Chrishan - Chris, Shannon, Jasmine, & Kai

Fishin' at Devils Lake

noreply@blogger.com (Shan) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:17:00 +0000

Yesterday was a beautiful day, and Chris had to work later then he normal. I decided the kids and I were going to go do something special, so I went and got my fishing license, and took the kids fishing. It was quite an exciting evening at Devils Lake. We caught a blue gill here while trying to avoid smushing all of the newly "hatched" dragonfly's were emerging from their nymph stage; the were everywhere. We watched a heron gulp down a fairly good size fish, avoided a run in with a family of geese, and saw a raccoon scurry off up the bluffs. The absolute highlight of the evening was Jasmine catching a blue gill who, while on her fishing line, nearly escaped being lunch for a 11 inch bass. Jas required a little help getting both fish in, and kept exclaiming "I knew I was going to catch a big fish just like Papa!"

Peewee's Nest

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:09:00 +0000

Shannon's parents and us decided to check out a new hike in our area. The area is called Peewee's Nest, up until now we have been warned that it is a dangerous area to hike. We where actually surprised how easy the hike in general was. The only real danger is the high ledges you walk next to on the top side. But even with the risk of fall, the trails themselves where wide enough to easily navigate without much worry or risk. We had a lot of fun and the area is beautiful back there, I wish we would have explored it earlier.

A Little Less White Trash

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 24 May 2009 15:26:00 +0000

Shannon and I have been neglecting the front yard for quite some time. We have actually done some work but overall we joke about feeling like we have the white trash house on the block. However we decided this year that we would make an effort to improve our curb appeal. I am not sure what inspired me exactly but I thought it would be cool to get a nice barrel and use that as a decoration with our name and address on it. Along with the barrel we added a garden "spilling out" of it, and I decided we might as well go all out, so I started to reseed the lawn as well. Here is the end result...

Alabama House

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:06:00 +0000

I have to admit I was kind of a geek :) When we arrived at the house we rented I was pretty impressed, so the geek in me had to pull out the camera and take a tour. Of course since I recorded it, I thought I might as well share it as well.

Alabama House from Chris Shepherd on Vimeo.

Vacation '09

noreply@blogger.com (Shan) — Thu, 21 May 2009 01:12:00 +0000

It was collectively decided that this year for our annual vacation with our friends that we would all be meeting in Alabama. Now when people found out we were heading to Alabama, the first question was "and what is in Alabama?" We had to honestly answer "well, we don't know..." but we were excited to find out. We headed out on Tuesday after Chris escaped from work. We stopped in Rockford, and had a very enjoyable dinner with our friend John who lives in the Rockford area. We then continued on our way to Geneva, IL where we stayed over night and picked up our fifth passenger Lesley.

Unfortunately, the next day was a miserably rainy day, which killed our driving time quite a bit, and by the time we hit Indianapolis we were a little limited on what we could do for a break. We decided to check out the Children's museum the kids had a great time running around and there was some pretty neat things for us older kids to check out too.

After wearing the kids out we trucked our way down to Knoxville, TN were we stayed the evening. The next day was cloudy, but nice enough that we thought we would do some hiking in Smokey Mountain National Park. This was a really neat park and I would really recommend everyone visiting it at some point. On our first hike we tromped up a nice path past a small black bear (Lesley's sharp eyes caught that one) to the very pretty Laural waterfall. After that hike we took a scenic drive through some old growth forests where there were some old farmsteads, it was very inspiring yet sobering to explore these structures. To think of the hardships people living in these mountains would have had to endure, and how lonely life may have been for them as they created their homes. But the scenery was breathtakingly beautiful through the drive. We finished up our day in the park with a hike to the highest point in the park. Unfortunately it was getting fairly cloudy by the time we reached the summit so the view could have been better. We continued our way through the park and unwittingly followed our GPS through a very, very, very windy road through the mountains to get to Chattanooga, TN where we would be spending the night.

