Jay Cooke State Park

If you look closely you can see the spider coming out of his hole. I had to be brave to get this picture because he had 2 neighbors that i was nervous would attack me.


if you look closely you can see me lying on the rocks in the picture below. i am working on taking a picture












Mari and i went to Jay Cooke State Park last Saturday and had a great time. The leaves were just starting to change and we (well, at least I am), hoping to get back up there this fall to see the leaves. This is a beautiful state park. I think it is my favorite, and it is great because it is so close. Hiking has become my outlet this summer. It is so peaceful and relaxing. I love taking pictures, and then veiwing Mari's pictures. Looking at her pictures is like doing the hike again through another eye. She has a great artistic eye.

where to start

i'm not even sure where to start as i haven't written in so long. we successfully finished the school year and jumped right into summer. the girls and i walked in parades with dad and spend quite a bit of time at coffee shops. we are all reading a lot this summer and doing the best we can to enjoy every minute!


i have been up to the north shore 3 times this summer hiking. i have loved it. i mainly go with my friend mari. i also completed one triathlon so far this summer with 2 more to go (the next one is this weekend in duluth). i'm playing ball twice a week, one woman's league and one co-rec league. i play with mike in the co-rec league.

anika partcipated in dance lessons this summer. she likes to play outside and catch any live animal she can get her hands on. she has become quite the swimmer, and is very helpful around the house. her favorite chore is cleaning the bathroom.

jewel played baseball this summer and really loved it. i accidentally missed a game one day because i looked at the wrong time, and she was actually upset that she missed it! she has also started taking piano lessons, and appears to enjoy it. we do struggle with the practice issue already, but i think it is something she will like for many years to come.

way way behind

ok, i am writing to acknowledge the fact that it has been 3.5 months since i have blogged. my excuse is the end of the school year, and softball, but since i am not working this summer i have no excuse. updates to soon follow... i promise...

spring break

we are just finishing up our week of spring break. we each took a turn at being sick for a day, but we were able to fit some fun stuff in too. on wednesday we went to the cities and stayed in dad's condo. we went and saw dad at his office, then headed over to the condo to hang out with mom. that night we went to dinner with linda, john, laura, lucy, mom and dad.

they actually liked all the steps up to the capitol.

on thursday we went to the capitol so jewel and anika could open session by pounding the gavel and saying the pledge. they did a marvolous job!at the beginning of session with Madame Speaker Margaret Kelliher Anderson. she was so wonderful with them. she has to be terribly stressed, but she took time to talk to the girls, and walk them through the process. it was very special and i think grandpa ward was super proud!

after they opened the session we went to the children's museum for the real fun (in their eyes).

we headed home after the children's museum. today (3/21/09) we had a shower for jackie and wyatt. it was nice to see everyone. i think jackie looks very cute, and we are SO excited to see wyatt. anytime now....

cookies, tubing and fun

Last weekend the girls and i took advantage of "no plans". it was great. saturday we lounged around, cleaned the house, and made cookies. the evening we had a movie night. it was a nice day.

They lovingly spent some time playing on the computer also.

sunday we went tubing at prime time charlies in pequot lakes. joe met us there and we all had a blast. the weather was wonderful (about 40 degrees) and the hills were not busy at all. anika even eventually went by herself. we got in a full 2 hours of tubing, ate dinner, went home so joe could clean a large amount of fish that he and his friends caught and retired for the evening. it really was a fun weekend.

this week is spring break. we don't really have much planned, but i'm going to try and bring the girls to st. paul and stay at dad's.

triathlon

this weekend i completed my 1st indoor triathlon at the YMCA in brainerd. it was a timed event, the times and my distances are as follows:

10 min swim - 20.5 lengths (about a 500)
30 min bike - 9.3 miles
20 min run - 2.3 miles

http://www.brainerdlakesymca.org/winter%2008-09%20pdf%27s/tri%20results.pdf

the exciting news is that i finished 1st in the women's category and 3rd overall. i was so excited when i found out. shannon andres-haglin was there watching me and cheering me on. i would not have finished so strongly if she wasn't there supporting me. she is the person that i do the tris with in the summer, and she pushed me the whole way. it was great to have her there yelling for me. she is one of my many friends that i am so fortunate to have in my life. the girls and i celebrated by going to north country cafe in crosby for lunch and then having coffee at letty's and playing cards for about an hour. alyssa (another one of my wonderful friends :) ) had us over for dinner saturday night. the girls helped me clean the house sunday and then mom and dad came over for dinner. it was a really nice weekend.

