Up North Vacation 2008

Here's footage of the kids playing in the water at Loon's Landing near St. Germain where we stay for a week every summer.

Vacation Prep

We're all getting ready for our annual Up North vacation and Amanda drew this picture for me. I guess she was looking into her crystal ball to see what I'll be doing all next week ;-) I'll try to do some audio blogging from Up North.

Jaydon's Birthday!

Jaydon had a great birthday party this past weekend. He got an X-Box game from me and his dad and a couple Play Station II games from his Grandma Donna and Uncle Steve. It should be interesting to see how the limited playing time goes :) Anyway, it was a good day!

Pigeon Creek Camping

We took a little camping trip this past weekend as a preview for our upcoming Up North vacation. We chose Pigeon Creek campground in the Black River Forest because it's a place where Diane camped with her family growing up and it's only about an hour drive. The sites are nice and woodsy and there's a nice beach for the kids, a nice old logging road for a nature hike, and lots of good fishing from shore spots for me. We had a really good time and I hope we'll be able to fit in another trip before school starts.

Winner!

Bob Lindner got the right answer in the comments of the other post. It's Van Halen Sunday Afternoon in the Park from the Fair Warning album. For those of you who may not know Bob, he's a programmer that I worked with at the AVS Group back in the day. Way to go Bob!

Another Try

Is it Ozzy Ozbourne? Not sure if I spelled it right though.

Godspeed Tony Snow

I learned early this morning that Tony Snow passed away at the age of 53. He's had cancer for some time now and I guess it finally caught up with him. For those of you who don't know, Tony Snow is a conservative talk show host who also served as press secretary for President Bush. He was also the host of Fox's Sunday morning political show before Chris Wallace took over that post. Though I never met the man I learned a lot from watching and listening to him. I always got a sense of his deep faith in God and the American Spirit and he helped me learn about disagreeing with people without being disagreeable. This world will miss you Tony. See you in the next.

Nope, Not Slaughter.... Next Contestant...

... Here's another hint ...

The leaders of the band are brothers named Eddie and Alex and they are listed as the 19th best selling band/artist of all time.

Name That Tune

My guess is Slaughter? That is a total guess by the way. I'm sure I'm way off.

Name that Tune

I was geeking out with Flight Simulator and making a movie when Diane brought this CD home from the library. I'll give you a hint: it's from the year 1981 and it's one of the best known rock bands of all time.

Fun with Computers

Debbie, here's the device I told you about. This cost about $20 and it allows me to insert an old hard drive and then use it as a file storage device that I can simply plug into a USB port. You can find out more about it here.

RE: Debbie's New Camper

Nice! I think we're a year or two from looking into popups. Still haven't gotten enough use out of our tent to really appreciate a good popup :-) Let us know how your first trip goes. As for the 12th, we'll definitely see if the calendar likes that date. I can't think of anything that would prevent it right now. I drove through Wyalusing on my way home a couple months ago and scoped out some nice sites. That would be a perfect location since it's almost the same distance for both our travel. We also looked at Mirror Lake near the Dells. It was the day before Lake Delton washed away so we're not sure what kind of condition it's in now but we really liked a lot of their sites. Very woodsy and secluded. We're going to go camping at Pigeon Creek in the Black River Forest this weekend and we'll post pictures after that. The nice thing about living here in God's Country is the never-ending outdoor recreation choices. Picking one is the hardest part :-)

New Camper!!

Hey, by the way, we got a pop-up camper a few months back. We haven't taken it out yet but we popped it up in the yard and tested it out. FUN! FUN! FUN! We are going camping next week. Not sure where yet but we'll find somewhere! Chris, how's your schedule the weekend of Aug. 16th? We want to go camping again that weekend and I would love if you guys could come too. If anyone is available, please let me know!!!

This is on the side of the garage. I set up a little fire pit so we could roast marshmallows and make smores!

Watching Mason and Morgan

I'm going to try to add a video of the kids giving Mason and Morgan a ride on their power wheels. I hope it turns out cause it's really cute. I was babysitting the kids one day while Kurt and Megan went golfing.

Catch Up (Madysin's First Communion)

Madysin's First Communion went really well. She looked so beautiful! Here's some pics.

I'm Still Here!!

Hey, sorry everybody. Or should I say Chris and Laura. I don't get on the computer much as you can tell. I have to work on that. I will really try to do better, I promise. Well, I have a second job now for the summer. I work up at the gas station while the kids are at summer school (3 hours, M-Th) and on Sat and Sun that the kids are at Jason's. It's really fun. I just started this week and I really like it. And I can really use a few extra bucks. Oh, other potential big news for my family. Jason is in the process of buying a house literally one minute from our house here in Potosi. It is really exciting. If it all goes through it will be an awesome deal for the kids. I am really excited for them. For me, it's good too. We get along great. He's here at least 2 days a week to see the kids anyway. He's a super dad. So I'll keep you updated as to whether it goes through or not. There are some ify situations so we'll see. The kids don't know yet. We don't want to tell them until it's for sure. Well I guess that's all for now. Like I said, I'll try to be better!