Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Summer pictures and more

Becky went to visit Sam in the Spring.  Went to the Milwaukee Zoo.

 I love this picture of Tabby.  "yeah, I got pig tails.  wanna' make something of it?"

Easter eggs!

Uncle Mikey's over spring break.  Lotsa' mud.  Some shooting.


Becky took Grandma & Grandpa and kids to Barkhausen when they came up.



Grandma & Grandpa took them on a boat trip in the Dells.

Santi & Philipe were still here! Seems like so long ago.




Aw.  Ben is such a good brother.


 Yay!  Spring!



 Testing for my blue belt.


Took a weekend trip to Wausau.  Mikey took us out on his boat.  Then we hiked up to an abandoned quarry on Rib Mountain.  The quarry had a pond with a bunch of tadpoles.  And a ton of turkey buzzards.




Graduation!  Congratulations to Ben!



Santi's parents arrived to pick him up.  It was nice to meet them.



 Goodbye Santi!  Good luck!


Becky and I spent our anniversary tooling around the Appleton area.  Including a trip to High Cliff State Park.

 Sam is growing a better beard than I have.

Becky & I went to an Oneida Pow Wow.  Super cool.




Becky took Ella and Tabby to the DeYoung Zoo.  Had a great time getting up close with wild animals.




Becky took a trip to New York to photograph Amanda's new baby. Tabby went along and had a great time with Amanda's niece, Hannah.








Welcome to Wisconsin Laure-Elise!

One of the first days we took a trip out to Wequiok Falls and Bay Shore Park.




Happy Birthday Tabby!  Double digits!

Trip out west! Stopping in  Dubuque, Iowa for lunch on the Mississippi.

We stopped at the Lewis and Clark Landing in Omaha and visited the Monument to Labor.

Met up with Bob and LeeAnn visiting Becky's grandparents.

Finally arrived in Laramie, Wyoming.  Spent a morning hiking at Vedauwoo.



Target shooting.  Even Laure-Elise decided to try shooting the .22.

Visited the old Territorial Prison turned museum on the way out of town.

Also visited a wayside stop that included a dinosaur/fossil museum?  Neat find.

Spent a morning driving and hiking out to Bloomington Lake.  Beautiful.  That is really snow still on the mountain there near the lake.  There were humming birds all over the meadows around the lake.



And there were cows on the road out to Bloomington Lake.  The road was awful.  We broke our exhaust system.

Playing at the rental.

Playing on Bear Lake.




More hiking.

While our van was being repaired in Montpelier, we visited their local museum.

We stopped at Rick's Spring along Hwy 89 through the canyon into Utah.  Becky took pictures.  Laure-Elise found a cave


First morning in Utah, we visited Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake, maybe 20 minutes from my parents' place.  There are no antelope on Antelope Island, but there's an old buffalo ranch turned tourist stop.  And some now wild buffalo roaming around.


The Great Salt Lake was as disgusting as I remembered it.  Brine flies, muck and stench.  But as long as you just look at the pictures .. the water, the light, the birds.  It's very pretty.

Picked up Zach & Katie and went hiking in Memory Grove Park.  I met a dog from Racine.  At least that's what it's tag said.

We also went to the mall and to Temple Square.

My parents took us to the Hill Air Force Base museum.

I thought the Minute Man missile was cool because my father tells me his Dad made the tools to work on it.

Got together for a picnic at Jeremy & Leah's.  Of course that included horse riding.

 

We got to meet Jeng, Joel's finace.

Stopped for a rest at Martin's Cove and hiked up to Devil's Gate.


Visited Crazy Horse that night.


Then Mt Rushmore the next morning.





We finally got back to Wisconsin after a loooong day of driving.  Becky took advantage of the next couple weeks before school started to tool around the state with Laure-Elise.  Starting here at home with a morning at Ashwaubomay park.  While Ben was on lifeguard duty.




Pamperin park.

Baird Creek.

Eau Claire Dells.


Where they found frogs!



Wait, what?

And Ben is off to MSOE!  Good luck to Ben.

Voyageur Park.


Another trip to DeYoung Zoo.




Roche De Crie and another boat ride at the Dells.




And Tabby starts her last year in elementary school!


 Laure-Elise joined the Ashwaubenon Tennis team.  For a fund raiser they went to the first Packer game of the season v. the Seattle Seahawks and handed out rally towels for the Packers.  I was even told that we could stay to watch the game after if we wanted.


 Which, duh, of course we wanted too.  We didn't have seats, but we hung out on the roof and watched. So here Laure-Elise is at half time.  Right before we got kicked out.  Because, no, really we weren't supposed to stay and watch the game.  Ah well. It was fun while we were there.