A dandy night for a bikeride

When there is not snow on the ground one of the activities the hunky hubby and I enjoy is to take bikerides to the lake. We only live a short distance (blocks) from the shores of Lake Michigan. It's one of the many reasons I love being a Yooper. On this night my lil brother and his gf joined us on the pedal. Fun times!!

Hittin the ski trail

On Tuesday we hit the ski trail. It was our first time in years. Like we're talking a dozen or more. We weren't sure how either of us would do. We'd go often when we were dating. Then there were health issues, work issues, punk butt kids vandalizing the trail and then my meniere's crud that kept us off the trails. Hittin the gym daily, sometimes twice daily has truly paid off. We had the energy to complete the loop without any major issues and I stayed upright on my skis without any vertigo. Bozinga!!!

It's a mile in until you hit the loop. Once you hit the v there is a hill to climb. I had Ken go first so I could take pics. Once he neared the top he did a lil turn around pose for me. Then I said he should go down the hill. You know, for funzies. Plus, there are bigger hills on the trail so this would be good practice.

He even did another fun lil pose. Notice his exquisite form. Ski pole behind him, knees slightly bent, upper torso pointed down and forward. It looks like he's a pro at thins right???

He got to the bottom of the hill and fell on his rearendolla!!! Laid there for a minute, muttering. Saying it was my fault, he was going the wrong way on the trail...Keep in mind, we are both laughing hysterically. Like almost pee in your pants laughing!!

We got to another hill, Ken went down first. You could tell it was going to be a bit of a challenge. I had given him the camera before he went down so he could get a pic of me. Apparently he wanted to prove his theory that I would not be able to do it. Well, folks, the video proves that I MADE IT!!! =)

The day was riddled with two falls for me and another fall for Ken. On my first fall I was going down an uneven hill, fell flat on my butt, eyes up at the sky. There was a bald eagle soaring above. Ken was at the bottom of the hill and he noticed another eagle circling above. We stood there for 5-10 minutes. Took pictures, video and just marveled in the gorgeous place we call home. It's good to be a Yooper!!

Ken's 1st time

Oh my heckles!!! It's been eons since I last posted!!! I didn't plan it that way. But life happens. I went on the road with my hubby for a few days this past week & well before that we had New Years. Speaking of New Years...it rocked!!! Seriously had a BLAST!!! Then New Years Day a group of my family went up to camp & check it out!!!!!! This was Ken's 1st time on snowshoes!!!


Us

All set & ready to go. Wish I had my ski poles with for balancing!! Amazingly neither of us fell!!! My cutie pie head hubby!!!! =) Yup, we'll have to purchase a couple sets to keep the winter blubber butt disease at bay!!!

They like it!!!!

Woooohooooo! Total stokage here!!! The birds found the pine cone creations!! There were about 20 birds on the lil liac tree when I got up to take the pictures. I take it only the photogenic ones stayed around. Once I was done snapping pics (from inside the living room) they all came back. Not a single pigeon either!!! YAHOOOOOOO!!!!

Ken noticed this today. Our two fat cats in the small cat condo. Ok, I confess, the condo is normal sized & our cats may be slightly "pudgy". Buster on top & Betsey below.

I completed my "secret project" today and can't wait to post about it next week!!!!! =)

It's Crunch Time

I grabbed the bag of pinecones we picjed at Ken's Nana's in Massachusetts, grabbed the peanut butter & a bag of birdseed....

spread peanut butter on the pinecone...

rolled the gooey-ness in birdseed....

And hung them outside on the lilac tree for our feathered friends....now hopefully we don't get pidgeons!!!!!!

This is the afghan I completed the other night. It's for our friend Janet...who happens to be his dispatcher.

There are still projects needing to be finished, including the cards & packages that need to be mailed!!! Christmas will be here before we know it. It's crunch time my friends!!

Weekend in pictures

Our weekend was fantabulastic!!! We tossed around so many ideas on what to do. We ultimately decided to stick closer to home & attend the Fall Festivities in Garden, MI.

We camped at Portage Bay Campground. It's in Garden, on the other side of the peninsula tucked deep into the forest. We noticed a small sign for a campground the last time we visited Fayette, MI. Down a gravel road 7 miles lies this gem of a campground.

We quickly set up camp & set out for the Apple Orchard & used bookstore. We left the dogs in the camper while we did this.
We didn't take the camera into the Orchard place. I wish we had...it's an old school, the ceiling caving in. But the yummalicious fruits inside were well worth the visit! We bought 1 bushel of McIntosh, and another bushel of another type and a peck for my real dad. We also bought a large container of pears. They man said they are grown for Gerber baby foods. We also bought two large pumpkins, 8 medium sized gourd type pumpkins, a yummy pumpkin spice scented candle, and a cherry pitter. Once we got our fruit to the truck we bee bopped back into the building so miss Kaffy could shop till I dropped in the used bookstore!! Oh how flap jackin awesome! ken was at one end looking through books while I scoured the other end. We each put a stack of books on a table. Seriously, we, or rather, I could spend ALL day in there!! We had to hustle though if we were going to make it to Fayette to the Fall festivities. When we counted up the total amount of books there were 28!! My fave #!! That # plays such a part in mine & Ken's relationship! So this lil quinkidinkle was rather funny!!

