Visiting Margaux

Saturday we finally got to go spend some time with our newest niece, Margaux. The boys wanted to hold her as soon as we got there.Here they are. The Letts Grandkids. 5 under 5... so far. Since Ellie was holding Margaux, Owen had to hold Addie. She's not much into being held now that she can get around on her own.

Poor Marguax was soon forgotten because the cousins had some serious playing to attend to. Now that Addie can walk, she and Evan paired up. She would point to wherever she wanted him to go hoping she could show off her new skills and chase him, but he didn't quite understand her urging grunts. Meanwhile, Owen and Ellie nestled up to check out a mutual favorite Magic Treehouse book.

While the kids played and Gina made us all a wonderful veggie lasagna dinner, I got some one on one time with Margaux.

Jim got his cuddles in, too.

And, of course, the visit would not be complete if I didn't get to read a bedtime story to the "big" kids (and belly.)

Monkey Cheeks

This summer we took swim lessons at FOSS. The boys had back to back lessons and they loved their teacher, Chaz. But, she was very busy with nursing school and getting married, so sometimes they had equally as awesome Randy.

Evan's class started off as a parent/child class and slowly the parents moved out of the pool. He and Liam didn't seem to mind too much. His little buddy is one month older and his mom is due one month after me! We all adored Liam, but sadly, they are moving soon.

Evan was a master of the back float. The kid can float on his own for an indefinite amount of time. He goes completely limp and weightless. Like most things, Owen was the opposite on this matter. Each session, he would cry the first time he had to do the back float and grimace during the subsequent ones. But, by August, they didn't have to plug his ears, he didn't cry, and he only made a slightly uncomfortable looking face.

Evan's big accomplishment: Monkey Cheeks. You would think an almost 3 year old would be able to take a deep breath and hold it, but this seemed to be Evan's biggest challenge. He and Owen would practice in the tub at night. We started classes in June and finally in August he got it. Now he practices his "Monkey Cheeks" everywhere we go: the grocery store, playdates, bedtime, while eating dinner or while watching a show.

Owen had class with Eva & Ellie. Although he is the same age as Eva, he towered over her. Sometimes in class the teachers had to remind Owen that he was suppose to be swimming to the side of the pool, not walking.

I think Owen made the biggest improvements at FOSS. By the middle of this session, Owen had gone from almost crying whenever he got his face wet, to putting his face in the water voluntarily and counting "bananas" while the teacher was swimming with the other kids. I'm sure Randy will never see this, but I am ever indebted to him and his "banana" counting.

Both kids' favorite activity was swimming to the bottom to retrieve rings. I can hardly believe how much they love doing this. There is no way, at their age, that I would have done this. That is the magic of FOSS. I love this swim school.

Eric the Juggling Magician

Today we went to our neighborhood library for a special treat; Eric the Juggling Magician was visiting. That is not him. That is in fact our mayor, Chris Coleman, who came to introduce Eric and remind the kids how great libraries are, which, incidentally, did not receive any cuts in his budget plan.

This is Eric. This is Eric right after my friend Deb came in 10 minutes late (which is why we are great friends) with her adorable son Jackson (yes, Action Jackson) who marched up to the front, past all the librarians, parents, and kids, past the "Stand Back" tape and handed Eric his umbrella, then, embarrassed buried his head in his moms shoulder for half the show. Isn't that so sweet? And Eric was really sweet to him. I'm not exactly sure what he's doing with the umbrella, though.

Owen has this thing lately (well, going on the last 6 months or more) where he "never" wants to leave the house. Even if I pump him up the night before and he's totally excited, when the morning comes, all he wants to do is stay inside and play with his toys. Of course when we get to where we're going, he almost always has a great time. Such was today.

The kid thought this part of Eric's act was astounding and hilarious! Eric was juggling baseball bats while wearing a hard hat. Every third bat, he would hit himself in the jug and say, "Ow!" while crossing his eyes. Why is it funny when people hurt (or pretend to) themselves?

But, apparently, even at 2 and 4, this is very funny stuff.

In one of his final acts, Eric brought out his pet Macaw, Merlin. Just at the name "Merlin" I knew Owen was hooked because Merlin and Morgan le Fay are in the Magic Treehouse Books. Anyway, it was a great show, it was free, and it was about a 3 minute drive. How lucky is that? And you'd think this would make Owen excited the next time we leave the house, but I doubt it.

