Welcome, Carol Hunter!

Remember my old "What is it?" blog posts? This might have been a good photo for that.

It's a yellow pond lily flower, shot at the cabin this weekend. These are a few of my favorite photos from our holiday weekend. I was prompted to post a few by my good friend Carol, who says she feels like a loser because she keeps checking back and I haven't updated the blog. (Does she know I check her non-updated blog, too? Does that make ME a loser?)

Anyway, the weather in the U-P was August-like. 90-degrees on both Saturday and Sunday. Our lake temperature was 76-degrees! Paul made his annual Memorial Day jump in the lake (I watched), and he said it felt like bath water! In May!
I was happy to find a few more ladyslippers near the dock this year. I'm hoping they'll stick around and continue to spread out each year.
And I found a few of these tiny orchids near the shore. One of my plant identifier books says it's called a Dragon's Tongue orchid. I've never noticed them on our bog before, but hope we get more next year! I lucked out and caught some sort of grasshopper in the shot, too! Can you see it?

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend! I'll post again (probably with soccer shots...tournament season is coming soon!).

May Snowfall

We went the entire month of April without snow, a first for the area. But yesterday afternoon, one last blast of winter blew through (I hope it's the last blast), leaving about 3 inches of heavy wet snow on the ground this morning. I saw bent and broken tree branches all over town, along with lots of frozen flowers.
Mason had a soccer "jamboree" today. He was supposed to play two short "exhibition" games. He played the first (many of the kids were wearing shorts!), but the coaches called the second one shortly after they started trying to shovel the field.

15 minutes for me

I decided to take a few minutes this morning to take photos of my magnolia tree, for no reason other than I wanted to do it. I've been shooting photos at Cal's school all week. It's been fun. But I wanted to get back out and shoot some nature. These are all different shots, and I did different things with each in post-processing. Again, no real reason. Just for fun. Enjoy!

Highlights from New York City

We spent last week in New York City. We lived there for a year (from 1997 to 1998) while Paul did his fellowship at the Hospital for Special Surgery. Calvin was just a year old when we moved to New York. We have a photo just like this from our first week in the city. A fun comparison shot!

This time, we were in the city as tourists. We had a great time and managed to do a few things we wanted to do while we were there, but as is the case in New York, we just couldn't do everything. That just means we'll have to go back!

Mason had at least one slice of pizza each day we were in New York. He's our "Pizzatarian".

Paul visited this great place (The Pickle Guys) that sells pickles (and olives, and peppers, etc.) I think we'll have an online order arriving any day now.

And one of the most surprising highlights of our trip...two visits to "The Doughnut Plant". It's a small little shop that's been featured on the Travel Channel as having some of the best doughnuts in the country. We agree wholeheartedly! The chocolate ones were amazing!

For Trish

My friend Trish says she's tired of looking at the snow photos on my blog.

I don't blame her. We didn't see snow in Duluth for the entire month of March! Seriously. Check out the facts if you don't believe me!

Spring has sprung early in "The Northland" and we're lovin' it!

I'm hoping to blog a little more frequently now that the weather is nicer. So, let's start things fresh what we've been up to lately.

The basement renovation project is still underway. We've put in a bathroom, a dog shower, and we have a gameroom that's almost ready for gaming. We've been moving boxes from storage area to storage area down there in order to put in new concrete floors throughout. The whole thing has been a huge transformation. When it's done, I'll post photos!

Today's photo, is the OTHER project we've been doing. This is our third floor. It used to be cluttered with dozens of bins filled with legos, and a big old TV. Not anymore. This will be a bar/fly tying area. The window wall will have a full-length countertop where Paul and Mason can tie flies. The little white alcove where the holes are? That will house a wall mounted faucet and sink and an upper cabinet. We're getting a ginormous sectional and a new TV set to finish out the room. We're hoping it will be ready by the end of April!

Yes, we love our projects. But we're looking forward to a project-free summer. Unless my parents need help at their new house. Oh, and there's a few things we need to finish at the cabin....

Weekend Ski Race

Young Philanthropist

Just in case you thought I'd stopped taking pictures...I haven't. Here's a shot of 12 year old Zachary Bonner from Tampa, Florida. This boy has his own foundation, The Little Red Wagon Foundation, which works to help underprivleged kids. He does online schooling, which allows him to tour the nation, talking to kids his age about the importance of philanthropy. Such an amazing kid...I was happy to have met him at Cal's school today. Here's a story from Good Morning America about Zach's work.

What were you doing when you were 12?

Superior Ice