Breast Cancer 3-Day

Heidi, along with her sister, mom, aunt, and the rest of their team, walked 60 miles last weekend for the Breast Cancer 3-Day. They finished every last mile, and raised almost $25,000! Yeah!

I joined Corey and Maddox at the Qwest cheering stand on Friday, where we all wore pink Qwest shirts and hats, passed out suckers and tootsie rolls, squirted people with cool water, clapped, cheered, blew whistles, and encouraged the women (and a few men) as they passed by. Maddox tried to blow on his little recorder, but he just couldn't get much noise out of it. He had more fun waving and "giving five" to the participants.

The weather was perfect for the event, and it was wonderful to see so many people come together for such a great cause. Way to go, Heidi!

Superior Hiking Trail

Last week, I went to the North Shore on a "last hurrah before school starts" 3-day hiking trip with friends. We had an awesome time in the beautiful northwoods, even though we got rained out from hiking the 2nd day. We just built a fire in the fireplace and relaxed all day (and then went shopping in Grand Marais). We also learned a really important lesson the first day - always read the signs at the trail head before starting out. We had our first day's hike carefully planned: we left a car at the end of our planned hike, piled into our 2nd car to follow back roads to the beginning of our adventure, got all our gear ready, and took off into the woods, totally ignoring the huge sign at the beginning of the trail. However, we headed east instead of south and didn't realize it until we came to a sign showing all the "wrong" places up ahead. We got out our maps and figured out what we had done, so we re-traced our steps (almost 3 miles worth), and modified our plan for the rest of the day. Oh well.......never too old to learn!

Here's the whole crew right before we set off on our "mis-adventure."

We rented a beautiful 4-bedroom house right on Lake Superior just south of Lutsen. The 4th bedroom is this gazebo built right on the rocks over the lake, accessible by a long flight of steps from the main house. Not too handy to the bathroom, however! It was very windy the first two nights, so the waves were really crashing all night long. What a sound to go to sleep by!

I was lucky enough to get to sleep here two of the three nights - it was awesome!

This is the early morning view along the shore from the gazebo.

On the 3rd day, we took the gondola to the top of Moose Mountain at Lutsen Ski Area. We then took a big circle hike along the back of Moose Mountain, through the valley to Mystery Mountain, along the Poplar River and finally back to the main parking lot. It was a gorgeous, rugged hike with lots of ups and downs. It's definitely a lot quicker getting down on skiis!
This is the lookout deck by the chalet at the top of the mountain. It was very foggy over the lake, but sunny and warm here. What a great way to end the summer!

Fun with Maddox

This week, we've been giving Corey and Heidi a hand with their move from their townhouse to a tiny one-bedroom apartment, where they will live for about 6 months while their new home is being built. I had really tough duty - entertaining Maddox while everyone else packed and hauled (don't worry, I did my share of carrying when we moved the non-essentials into the "storage unit" in our basement). Maddox was so good and so interested in all of the activity! If babies could talk....

"I love these drum sticks. Who needs fancy toys? Maybe someday I'll hit real drums like Mommy and Daddy!"

"OOPS - something is stuck. How come I can't lift this one up? I think I need a little help here."

"Yeah - I did it! Sooooooo big!"

"Think I'll take a break and read a book. Hmmmmm - this looks like a good one for baby book club!"

"This is cool! There's so much stuff, but where are all my toys? Daddy's flip-flops look like fun, but they probably won't taste too good. Will I ever be able to crawl around here? What's that LOUD noise? Could it be an airplane flying overhead? Where's the couch? Oh, that's right - it wouldn't fit in the door. Oh well - I prefer the floor anyways. When will my new house be ready?" :-)

Pickle time!

We got a whole crew together last Sunday for pickle canning, following an old Catlin recipe. Ted and Pat bought the supplies at the Farmer's Market, and then soaked the cukes overnight in a salt solution (in the bathtub, of all places). We all brought our leftover jars from the last few years and proceeded to fill them with all kinds of interesting ingredients (alum, garlic, pepper, dill, hot peppers, and finally the cucumbers). Then Pat filled the jars with hot brine and Ted sealed them. My job was adding a strip of hot pepper to each jar, and it was so hot I could still feel the burn from my fingers when I rubbed my eyes the next morning! We got more than 60 jars of pickles, so now they just have to sit for a few months and they'll be ready!

Teddy' and Angie's little guy, Matthew, even got into the act. Actually, Ted complained that as soon as they arrived, half the work crew quit on him because we were all playing with the baby!
Mattlew's hair looks a bit orange in this picture, but that's just a reflection from the light over his head. He's very blonde, and sooo cute! He thought all those jars looked like so much fun! So.....if you're over for dinner in the next year and you don't get served homemade pickles, just ask. We all have lots!

Vacation at the Lake

We spent the last week vacationing at Beacon Shores Resort on Whitefish Lake. We've been to Beacon Shores many times in the past, and it's always a good, relaxing trip. The weather cooperated, as did the fish, and it was really fun to get away for awhile. We rented a one-bedroom cabin, thinking we would be alone, but as usual, we ended up with a few extras. The more the merrier!

Jenna and Andy had a great time cooling off in the lake and playing with the toy kayaks. They both managed to tip a few times, but somehow got back in. They also tried the real thing at our friend's cabin, and found that a bit more stable.

These pictures ended up out of order, but I'm still learning this whole process. After 5 days at our cabin, we checked out and headed to the cabin of my college friends, Sally and Dick. Our little place would probably fit in their living room! Sandy and Ray joined us, too, and we spent a lot of time catching up and laughing. The weather cooled off a bit so we could tool around the lake without sweltering.

We kind of ate our way through the rest of the week - it was great!

This is our very little cabin on Whitefish. It sits right on top of a 25-foot drop to the lake and faces west so we had beautiful sunsets every night. However, we also had hot sun from mid- afternoon until those sunsets, so it was like an oven in there until the cool evening breezes took over. We ate all of our meals in the screen porch and also played dominoes until late at night while the bedroom cooled off. Jenna and Andy slept on the lumpy hide-a-bed in the tiny living room for two nights, and then tented at a local campground for another two nights. They preferred the ground to the bed!

Corey, Heidi, and Maddox joined us Saturday night for a birthday dinner. The cabin was really bulging with 7 people in it!

Chuck and Andy did some marathon fishing from early Sunday morning until late Tuesday night, and Jenna and I joined them on several of their expeditions. They caught lots of fish, and I got a few, too, including a very ugly bull head - yuck!

We fished one morning with two eagles watching us from the trees. They just sat there for several hours, turning their heads and occasionally spreading their wings - amazing!

Here's the catch from one outing - it doesn't look like much, but they're kind of stacked on top of each other in that plastic bag. We had a great fish fry one night, and brought some more home for the freezer. The week "Up North" always goes by so fast - we're ready to go back next year! Maybe we'll have to get a bigger cabin so there's room for more guests!