Friday morning we woke to a beautiful sunny day, so we decided to go to Rock City on Lookout Mountain. This is a fun little tourist trap, I mean attraction, that was built around the time of the depression as a private garden but it attracted so much praise that they finally opened it to the public. Trails guide you through cracks in the mountain, over crevices, and through tunnels and caves for a very unique experience. The grounds have a plethora of plant life which are very well labeled for people who are interested in such things, while cute nicknames and hiding gnomes keep the kids entertained. If you are brave enough there is even a suspension bridge across a good chasm to put a little adrenaline into your system.

After visiting Rock City we opted to travel on to Alabama to find the house we were staying in. We were all shocked when we saw the place and a little scared to set foot inside. This was a monster of a house with a $1,300,000 price tag, which I am sure will be the most expensive house I will ever set foot into. We also were greeted by the first inhabitants of the house, which were all very large spiders and they were everywhere. Luckily spiders and I get along very well so many of them were saved and tossed out the door. The bedroom we slept in could have nearly fit the upper floor of our house into it.

When everyone finally arrived we decided to go shopping for food for the weekend after finding some food. Chris and I have never eaten at a real BBQ restaurant, so the group went on the hunt for quality fair. There was a small shack down the way from where we stayed which the town locals said had the best bbq but our party's Alabama natives weren't so sure they agreed with the local assessment so we continued on our hunt until we found a nice little bbq joint that had a nice hometown atmosphere and really good food. That night the ladies went bug, frog, and spider hunting while the gentlemen drank some beer an caught up with each other. I will say one thing about Alabama they sure know how to grow some huge bugs.

We crashed and woke up early the next morning for a quick breakfast and plans to hike the Walls of Jerico. The hike was listed as six miles long and strenuous. The word strenuous has never frightened us away from any hike, so away we went down the mountain. Since it had rained on and off the entire previous evening the trails were muddy clay and slicker then ice in some places. We continued on while Fara explained some interesting facts about the flora and fauna, and showing the kids ridiculously huge millipedes (I would estimate an easy 5 inches), and snails. Unfortunately the trails got a little too treacherous and we lost two of our party of ten. The eight remaining decided to continue on and meet the other two back at the house. The eight continued our decent finding colorful millipedes, snakes, and newts until we reached the little stream running at the base. A hand made log bridge was the driest way across and then we started running into the boy scouts. We received multiple warnings that we probably couldn't make it to the walls with small children because of how bad the trails became. But we decided to press on. We walked through some very pretty forest and by a small cemetery. We continued following the trail and crossing a small creek, until it became clear that Chris and I with our two small children could not continue on. So our party of eight dropped down to a party of four who would make it to the end. We decided to take the kids back to the stream and let them play for a while. We then had the long hike back up the mountain to our cars. When it was all said and done the kids did great. Jasmine did great walking six miles without having to be carried and Kai made it at least 4.5 miles before having to be carried. Even though we didn't make it to see the walls the hike was amazing. I found this link to a webpage which has what the actual walls look like if you want to see them http://huntsville.about.com/od/photogallery/ig/Walls-of-Jericho/

We finally all made it back to the house, and took showers because we were all pretty muddy and vegged for the rest of the night.

Sunday it was raining and cold so we decided to go to cathedral caverns, which was a very impressive cave to say the least. Chris and I have been in a number of caves and usually it is pretty tight spaces but this cave was very different, the huge spans of open space were ironically a little unsettling to me. That being said the cathedral room of the cave and the subsequent rooms with all of the unique flow stone, cave bacon, pillers, and stalactites and stalagmites were very beautiful. It was a pleasant surprise when our guide turned off the lights and shone a light onto a broken off stalagmite and it glowed after the light was removed. Apparently there is a high amount of phosphorous in the caverns architecture that accounts for this unique characteristic.

We spent the remainder of the day visiting, napping, and relaxing. Unfortunately, we had to part ways the next day. We miss our good friends quite a bit, and I was sad to leave them. But we had to get home. On our way home we stopped by Mammoth caves which was a very unique cave experience also, the fist part of our hike we passed through tight vertical shafts which were just awesome in their shape and structure. The decent down into the main cavern was one of the best parts of the tour. You descend nearly 200 feet into the earth going from one fissure to the next. It was truly one of the most unique cave experiences I have had. It almost had the feel like you where one of the original cave explorers going into a tight hole to see what you could find. You finally level out and follow a small hole you have to crouch down to walk through which ends in a contrasting vast open room. Every cave is unique, and I really love getting the chance to explore them. The kids loved this cave because they got to ride on a school bus.... everyone was happy.

