This past weekend was the annual Fall Picnic at Conrads in Moose Lake.  This year’s theme was “Lutheran Hot Dish”.  My parents and Allison organized the bulk of the activities while the rest of us brought the good weather and an assortment of Minnesotan hotdishes. 

This year’s attendance was spattered with quite a few more kids than previous years.  In all I think there were 40-50 attendees, with 10-12 being kids under the age of 10.  Activities for the kids (and kids-at-heart) ranged from Hayrides around the 80-acre farm, a scavenger hunt, fox-and-the-hen in the pasture and jumping in mud puddles.  For those of us whose wives wouldn’t let us get dirty in the mud, there was plenty to eat and drink, as well as putting on the boots and walking out to the maple grove.

Jason and I were also lucky enough to get out bow hunting on the land on Saturday and Sunday mornings.  Our trail cameras have picked up quite a few different bucks on the land this year.  The biggest reason for this is because Wilbur/Neal Koecher didn’t use the pasture land for their cows this summer.  While I’m sure my parents missed how well the cows kept the grass mowed throughout the property, Jason and I both welcomed the high grass which have given the big deer more reason to stick around the land.  We’re still undecided on whether or not to hunt Conrads this rifle season (November) or if we’ll stick to the public land in Barnum.  I suppose our decision will be made partially from the pictures from the trail cameras between now and then.

 

Shelly and I travelled to Floriday over Labor Day weekend to attend my high school friend, Brant Lagoon’s wedding.  We left the house on Thursday morning at 6am for our scheduled 7:45am flight, but didn’t end up leaving Minneapolis until closer to 11am.  We met up with Troy McCrady (another high school friend) and the 3 of us flew into Memphis for a 2 hour layover, and our connecting flight to Pensacola.  In Memphis the 3 of us met up with 4 other friends whose desitination was the same as our: Kevin and Kay Jensen, and Jon and Shanna McIntosh.  Once in Florida, we were later joined by Bert and Mel Wagner, and Ryan Ascheman.

Our trip basically included multiple trips to the Pensacola Beach, eating far too much seafood, and drinking an equal amount of alcoholic beverages.  Brant and his fiancee, Amy Soo planned out the majority of our activities and their pick of resturants and bars were superb.   Thank you so much Brant and Amy Soo!

Two establishments of note were a little resturant/coffee shop named, Crema and a night club named, Sammys.  Shelly, Kay, Troy and myself found Crema on Friday morning while driving around downtown Pensacola in search of coffee.  The breakfast was so good we brought the whole crew out for brunch the next morning.  The chef at Crema was another reason for our return visit.  He (we never got his name) came over to our table both mornings, and LOVED to talk.  Shelly and I even got a few fried clams from him.  The other establishment we spent time at was a night club named Sammys.  We ended two of our nights at Sammys because it was open until 3am; one of those nights was after the wedding reception where we brought a total of over 20 people. 

Looming over the weekend was the impending hurricane (”Gustav”) and it’s near-miss of Pensacola.  Luckily for us, we only saw a few minor showers on Sunday night (the night of the wedding), and semi-tropical-storm weather on Monday morning on our drive to the airport.

The trip was great, filled with lots of memories and a great opportunity to see Brant and Amy Soo (not to mention the other White Bear Lake high school friends), and to be a part of their wedding, but I’m glad to be home in Minnesota.  It is safe to say I will not be ordering any shrimp, lobster or crab anytime in the near future.

Shelly, Hannah and I attended the State Fair on Friday the 22nd.  It was the 2nd State Fair for Hannah.  We took her last year when she was only 3 weeks old.

We decided to get to the Fair as early as possible so that we might avoid the crowd.  It wasn’t all that crowded at 9am so we went directly to the Animal Birthing Barn.  We saw baby Turkeys on our way in, and were lucky enough to see a few pigs being born.  Very cool.  We then proceeded to a few other of the animal buildings.  Along the way we found a stand that makes wood (carved) signs, which we’ve been looking for at the Fair for a few years.  We’ve been promising my Mom and Dad a wood sign for their ‘direction post’ at Conrads.  The prices were reasonable so we ordered a sign that would be ready just a few hours.

In those few hours we decided to walk around and of course eat some ‘fair food’.  Normally we’d head straight for the cheese curds, but this year we decided not to since we just recently joined Lifetime Fitness to lose a couple of pounds.  But, since the Fair only comes around once a year we did splurge a bit.  We at the following:  chocolate covered bacon (yum yum), Sweet Martha’s Cookies, all-you-can-drink Milk, a shredded turkey sandwich (new, very good!), beef jerkey, snow-cone, apple-freeze and some fruit. 

Overall, the fair was a lot of fun this year.  By the time we left (~2pm), it was packed, and we were happy to be leaving.  Next year we might even let Hannah ride on some of the ‘kiddie’ rides.

On Thursday, August 14th, Hannah’s Birthday, we had our immediate family over to the house for a little party.  Shelly had been planning the event for weeks (maybe months), so we were both excited and relieved the day had come.  The theme Shelly chose for the party was ‘Picnic’.  I won’t try and describe all of the details of what Shelly did; I’ll let the pictures of the party do the talking.  But mainly there was a lot of color, flowers and summer/grill-food.

Earlier in the day a few of us took Hannah to the Minnesota Zoo.  The main attraction this summer are the 3 Grizzly Bears, and boy are they cool.  I wish I had taken a few pictures of them.  If you have the chance to make it out there, trust me you won’t be disappointed. 

After the zoo visit everybody met at our house for some appetizers on the deck and a sample of “Hannah’s Best Root Beer”.  To go along with the ‘Picnic’ theme, Shelly thought it would be fun to make some homemade Root Beer.  The whole process was fairly simple and the result was a pretty good tasting product.  The carbonation level is a bit on the low-end, but if you add some ice cream to it, it makes one excellent root beer float.

Once we were all filled up on Brats and Pulled-Pork sandwiches, not to mention the homemade baked beans and rice pudding (both recipes from Grandma Olive) it was time to give Hannah her first birthday cake.  Shelly constructed a ‘dessert tower’ made up of carrot cake cupcakes topped with edible (marshmallow) flowers.  Hannah loved it!

The night finished up with Hannah opening presents (too many as usual) and eventually saying ‘good night’ to everybody as she stayed up way past her bedtime.

Overall the birthday was a huge success!  I take zero credit for any of it (except for maybe the Root Beer production), as Shelly was the mastermind and the one up the majority of the nights prior to the party prepping every last detail.

Here is a link to the pictures of the day:

This past weekend Shelly flew to Seattle to visit her best friend from High School, Heather.  She left on Sunday, which basically left me in charge of caring for Hannah (and the pets) for 4 full days.  Scary, I know.

Sunday was a piece of cake, and my Mom volunteered to babysit Hannah during the day on Monday so I could go to work.  Monday night Dad and Sam grilled out with Hannah and I.

I took work off both Tuesday and Wednesday to be with Hannah all day.  It was great!  Hannah has started to walk now (for the past week or so) so it was a treat to see her giving it her all, trying to balance her fat little belly over her wobbly legs.  It doesn’t help that Maggie likes to zip past Hannah, causing her to lose any sort of balance, regardless of whether or not she even touches Hannah. 

I can honestly that being a ’stay-at-home parent’ is not easy.  I have a much greater respect for those who choose to stay home with their kids!  Don’t get me wrong, I loved my time alone with Hannah, but unlike the Corporate world, there are very few breaks, if any.  And at home when I did get a break (nap-time, ‘playing with the dog’-time), I was picking up the kitchen or the toys.  Boy o boy, I’m getting tired thinking about it already.

As much work as it was, I can’t wait to do it again!