Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone had an enjoyable and merry Christmas! It still has not felt like winter has started with the warmth and lack of snow, so we did not have a white Christmas. We drove up north to Sturgeon Bay to Mitsche bay house to celebrate with Mom, Dad, David, and Michael.

The day started out with the opening of presents, and Cassie was up first. She would have been content eating all of the tissue and wrapping paper, but she did get a few gifts. She will be giving us the gift of processed wrapping paper for at least a few days.

Oh boy that's mine!

I got a bone, a scarf, and antlers!

Oh man, now I have to carry my things when we hike... Thanks a lot Uncle Phil

Other people got gifts too. 

When we planned on going up north for Christmas, I had grand plans of bringing my skates to make a rink on the bay, or bringing our snow shoes or skis to get out on the snow. Unfortunately, there was no ice or snow...but... there was plenty of water. So after we were done opening each others presents, I grabbed my hat, coat, and paddle board and hit the bay. It was choppier than I would have preferred, so I didn't venture too far up the shore. I paddled around until my wet feet got cold and then brought it to shore. It was nice to get out for a short Christmas paddle.

Santa's new sleigh.

Cassie really wanted to go out, but it was too cold to have a wet pup

She was intently watching with her cute collar tag (thanks grandma!)

Cassie and Santa

Later in the afternoon we had a great dinner with the family, Grandma and Grandpa Alvin, Aunt Linda, Uncle AJ, Aunt Jan, and Uncle Arvid. It was great getting everyone together and we all enjoyed great company and delicious food.

Beautifully set table

The whole gang!

Santa showed up! I know him!

Santa brought gifts for all!

Santa was pretty funny

Grandma and Grandpa!

We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing and then headed back to Milwaukee to get ready for work. It was a great Christmas full of family and fun, and it was a great way to end 2015.

Catch Up Blog - Edition 3

So we are almost caught up and just need to get through September and October. In September we were able to get a good view of the blood moon and tried to get some pictures. We are still trying to figure out our good camera, but were able to get some decent shots.

Partial Eclips

Blood Moon! Howooooo!

Flashing back to the update when we drove east in August and we were hit by that motorcycle... it's amazing what you can find out how to do on the internet. Just a few minutes with a hair dryer, a pry bar, some brute force, and goo gone made the car bumper look just like new. And we saved $800 by not getting it fixed in the shop!

Fixed bumper!

Into October, I spent two weeks working on the East River in NYC. It was a busy time with a lot of work, and unfortunately I had no time to do anything fun. But I did get some good pictures. We stayed in Staten Island where hotel prices are at least reasonable, but there is really nothing over there. No offense to anyone who lives in Staten Island. It appears to be a housing area for people who work elsewhere. Every morning we rode a speed boat from Staten Island to the East River near East 21st Street in Manhattan. The boat rides to and from the site was the highlight of the work.

Sunrise from Staten Island looking at Manhattan

Cruising past Lady Liberty

Manhattan

Brooklyn Bridge

Our work barge with the Empire State Building 

Sunset with Manhattan

Sunset and the statue of Liberty heading back to Staten Island

I returned home just in time for Halloween and we had some decorating to do. Diana picked up some good clearance decorations last year. All skeletons. 

Skeleton Attack

Catch Up Blog - Edition 2

So we left off with our vacation out east. Well, before we went on that trip we experienced a very powerful electrical storm. I forgot to put it in the last post! So much energy in the sky and some very cool lightning and cloud formations, but no rain. Naturally, we stood outside and took pictures.

Ominous sky

Cumulonimbus!

It's electric

Now back to the chronological order of events from the last post. At the end of August, we made a trip to Madison to do some camping with our friends Nick and Michelle, and Cassie's friend Copper. Cassie and Copper love playing together, chewing each other's ears, and relaxing.

Best friends on the couch

Best friends on the dog bed

Best friends chewing ears

 It was a bit of a rainy weekend, which made for a muddy campground, and muddy pups. But we did do some hiking and had a good time. The campsite is a "hike in" site that is about a half mile from the parking area, so it is somewhere in between car camping and backpacking depending on how much you want to lug to the site. We lugged a lot.

Wrapping up a weekend of camping

We brought lots of stuff

To wrap up august, we spent some time in the yard with our good camera practicing taking pictures with different settings. We made some progress and learned some things, so I will leave you with some of those pictures. Cassie was a good model.

Catch Up Blog - Edition 1

It is crazy how it has been almost four months since the last blog post. We have been busy, and the blog has been overlooked. So here is a dump of everything I can remember from the last post to catch us up to today.

First up, in August we drove east for the wedding of two college friends from UD in Detroit. The drive started off with brutal Chicago traffic and a hot shot motorcycle trying to zip through all of the cars and right into our bumper. Of course the guy didn't stop. Fortunately, it was all cosmetic in the plastic bumper, but it was an eyesore. Stay tuned for the bumper home repair later.

Chicago traffic is terrible

We had the Cassie Pup with us since we were going to continue on to NY after the wedding, so we had to stay near the Detroit airport at the pet friendly La Quinta. We went for a nice hike at a nearby park before the wedding to tire out the pup so she would be quiet in the room while we were gone.

That is one happy pup

 The ceremony was right downtown in a community garden. Very nice venue, but brutally hot in the peak midday sun. The reception was a few miles away at the Detroit Golf Club. Now, if you haven't been to Detroit, it really is deserted in some parts. To get to the beautiful golf club we had to drive through a few miles of completely deserted land; buildings that were boarded up, burnt down, or just empty. Very eerie. The reception was a lot of fun and we had a good time catching up with college friends.

All dressed up at the Detroit Golf Club!

 After the wedding, we crossed the border and continued driving east through Canada. We had a quick stop at Niagara Falls and continued on to see Phil's new house in Rochester.

Niagara Falls

 We spent the night at Phil's (didn't take any pictures!) and then drove through the finger lakes wine region on the way to the lake. Thanks to advice from Phil, we looked up the dog-friendly wineries to visit since it was hot and we didn't want to leave Cassie in the car.

Enjoying some drinks at a boat-up winery on Seneca Lake.

 At the end of Seneca Lake, we stopped at Watkins Glen State Park to check out the gorges. It is an impressive park, but man was it crowded. Everyone in upstate NY was at this park. So if you plan on going, go early or late and in the spring or fall... not mid-afternoon in August.

Then at long last, we were at the Lake for almost a week of relaxing, swimming, boating, golfing, and everything else.

Glass

Beautiful Morning

Took the minibike for a spin

  

Cassie relaxing on the Nautique

Cassie loves swimming with her life jacket

Because she can be pulled up onto the raft

 

Our turn to relax in the boat

Taking the sunfish for a spin in some good wind... right before getting caught in a downpour

Fire by the lake

Everyone loves a night on the porch

Diana loves a huge bunch of garlic from the Deposit farmer's market

More catch up blog to come soon.