Our last stop was the Indianapolis zoo. There is not really a ton to say about a zoo, the kids enjoyed seeing the animals.

Sometimes it is ok to loose

noreply@blogger.com (Shan) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:56:00 +0000

This last weekend was my Hockey team's playoff weekend between the top seated teams from Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana. Luck of the draw had us playing the same team that knocked us out of the tourney last year but we played very well and won with a shut out 2-0. Unfortunately for us that put us playing the top seated team in Wisconsin who we play during our normal season. We were a bit off our game and lost 0-2. But luck was again on our side and we played the team we had beat the previous night again. It was a rough and tumble game, but luckily we had our white level team there to cheer us on and we won in over time 2-1, and because of the two loss rule, we knocked them out of the tourney. We were still in the running for the championship game at this point, but we had to play and beat the top seated Wisconsin team again, in order to get to the championship game. We played a good game, but it just wasn't enough we lost 2-4, and they went on to play the championship game, and we got third place in the league tourney. Not bad for a team with just two lines of players and 4 games in a span of 36 hours. So out of five teams, I won't complain about third place when we played as well as we did that weekend. When playing teams who all are contenders be called the best, it is good to keep some perspective that although it is great to win sometimes it is OK to loose. There can only be one champion, perhaps next year if we play our best through the season and find ourselves in the top of the Wisconsin teams again. We will have our chance to improve our performance again and continue our forward momentum as a team to win the league tourney.

Happy Anniversary

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:28:00 +0000

Friday was our Anniversary. I can't believe it but this was number 10. Wow go us! Unfortunately all fun plans where called off as Shannon, Kai, and Shannon where all horribly sick with the stomach bug. Oh well to be celebrated at a later date :)

Jasmine's Winter Dance Recital

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 04:44:00 +0000

Here is the highly anticipated sequal to the summer dance recital :) Enjoy the butt wabbles.

Kids Take Over Computer

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:41:00 +0000

I had a great laugh tonight. I was going through my photo album on the computer and I noticed a few pictures I hadn't seen before. It amazes me the technology natives that children are today, my kids can pretty much operate a computer without much trouble, except for the spelling part :) Anyways on the computer is a program called Photo Booth which simply mimics a photo booth and allows you to take pictures of yourself.

Looking at the images I can see myself occasionally in the background. I am putting together a machine for my inlaws, and apparently my kids are having fun on the computer while I am not paying close enough attention. Anyways the shots where too good not to share with the world, so here they are enjoy ;)

Jasmine Starts Hockey

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:10:00 +0000

Jasmine decided that she wanted to play hockey this year. Probably not the most surprising thing since both Mom and Dad play religiously. She is definitely having a blast and fits in with the rest of the kids. I couldn't help but be a proud parent and take some really cute photos :)

Back from my Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:50:00 +0000

I spent about a week and a half our in Idaho bow hunting for Elk. It was an absolute blast, I met some great people, saw some beautiful country, and had an all around fun time. Unfortunately hunting wise I wasn't able to bring an elk home. But outside of that everything was good. It is definitely on my list to do again.

Over the course of the week and half there where approximately six of us hunting. I say approximately because we lost one hunter then picked one up a day later. Brad our host out there was very accommodating, he setup a large walled tent with four cots for us to sleep in, along with bringing his own camper. He setup a great campsite with everything we could need to live in luxury. We even had a shower complements of Tim (roughing it).

The only time I had any seconds thoughts about the trip was the one night that it got down in the 20s. I was shivering away in my sleeping bag pretty good. But I that didn't last for long and I stole some extra covers from one of the guys which made all the difference.

