Vacation #2

Yes, we are crazy, planning a trip with each side of the family within the same month.  The second trip was with the Schaetzle side of the family, so of course, it was a fishing trip.  We headed to Cedarwild Resort in Deer River, MN for a week of fishing, eating fish, sleeping, fishing, eating, sleeping, fishing, fishing etc. with a couple of times of swimming thrown in to. Don't be fooled by the name resort, although I must say, this place was much nicer than others we have used.  Rustic cabins with 2 bedrooms, a tiny bathroom, a kitchen/eating area, and a screen porch.  However this is definitely a family place.  The owners are kind and helpful and maintain an inground pool, small playground, and game room with puzzles, games, books, etc. for us to use.  The best feature was two lakes, named Moose and Little Moose, on either side of the resort for boating and fishing.

Hunter, Shelby, and cousin Hannah posing at the entrance sign.

Our cabin which we shared with Scott's parents.  If It looks like those trees are broken or falling, they are.  They had a massive storm causing major tree-to-property damage about a week and a half before we got there. Thankfully everyone was safe although they will probably be cleaning up trees for weeks to come.

Shelby's first morning out, definitely not sure about this whole thing and hanging on tight  to Grandma.

Hunter bringing in a big blue gill.  He had a stellar first day fishing bringing in each fish as soon as someone could remove the last one and help rebait his line (which means Mom brought in NOTHING!)

Hunter with yet another gill; He was having a great time and improved to baiting his own hook and even  removing some of the easier catches.  He was up at 5:30 every morning to fish with the guys and even helped with the cleaning process.

By the second or third day, I finally got a line in the water and  this was my nicest perch.

Shelby, ready for action!  It only took a day or so for her to really  adjust to hats, life jackets, the boat, etc.

On Wednesday, I had a hot streak, helping pull in so many fish we lost count.  Among them were 45 rock bass, one of which I'm holding up.  Scott and his dad cleaned fish for two hours that afternoon!

Shelby enjoying a nap in the boat.

I pulled in a massive blue gill on Wednesday.  The resort keeps a running record of the summer's big catches. My bluegill weighed in at 12 oz. and measured about 10 and 3/4 in. so I made their board.  My brother-in-law Chad set a new record with a large mouth bass the next day.

The kids enjoying the swingset.

Hunter building a sandcastle in the sandbox.

Enjoying some down time playing Candyland with Grandpa.

So I know there are no pictures of Scott, the serious fisherman.  That is for two reasons. First either Hunter or I manned the camera all of the time, and second, while bringing in a good amount of fish, Scott's one big beauty was a 21 inch walleye which he brought in at 6:30 am when fishing with Hunter and Grandpa and had to release due to lake rules. He still had a great time and was thrilled to pack and bring home almost 150 fish for our freezer. I have a feeling, we will be going back to Cedarwild for years to come!

Vacation #1, Ending

Much to my dismay, I realized I did not think to take pictures as we were visiting with family or hanging out at my aunt's pool.  Shelby's 3rd birthday was while we were in NY, so I have one video of her attempting to blow out her candles.  She is not quite got the blowing thing down yet, and my aunt was a little nervous since she had already grabbed a lit candle.


After almost 4 days of visiting with family, we ventured on to Pennsylvania.  We took the kids to the Crayola Factory in Easton, PA.  Hunter, especially, uses crayons, markers, etc on almost a daily basis, so we thought this would be a fun adventure.  We got to see how crayons and markers were made, collect crayons, markers, and model magic at various stations, and use various products to make small projects to take home with us.  It was all very hands-on and interesting.

Cool entrance.

Watching red crayons being made

Hunter was interested to learn that originally Crayola would pay farmer's wives to glue on the crayon labels during the winter to make extra money to have money for needs on the farms. Yes, eventually machines took over.

Making our own puzzles (Shelby is not too thrilled)

Trading in a token for a free green marker from the marker station

Shelby is loving all the colors and activity.

Glow boards with special markers

Looks like he enjoyed himself

World's largest crayon

Nothing Quite as Cute...

Yesterday morning before church, my friend Toni (link) texted me that her first sow(mama pig to all you nonfarmers) was in labor.  Now there is nothing cuter than little baby pigs, so I took the kids up yesterday afternoon to see the newest additions.  The piglets were adorable, and the mama was very laid back and patient with all of us playing with her new babies.

the itty bitty babies

Leah showing Shelby her favorite piglet (the runt, of course)

Hunter holding a little buddy

Tractor Pull Surprise

On Friday, we went to a tractor show about an hour away from our house.  Since Hunter is such a tractor NUT, it is one of the things we have started doing occasionally as a family.  We like to look at all the old tractors and vehicles and see if we can find any bargains at the flea markets.  This show even had a really old two seater Harley Davidson and an old fire engine.  During the afternoon, many of these events have some games for the kids and a pedal tractor pull.  Hunter really enjoyed the games, winning a prize in the water balloon toss and finding lots of coins in the straw during the treasure hunt.  He also competed in the pedal tractor pull.  He did much better this time than when he tried it for the first time at a show last summer because he was not first and could sit and watch some of the other kids.  Although he didn't say anything, I could tell he was disappointed after his pull because he had seen two other kids before him go farther.  I just told him good job doing his best and having fun doing it.  At the end of his "class", the announcer said that they were handing out trophies and third place went to Hunter Schaetzle.  Boy was he surprised.  I wish I had known that was coming and snapped a close-up of his face.  I don't think he knew they even awarded trophies, and I know he didn't think he placed.  It was a fun surprise for him.  Of course he acted all cool and macho and wouldn't smile for the camera when we were taking the pictures, the turkey!  He is kind of in a "I don't want you taking pictures of me" phase right now, but he really was excited.  The trophy is made out of a cedar board that they cut with the old steam engines there at the show, and Hunter keeps talking about how nice his trophy smells.  He even keeps trying to get Shelby to sniff it.

