Trip the the UP!!!

I got to go the Upper Peninsula this weekend!! Charles and Sarah had to go up and led a trip on a proposed trail on one of the preserves that Charles manages for his work. It was fun, but honestly not all that different than anything we have down here. Lots of snow and the most spectacular frozen lakes. It still amazes me that these huge bodies of water actually freeze solid. Anyhow, this first picture is of Charles' boss explaining the types of trees and soil to our group.

He dug a hole in the snow to show us the depth and the sandy soil beneath. I'm not sure how well you can tell from the picture, but it is about 2 feet deep here.

A couple of the people in our group had those neat old style snowshoes that I would love to use as decoration in my house if I can ever find a really cheap pair. They said that they are kinda a pain to use compared to the new ones becuase of their width and lack of crampons ... but man do they look sweet!!!
The sign says "Please Spare the Wildflowers." Maybe I will come back this summer when there are wildflowers to spare!

Spring Visit from the Kolbs

I'm experiencing a little bit of cabin fever right about now. I love snow and the winter, but round about this time of year, I guess I feel a bit justified in being ready for spring. So, again, rather than add still more pictures of snow, I'm going to look through old pictures. I think the next group is from when the Kolbs and John Strz came to visit. Here is one of Drake watching Tanner's brother Caleb jumping into a just thawed Lake Michigan off of the breakwall downtown.And here is a picture of the whole fam (plus Strz) on the breakwall. This must have been taken just after Caleb and John jumped in.This one is at the Bob-In, a lovely little custard shop with a sock hop theme ... complete with hula hoops. I aparently have completely lost my hula hooping skills! I swear I won a contest when I was in college. But Caleb and John didn't do much better, so it was ok. This last one was out to dinner at the Side Door. I can't get over how funny Tanner looks with his beard that long. He looks much cuter now that it is back to normal!
And to think that the lake just now froze over. I'd better not get too restless just yet! Maybe I'll find a really good place to go snowshoeing this weekend. Maybe I'll go snowshoe on the lake! That could be fun and get me in the winter mood again!

Mom and Grandma's Visit

I've been down with the flu ... so no new pictures. But I like the idea of catching up on the pictures from this summer, so these ones are from when Mom and Grandma came up to visit. I think the highlight of the trip was the boat trip that we took that showed us a bunch of lighthouses in Lake Huron. Here is a picture of Mom and Grandma ready to leave on the boat.

They took us under the Mackinaw Bridge first ... so I can say I have been under the bridge, but not over it yet! The Mackinaw Bridge connects the Upper and Lower Peninsula's of Michigan. It actually had it's 50th anniversary this year and got quite a bit of attention. Mike Rowe even came up and filmed a section of Dirty Jobs on it this year ... then he went over to Mackinaw Island to film the next segment about picking up horse poop.

Here is one of the best pictures I took of the lighthouses we saw.
And, one more picture that my mom took becuase she liked the look of the old train station down at the waterfront that they turned into a historical museum. The museum was really pretty interesting. I learned Ernest Hemmingway grew up on Walloon Lake and lots about carrier pidgeons.

Dad's Visit

I was looking back through some older pictures and figured on the weeks that there is nothing really new happening, I can give you some pictures we took last year. The last visitor we had before the Kolbs came up for Christmas was my Dad. He picked the weekend of a crazy Indian Summer in October. It was so hot we actually went and rented a sailboat one day. I can't believe I forgot to get pictures of that! But I did get some pictures of us shooting bbs in the backyard. That was rather entertaining. Especially with the dogs. They really didn't know what was going on!

Wildwood

I know in the last blog I said showshoeing was getting routine, but I here is one more picture of showshoeing! I couldn't help it. Kristin, Dana, Diesel, and I went snowshoeing at Wildwood this morning. I wanted to show some pictures to prove that sometimes Diesel and I actually have friends to come with us on our escapades through the snow. We also went with Charles and Sarah last weekend, and I'm not sure how I didn't get photographic evidence of that one ... but since I did this time ... enjoy!!!

I love how the snow sticks to the trees. Some areas we litterally had to stop and just take it all in. Also, for those of you who live in the area, Wildwood was absolutely georgeous, but next time I won't do snowshoes. The trails are groomed for cross country skiing, which makes snowshoes not all that necessary, as you can probably tell from the picture!

The Quilt

Well, there wasn't too much going on this week to report on. More snow and snowshoes, but that is becoming routine. So, I thought I would share with you all quite possibly the biggest project I have ever tried to accomplish. We are comming up on 4 years since I started it! Granted, I have not worked on it consistently the whole 4 years ... maybe that is why I am bringing it out again to show you. That should be sufficent motivation to get working on it again. That and the fact that obviously I'm not too busy to be doing something productive with my time!

I started this quilt with intentions of it being a wedding present to Tanner. I'm kinda behind schedule! I got this nice little book that is walking me through the whole process step by step. It is the first time I have attempted a quilt and I still really want to do the whole thing by hand. So far, it is all hand pieced and about 1/3 of the way quilted by hand. If I ever do another one ... I will definately be ok with using a machine!