So onto now, I am back home and I was catching up on my blog reading. I happened to read on Dan and Rosey's blog about him shaving once a year. I figured it had been quite awhile since I had shaved as well, so I took it upon myself to follow suit. So to match Dan I posted a pic as well. Though you will have to forgive me, I didn't snap a picture right away so I am already starting to grow my beard back. Oh well you get the point :)

From New Shave

Circle of life interupted

noreply@blogger.com (Shan) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:00:00 +0000

We were out at Chris's mom's house today when we went for a quick jaunt down to the mailbox only to find that a snapping turtle nest had hatched out. Jasmine found the first one on the side of the road and was so excited she had found a little turtle. I immediately warned her about picking it up because even little snapping turtles can have a mean little bite. I picked it up and moved it across the road pointing it toward the nearest water. Mom told us that there was a nest up the road and they were probably from that. Upon walking further Chris's mom pointed out where the snapper had laid the eggs, and sure enough there was a tell tale hole in the sand. We sat by the hole and watched another two crawl their way out. Again we took them across the road and pointed them in the direction of the nearest watering hole. The kids would have happily sat there all day waiting for more to come out, but we decided it was time to go. As we walked down the street back home we found another five turtles in various areas of the roadway. I decided we couldn't let nature take its course and have little squished turtles on the road, so we picked them all up and carried them home. Lucky there is a pond in the back yard where we could let them go in. It was a pretty special day for the kids to see fresh out of the egg turtles. I remember as a kid watching the big snappers come up from the lake, lay their eggs and take off. My brother and I would mark where she would lay the eggs with a circle of small rocks. We checked on them almost daily until they hatched. Good honest fun.

A huntin' Chris will go... while I go up nort'

noreply@blogger.com (Shan) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:29:00 +0000

Christopher planned a hunting trip this year with a friend from hockey (ironically not too far from Glacier National Park)and he is out enjoying said trip as I write this. I on the other hand, hate staying at home alone when he is away so I packed up the kids and the dogs and headed up north. I really miss living in the north woods with the UP being close enough to take a day trip to. We love spending time on Lake Superior and exploring the ridiculous number of water falls located around the state.

Mom and I decided to take a trek up north today and let the kids play. We crammed Jas, Kai, and Leo into the car and headed off on our adventure. Poor Mel had to go to school so she was sad she couldn't join along. OVer the years, since I was a kid, the Michigan park system made the falls much safer then they used to be by putting stairs and rails up all over the place. Personally I think this kind of takes some of the fun away, since we can't go climbing on the falls like we used to ( we used to be the adventurous types.) But, on the same accord, you would also never dream of taking a five year old, a three year old, and a two and a half year old to them either, one wrong step and they would be gone. So boring for teens, and exciting for little ones, guess it is for the best. The kids had fun running around the board walks and burning off some energy.

We then ran up to Lake Superior and let the kids toss rocks in the freezing water and play in the sand. We knew there was no way we were going to keep the kids dry so we took off their pants and let them run into and out of the very small waves that were rolling over the beach. Poor Leo couldn't quite get the timing right for running away from the waves. He would run into them when he should have been running away from them and running out of them when he should have been running in.

We packed up once more and made our last stop at Presque Isle Falls. This was a pretty area and I think next year maybe Chris and I may try to take a long weekend there without the kids to explore more and do some hiking there. There are a lot of abandoned towns all over the place there from the late 1800 and early 1900 that I would really like to hike into to check out also. I don't know if there are much more then cemeteries still around but it would be neat to check out.

The week vacation that should have been two....

noreply@blogger.com (Shan) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:06:00 +0000

This years highly anticipated vacation was a good one to say the least. The grand plan was to meet up with our friends from Utah and our new friends from Alabama in the rugged out doors of Montana. Our days would be filled with hiking, eating, and some sightseeing, and our only regret was not being able to stay longer.

We began our trip on Wednesday afternoon stopping to visit our friends James and Kerri in St. Paul, who were kind enough to put us up for the night. We stayed up late chatting, which was a nice way to unwind after driving in the car for the evening. We said our good byes and departed in the morning hours only to hit rush hour traffic in Minneapolis. Ah yes I forgot about how bad the traffic could get in the twin cities, but we pushed on. Our first destination of this trip was to the Dakota Zoo in Bismarck, ND. By the time we got there it was about 90 degrees out and very high humidity. Most of the animals were in hiding from the heat of the day. None the less we did spot many critters. One thing that was unique about this park was how close you can get to the animals. It was almost uncomfortable at times when you were only three feet away from a massive male grizzly bear. The pictures don't give a good idea how big this bear was. The kids, ironically, were the most drawn to the badger(go bucky badger!!!) Admittedly though, the two badgers they had were very active when we saw them and very very vocal. Chris and I chuckled at their waddling run while the kids ran beside the cage to keep up with them.

