heart of the city for some live music and general sense of community belonging.  Love the market for its mixed demographics of wild hair, vivid tattoos and PETA tote bags.  Sophia was able to  hula-hoop at the market and we spent some time watching a talented young woman throw several pots on her wheel. It was the first time the kids had seen such a thing, except on the iPads.  Today also marks a small milestone as this afternoon I will drop Merrick off at a friends house for his first sleep over.  The much needed rain has still not forced us inside, so long as there is no lighting then it is a perfect time to play in the rarity of this summer's rain.

Crawdads and Cavin'!

 

 


Too much fun today not to brag a little.  The kids are still working on their archery skills, and while Merrick's aim is improving, Sophia has such beautiful form while shooting that the pride gathers in my throat when she shoots.  They are running through target balloons at an impressive pace, pretty proud of my little robin hoods  The marksmanship has been practiced in the house as well, with plenty of Nerf gun ambushes, and on the rare occasions that they give me a gun, it has always been empty.  We picked up one of Sophia's friends and drove to the Maribel caves for some spelunking.  If I recall properly spelunking is exploring known caves, while caving is discovering new caves and caverns, I might have that backwards but at any rate it was a blast.  The temperatures were about 25 degrees cooler in the caves, damp and dark.  We were well prepared with our lights and traveled as far as we could in the two main caves that are open to the public. The small opening is visible behind the kids in one of the above photos.  I was on hands and knees, but the kids were able to crouch walk most of the way.  We also spent about an hour wading around in the river catching crayfish and chasing minnows in the shallow bed-rocked river.  Made it home in time for some Oreo bedazzled ice-cream and a good feeling for all.  Merrick has also taken to the occasional costume at lunch time as he pays homage to his mentor and cousin. Just too good of a day not to preserve.

rain, rain all went away.

 

We are staying busy and working around the heat this past week.  Mid-week we did wander around in the early morning at the Sancutuary in an effort to watch the feeding animals as well as beat the heat.  Spent a wonderful weekend in LaCrosse with the Bryan Klan and on top of some gut busting laughs they also added fireworks.  At some point the boys decided to change their appearances with washable marker, we had to laugh it was too late to do anything else.  The kids played so well together that the adults were able to play too much, and the aches and pains of a growing family.  Today was a bit of a milestone as well, in that it was the first time we completed nine holes of frisbee golf (frolf).  We played a new course with fewer and lesser hills and that made the walking easier under the  sun responsible for triple digit temps.  plenty of garden munching on raspberries, peas and beans and a little nibbling at the blueberry bush in the front yard.  Cant complain that it is too hot in the summer and then too hot in the winter or you will never get outside.