Approach the dog days carefully

We had a good visit with the Gibsons and Mary.



On Saturday we played frisbee golf in Sugar Camp and then went swimming at Two Sisters Lake. After Mass on Sunday, and a visit with Mom & Dad, we went to Buck Lake and grilled out. They headed out, with our kids for a week, after the ski show.



Also, Dave won a night's stay at the Holiday Inn, and a $50 gift certificate for the Pub from the Great Northwoods Treasure Hunt.

Sunday Dinner

Mom and Dad came over for a grilled chicken dinner tonight. Then we went over to watch the waterski show on a beautiful summer evening.

Company!

I have a fellow blogger!
Carmen has her blog up and running:
News from the West Coast

How to get human

Shelly just had to wade through Charter's phone system, maybe this would have helped:

to get human customer service:
from Charter Communications (grade:F)
dial: 866‑472‑2200
Press 0 at each prompt, ignoring messages.

I just found this list posted on the Wisconsin Geocacher's Forum.

Recommended by Dan Hogan

Sometimes I forget how powerful I am

The kids stayed up 'til ten watching a Family Channel movie, while I finished the paper and watched the Brewers open the second half with a pfft.
When I tucked them in, I went in my room to watch the tivoed Scrubs episodes I had left. They kept getting up and saying they couldn't sleep. On Jamie's third visit, I snapped, "what?! do you expect me to have some magic in my pocket?"
He probably did.
I'm Dad.
So after I realized my mistake, I went in by his bed and told him that his body was probably just readjusting from vacation. He thought that sounded good. He fell asleep pretty soon after that.
Come-from-behind games are still W's.

Beer pic

Dave just sent an email saying I'm on the Beerfest website.
Only 338 days left.

Day six

Geocaching crew.

At the first geocache.
Sliding down the trail.
In awe.

The sun sets in the West.

Day five

We drove from Yakima towards Mt. Hood, then down along the Columbia River Gorge.

The neighborhood cat greeted us.

We went to a neat park with creative climbers and caches (the magnet-held, consumer-sized electrical cover plate).

Day four

Mr. & Mrs. Dan & Cori Ronyak

Day three/ four transition

When we were up in the mountains, Michaela had a little too much water in her bottle.

We arrived in Yakima to find Uncle Paul Scobey standing in the parking lot with a vacant expression on his face. (or was that surprise, "Hey! I think I know those people.") We visited with relatives at the Oxford Suites (excellent place). We went to the rehearsal dinner, visited with friends and relatives old and new. Came back to the motel for complimentary drinks in the lounge, while visiting.


Saturday morning we visited Mom & Dad at the Sportsman's State Park Campground. Tony and I wandered down a hiking trail to find a geocache. Then we came back to the motel for a swim before the service.

Day three: Highway 12

We stopped to see the ocean one more time, then headed down Highway 12.

I took a picture of the kids with a Jeep geocaching travel bug in front of Americana.
A friendly woman at a scenic viewpoint/geocache location took a family portrait of us.
And one more look at Gibungo from another scenic viewpoint/geocache.

story break

Going outside for a bit now. I'll continue my story later.
I went to a geocaching meeting this morning. Wrapping up this year's treasure hunt, and planning for the future. The kids and I are going to fix a muggled cache.

Day two

We drove south and west to Ocean Shores.
Driving through the suburbs, we were admiring the subtle differences between our community and Washington's. Then I caught my breath. My eyes welled with tears at the beauty of seeing Mt. Rainier for the first time as we crested a hill on the freeway. The kids couldn't stop saying, "Whoa!" and, "Wow!" They renamed it Gibungo (Jibungo?).
We stopped for picnic supplies at Olympia. Shelly and Kayla got their nails painted while Jamie and I found a geocache.
We arrived at the ocean midafternoon.
Wow, whoa.
It was cool and breezy, but quite an experience. We checked into our motel, I had a Henry Weinhard's beer, we relaxed, geocached a bit, and had dinner at a local eatery.

Day one

We drove to Minneapolis on Wednesday, the Fourth of July. We flew out a little after 10 CDT, after a short wait for technical difficulties. As we took-off over Mpls, and when approaching Seattle we saw a lot of celebratory fireworks. They popped-up, exploded over the neighborhoods, and bathed everything in their colored light. It was quite beautiful.

We arrived at Seatac around midnight PDT. We drove a mile down the road and stayed at the Sleep Inn for the night. Great place.

Postcards from many places, though not including Iwo Jima

Got home to a stack of mail, including postcards from Mom & Dad. Some we should have received earlier (Hmmm, Mr. Postman?). It's time to move on to our vacation, though. If you want more info on their trip, you'll have to get it from Mom & Dad.

Oregon Trail

Hot enough for ya?

Yakima, WA forecast

Vacation stuff

Yesterday I mowed Mom & Dad's lawn, and then we had a picnic at the portage on the pontoon boat with Trevor & Cathy and the kids.

Today the kids and I went to Fleet Farm in Antigo to get a muffler for the car, and we found some geocaches, too.

Tonight, Shelly and Michaela are at waterski practice.

Jamie and I had some pizza and watched a few innings of the Brewers game. We paused the game after our stomachs settled to play some catch. Jamie couldn't find his little league ball, so we used his Brewers' Pepsi Kid's Club ball, a real hardball. He caught great, a big improvement over last week, when he was getting a little frustrated. His last catch was a high pop-up, and he caught it as he fell to the grass. It seems he might be an outfielder.

Waterskier

Michaela's first waterski show was at 7:30 this evening.
She, Jamie and Shelly went down to Hodag Park at 6. When I arrived just before showtime, I noticed the stillness, the golden tint resting upon everything and everyone in the park.
Families slowly gathered into a community at the water's edge.
As I walked down the gentle grassy slope I heard the voice of an angel whispering a lullaby. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole sang of what is to be.
As the ideas within my mind, and the subtle, yet awesome, perceptions without, formed a confluence in the reality immediately in front of me, I felt a lump in my throat. My daughter is crossing one of those thresholds.

She admitted to butterflies in her stomach at dinner this evening. She's been on stage, on the court, field, and mat before, in front of spectators. But this was a step up. This is a team of teenagers.

I sat in the bleachers, trying not to be overwhelmed.
Michaela sat in the water, balancing her skis, waiting for the rope to go tense, waiting for that powerful boat to pull her up and out of the water, to pull her so gracefully across the glimmering surface.

And it did. And she stood. And she rode the full circuit, she dropped the rope in front of the crowd, quietly settled into the waist-deep water, and emerged with the smile of the conquering hero.