Copper Harbor Light House

 

On Friday morning we took a boat ride to the Copper Harbor light house. The kids were so excited to climb on board the Spirit of America boat.

 

 

Here is Lucy ready to board!

 

Lucy and Dan eager to start our cruise.

 

There had been rainstorms that morning and it was still pretty windy when we went to the lighthouse. The water was a little bit choppy but the ride across Lake Superior was pretty short. Here is the flag on our boat flapping in the wind.

 

We arrived at the light house location and the first stop was the cottage which is now a lighthouse and shipwreck museum.

 

Roman enjoyed the exhibits. :)

 

Here is the view from inside the cottage looking out.

 

 

The second stop on our walking tour was the light house and living quarters. This is also a museum with the rooms set up as they would have been in the 1800's.

 

Lucy enjoyed checking out the rooms - she especially loved the kitchen and dining room with pretend food sitting out.

 

 

Checking out the living quarters.

 

After visiting the buildings, we looked at the shore and saw some copper lines in the water. Here are Lucy and Roman sitting on the rocky shoreline of Lake Superior. We had a great time at the light house and a wonderful boat ride!

 

 

4th of July Weekend

We followed our new tradition of heading North to the Upper Peninsula for our 4th of July weekend. This was our second annual event! :) We kicked off the holiday weekend by attending music in the park in Rhinelander on Wednesday evening. 

 

 

The kids enjoyed a little picnic as we listened to music in the bandshell.

 

We packed up our truck with camping gear on Thursday morning while the kids were at day care and we took off for Copper Harbor around lunch time. We stopped at a fruit stand along the way. Yum! 

 

 

Our plans this year were to explore the Keweenaw Peninsula which is the peninsula that juts into Lake Superior on the top of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan! It is called Copper Country as there are many mines and there have been many Copper rushes there over the years. In fact, many of the prospectors who headed west to California for the gold rush in 1849 spent the early 1840's in the Keweenaw mining copper. 

We stopped at the visitor's center as we entered the peninsula. As you can see, Roman was very excited to see the mineral collection!

We arrived at our campsite in Copper Harbor on Thursday evening. Lucy supervised as Mama and Dad set up the tent. We were lucky to get a spot! The state park was sold out so we ended up getting the last site in a private campground right next to Lake Fanny Hooe, just off of Lake Superior. By the way, the kids loved yelling, 'Lake Fanny Hooe!' and did so repeatedly throughout our trip. Haha!

 

 

 

The campground had a little lodge with showers/bathrooms and some arcade games and vending machines. I don't think that the kids have ever really seen arcade games with the exception of the game room at Pizza Haven and they were obsessed. Every trip to the bathroom resulted in touching all of the buttons and joysticks for all of the games and driving the car in a racing game. The good news - no one needed or requested any quarters - they just pretended. :) Lucy knew that they games had 'bad guys' so, as we walked over to the bathrooms, she would often say, 'Mama, some of the videos have bad guys but don't worry because I will protect you.' So sweet!

 

 

There was a little stream running through our campground - you could see little fish in the water below.

 

On the first evening at camp we explored Lake Fanny Hooe.

 

 

It was a little bit chilly! Because it was overcast and because we were so close to Lake Superior, the temps really dipped down at night. Here is Roman sporting his Copper Harbor sweat shirt.

 

 

 

Our little campers! Side note - this picture was probably taken about 1130 at night. These little wildcats had a very hard time settling down in the tent. There was a lot of wrestling and yelling going on at our site - mostly instigated by Roman but Lucy did her fair share of jumping on the air mattress and yelling as well. Good thing that we didn't have any neighbors on the first night! Way too much excitement. :)

Summer Time Glory

Occasionally Dan needs to work on Saturdays - giving talks or presentations on his work. On one beautiful Saturday in June, Dan headed down to Shawano for a talk so the kids and I took off for Minocqua to go to the beach.

 

The kids loaded up their beach gear. Lucy was all set with her sunglasses, wagon, and kickboard!

 

 

Roman was eager to hit the beach as well. You can see our picnic lunch in the back ground of this picture. :)

 

It was the perfect day to play in the sand.

 

Lucy is a little fish in the water. Roman wasn't a fan of the water on this day - he stuck to his sandcastle work on the beach.