We arrived at Fayette around 3:30 in the afternoon. Ken walked over to the old country store remains. I had to bend down to tie my shoe & saw this....YIKES!! Ken told me not to touch it. Well I had to take a closer look! It was plastic!!! Whew. It must have been part of the treasure hunt.
Deeper into the village we saw the oodles of people, all dressed up in their Halloweenie costumes. It was mostly kids, waiting to be judged in the Halloween costume contest. Next year we are totally borrowing someone's kiddos!! In the Hotel there was painting of pumpkins, across the way there was pumpkin bowling, and pumpkin ring toss. They also had refreshments & snacks.
We took a walk around the village & took a few photos. This is a view of snailshell harbor with the limestone cliffs in the distance.

As we made our way toward the inner part of the town we came upon the apple cider demonstration place. Sadly we missed the demonstration but Ken was able to kind figure out how it works.
After spending about 45 minutes in the town we decided to take a ride through the campground at Fayette. Campers were decorating their campsites for Halloween & passing out candy for trick or treaters. I so wish we would have taken photos of these campsites. These were hard core awesome!! We're talking pirate ships...in the campsites, lights, spooky witches, ghosts, and one camper had a gross dead person type thing under it. Totally scared the zoinkels outta me.

On the way out we noticed this...one honkan HUGE bee hive!!!

We got back to our campsite & stoked up a fire. I chopped up some of our yummy apples, put them in foil, sprinkled some brown sugar on them & let them cook for a lil snack.

This is a view of the beach at our campsite. All of the sites are situated lakeside. Which makes for awesome sunset watching!
Ken decided to make a fire poker with the ax...totally freaked me out! The stick turned out awesome though. =)



We figured it was time to eat sumthin before the sunset. Neither of us felt like pulling the grill out of the side compartment. So we used the campfire. The burgers turned out awesome!!

Sunset is my most favoritist time of the day. Nothing beats a sunset, even if it's on the wrong side of the lake. The sun sets on the side of the lake that Fayette is at. This campground is on the other side of the peninsula. It offered a different perspective...still ultra pretty!!
Ken & I sat on the beach bundled up in a blankie & watched as the sun made it's decent...such a wunnaful way to spend an evening with my ultra fabulous hubby that I love so much!!!

Our Weekend

On Friday morning we left on our "romantical" weekend with the in-laws. After we set up camp, had some lunch we decided to take a ride to Paradise & show my in-laws the memorial we did for the babies. They took their truck & we took ours. We also took all 5 dogs on the hike this time too! I must say, it was a much better hike out there than the previous week. I must have been having a way "off" feeling day that day. The waves were nowhere near the size of last week. Actually the waters were pretty calm...well for Superior! The weather was amazing...up to 82!! Can't ask for a better day!







After our hike we took a ride that was about 35 miles up the road to visit Sceney Wildlife Refuge. Bill & Jeanne had never been there & Ken & I enjoy that type of thing. The sunset was out of this world amazing! I think we took like 20 pictures of the various stages of it's decent.


How stunning!!

See the white swans?

Obviously this photo was taken before the sun set. See the adorable turtle sunning itself on the log? I totally jumped out of the suburban mid roll to capture this lil guy, or gal!! For serious!!

How stinkan cute is that!!! Ahhh how I love turltes!!!
Yesterday was a gloomish type of day. Sporadic showers all day & windy. We still managed to take a walk around the lake & Ken took, or rather tried to take some family pics with us & the pups. It's pretty hard to get all 5 of them looking at the camera & have us both in the picture! LOL Pay no attention to the crazy hair atop my head! LOL

Here I am with my babies: left to right; Allison, McKenzie, Macey, Arizona & Brayden

I didn't know Ken even snapped this picture. Here was Allison chillin next to me & apparently I was talking to Brayden & he was listening. Haha I am a bit bias but my doggies are sooo superly cute!!

Almost got it....but Macey had to show her rump to the camera!

We finally gave up....

On our walk around the lake we almost walked right into this...Bear poop!!! Luckily the dogs didn't decide to forage on this berry pile! Sooo gross!! I had to take a picture though seeing I have never seen bear droppings. We went back to camp, dropped the dogs off at the camper & asked Bill & Jeanne if they wanted to go blueberry picking. It was Ken's idea. I however told Jeanne to take a bucket...and she did! Just down the shore we saw the footprints.

The views from across the lake were astounding! The Fall foliage is really coming to life here. On our drive home today we noticed even more color.

Can you see this lil guy in the weeds? Ken almost stepped on him.

Yesterday Ken & I decided to take a ride to gather some more firewood in the woods & check out the other campsites. We just wanted some time alone, time to just chill with one another. We were just chillin at one site looking at the colors, relaxing & then his parents had to come find us...so yeah...there was an issue of privacy.

I would be lying if I said I am still not hurt about what happened. I would be also lying if I said I didn't have any fun. Because I did. It was an ummmm interesting weekend. Now, next weekend should be ultra fun!!! We know we will have the weekend to ourselves. They have my nieces recital in Wisconsin. We originally planned to go to Fayette for the fall festivities next Saturday. But now are planning on going up to Houghton, MI on a camping trip & do a Fall color tour... With a possible stop in Ironwood to say howdy to my brother. Just Ken & myself & our fab 5. =)