Ludington Camping Trip

We took our annual week-long camping trip to Ludington a bit earlier this year from July 10-17. The weather was quite a bit cooler than usual but we didn't get much rain so it still worked out well. We hit all the usual spots and, of course, went to House of Flavors for ice cream more than people should. Here are a few shots from the trip in no particular order...

Fishing on the Au Sable River at the Hamlin Lake Dam (Allison, Troy, Breanna, Grandma Anderson)
Floating down the river from the dam to the beach at Lake Michigan

Nathan working on his skateboarding moves at the skate park downtown

Allison and Zoe on the boardwalk by the river...

Big Sable Point Lighthouse (4-mile round trip bike ride from our campsite)...

Allison and Nathan on the old tree stump by the lighthouse... the 127 is how old the tree was when it was cut down.

Family photo at the top of the lighthouse (90-some feet up). Great view... but it was pretty windy that day! Heidi, Allison, Nathan, Troy

Allison climbing a tree during one of our hikes while Zoe took a dip in the lake...

Great Grams' Rose Bush

Heidi's Grandma had a giant rose bush in her yard in Chicago. And when she passed away a few years ago, the bush was split up among a few people in her family. We got a little piece of it and planted it on the side of the house. The first couple years it didn't do much. Last year we cut it back and it actually grew pretty well. But this year, for some reason, it seems to be growing like crazy. Heidi picked up a trellis for it to climb up and it's already filled the whole thing. Here are some pictures she took of it in full bloom. It's still got a ton of flowers on it. I have no idea how long they'll last but it brightens up the side yard...

Spring Break - Gatlinburg, TN - Part 2

After the rain had subsided a bit, we all drove up into the mountains to the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. We did a 2+ mile hike to see Laurel Falls which is a cascading waterfall. It was strange driving up to to top of the mountains where there was still snow. The air was definitely cooler too. The hike was uphill all the way there and downhill all the way back. There were a couple spots where Nathan was sure to be on the mountain side of the path since the other side was a very steep drop-off.

We also did a driving tour up in the mountains one night just before dark. We were hoping to see some black bears but didn't have any luck. However, we did see a couple turkeys, a number of small waterfalls, and some really old mountain houses and farms. On one of our last days part of the group went horseback riding in the mountains. It actually turned out to be really nice. Allison and Reygan rode horses all by themselves for the first time and were very proud about that. The trails went up and down in the mountains and across a couple streams. Overall it was just a nice quiet ride with some good scenery. We also took the kids into town to a kids-only portion of the Little Pigeon river where they stock rainbow trout every Thursday. There were some VERY large trout in that stream and I think almost all the kids caught one.
Nathan's big catch at the kids-only section of the river.
On our last night, we went to Gatlinburg so the girls could take a peek at the shops. We took the aerial tram up to Ober Gatlinburg (think 1970's ski resort that hasn't changed since it was built). the tram ride was pretty cool. It goes WAY up in the air and there were a couple parts (after passing a tower) where you'd get the "falling" feeling for a second or two. At the top, the skiing was done for the season but they had a skating rink, tubing, low-budget zoo with black bears, a couple rides, and a few little shops. It took awhile to get back down since it was the end of the night and everyone was trying to ride the tram back down to town.

The last night at the cabin was spent around the fire in the outdoor pavilion at the cabin cooking s'mores. As is the case with most vacations, this one was far too short. But maybe we'll do it again in a few years. It was definitely a nice break from Florida crowds.

Some additional pictures from our trip...

Nathan and Allison on their horses...

A dozen rainbow trout caught right behind the cabin (the only day they really seemed to be biting)...
Scott wading a section of the river a couple miles downstream from the cabin...

Spring Break - Gatlinburg, TN - Part 1

The time is finally here... Spring Break 2009! We haven't taken a big trip in a couple years so this year, after talking to some friends about their trips, we decided to rent a "cabin" in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee for a week. Heidi did the legwork of looking around and found an AMAZING cabin through Jackson Mountain Homes called Skipping Stone which was right on the Little Pigeon River, a nice mountain trout stream. It was a bit expensive so we split the cost with three families (her brothers Scott and Keith and their families). We didn't even have much planned once we got there but I knew I wanted to do some fishing and relaxing, Heidi wanted to do some shopping and relaxing, and the kids just wanted to play (no relaxing).

Our trip had us driving down to Cincinatti (actually Florence, KY right at the Cinci airport). We spent the night there and then continued on to Gatlinburg, TN the next morning. I'd never been down to this area of the country before and it was my first time in the mountains. I must say it was pretty cool to see. When we got to Gatlinburg we did our grocery shopping and picked up our fishing licenses and then checked in and got directions to our cabin. I had some pretty high expectations of the place based on the information online and the price. But when we finally got there I was completely BLOWN AWAY (as was everybody else)! In fact, I think Scott may have been literally jumping up and down out of excitement when he got out of the car...

