Another beautiful day in Paradise

We were planning on heading up to Indianhead to ski this afternoon but decided against it when it was -5º out this morning. We thought it would be too icy. Right around 9:30 the sun came out and it has been gorgeous all day. I shoveled off the back deck while Mika trucked around the back yard. I knew it was time to come in when I saw her dozing off in the snow, I didn't realize I had been shoveling for an hour and a half. Guess we had a lot of snow piled up!

Jay spent the morning waxing all of our skis. (That means two pair of downhill, skate and classic skis...quite a large/time consuming task!) We tried out our freshly waxed skate skis on the lake this afternoon because we might not have many chances left this spring. It was so nice to be outside in the sunshine. Now we know how all those Arizonians feel! After a long ski we were both sweating and decided to enjoy the sun and a beer on our back porch. It is only about 35º right now but it feels like 70º to us.

Craig organized a spring-break "volunteer-work-weekend" at Camp so I spent a few hours yesterday and today helping clean out and organize the equipment repair room. We are so lucky to be able to live here, it is always nice to try and help out when and where I can.

Wishing everyone a great week and hope you are enjoying the spring weather as much as we are. I know I can't wait to get our summer garden started...I have a few months to plan though :)

Next season: BOATING!

This week in review

We have a French bakery in Minocqua that is quite amazing. I treat myself once every couple of months to a sandwich on their fresh baked crunchy baguettes. This week, we ran out of lunch meat and I wasn't feeling the PB&J so I decided it was time to hit up the frenchies for le sandwich since I was going to be in the area anyway.

I know every time I go in that if there is even one other person at the restaurant I am in for a little wait because the owners are not fluent in english and I am not fluent in French. However, that gives me time to drool over the chocolate croissants, tarts and turnovers in the pastry case. When I walked in there were 8 people already there and the french guy looked like he was going to have a brain aneurysm. He took their orders and asked me what I wanted and I said "one parisian to go." A parisian is a baguette with butter, ham, swiss cheese and these beautiful, crunchy little sweet gherkins. He mumbled something in Frenchglish that sounded like "no soup for you" and walked away. I wasn't sure if I was going to get my sandwich or not so I just stood there because I really wanted it. After a few minutes I suggested that I could come back and pick it up when he wasn't so busy and he nodded and looked relieved.

So I left and walked around for 10 minutes and came back and he jumped up and started apologizing because he had forgotten to make my sandwich. Two minutes and $5.80 later I had my parisian and the wait was well worth it. That was the most exciting thing that happened to me this week. For those of you that insist that we update the blog all the time...hope you are entertained. ha ha.

On another note... Mika experienced her first horses yesterday. She was totally freaked out and growled, was super scared and tried to run away but I had her on a leash so she couldn't. Horses are big.

She also got into some compost and had what I think was her first really stinky gas. She looked all around after she farted and was confused. I told her, "yes that came out of you and it smells really bad". Then she just looked proud. That is what some rotting tomatoes will get you.

Separated at birth?

Brooke and Jay Update

We have been ready for the new year for two months now; can't believe it is already March 8th!

January was a busy month for both of us. Jay was on the road quite a bit visiting the Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison areas for camper and staff recruitment. I was working at the coffee shop, the office at camp and at coons. We still made plenty of time for our little pup. We have had so much fun with Mika. She is sweet, goofy, smart and 90% of the time just wants to be cuddled. On the last week in January, we took a trip out to Bozeman to visit our friends Stew and Lindsey. We visited Big Sky and both of our former employers. We were there for 4 whole days and it was great to be back and see all the changes and eat at my favorite restaurant Dave's Sushi.

February was a blur. We had visits from both of our families. The Vaters, Maurers, Seilers and Milana came for a long weekend of sledding, wintry walks and plenty of game playing.

Everyone had a chance to try the climbing wall. Dad was impressed at himself for making it all the way up twice even though he is 63 years-old and then claimed, "I've been up tree stands harder than this!".

I didn't have any doubts that he would make it. We are so lucky to live at a place that can accommodate such a large group. I think everyone had a great time. Mika sure loved having all the little kids (puppies) around to play with her and Owen now considers her his new best friend.

Quinn even stuck her finger up Mika's nose and Mika didn't really care. Such a good puppy.

Ben made multiple trips up to the Northwoods in February. It was great to have him around; no one sings Tom Jones with me anymore. The Creagh family reunited for a long weekend and everyone was excited to get out on the ski trails at camp.

John and Gloria brought up their ski equipment (some old, some new) for a trip down memory lane as it had been almost 20 years since they had last skied. They actually seemed nervous the first time they headed out for a short loop. Jay sent them over to a flat area so they could get comfortable without worrying about hills. When they returned an hour later, both had big smiles. We all went out again in the afternoon, Ben and I to achieve greatness by doing the perimeter loop (about 4-5 miles) in under 60 minutes, John and Gloria to do an even longer ski than earlier and Jay to practice for the Birkie. That is when Ben got this great picture.

Highlights of the weekend include: dinner at Bent's Camp, the bar crawl around Boulder Junction and John losing Gloria on the ski trail. We thought we were going to have to find her but she found her own way back to the car and was crafty enough to leave a message in the snow for John.

The following weekend Jay skied the Birkie. Mika and I went along to cheer him on. It was great!

Here are his results:

Finish Line Results
Finish Time:	3:35:34.6
Division Place:	1533 out of 3230 in Birkebeiner Freestyle.
Gender Division Place:	1349 out of 2701 in Birkebeiner Freestyle Men
Age Group Place:	117 out of 179 in Men 25 to 29
Overall Pace:	4:14 per K

Last weekend we went down to Madison to visit Rick and Andrea. Madison is always fun because there is always something to do and plenty of friends around to keep us busy. And that brings us up to this weekend. Jay is taking the Wilderness First Responder course at camp for the next 8 days. I will be working and hanging out with Mika.

Mika got her first haircut. Neither of us were prepared for how she looks. I thought the groomer and I had an understanding that we wanted to keep her hair long and fluffy...guess not. Hair grows...and in this case we hope it grows fast!

Before:
After: