The other camera

Typically we post pictures from Derek's camera since he actually is taking pictures all the time. I however, always forget to download my pictures so here are some things that missed getting documented by Derek's (mainly due to a fear of the nice camera getting damaged--like covered in strawberry juice, flour, etc).

Strawberry picking a few weeks ago.

Henry sampled a few.

Derek and the boys making bread.


Yesterday at the farmers market--we finally bought some apple fritters which went great with our coffee on the cool morning.

This morning--watching TV. Not something we ever do but it was an exception because they were watching.....
....the Tour de France. It was an exciting stage today. Thankfully we can watch it online so we don't have to have cable. Ah, technology. Also, Henry really didn't watch that much and was more excited about the car commercials than the actual race. Then our neighbor started mowing and all interest in the TV was lost. Derek was not as interested in the mower.

Cars, cars and more cars.

No pictures just things that make me laugh and show his car obsession.

While driving somewhere, following an Audi convertible.
Henry: what's that?
Derek: An Audi
Henry: No, that's an inny.
Derek: Why?
Henry: Because it doesn't have a top on it.


Later in the car, following a BMW.
Henry: What's that?
Derek: What is that, Henry?
Henry: That's a BM double X.
(we left it at that)
A few seconds later he says No, that was a BMW, not a BM double X.

Summer activities

It's been nice to be home after our big camping trip and finally we have the house back to normal after moving stuff for the floor refinishing. We came back to a tree full of cherries and dealt with all those. Now we're back to a bit of relaxing. So here's what we've been up to lately.

Practicing our swings so we can play with Doug and Greg at the beach.


We went on a bike ride Sunday with friends and took a break at this wonderful playground. It's a big wooden castle-type structure with tons of nooks for little ones to hide out in.

At the top of the "castle."

We went walking on the pier at the lake which is a short bike ride (or a long walk) from our house. We decided to go watch boats one evening since the weather was so nice.

Watching for more boats. Henry like the fact that there were boats all over the lake and some were going really fast!

Vacation Post 3 - Interstate Park

Technically it's called Interstate State Park but I find that name annoyingly redundant. Anyway, this is another neat state park this one is on the banks of the Saint Croix River. The park gets it's name from the fact that across the river you will find it's twin Interstate State Park - (Minnesota). We spent most of our time on the Wisconsin side. You will find that with a quick browse of either parks website that they are both known for rock climbing, hiking and canoeing/kayaking. Since we had a dog and a 2 year-old along we decided to stay away from the rock climbing and boating and stick to wading in the river and hiking.

Our campsite at this park was not nearly as private/secluded as our previous site on Madeline Island so we were a little disappointed. On the plus side, there were virtually no insects. None. We did not have to break out the bug spray at all.

Anway, we spend a good portion of a couple of days walking the trails which are somewhat treacherous. This left us in an interesting predicament when it came to bringing the afformentioned dog and child along. In fact, we came up with really only one configuration that worked. Henry on my (Derek) back....
...and Tina with Zoe.
The interesting thing is that I think Tina was in more danger of falling/being hurt than Henry and I were. Zoe (a very enthusiastic 66 lbs of 4 leg drive golden retreiver) had the potential to pull Tina down some pretty steep/rocky terrain in her excitement to see what was around the next corner.
Ultimately, we all survived relatively unscathed.

Weather-wise we were pretty lucky over the almost week that we were gone as it was apparently the hottest weather we had and have had all summer at home while we enjoyed nice cool weather up north. Besides that we only really had a little bit of rain which allowed us to utilize are new (bought last fall) tent.
This is a picture of Henry and I sitting in the 'vestibule' outside the tent as the last of the morning rain fell.

I'll close this post with some random pictures.

A picture documenting our desperation in trying to get Henry to take a nap. First of all, any parent reading this blog understands the importance of the midday/afternoon toddler nap. Secondly, any camper-parents out there can imagine/understand the difficulty in trying to get a toddler to take said nap in the middle of the day in a tent. All the bright sun, new sounds and exciting possibilities right outside the ten. So, after a several days of non-napping we resorted to this:
Essentially we found ourselves coming up with reasons to get in the car at a time that it had us driving back to the campsite some time around nap time, it typically did the trick.

Two more pictures. Tina and Henry coming down slide.
A picture that Henry 'took' of himself. Not bad really.

