School starts & Florida trip

Gabriella started three year old school. We went to Florida for a conference and took the whole family!

Visitors and more camp

We had fun times this summer at camp with lots of visitors, canoeing, snakes, fires, sunsets, water planes, triatholons, Chinese buffet birthdays, etc. We love you all!

Great Grannies

We had a fabulous visit from the Great Grandmas in June (yes, I am a little, alright alot, behind!). Uncle Gary & Aunt Debbie joined us for a few days too! We had a great time with visit to the St. Lawrence seaway, Christopher's birthday, a cabin in the woods, and a canoe ride. Such adventurers!

Great Weekends at Camp

We had a great weekend at camp, despite the 'little accident'. Below is Reggie the dog for his Adirondack vacation.

Happy Birthday Gabriella & Christopher

We had a great 'Princess--Soccer' joint Birthday party for Christopher and Gabriella.

Big Storm at Mountain View (Camp Montevista)

We had a big storm at camp this past week and we lost three large trees. We had two plumbers out there when the storm hit and they were quite shaken as they didn't realize the storm was coming and when they ran out to close the windows on their truck, the three trees fell. They panicked, then ran in the cabin until the storm was over. About half the county lost power overnight and our camp did not have power for 3 days. The power came on just as we were finishing the cleanup. Steph and Michael went out on Thursday to survey the damage and to clear as much as we could.



At left is one that fell into the woods away from the house. It was sitting on a support cable for the telephone and electrical pole so we decided to not mess with it. So glad that we had an EE with us for that decision.






Here is a picture from the cabin facing the water. We lost two trees there. The larger one on the left was about 100' tall and fell within about 20' of the cabin.







Here is the base by the water of the pair that fell. They took their roots with them. The height of the sod piece that ripped out is about 8' high. We suspect that one of the reasons that the tree fell was that the water in the lake was high and the soil around the trees was quite wet.





The after. Few phrases cause discomfort like: SCHUCKERS WIELDING A CHAINSAW. But there he was cutting branches and making stumps. The tree still visible in this picture was too thick (it's the 100' tall one from above) for the little 18" chainsaw that we bought. Steph and Michael cleared and hauled the branches in about 2 and 1/2 hours.

Princess Gabriella

Gabriella is renowned for her dressing up. She has not worn pants for over a month and is very fond of anything pink. Also, anything with the word princess in front of it makes it better-- 'princess frog', 'princess cereal', 'princess laundry', etc. (And yes, that is a blue skirt under her pink PJs in the first picture...)

Summer in April

We had a beautiful taste of summer in April at camp, with 70 degree weather, 30 degree water and snow still on the ground. The kids were not deterred and swam, played in the sand, caught fish with nets, and were as happy as could be. Our friends the Silvers joined us.

Daniel' Science Fair Project

Daniel just LOVED putting together his science fair project--all about BUGS. He had 'preserved' specimems. But, the best part catching and bringing the live crickets, ladybugs, wooly bears, water boatmen, diving beetles, and dragon fly larvae.

Hoppy Mother's Day

A recent picture of the kids with a huge frog. I had a super mother's day with my kids and inevitably a few extra frogs!