Mr. Tomato

We started a little forest this summer on the deck. We planted wildflowers, tomatoes, and some arborvitae. It has been really nice. Our tomatoes are just now winding down. Last week we noticed this one... a perfect face. very curious indeed.

Long week

There was a ton of stuff happening last week. Odin started school, John was teaching at his office and home later than usual, we also each had meetings in the evenings.For the weekend we decided it would be prudent to go and ride some roller coasters at the big mall.

Preschool

Last week Odin started preschool. He is attending three days a week in the afternoons. So far so good. ON Wednesday he went for a hour, then for the full 2.5 hours on Thursday.
He was not very excited for a first day of school commemorative portrait. . . this is what we got.

1st attempt


2nd try - a little better


The best we got!

Way back machine

Labor day. Seems so long ago now. We went to the BWCA for a kids weekend with T & A. We took Samo with us this time. I think the dog or the boy on their own is just dandy, but when both are along it is traveling with Captain haywire and his co-pilot.
At one portage Samo was sick of waiting for us to load all of our gear and swam out to T & A's boat. He swam for a LONG way. It took us about 10 minutes of paddling to catch up. He slept for a few days when we got home.
The weather was perfect. Almost HOT. I couldn't believe it. We did some fishing. Odin had a new spider man fishing rod and loved using it. He nearly caught a bunch of northerns on the casting plug.


John met us in Duluth (our usual messy logistics) and so we had two cars to drive home, on Labor day. We decided to go the rural Wisconsin route, and loved it. No traffic, nice scenery and a great restaurant with a fantastic buffet for cheap!
It was a great weekend, but next time I think the dog will get a separate "vacation".

Still here

Yes, I am still interested in doing this blog thing. Loads going on. More details to follow, but recently we have:
Been back to the Boundary waters (with Odin and dog)
Gone to preschool orientation (Odin no dog)
Moved a ton of stuff around in the house , well just the living room and basement.
And once I look at pictures I am sure I remember more.
Details and pictures of most to follow.

Congratulations Louise!

This past weekend had us in Illinois cheering for my aunt Louise and her horse at the Young Horse Championship Dressage show. She was up against other qualifying 5 year olds (the horses age) from across the country. She was the West Coast Champion and drove all the way from California for the show.
Louise did great and her horse is the Reserve Champion 5 year old in the country!
I had a great time, it was wonderful to be able to see her ride, I was only slightly bigger than Odin last time I saw her compete. So for me it was exhilarating.
Odin enjoyed playing with the dogs and liked watching the tractor drag the ring between classes. John came along and was great at finding diversions for Odin. Jamie, my sister, also came and was full of fun suprises for Odin. We all had a lovely, but exhausting, weekend.

Really Big Fish

What trip to Northern Wisconsin would be complete without seeing (and crawling inside - through the bum) the worlds largest (fiberglass) Muskie? We were off the river before eleven on Sunday and had to drive right past, so we paid our admission and went to have a look. What did we see?
Lots of old fishing gear, motors, lures, taxidermy trophies, and a fish themed playground (unsafe by 1980's standards). We had a good hour or so there. Some nice pictures for the album too! Now when is someone going to make me an album?

Inside the mouth of the beast


there were many stairs to get to the top. Odin ran up them all.


Odin reeling in "a big one!"



Girl these next two are especially for you......



I tried to find one to stick my head in, but this was the best that I could find.