Anna-Belle at the Beach

Great Northern Pike

Small Mouth Bass

Little Small Mouth with lighthouse in back-ground

Busy Summer Already

Here is a picture of Breanna at the Strawberry Fest Parade in Chassell, Michigan. All the kids surrounding her would pounce on the candy as it was thrown to the curb, but once she got the hang of it, she was able to hold her own against them. What a little dandy she is. She is developing such a personality and sometimes it is a challenge just to simply get her hair brushed in the morning, let alone, do another one of those non-preferred activities that can create quite the emotional outburst! All-in-all she is a wonderful little girl. Please. Thank-you, "sorry daddy" which gets me every time. Her mother is teaching her that all she has to do is say, "please favorite daddy" and then she is coached to bat her eyes, and she gets what-ever she wants. She loves her older brothers and uses them as her little play mates. Help up on the trampoline, ring-around-the-rosie mates, hide-n-seek mates, you name it, she can get them to do it. She will laugh and laugh with enjoyment while playing with them.

We were looking forward to having Uncle Richard and Uncle Trent come from out west for an fishingpallooza event like no other. But bad luck with health (flu) and unforeseen circumstances has canceled the event like a drummers bad elbow can cancel a show. We were really looking forward to the company way up here where visitors are very few and far between. Maybe a winter carnival can be planned that will include 80 mile snow-mobile trips, ice fishing, snow shoeing, or skiing. We'll have to wait and see.

With the time off this week that would have been spent with brothers and nephews and nieces, I'll have to get the family out on the lakes and do some fishing and camping without extended family. I'm looking forward to a little break from work and just relaxing with a fishing pole in my hands. Nothing could be better than watching bald-eagles skim the surface of a woods bound lake, no sound at all but the splash of a bird catching more fish than you. Man is it beautiful up here. I love it so much and I'm so happy to be up here, away from it all. When I want to engage with the big city events, I can just go to the big city and then come home to the "quiet-of-the-earth"

All is well with all of us. The boys are not looking forward to the end of summer vacation and wish the next 5 weeks would go slow as cold tar. Breanna has been going to day-care at the school districts pre-school since the end of June. There are some positives and some negatives about taking her out of the old day care but I think the positives outweigh the negatives. Hopefully she will get used to it and not be so tearful at drop-offs like she did at her old day care. Time has a way of changing us all.