Category: General News

Our family is pretty big into traditions and routines.  At Jack’s, we eat the same foods and do the same things.  And in a way, that makes the whole experience feel a little like Christmas.  Excess eating, lots of laughter, knowing exactly what comes next.

On Saturday night, we had peaches and buttermilk biscuits with cream.  Yum!  Here, Jack’s helping prep the peaches.

We’ve been having some big issues with which version of Trivial Pursuit to use.  Terry likes the original, but none of the next generation know any of the answers to those questions.  The other versions we’ve tried have questions that are either harder or more stupid/trivial, so the debate continues.

Rolling and moving

Lots of ribbing of Terry and laughter.

Sunday morning, we lay out the final breakfast feast.  Bryan’s making French toast.

I love this picture of me and my siblings, but I feel like a midget.  Mental note, I should stand in the middle…

Hugging goodbye before Maretta and Kyle head back home to Minnesota.  A moment with Joe and Kyle.

Maretta and Terry

Pretty plant outside Jack’s front door.

Maretta says goodbye to Andrew and Sylvia

For the last four years, I’ve brought a bouquet of flowers in memory of Mommy.  She is so much a part of this weekend, and her absence deeply felt.  Mommy, we miss you.

On Sunday late morning, Jack drove his truck up to the high prairie so we could all take a look.

Sylvie doesn’t like the “shiny sun.”  My glasses seem to help.

Andrew’s tired out from an active weekend.  He’s sleeping in the bed of the pickup truck on Bryan’s lap.

We have pictures over the years of Michael and Joe up on Jack’s garage (the back side of the garage is close to the ground for easy access).  Here they introduce young Andrew to the tradition.

So ends Jack’s float weekend 2011.  Time spent with my brothers and sisters fills me up.  Thanks, guys, for a great time!

The cornerstone activity of our summer float weekend at Jack’s is the Saturday float.  We all don our life preservers, drive upstream a couple miles, wade into the Wisconsin River, and float our way down to Jack’s.  Here’s our 2011 crew in the obligatory pre-float photo:

Michael is either playing with Andrew or abusing him.

This year’s float took a little longer than normal, and we should have brought some sunscreen on the river for a mid-trip re-apply.  Oh well! 

Such a cute kid:)

After the float, there’s reading and napping.

Maretta brought her new spinning wheel, and here she’s letting Sylvie help her work the treadle.

Mid-afternoon, Jack to me and Dad and Matt up the hill to take a look at the prairie.

There’s no place like Jack’s prairie.  I just love it!

The big bluestem grasses are tall.  You can see the bluffs across the river in the distance.

Some bee balm.

Prairie, oaks, and the river beyond.

Back at home, Maretta’s spinning.  Actually, in this case, she’s taking two strings of yarn and winding them together.  That’s called plying.

Her new spinning wheel is so beautiful.  I love watching her change fiber into yarn!

Saturday night, we took our jambalaya up on the hill for dinner again. 

As the sun set, the moon became brighter in the sky.

Good food, a fire, and a beautiful (bugless!) evening.

Bev was approaching a significant birthday, and Jack wrote a declaration for her, which he read with some pomp and circumstance amidst much laughter.
And so ended our second day.  We played Trivial Pursuit well into the evening, and woke up with cozy kids in our tent.

Ahh, summer!  This picture of Andrew with his smiling watermelon says it all.

On Friday, August 5, we started the day with a big breakfast and then we headed on the river for our first float of the weekend.  When we got back, Terry and the kids broke open the first of the watermelons.

Smashing a watermelon on concrete and digging it apart with your hands is a strong Babler/Haller tradition.  In this case, however, it looks like a knife was used.

Mmmm watermelon!

Pictures of me are mostly curtsey of Joe!

There’s Bubs

Maretta-with-the-short-hair and Bearded Kyle.

Here’s dinner – Macho Salad.  yum.

That pan’s full of delicious corn bread.

Tom and the kids.

We ate dinner outdoors up on the hill.  Here’s Andrew giving a sweet kiss.

There’s Matt.  We were glad that he was able to join us this year.

Maretta and Sylvia.  Not sure what Sylvie is doing here except perhaps displaying how her thumb bends back just like Daddy’s.  Natural selection:)

Enjoying our dinner with some bourbon slush and watching the sun set.

Kids in motion.

Lots of laughter.

Our summer crew is a big one, so we tend to sleep out in our tent.  It’s fun to camp with the kids!  We had some big storms, but we didn’t blow over, and somehow the kids are now a little less afraid of thunder.  Excellent:)  Stay tuned for Day 2!

I know that it’s September now, but take yourself back to early August.  I’ve got some catching up to do on blog posts, starting with our weekend trip to Jack’s house.  This blog post is brought to you by the fact that Sylvie’s still in Texas (I’m writing here on Sept 6) and Andrew’s in school.  Oh the blessed quiet!  How I’ve missed you:)

To set the stage…it’s Thursday evening, August 4 – around 80 degrees.  Bryan just got back home after a week with Andrew in Texas.  On this day, we’re all packed and heading out to Jack’s house for our family’s annual Wisconsin River float weekend.  Joe’s flying home from DC.  Maretta and Kyle are driving down from St. Paul.  Michael is coming from work in Dodgeville.  Terry, Tom, Bryan, the kids and I are all driving from Madison.