The Chase

I spent 3 days at the land this past week. On Saturday, I was there with Erinn's Dad, Rick. We went fishing and caught and released several three plus pound large mouth bass. Rick kept fishing on the shoreline across the lake while I worked on a trail. All of a sudden there was a huge splash and I went down to the shore to see what happened. At first I didn't see anything, but then I was amazed to see a huge set of antlers on a deer swimming out into the lake. It was so large, my first thought was that it was a caribou. He started to circle back and then in my peripheral vision I saw motion on the shoreline curving around to my left. Not far from where I was standing, a wolf charged out of the forest and into the water up to his or her chest. The deer reversed direction and swam deeper again. The wolf trotted back and forth in the shallow water. I was shocked! My heart raced. Almost by instinct, I whistled to draw the attention of the wolf away from the deer as I was unaware of how well deer can swim and didn't want him to drown. The wolf had his mind on one thing, he didn't even look in my direction. Then I clacked together two tent polls and he froze, looked at me, and darted back into the forest where I am guessing the less bold members of the pack were lurking. The buck proved himself an excellent swimmer and swam all the full length of the lake, getting out on the other shoreline. He passed about 100 feet from Rick who was out in waders fishing along the shoreline. Rick had heard the splash and later was amazed to see this huge buck swim by, but didn't see the wolf. He thought I had spooked the deer into the water and also thought it was an elk at first site.

I am fascinated with wolves and have read several books on wolves and know it is rare to see one in the wild. It is exceedingly rare to see a wolf in the hunt. Even some wolf researchers have never witnessed a chase. I feel so lucky to have witnessed this. I don't think it was the same wolf pictured, the one I saw looked darker in color. (Probably a parent to the pup the neighboring landowner saw.)

One of the main reasons we bought the land was to help preserve a crucial piece of the massive amount of paper/timber company land that is being sold in WI, MN and the UP of Michigan. The Nature Conservancy and state governments can only do so much. Our land is unique in that it is 1.5 miles from the nearest improved road and surrounded by square mile after square mile of undeveloped wildlands. Another undeveloped lake a half mile from our land is called Davis Lake. The Wisconsin DNR has been tracking the "Davis Lake wolf pack" for many years. The alpha pair had 5 pups this year (a neighbor owns 160 acres next to us and saw the 5 pups just off our property two days in a row, then talked to the DNR wolf biologist who said they are almost assuredly denned up in the immediate vicinity if he saw them 2 days in a row). So, in retrospect, I felt kind of bad intervening on behalf of the deer, like I violated the wilderness character of their home, but the site of it swimming around with the waiting wolf just pulled at my heart strings. Anyway, I wanted to share this once in a lifetime story. I've hardly been thinking about anything else since.

We got a really nice picture of a wolf looking out over the lake when I last checked the trail camera. (see above) Also, of he or she picking up scent on one of the trails. There were several nice shots of deer, and two of a bear that didn't turn out.

Written by Jim

Back to Manitowish

Jim planned to go to the property with Greg for the last leg of our trip, so the boys and I headed back to Manitowish Waters. Unfortunately, Greg and Jim got rained out. Greg headed back to IL and Jim came back after one night. Finally on Saturday, the day we were suppose to leave, the rain let up. Jim and my Dad headed over to the property to close it up for the year and do a little more fishing. (More details on that trip coming up!) With the weather finally looking up, my mom and I decided to take the boys to the park by the airport.

The park has a few nice features. This firetruck with "ladder" was a hit. Evan wants to do monkey bars like the big kids, but he can only just hang for a few seconds.

It also has one of those speaker features. Evan would hang and talk into the thing while Owen would yell from the other end, "What? I can't hear you?" like a Granny with an ear horn.

Status update: Evan is thinking long and hard about how he's going to put out that fire. Actually, he's probably thinking about how he's going to "catch that wolf."
Ya-ya and Owen on one of the teeter totter style contraptions. That's it's official name, by the way.

A short bike trail runs from Manitowish Waters, past the park to Powell Road Ya-ya & Bumpa's turn off.) Owen finally got a chance to ride his bike. The park is also located next to the Manitowish Waters Airport. (Can you believe they have an airport here?) Seconds after I stopped this clip, a plane took off right over our heads.

Rain & Sew

Have you seen What About Bob? You know the sailing scene? That is basically me with sewing. But, after three days of rain in the northwoods, I finally gave it a go.
Guess what? I sew! I'm sewing! I sew... on a machine... with thread... and fabric.

My mom and I have been making these taggy blankets for gifts for new babies for about a year. (I actually stole the idea from my friend Nina, so kudos to her.) Our first batch was small and I would say that really my part included buying the fabric and ribbon and pinning some of them together. But this time, I sewed! Now, I didn't sew anything that can be seen because that would mean I would have to sew in a straight line, but I did all the work up to that point! I'm pretty darn proud of myself and we have a huge stack of these things now, so if you're having a baby, guess what you're getting?

Thanks Mom.