We continued our drive across ND and as evening fell, in the distance we could see this big circular thing with spokes. I thought it may have been a Farris wheel but I could not figure out why there would be one so close to the highway. As we got closer we were able to determine it was a massive sculpture of flying geese. It was pretty neat but we continued on our way with regrets of not being able to get a good picture of it. We wanted to get across the boarder into MT that evening so we pushed on until the morning hours. We stayed at a hotel in Miles City and took off right away in the morning again.

The next day was another really long day of driving and a really long day for the kids. We needed to make it to the chalet in West Glacier by that evening. So we drove as fast as we could get away with. That evening we finally made our destination and got to see the chalet for the first time. My first impression of it was it looked like a doll house or a miniature play house. I had great reservations about how we were going to fit nine of us in it comfortably. To my great surprise, once we got inside, it was wonderful. The floor plan was laid out very well. Chris and I were both so impressed that we were seriously thinking that down the road if we build a house that is what we would like to do. It is the perfect size for solar power and heating. Very very efficient. I digress....

We met up with Dan and Rosie and cute as a button Sara. I was thrilled to see all of them. So two out of the three couples had made it successfully at this point. Unfortunately for Farrah and Keven they had nothing but troubles with their flights, and ended up getting to the chalet pretty late that evening. We all woke up the next morning, ate a wonderful breakfast made by Dan, and set off on our first hike. We took the avalanche trail. This was a beautiful hike. The kids stuck like glue to anyone but us, and although I enjoy the break from the kids, I couldn't help but feel guilty that Dan, Rosie, and Farrah were all rotated through by my kids.

After two miles we walked into the clearing of the lake, and although it is very cliché to say, it was breath taking. We stood in a bowl created by the mountains with multiple waterfalls cascading into the almost surreal clear and blue lake. The pictures we took again can't truly catch the color of the water or the scenery. The kids wanted to play in the freezing water so badly. It was great until the storm clouds came rolling in. We lucked out and only got a little wet. This concluded our first hike. We all drove up to Logan's pass and be still my beating heart we saw big horns. I have been waiting to see big horns in the wild for a really long time so I was thrilled.

The second day at Glacier we decided to do the hidden lake trail. On the way up we saw a moose in the river as we were passing. I wish we could have stopped it would have been a great picture. We got up to the top of the pass where the trail started. This was a beautiful hike basically at the top of the mountain. The wind was very chilly and we were walking through some of the snow fields. We saw a hoary marmoset from a distance, which was a treat. The kids would have loved to have a snow ball fight in the snow fields, but mean Mom and Dad wouldn't let them. As we got to the top of the ridge, we got up close and personal with some mountain goats, which was neat. After taking some pics at the top of the trail we traveled back down and then continued the drive through the park to get some lunch. Glacier National Park has a completely different feel compared to all of the other national parks we have gone to. I think it is how rugged the area really feels. All you see are peaks upon peaks of mountains and no sign of human inhabitants within those peaks. It is humbling to be there. On the way back to the Chalet that evening we where treated to the site of a cute fuzzy little grizzly bear.

Very sadly the next morning we had to pack up and go. We opted to take the road through the park again and take a few more pictures and take a different way home then we had originally come. Just driving through this part of Montana was beautiful. We were on some major back way highways and we had to be really careful about when we fulled up our gas. To make a highlight of this part of the trip, as we were going along one of the stretches that there was really nothing in but antelope and cows we saw a military hummer with gun mounts on the top. I didn't think much of it at the time and then we saw another. Ok that was a little strange. Chris and I decided to change driver so we pulled over, at about the same time a convoy of hummers, surrounding a cooled semi truck labeled high explosives passed by. They gave us a good look as they passed us by. It was an interesting experience.