Vacation Post 2 - Location 2

So, I haven't been as good with posting as I planned. Getting home and putting our house/garden back together has taken longer than we thought. So after our first little camping adventure, we packed the car back up (in the rain) and headed further north to Madeline Island and Big Bay State Park. This is part of the Apostle Islands which are an archipelago that juts into Lake Superior. It is beautiful up there. Madeline Island is the only island with roads, cars and permanent residences.

As we began to get close to Bayfield, WI (where we caught the ferry to the island) we began to see literal fields of lupine. Neither of us have ever seen so much lupine in one spot in our lives. The picture below (obviously taken from a moving car) does not do the lupine justice.
Once in Bayfield we boarded the Ferry to the island. This was easily the biggest highlight of the trip for Henry. He has continued is fascination with anything transportation related.
Zoe didn't really like her spot on the ferry.Picture of Bayfield as we were returning on the Ferry.
Once off the ferry we drove to our next campsite. This was easily the best campsite we had the whole time (and one of the top five ever). Our tent was way off of any path/roads and nestled back in the trees yet we did get some late afternoon sun to subdue the mosquitoes.

It was cool enough in the mornings that clothes were better than bugspray.
Once we were settled in we headed out to a local county park to play at the beach (Zoe was not allowed at the state park beach). It was really nice. There was a nice cool breeze off the lake and it was sort of cloudy in the morning. A careful observer will see Zoe enjoying the cool lake.


After enjoying our morning there, we decided to come back later in the day, play on the beach and enjoy an picnic. Suddenly the sun came out and it was beautiful. The water was still VERY cold. I (Derek) was the only one besides Zoe to venture in above my knees. By the time the water was to my waist, my toes were beginning to ache.

Vacation Post 1 - Leaving Home

So we were on vacation 'up nort' over the last five days (June 21-26) in celebration of our 10 year wedding anniversary (actual date was June 12 but Derek was still in school). It was a great time spent camping, hiking and just being together as a family.

As an additional 'bonus' we decided this would be a good time to get the wood floors on the first floor of our house refinished since the work requires that you essentially move out anyway. Sounds like a great plan, right? Sort of a two birds with one stone thing. Well, it worked. But. Imagine packing for a five to six (we actually came home a day early) day camping trip with two adults, a two year old and a 60 pound dog. Now imagine doing that while moving out of the main floor of your house and timing it so both are completed at the exact same time.

Stressful? Yes. Did it feel good to FINALLY leave? ABSOLUTELY!

So, I'm sure at this point you are just dying for some pictures. Well here you go. This first shot is of our 'front room' which is really a finished porch who's floors did not need refinished. It ended up being the destination for the large majority of our stuff. Not visible is a full sized upright piano, a large futon and a large overstuffed couch.
Seen from another angle. Our living room looked like the picture below. Yes, Henry is sitting on the potty (and I think he's 'driving a car, or a boat or a bulldozer or a tractor'). Most everything that you see sitting on the floor went into the car (except for the little bike).
Pictured below is what the car (var) looked like fully loaded. It doesn't look too bad in the picture but we were about as full as one could stuff a car AND a cargo box. If you look closely you can see that Henry was impatient to leave and is sitting backwards in his seat.
Not bad right? Well, look at this picture taken once we reached our first campsite and prepared to unpack.

Amazing that we managed to unpack and pack that thing a total of 3 times during our trip. It's a good thing we were packing light to 'rough it.' I'll finish this first write-up of our trip with a shot of Henry doing one of his favorite things. Chopping.
He saw dad using a little axe to chop wood into smaller pieces to start a fire and thought that was pretty much the coolest thing ever. So he found his 'chopper' and went to work. He has since become quite proficient at smacking things pretty hard with his little plastic hammer (chopper). That's all for now. We'll post more soon.

Birthday weekend!

Yesterday Henry turned 2. In some ways, I can't believe he's already two and in other ways it seems like he should be about 5. Not sure what that means. Grandma Janet and Grandpa Delmar made a quick trip from Ohio to help us celebrate.

Digging in the sandbox that Derek and Dad (Delmar) built on Saturday. An early birthday present.

Learning about hotrods and classic cars with Grandpa.

Learning about diggers and dumptrucks with Grandma.

The presents...and cause for problems with the nap on Sunday.

Feeding goats at the zoo.
Playground at the zoo.

Birthday cake after a meal of one of Henry's favorite foods--grilled chicken.

Thanks for traveling a long time for a short and wonderful visit Grandma and Grandpa!!!