ice skating

it was absolutely beautiful out today. i think it got up to 45 degrees or so. it was wonderful. the girls received ice skates from santa claus, and today was the first time they used them. they had a blast. we were out on the rink for 2 hours! anika went right at it, and was pretty good (she has double blades). jewel was more skeptical and worried about falling and dislocating her thumb! she eventually went out and after an hour or so she was doing well.

rainbow cake - happy birthday grandma sally

grandma sally's birthday pary...

i have to start by admitting that this is originally shannon and gabe's project and that i got it off of their blog. it looked like a fun project and it just so happened that i needed a cake for mom's birthday party! if you are interested in the directions for this cake here is the link: http://omnomicon.blogspot.com/2009/01/how-to-make-rainbow-cake.html

i realize that it looks a little crumbly, but the cake was actually very moist.

so, like i said the girls and i made this for mom's birthday. joe, the girls, and i had mom and dad over for dinner on saturday. we had fish that joe had just caught and cleaned. it was very very good. happy birthday mom!

spearing

joe has been taking me spear fishing this winter and i love it! i haven't actually thrown the spear. i only decided i was ready a couple of times ago, and actually haven't seen a fish since then. we went out saturday and sat for 3 hours, but didn't see anything. it's actually fairly peaceful. you sit in silence in a dark house looking down into the hole. the water is so clear. joe has said it is like watching tv without the sound. he just moved the house a couple of weeks ago into more shallow water and now you can see the bottom (9 feet down) and the weeds that come up from the bottom. i haven't actually seen a fish in the new location, but i'm hoping i will because the view is so much clearer than the other location. joe speared this one when he was with ricky, his kinship partner. it was a 10 lb. northern.
this is the view. it is hard to tell from the picture, but like i said, it is pretty clear. the decoy (live) is on the right side of the hole. i hope to eventually post a picture of a fish that i spear!

jewel's 7th birthday

jewel was lucky enough to celebrate her birthday over and over last week. she started with a "frend party", had a party with grandma and grandpa ward, went out to eat on her birthday and ended last weekend with a party at grandma karin and grandpa terry's.


here is the owl cake that grandma sally made

this was quite the challenge for me. 8 children in a restaurant, and myself!

jewel's girlfriends from st. francis
jewel's girlfriends from lincoln

she had a fun time, so it was very worth it. i just can't believe that she is 7 years old!

diamond

i forgot to add that i received a new diamond from someone. i realize this isn't the best picture ever, but i thought i would add it. anyone have any guesses as to who gave it to me? maren, do you have a guess?

so cold

jewel celebrated her 7th birthday this week. she had a "friend" party at rafferty's last saturday. it was me and 8 children, which was quite and experience. sunday mom and dad had us over along with ryan for dinner. tuesday was her actual birthday and we went to coco moon for a treat, then out to dinner. jewel chose to go to china buffet. apparently she is her daddy's daughter. i will add some photos from her birthday later.

this week it has been so very very cold. we have had 2 late starts and one cancellation due to the weather. my thermostat is not working so it has been around 58 - 60 degrees in the house. joe's brother, brandon is coming out today to take a look at it. if he can't figure it out eric said he would walk me through replacing the thermostat (he told me i could do it). for all of us that think ak is so cold, here are the current temps: tempe 50, anchorage 38, brainerd -31. thats fun.

next week joe and i are going to the capitol to spend a day with dad. i'm excited for that. i'm hoping to talk joe into going down the night before so we can get sushi. yum. i don't have the girls this weekend, so i'm wanting to get out in the spear house tomorrow, then tomorrow night i'm going to dinner with some high school friends.

have a nice weekend!

gettting started

jewel's christmas program

anika and amy fooling around with the camera

sometimes they are the best of friends

shannon and gabe have inspired me to start a blog. i love looking at theirs and keeping updated on their life, so i am going to do the same to keep my family and friends updated. Jewel has just finished up with basketball. she loved it this year, and it was fun to watch her. jewel dislocated her thumb so she is currently in a cast for 3 weeks. she has her birthday party tomorrow with friends at rafferty's.

anika has been playing the 'sweet' role lately. if jewel is getting scolded, anika will do everything correctly to look like the model child. it's kind of funny. she was really happy to get back to daycare, and the "high" of her day on monday was actually going back to daycare.

ok. i have to get back to work, but hopefully i'll keep at this.