Our goal that day was to get to the edge of Montana where we had stayed a few nights before. Unfortunately upon arrival we found out that there were no hotel rooms open in the entire town. Mind you that there were at least six hotels. Lucky for us one of the hotels directed us to the next town over. Then we came to find out from the hotel in that town that someone had found oil and that is why there were no rooms. So these little things made this long day of driving interesting.

The next day we were back into ND and decided to stop at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This is a great park if you want to see many prairie dog towns and the bison/buffalo (depending on who you talk to.) The park is really good at warning you to stay a safe distance from the bison but they don't tell you what to do when you accidentally find yourself in the middle of a herd in your car. We spent a good long time sitting in our car waiting for the herd to move along. We did get some great pictures of them though and saw many people do stupid things around them. Chris was hoping to see some major carnage, fortunately none occurred. As we sat there we got to hear them, for lack of a better description, roar. They sound just like a lion I swear. We also got to watch some of the bulls fight, which made us a little twitchy but we were patient and were finally able to go along our way. Fun park to go to just don't get stuck in a herd.

The final stop we made was back at the Flying geese metal sculpture we passed on the way out. There is much more to the story of the Enchanted HWY and it is worth reading a little about here http://www.enchantedhighway.net/. There were seven sculptures in all. We took a little side trip to see them.

Stats:
3348 miles
63 hours and 10 minutes
1 dead bird :(
1 near miss of deer

Jasmine's First Dance Recital

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 03:02:00 +0000

Jasmine decided she wanted to dance this summer so we signed her up for a short summer class with ended with her first Dance Recital. Both Shannon and I expected to see our shy little munchkin standing in the background, but instead where quite surprised by her instead.

Up to now Jasmine has done two productions with her preschool and has always hid more in the background not wanting to be the center of attention. Even when we where allowed in to see her during dance class, she would usually just stand there and watch us. So last night was quite the shock to us to see her preforming with all her heart. She really enjoyed herself and wants to continue on in Dance.

Check out the video of her dancing :) What you miss from the video is a couple of girls attacking the balloons in the background, causing the crowd to laugh. This may be my imagination but when the music for Shrek starts to play you can hear the crowd cheer on Jasmine as she lets loose!

Kai's First Stitches

noreply@blogger.com (Shan) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:32:00 +0000

We knew it was inevitable Kai was going to end up with stitches during his young life, after all we know who is father is. I am just glad it happened when he was old enough to listen to Chris and me and the hospital staff and understand what was going on for the most part. He was on the loosing end of a fight between his head and the corner of the booth in a restaurant. To say the least we didn't stay for lunch, and that really made Kai mad for he was looking forward to his Oreo pancake. He was even madder that I was holding pressure to and ice on his head.

Poor Jasmine was more upset then Kai was about the whole situation, and it didn't help that the waitresses were panicking. I will spare everyone the extremely gory details, and will sum it up by saying six shots to numb the area and five stitches later, Kai still looked like he lost a fight with a booth but at least the gushing had stopped. Today his eye is almost swollen shut and I am trying to keep him on the calm and quite side (which is like trying to stop a stampede of cattle by quietly whispering sweet nothings to them as they run by.)

Kai was excited to examine the doctors handy work this morning in the mirror when I had to change his bandage. He grinned from ear to ear when I showed him his five little stitches on his inch and a half cut. I am sure there will be a scar, but Chris was quick to remind me that "chicks dig scars." I am just happy that he didn't fall a half inch further forward then he did or we would have been dealing with much more then a scar for the rest of his life.

This is a perfect opportunity to teach him something...

1) For at least the thousandth time, DON'T RUN WHEN WE ARE INSIDE, and now I can add YOU MIGHT LOOSE AN EYE!!!!
2) Be thankful, things could have been worse.

A fishing we will go....

noreply@blogger.com (Shan) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:24:00 +0000

We went up north to Rhinelander this past weekend for Kai's third birthday. We all had a good time trying not to get carried away by Wisconsin's state bird, the mosquito, while letting the kids fish for the first time. The fish were biting and since we were in very shallow water, the kids had a good time watching the fish. Enjoy the pictures...