The place was twice as big as I expected and we could have easily had another family go and still have had extra room. We all spent the first hour or so unloading cars and groceries and touring our home for the next week. It happened to be 72 degrees when we arrived and we knew the next few days were supposed to be very cold so we took advantage of the weather and spent the rest of the day outside fishing and relaxing by the river (pictures below).

Just as expected, the next two days were very cold. We even had snow on the ground one morning. But that didn't hurt anybodys feelings. We spent the time relaxing and playing inside and also made a trip to the Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies. It was pretty cool as far as aquariums go. They have a really cool tunnel through some of the aquariums and we got to see all sorts of sea creaturs up close. The highlight for us was the sharks. The lowlight was the crowd of people. Everyone had the same idea of visiting during the cold stretch.

Here are some pictures from our first couple days.... Stay tuned for more on our trip.
Rocky (the dog), Zach, Nathan, and Nick stretching their legs at a gas station just before we got to Gatlinburg...
Skipping Stone - our home for the week in the Smoky Mountains...
Nathan and Allison on the rocks by the river. This is one of my favorite pics from the week...
Nathan and Keith fishing the Little Pigeon River right after we unloaded the cars. Keith would eventually slip on the submerged portion of the rock he's standing on and get a taste of how cold a mountain stream really is...
I got to try out my new Cabela's waders right after we arrived and they didn't leak a bit!

Allison, Nick, and Reygan playing in the river...
Allison, Rocky, and Angie chilling out on the swing by the river...
Keith caught the first trout shortly after we started fishing. We thought we'd be catching them that quick all week. Later, we found out only one day would be a 'good' fishing day...
The swim spa was a big hit with the kids. It doubled as a large hot tub too so we got to use it every day regardless of the temperature outside...
Shot of a shark swimming over us at the aquarium while we were in the tunnel. Look at those teeth!
Heidi and the kids at the aquarium...
Nathan after diving with the sharks.... (just kidding, just posing for a photo-op)
Nathan and Zach getting ready for bed in one of the four "cubby holes" up in the padded play area...

MAHA District 6 Tournament

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post. Time is really flying and it doesn't look like it's going to slow down until late March!

Anyway, Nathan and I spent the weekend in Ludington for the MAHA District 6 Tournament. Heidi and Allison joined us after Ally's dance rehersal Saturday morning (BTW...her competitions are coming up and her routines are looking pretty cool!... more to come on that topic). This tournament was the beginning of the playoffs for the west side of the state. Out of 28 organizations in the district, only 8 teams made it this far so it was an honor for the boys to earn a trip to the tournament (first by beating the other two HAWK teams and then by beating Chelsea in a play-in game). In the win column, the weekend didn't go great but the boys really played some great hockey against some very good teams. Here's the rundown:

Friday vs. West Shore Wolves (Ludington) - Ludington jumped out to a 4-0 lead by the end of the first period and things weren't looking good. But none of the goals were from breakaways (which has been our achilies heal). One was a power play goal and the others just sort of happened off rebounds. Coach Jim made some moves to try and generate some offense... and it worked. The boys played as a team, were making some very nice passes, dumping and chasing the puck into the other end, and wearing out the other team. After a scoreless second period, we owned the third. We scored three goals and the Wolves were tired. We had a couple chances as time ran out but were unable to tie it up and ended up losing 4-3. But it should be noted that Ludington took first place in our league and never lost a game. Our team was very happy to have played probably our best game of the season even though we lost. Nathan moved back to play defense after the first period and did an excellent job. Looks like he might continue spending time there...

Saturday vs. Lansing Capital Pride - This game was a nail-biter from beginning to end. Every team around knows Lansing plays dirty and this game was no exception. And it's too bad too... because they do have a good team. If only they'd learn some sportsmanship and mutual respect...oh well. Anyway, Lansing scored in the first period on a broken play where we turned the puck over in our own end. After that, both teams played some solid hockey and both goalies made some nice stops. The score remained 1-0 the rest of the way until we pulled our goalie with a minute or so left and they were able to send one in the empty net. We just weren't able to get the puck to go in for us and lost 2-0. After the horn sounded to end the game one of their players took a run at one of our guys and boarded him (hit from behind into the boards). It's basically the lowest cheap shot in hockey. The kid got a penalty but should have been out of the next game in my opinion. And as a true example of the Lansing mentality his coach gave him a pat on the butt and a "good job". Mom always said if you don't have something nice to say about someone then don't say anything so I'm done with comments for that game :-)

Saturday vs. Jackson - After losing the first two games we knew we couldn't move on to the semi's or finals on Sunday so coach moved things around to let guys play positions they don't usually play. It was a fairly uneventful game but we ended up getting our usual goalie (he wasn't playing goalie in this game) 2 goals for his birthday and we ended up winning 6-2.

