Gun Cabinet

As part of Dan's graduation gift, he was lucky enough to receive a gun cabinet! It is made from reclaimed barnwood from northern WI and it was delivered on Tuesday. Dan loves it!! He started filling the shelves with hunting books, antlers, and guns this weekend. :)

Klondike Days!

A few weeks ago Dan and I spent a weekend in Northern Wisconsin with our friends Dave and Laura. Scout and Chief came along too; they love spending time with the McFarlands' dog Mesa. On Saturday we had the privilege of attending Klondike Days! http://www.klondikedays.org/


According to the Klondike Days website, the festival is "One of the most multi-faceted winter events in the nation." :) That is a true statement. Highlights included dog weight pulls, chainsaw carving, axe throwing, wood chopping, music, horse sleigh pulling, a craft show, and some awesome people watching!


Dan wanted to fit in with the Northwoods crew so he dressed in his lumberjack attire -

I don't own any furs or Green Bay Packers gear so everyone knew that I was not a local. In fact, I reeked of Southern Wisconsin. :)

Here is one of the many fur hats we saw on display.















There was a dog weight pulling contest where different weight classes of dogs would pull a sled filled with weights. Dan and I agreed that Chief would do very well in this competition.

We saw some local artisans doing some chain saw carving.

If you needed a fur hat or mittens this was the place to purchase one!!

Animal Hats!

Skunk mittens!

Dave modeling a hat.

Dave, Dan, and Laura watching the wood chopping events.

Axe throwing!

Wood Chopping competitions! These guys were awesome lumberjacks.

A guy who was camping at the event and telling stories of old coins.

Here is the Horse Pulling competition

Check out the schedule -- good stuff!!

Thanks Dave and Laura for the fun weekend!! We loved Klondike Days!

Snowed In Sioux Falls

As noted in my earlier post, Dan and I went to South Dakota for baby Abigail's Baptism!


However, when we woke up for the big event on Sunday morning, the weather was terrible. The kitchen window was completely iced over.

Church was cancelled so these baptism sheet cakes had to go in the freezer.

We spent the day playing games - Rummikub and Uno.

Anna played the piano.

Paul pretended that he was Woody from Toy Story. Here he is riding on his Grandpa's back.

Because the interstate was closed, we stayed in SoDak until Monday. Mom took good care of us with cookies and chicken noodle soup.

Abigail's big day was postponed to the next week!

Thanks for the great weekend, Hoekman family! We love spending time with you guys.

Weekend in SoDak

We spent some time in SoDak in February. Dan and I went home for baby Abigail's Baptism and family brunch!



As part of Abby's Baptism gift, yours truly sewed her a church bag with a soft little lamb on the front. This project was a labor of love. :) My sewing machine/work table has been hanging out in the living room for the past couple of months while I have been working on this!



















On Friday, our good friends Jen and Paul stopped by the Hoekman residence. It was fun to catch up and see their kids. Here is a picture of Natalie and Jake goofing around. Check out Natalie's Girl Scout vest. Good stuff! We bought 2 boxes of Thin Mints and 1 box of Caramel Delights from her. The cookies did not make it back to Madison with us. :)

Here is a picture of all of us and Scout. Scout decided to play escape artist while the Burns family visited. She darted out the door and took off into the wilds of the Dakotas. Dan and Paul had to trek through a muddy field to find her. When she returned from her adventure, Scout was one filthy dog!! Jen and I had to give her a bath. You can tell that Jen is a good friend, right? She comes over to visit and then helps clean a dirty dog!! :) Thanks for visiting us Burns family!! You guys are the best.

We spent some time with Kevin, Katie, and Anna on Friday night. Anna is super cute!!
















On Saturday, the Austin, Dan, and Dad went ice fishing. The ladies went to Kevin and Katie's house to work on crafting projects. I watched the kids!! Paul, Abigail, and I watched some Clifford.

















Anna playing in her chair.
















Mallory working on curtains for Abigail's room.


















Paul played with Legos!























Kevin and I sorted through a bunch of Grandma's old buttons. :) By the way - I love this picture. The colors were really awesome.











On Saturday night we went out for family dinner to celebrate Dan's PhD! We ate at Monarch Steak House in beautiful Renner, South Dakota. It was great!

Playing on Lake Monona!

One of our favorite things to do in the winter is to take the dogs out on Lake Monona to play. Occasionally there are some ice fishermen or some cross country skiers on the ice but the lake is usually empty so the dogs can run freely.











Scout and Chief lounging on the frozen lake











Scout is one fast little pup and she occasionally tries to run for the hills so she needs to be a check cord to keep her from running all of the way to the Capitol. With this 100 foot cord, she is never more than 101 feet away from us. :)










Chief loves it when Dan kicks snow in the air. He jumps and tries to bite the snowflakes.










Chief jumping!














Dan reining Scout in...

Chief getting ready to pounce.

Scout eating some delicious snowflakes.

A view from the Lake

One Last Vacation Post...

Okay -- So I am clearly behind with my blogging. We returned to Florida almost a month ago!


Here are a few final photos from the Keys...



We made a stop on Big Pine Key. Apparently the Key has an issue with exotic animals. Kids from Florida buy iguanas from Petco, decide that they can't care for them, and release them into the wilds.
Result = colonies of roving iguanas.

There were some seriously big creatures rustling in the brush! Yikes.













We visited the National Key Deer Refuge.



The Key Deer is an endangered deer that only lives in the Florida Keys. They are really small - the males are about the size of Chief. They are pretty tame and they live very close to the highway - which is one of the reasons why they they are endangered.



Here's a Link to the National Key Deer Refuge website if you want more fun facts.

http://www.fws.gov/nationalkeydeer/

Our last night we camped right on the ocean. The beach was littered with Portugese Man o Wars! These guys look like jelly fish but they are actually made up of a bunch of organisms. They can seriously sting you.

This is Dan sitting in a replica of Ernest Hemingway's boat in Islamorada. One final sunset...












Before leaving for Miami & our flight home we took one last hike on Long Key and we saw this crazy prehistoric looking fish.

We had a great trip. Now we are super anxious for spring. :)

We are in the home stretch now -- The Twins started spring training! I need to wipe mud off of the dogs' paws everytime they come in the house! Sure signs of warmer weather to come.