The top 3 pullers with the tractor and weight sled behind them.

Family Day At the Zoo

Mom wanted to get out of the house and spend some fun time together as a family.  So for that reason and partly to celebrate Shelby's birthday, we took a trip to the zoo today.  The day was beautiful, even if it was just a tad bit hot.  The zoo had misters going all over the place, and both Hunter and Shelby enjoyed walking s-l-o-w-l-y through them to keep cool.  As you will notice from the pictures, I didn't take very many of the zoo animals, just pretty much my own two.  Most of them were lazing in the shade anyway.  Some of the more interactive and favorite exhibits included the river otters, the Great Barrier Reef (Sharks, Mom!), the giraffes, and the train, log/river, and carousel rides.  Hunter was also pretty fascinated by the Komodo dragon, an elephant skeleton, and a tank of moon jellyfish which made him a little nervous at first.  Probably just too much Finding Nemo recently, but he made Mom touch the glass first to make sure she wouldn't get stung through it.  After that he was ok and really intrigued by how they moved through the water.  Shelby was pretty much just along for the ride.  Her favorite part was probably the carousel ride which produce lots of laughter, bouncing, and squeals.  Dad can't wait to get both her and Hunter to Cedar Point, although that may take awhile for her since she's such a little squirt.

Walking from Franke Park where we had a picnic to the zoo entrance

Riding the tortoise - not very quickly of course

Feeding the geese, ducks and catfish; Shelby is wondering why Dad turned her around so she can't see.

Betcha didn't know that I hatched my kids from an egg!

Riding the endangered species carousel; both kids loved it; Hunter was sure his black panther was the fastest, and Shelby just kept squealing and grinning the biggest grin.

Hunter got to feed the 18 ft. male giraffe some lettuce.  The giraffe is on the ground and we are standing on an elevated platform.  As you can see the giraffe could easily reach over the railing. 

Spring break with Cousins

This week, being spring break for children in school, brought Amy and her clan up from KY for a visit.  We have had a great time hanging out, and for something different to do today, we took the kids to swim at the local college rec center.  We had a really great time with all of our little fish.  They were all even brave enough to jump off the diving board, although Hunter did tell me that he had to talk tough to himself and say "You can do it, Hunter." because it looked pretty scary from up there.  (I thought this was way too cute!)   I think the grown-ups favorite thing was the hot tub.

Ready for some heavy duty swimming

Hanging on in the deep end

Amy and her clan

Enjoying the "hot pool" (as Hunter kept calling it)

Ag Days

Last Friday, my friend and I took our boys to the "Ag Days" in the next county north of us.  It was very nicely set up, quite educational, and best of all, free.  Our boys really loved it.  Even though they are both country boys who have been around farms and gardens their whole lives, they still learned some things.  They really liked watching a sheep being sheared and milking a cow, which were both new experiences for them.  Hunter said his favorite thing of all was the baby pigs.  They were very little, soft and cute!

Saying hello to a pony

Petting the two baby pigs - a favorite that was easy to keep coming back to since they were in a big wooden box in the middle of the barn.

Two buddies - a cow and a very silly scarecrow

At the end you could turn in your basket of crops that you collected at each farm and "buy" a milk and cookie at the market.  We enjoyed the fruits of our labors (ha,ha).

Hunter was trying so hard to milk the cow, but just couldn't get it.  Once I shut the camera off, I showed him how to pull down as he squeezed.  Then he got the hang of it, but I didn't have the camera on to catch it.

Florida cont.

The second day in Florida, we drove down the east coast a ways and spent the afternoon at the beach.  It was a beautiful day, and after quite a few wrong turns and the frustration of trying to find a parking space amidst all the other people wanting to enjoy a Sunday afternoon like us, we finally made it out onto the sand.  We splashed in the waves, built sand castles, and just soaked up the sun.

Dad and Hunter building a sandcastle.

Hunter digging a pond.

playing in the waves

Buried in sand

Then we cleaned up and drove on to Scott's aunt and uncle's house in Lake Placid.  We spent the rest of the week fishing, biking, playing cards and uno for Hunter and relaxing.  We also spent one day at a Pioneer Days which was neat.  It had a pioneer section, antique tractor section, and big flea market section.  I didn't take a lot of pictures during these days because we were just hanging out and I didn't think about it.  Hunter played with quite a few turtles, 3 of which were caught during fishing.  We also had fun chasing lizards and disturbing a tortoise who was eating some lunch.  One day on our bike ride we even found a big dung beetle pushing his find down the middle of the street.  Yes, you got it, it was a big ol' dog terd.  Of course, Hunter thought it was the funniest thing.  I kind of wish I had had my camera that day because only Grandma and I were with him.  It made a great story for him to tell everyone else though.



Hunter investigating a turtle that Grandpa caught while fishing.

An afternoon bike ride:  as you can see we took Hunter's bike but not mine.  So I got the privelege of riding Aunt Ruth's yellow 3-wheeler.  We got lots of smiles and waves.  I keep telling my ego that they were because of Hunter.

We had a really nice time and are so thankful to Scott's Aunt and Uncle for opening their home to us for the week.  It was a time of relaxation and great memories!