Other than playing some really good hockey, the highlight of the weekend was the whole team staying at the hotel in Ludington. Everyone got to go swimming, down the waterslide, hang out and talk, play video games, etc. It was good fun. Coach Lou even invited everyone to his cottage on Bass Lake on Saturday afternoon for mini sticks, good food, and what turned out to be a snowball fight. We all had a blast. Here are some pics of the weekend.

Mini-sticks (knee hockey) at the Scarpino Cottage...

The boys after the snowball fight. Front row: Cameron, Trevor Z. Back row: Dyllan N., Nathan, Collin, Brandon, Dylan M., and Dakota

Mr. Nawrot running the "gauntlet" and getting pelted with snowballs...

Post-game swimming: Collin, Nate, Trevor, Brandon, and some kid I don't know

Allison and Maddeline playing checkers before we left to go home.

Skiing & Snowboarding

We've been so busy with hockey and dance this winter that we haven't had a chance to go do another fun winter activity: skiing/snowboarding. But we finally had a chance today and decided to take it. We packed up the kids and headed out to Cannonsburg Ski Area near Grand Rapids to hit the slopes. Heidi and I used to go skiing a couple times each year when we were in college. Nathan and I snowboarded a couple times last year but Heidi has been skiing only once in the last 10 years or so. An interesting twist this year was we put Allison on skis for the first time. We probably could have worked with her and taught her how to do it but we figured she'd be more likely to complain or freak out if we did so we sprung for a 1 hour lesson and Heidi and I agree that was the best idea we've had in a long time. By the end of the hour, Allison had mastered the "snow plow" technique and her instructor took her up the chairlift and let her come down one of the medium difficulty runs!! Seeing that, Nathan decided to set aside his fear of falling off the chair lift and rode up with Heidi to the top of the same run and snowboarded down. By this time, I had re-injured my back while bending over to buckle my boots and ended my night after only one time down the hill (big bummer...but that's another story). So Heidi, Nathan, and Allison went up the chairlift and down the run for the rest of the night. It was a bit cold but it was snowing constantly and there were a few inches of fresh powder. It was a great night for skiing.

The instructor said he was pretty surprised Allison was doing so well since she'd never been skiing before and suggested if we do another lesson with her sometime he'd be able to take her down the face (most difficult run). I don't see any need for that at the moment but we're really happy she had fun. We'll have to do it again before all the snow melts.

Great Wolf Lodge - Traverse City

After all the New Year celebrating (aka eating) it was time to head up to Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City with Scott & Val and the boys for some fun in the waterpark. We only stayed one night but that's just about the right amount of time to enjoy the park without it getting too repetitive. Surprisingly, the crowds were rather small so there really wasn't ever much of a wait for anything. We did the big tube slides, the body slides, the kiddie slides... pretty much everything. I think Scott and I had the most fun finding a good spot on the giant treehouse and soaking unsuspecting people walking through. How old are we again? Here are some shots of our trip along with a classic video of Scott trying to cross the lilypads without touching the ropes. Unfortunately, I couldn't rotate the video. But it had to be posted nonetheless.

Allison on the lilypads. She had an unique technique... pull on the rope to get close and then do a belly-flop to the next one. Stand up and repeat.
Heidi and Allison splashing at the bottom of the green tube slide (the best of the big slides!)
Nathan going down the kiddie slides with Nick.
Scott, Zach, Val, and Nick after the green tube slide.
Scott trying to stay light on his feet... Sorry, you'll have to tilt your head to enjoy it

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We didn't get to cut down and decorate our Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving as usual. But we still couldn't go to a tree lot or use a fake tree...Heidi wouldn't allow it. So we visited the tree farm the following weekend and picked out the perfect (aka crooked) tree.

Nathan, Allison, and Heidi next to the tree we picked out...
Decorating and eating pizza, our little tradition...
Even Zoe got into the Christmas spirit...

After running all over the state in the worst weather I can remember, we had Christmas at the Weiss'. Unfortunately, we missed Christmas Eve at Grandma & Grandpa McDaid's due to the ice. But Brian McDaid still stayed with us Chrismas Eve and Christmas morning which was nice. Bubba, Papa, and "the girls" came over Christmas Day to play with all the presents. And we had Christmas with Mom, Ken, and Brian yesterday. Now that all the parties are over we can try to find our house again and start to get back into the usual routine.

Nathan with his gift from Santa - mini hockey nets (the goalie set was from Allison). He didn't even wait to finish opening presents before starting a game.
Allison with her gift from Santa - a Hannah Montana electric guitar.
Breanna, Kelsey, Nathan, and Allison McDaid