The river has crested.

noreply@blogger.com (Shan) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:14:00 +0000

Well the river has crested and as of this morning has dropped four inches. The river broke the previous flood record held from 1917 by just under an inch at a whopping 25.95 feet. Travel is still very complicated due to almost every major highway and interstate being shut down between the Dells and Madison. Our little Baraboo River was able to shut down two interstates and multiple highways in this whole mess. Traffic was being routed up HWY 12 up until this morning when there was a serious accident and now there is a detour of the detour. For my family that is traveling from Madison to Rhinelander this weekend, have fun snaking your way between Madison and Baraboo. I hear it is taking hours. They are watching the dam up river very closely for signs of failure it would be catastrophic for many towns if it went at this point, and unfortunately as of this morning there are more dam failures in the area so more towns are evacuating.

If we can hold off getting any more rain for a while we should be ok. Last Saturday and Sunday we got at least twelve inches total Causing the wash out of Lake Delton in the Dells. then Thursday we got at least another four to five inches in a matter of hours which caused flash flooding in Baraboo and surrounding areas.

I have included pictures of some of the most mild flooding around town and it doesn't even give a good perspective of how bad that is. We are completely avoiding where the major flooding is for obvious reasons. Given we are not as bad as Cedar Rapids is but for Wisconsin this is unbelievable.

Sand bagging in the flood of a century

noreply@blogger.com (Shan) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:46:00 +0000

I have never been so happy to live on a hill. With all of the torrential rains southern Wisconsin has had the past week we are very flooded. Numerous roads are out making travel very difficult. By the time Chris got out of work today we easily got another two inches of rain I would bet. Try as Chris might he couldn't find a way home. He got stranded for quite a while until the rains let up and luckily was able to get back to Sauk City to stay with family for the evening. HWY 12 has washed out from the sounds of it, and most of the other roads were already closed because of the flooding. It is a helpless feeling to be living on a hill and know that a large part of the town below you is slowly getting swallowed by the raging river. It got so bad so fast today that they actually called in the Ducks (WWII amphibious vehicles) usually used up in the Dells for tours to come and rescue people in Baraboo.

I was driven to do something. I figured my house is safe and my husband is safe so I should help where I can. I ran down to the town shop to see if they were going to be making sand bags today and I was shocked at the lack of help that there was. I ran home and sprinted up to my neighbors house asked if they would be willing to watch my kids for me so I could go volunteer. They said they could, but Mark decided that he was going to come with me to help. I ran down the hill and bugged my other neighbor and she decided to join also. We made sandbags for three hours in the pouring rain and thunder. At least 6 dump trucks full of sand were put at our feet and we as a group of 50 people got to work.

We got a rhythm down some shoveled some held bags and some tied, all the while watching rescue trucks pull boats behind them to help people who were trapped in their homes. The only time there was a break in the work was when there was too much lighting for it to be safe to be out in the cold rain. My hands are torn and blistered from tying twine around already soaking wet sandbags, there is not a dry part on me and I am sand from head to toe. I lost count of how many bags I tied twine around. As Mark and I were leaving I cringed to overhear it said that the battle is being lost, another house is gone. I get to go home and take a warm shower in my dry house while someone just lost everything. I hate feeling helpless.

Tomorrow Mark and I decided that if they were still making sandbags that we would go back down and help. It is the only thing that we can do to help at this point. I would imagine that it is going to be a few days before the river crests so more people will probably be evacuated from their homes. I would be really surprised if Chris is even able to make it home tomorrow. I can only hope the rains stops soon, but from the look of the Doppler radar I think we have a few more hours of bad weather.

For now we are all safe so don't worry. We will keep everyone updated.

Trike-athon

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:47:00 +0000

Jasmine's preschool puts on a end of the year event for the kids called the trike-athon. Basically they invite all the kids in the school to bring out their bikes and have a fun ride / race followed by a big pot luck.

The event was held at one of the local elementary school's playground area. It allowed for a safe fenced in location where we could unload our kids with their bikes and let them loose among the swarm of other children.