 

 

We had a delicious picnic near the water. Nothing better than peanut butter and jam sandwiches on a hot summer day. :)

 

After our beach time we headed over to the playground at Torpy Park. I am pretty sure that this was Roman's first time on a merry go round. He loved it!

 

 

On our way out of town we got ice cream at Hoggie Doggies. It was the perfect end to our time in Minocqua! Beaches, Swimming, Picnics, Playgrounds, and Ice Cream = Summer Time Glory!!

Roman @ 22 Months

At the end of June Roman turned 22 months old. Our little guy is growing up so fast! He is quickly approaching 2 years old and he is certainly starting to show his independence! Living with Romy these days is a little like living with a cuter and gentler version of Kim Jung Il. Haha! He yells a lot, screams no, often hits his sister and has a lot of demands for his people. Ah yes, the terrible twos. :)  

 

 

Roman's favorite things these days include playing in the sand, demanding popsicles, coloring / playing with stickers, doing yoga with Mama and Lucy, reading books - he loves Pat the Bunny, singing - he enjoys the Lion King and Frozen soundtracks, and he adores hot wheels. We love you Roman and we love the spunky little boy that you are becoming!

Andrea's Birthday!

This year I turned 35! Old enough to be President of the United States. :) My birthday was pretty low key - especially considering that Lucy was sick! Poor little peanut. She picked up a bug from Uncle Austin and Cousin Anna during the Hoekman family weekend and she ended up with a fever and a case of the 'pukies' as she calls it during the week of my birthday.  

 

Dan and I split our time at home on June 23 - he took the morning shift and I came home in the afternoon to cuddle with our sick girl. Despite the circumstances, we did have some fun moments!

 

 

After a half day of lounging on the couch and sleeping in Mama and Dad's bed...

 

 

Lucy was well enough to enjoy a popsicle outside! I love that she put her sunglasses on upside down! Heehee.

 

 

Dan and Roman returned from work and day care and prepared an awesome celebratory dinner for yours truly. The meal included grilled shrimp

 

and fresh green beans! Yum.

 

I got beautiful flowers

 

And a Golden Harvest pie for dessert!

 

Who could ask for anything more? :)

 

 

Happy Father's Day & Our Big News

Happy Father's Day to a wonderful Dad! We love you so much! The kids picked out a Father's Day card for Dan that featured Cookie Monster and included a fantastic Best Daddy in the World sticker. Of course Dan sported the sticker all day. :)

 

 

On Father's Day we announced that we were expanding our family to include a new puppy. :) We are so excited!! The loss of Chief and Scout has left a huge void at our house and we hate not having a dog in our life. In mid-June, it was becoming more clear that Dan would be keeping his position at the DNR and we decided that it would be good timing to bring home a new pup at the end of the summer. So we contacted the Thunderhead German Shorthair kennel and said Yes! Our sweet new pup was born on Wednesday, June 17th. We are getting a male and we are planning to name him Ranger. We wanted a name that was similar to Chief and Scout and, the fact that Ranger means 'Guardian of the Forest',  makes it a perfect fit for our life in the North Woods. :) Counting down the days!

 

Here are some of the first pictures of our new little pup!

 

 

Sweet little puppies with their mama Cocoa!

 

Happy Father's Day to Dan, our Dads, Grandpa Storm and all of the wonderful Daddy's out there! Love you!

Take Me Out to The Ball Game

I have to start this post with this sweet video of Lucy singing, ' Take me out of the ballgame'. She is quite the little singer/performer these days! I love it! 

 

 

As part of our Hoekman family weekend, a group of us went to a Twins game at Target field. So much fun!!

 

Dan and I have not been to a ball game since I was pregnant with Lucy! What a treat! Big thanks to Mallory and Mom for holding down the fort and watching the kids while we watched some baseball.

 

Love this father son shot of Austin and Paul. :)

 

Grandpa Glen, Paul, and Austin at the game.

 

 

Dad enjoying his $12 beer! Haha!

 

What a beautiful field! We saw a great win against the Cubs!

 

And we watched fireworks after the game.

 

June birthday kids! When Kevin and I were growing up we celebrated a lot of birthdays together - mine on June 23 and Kevin's on June 25. I haven't spent birthday time with this guy in many years! How fun! Thanks for the bday tickets, Mom and Dad!