The car is full of amazing food, our camping gear, flowers, the kayak, and a happy crew.  We’ve extended the weekend by a day.  Turns out that driving out on Thursday night instead of Friday night makes the whole weekend feel so much more expansive, relaxed, and wonderful!  On our drive out, we stop at Peck’s Farm Market like always.  Then we drive out to the bridge in Muscada where Bryan unloads his kayak and camping gear and heads to the river for a solo overnight paddle.  The weather was a little rainy, but as we parked, we saw this lovely rainbow.

There’s Bryan putting in at the Muscada bridge.

He’s heading down river 30 miles or so to Jack’s house.  Goodbye!

Bryan brought his camera with him and took some fun images of the sandbar on which he camped.

Nothing like watching the sun set over the water.

Here’s a campfire he made.

Beautiful!  Bryan’s sure enjoyed kayaking this summer!  I was glad he was able to get out on the river and explore a new (to us) section of the Lower Wisconsin.  I’m writing this in early September.  We just got home from an overnight canoeing trip we did with Andrew where we covered some of this same section of river.  It’s so tranquil and lush.  I feel peace just being there:)

A few weeks ago, Bryan, Andrew, Sylvia, and I sat around the dinner table, and we started brainstorming places in the world that we would like to visit.  Bryan pulled out a paper and pen, and here’s what he documented:

• Go to Africa and get a house…maybe for a couple years (Andrew)
• Go to China or maybe even Asia (Andrew)
• Ride a yellow horse (Sylvia)
• Tanzania (Althea)
• Horseback riding trip (Althea & Sylvia)
• Australia/Great Barrier Reef/New Zealand
• Costa Rica
• Other side of the world (Andrew)
• Riding on a kangaroo (Sylvia)
• Alaska
• Hawaii (Althea)
• Philippines (Andrew)
• South Korea (Bryan)
• Brazil (Andrew) – Natal city (at this point, we were looking at a globe)
• Russia (Andrew)
• Egypt (Althea)
• Norway (Bryan)
• India (Althea and Andrew)
• Canada (Bryan)
• New Mexico (Andrew)
• Algeria (Andrew)
• Argentina (Andrew)
• Fiji (Althea)
• Thailand (Andrew)

Wondertime magazine (may it rest in peace) published an article several years ago about a family who saved their money and took a year-long round-the-world vacation.  I think I prefer the idea of occasional trips rather than one gigantic one, but the story has stuck with me.  Here it is (Around the World in 52 Weeks).  The same magazine (oh how I loved it!) had a story about a family who traveled all over Africa with their baby.  Again, inspiring!!

Exploring different places and cultures is something that Bryan and I would both like to do with our kids while they are growing up.  I hope we’re able to put some plans into action so that we can make some of those traveling dreams reality!

The weekend of July 22, we joined our neighbors, Kathy, Brett, Alivia, and Rayna at Kathy’s family’s lake house in Waupaca.  A really great time was had by all.

There’s something so quieting about the pace of life in Northern Wisconsin.  On a lake.  In the summer.

Here’s a slide show of the weekend!

There’s the blondies, hair kissed by the sun.

In the evening our first night, the kids all played on the pier.

I have a picture of Andrew and Alivia from 2009 that I love.

Here’s the 2011 version.  While Alivia was gazing at me with her amazing yes, Andrew was being a ham…

I love the way he’s looking at her in this picture.

Here’s Rayna by the birch trees in amazing evening light.

This is Andrew and Kathy and the pooch Freya enjoying the sunset.

Water time! We spent all day on the water.

Here’s the view from the shore to the floating dock where we spent the day.  Andrew and Alivia and Rayna jumped and jumped and jumped off that dock.  I kinda wish I’d had my camera to document the wonderful water play.

Mid-afternoon, we went for a boat ride on the pontoon boat.  The big kids read, Rayna napped, and we all enjoyed this beautiful chain of lakes.

Here’s a view back to Kathy’s dad’s house from the water.

And the sunset…

Thanks, guys, for inviting us out for the weekend.  We had a wonderful time.  Kathy, it was great seeing where you grew up and getting to experience a place that’s been such an important part of your life.  We’ll join you back there any time!

We’re never going to be able to run for public office.

Here’s one of the things our family does for fun…take silly pictures of ourselves with the phone.  Greetings from us to you from Door County!

In early July, I had a great assignment to travel up to Door County to photograph Rutabaga Paddlesport’s Door County Sea Kayak Symposium.  We’d had that weekend blocked off as a potential family vacation in Door County, so we combined the two.  Bryan took care of the kids while I worked, and then I joined them for some outings to beaches and playgrounds.  It was a great weekend!  One of the highlights was sitting around the campfire as a family.

Here are some photos (taken with my phone since I was “camera’d out”) of Bryan and the kids playing in the water at Sand Bay Beach, which was just down the road from the Wagon Trail Campground where we stayed.

Here’s one of my favorite pictures from the summer:)

Here’s a picture of the kids asleep in the tent.  Such cuties.

On Sunday, before we left, we visited Newport State Park.

The beach was a lot rockier, but we found lots of crawfish exoskeletons, which made for some fun hunting.

There was a spot where the sand was almost like quicksand.  Andrew and I had fun letting our feet get swallowed up.

Homeward bound.  Two tired kids!