Both of them had a great time and got quite a bit of sun. The only sad part is that as Jasmine finishes this year of preschool it will mark the end of the school itself. Both of the teachers who have run this program for the last 10+ years have done a wonderful job and we are sad to see such a great school close. The good news is that over the year Jasmine, Shannon, and I have made a number of new friends.

The legacy continues

noreply@blogger.com (Shan) — Sat, 10 May 2008 21:54:00 +0000

My parents introduced me to shooting archery when I was about three or four year old, therefore I have been shooting for the better part of my short life. I love the sport and have missed not shooting for the years I took off from doing it. Chris decided to go on an elk hunting trip this year so it spurred us to start shooting again. I dusted off my bow and Chris borrowed a bow from my father. We joined a range and decided it was time to start teaching the kids how to shoot.

I called my dad up on the off chance he still had the bow my brother and I learned to shoot on and sure enough he had the little, once yellow, bear bow Sean used to shoot. I nabbed it from my parents house and here we are shooting at our local range. We have to capture our kids first real shooting experience; we grabbed the camera and we were off. Kai was done with shooting after about the first five targets and being a twenty eight target course he had to keep himself entertained for the rest of it. Jasmine shot at almost every target and did a really good job. Over all it took us four hours to get around the course but it was fun "hunting" with the kids.

Below the banana moon

noreply@blogger.com (Shan) — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:40:00 +0000

Picture this 5:00 am this morning, I was driving home from Rhinelander, kids packed into the back of the car. The moon was still brightly shining (well reflecting) in the sky.

I hear Kai from behind me say "Look mom a banana!!!" I looked over confused in my morning daze trying to figure out what he was talking about.

I said "The moon?"

"Uh huh, in the sky." Kai replied very excitedly. He had noticed the crescent shape and just had to express it the only way he knew how.

Jasmine proceeded to pipe in just after that in a matter of fact voice "There are all different types of shaped moons.... circles, squares..."

Again I chucked and replied there weren't any square moons. I love the ages the kids are at right now. People say you get to learn everything again when you have kids. I guess they are right; I get to rediscover things through their point of view and it amazes me what they understand and see.

Behold the Snow Camel

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:15:00 +0000

The other day we where outside sledding in the backyard, when the kids decided that we should make a snowman. I had no more than started on the base of the snowman when the kids decided we really should make a camel instead.

So with too much time on our hands Shannon and I went all out making our first snow camel. It took a bit and my pictures don't give the true depth of detail that we put into our camel, but I think it turned out well. Well the head was a bit hard, it took Shan a few tries and we had to shrink it down a bit to make it fit on the large neck without breaking. But behold the snow camel with a shrunken head :)

Let it Snow

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:47:00 +0000

I was talking with Dan last week about all the snow we have seen this year. With another large storm predicted for tomorrow, I thought I would take advantage of the sunny weather to get some nice pictures of our street.

This year is the most snow I remember in many years. It almost reminds me of the lake effect snow that the U.P. gets. With our next storm we could push over the 100 inch mark for the year!!!

Congratulations Dan

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 03:38:00 +0000

Dan and Rosey just had their first child Sara Belle Christensen the other day. I say the other day because he mentioned Rosey going into surgery late Wednesday but didn't post the follow up until Thursday Morning :)

Shannon and I wanted to say congratulations to becoming new parents to both of them. Being one of our best friends we definitely wanted to send something to them in the hospital. My first thought of course was flowers. However after a half hour shopping I couldn't find a decent bouquet of flowers for under $60. Not that I mind spending that on them, but I just couldn't justify it for something that won't even last but a few days.

So with a bit of quick thinking we came up with the idea to get Sara a Vermont teddy bear. Both Jasmine and Kai have been given one as gifts and both love them. I generally am not attached to brand names and really don't feel like most brands warrant much extra attention, however Vermont stands out in one way for me. They guarantee their bears for life. So Sara I say to you, "love the heck out of that bear, and feel free to be as rough to it as your little heart desires".

The best part about a Vermont teddy bear is that whenever it has a problem either wear and tear or complete neglect you can simply send it to the bear hospital to be patched up and sent home fully recovered.