Lake Franklin Calls Again

Lake Franklin seems to call to us. We just can't get enough. Tonight we went over for some fresh air and more castle building, after a day in town at the candy store and such.

The water was really low. Jim and Neil walked around the lake along the sandy shore, which is normally up to the tree line. Meanwhile, Connie, the boys, and I sat on the beach and enjoyed the sunset. It was a good thing we picked up a sweatshirt for Owen because it got a bit chilly.

You might think that would keep them out of the water.

You'd be wrong.

I should know by now to bring swim suits anytime we are going anywhere near Franklin Lake. We didn't even have towels. Despite the fact that I took off their shoes, socks, and shorts, they still got soaked at 8 p.m.. They didn't even complain about the cold. That's the magic of Franklin, I guess.

Blackjack Springs Wilderness

Two years ago, after Evan's Welcoming Ceremony, we went to Eagle River and spent a day hiking the Blackjack Springs Wilderness area. We had a picnic in this very spot and we so entranced by the beauty of these woods, that we had to return.

This was our view during our picnic: Whispering Lake. Rightfully named because both times as we sat here, we swore we could hear voices in the forest behind us. Yet, both times, no people appeared and we realized it must be the trees, however, it's not your normal trees creaking in the wind sound. It's really more like somebody is talking just out of range and you can't quite make out what they are saying. It's a pretty special spot and we discussed having Mrs. Miyaggi's Welcoming Ceremony here.

Just around the bend, there is a totally placid, sandy bottom, shallow beach. Evan and I made plans to build a sand castle.

But first he had to take a dip with Grandma. The water was warm, but the breeze on Whispering Lake makes the air feel cold.

Owen shivered in the water as he shared secrets with Grandma.

Evan showed Daddy his new Monkey Cheeks skills from swim lessons. Somehow he still manages to swallow water.

Finally Evan and I got to making our sand castles. Finally a kid that wants to create! Unfortunately I am beyond getting down on the ground anymore so I was more of a castle building supporter than a constructor.

On the way back to the car, Evan was "Peter" again. He sang the Peter's theme song the whole way back. Owen was far ahead with Grandpa, but "Peter" didn't care. He was delighted to march gaily through the woods.

He was even more delighted when we found a great patch of wild blueberries. He won't eat cheese or bread, or pizza or even a PBJ, but he'll pick a blueberry off a bush in the woods and eat it with delight.

Jim Becomes a True Fisherman

Day 2 of vacation. You would think Jim would want to sleep in after the week he had had, but something strange happened this morning. Something that have never happened before. Jim voluntarily got up before dawn. And why, you might ask, would Jim do the one thing he hates more than anything else in the world during his vacation? To go fishing. This is a man who bends the barbs off bait not to harm a fish, a man who swerves the car so he won't hit a moth! And now, he is taking up fishing. It must be serious if it gets him out of bed before noon on a day off and in the rain, no less!
So, we spent a rainy day waiting for them to return.

Finally, after lunch, we heard the motor pulling up to the pier. We hurried down to greet them.

We were not disappointed. They had two large Northerns in the live well.

Owen was right there helping to release them. Evan stood back and watched. I think he thought they were muskies. He thinks a musky is as dangerous as a shark or a bear.

Kicking off our Summer Vaca

It was a good thing we hung out at the lake the first day we got to Manitowish Waters because it rained for most of our vacation. We wanted to leave Friday night and have a full day Saturday, but with such a busy week last week, Jim was way behind on his dictations.

By the time we got to Ya-ya & Bumpa's, it was hot and muggy. Perfect for a dip ...

or slide in the lake.
I guess Jim wasn't the only one that had had a long, hard week. Evan was trying to catch a whopper, while Bumpa was trying to catch a snoozer.

The kids both swam hard, showing off all their new swimming skills,

but they are never too tired to go fishing.

The loon baby that we saw earlier this summer has learned to swim on her own. Seems like everyone is growing so fast.

The mate was swimming by the house calling over and over to it's family who, it appeared, was having an evening swim lesson of their own.
There's not a more perfect way to end our first day than with a campfire and s'mores.

Welcome Baby Margaux!

Love at first site. Totally smitten.

Our niece, Margaux Jennifer Letts, was born Monday morning in Mankato. She weighed 7 lbs. 4 oz. and was 21.5 inches long; the exact same measurements as Owen. To say we were excited to meet her is an understatement. She slept and ate most of the hour we had to visit her, but we all got a chance to hold her and oogle over her.

The whole day Owen kept saying, "I'm so excited to meet Margaux!" Meeting her makes us even more excited about the arrival of our own little girl.

I just had to include this cute little video of Big Sister Ellie telling everyone everything she knows about babies. She is one awesome big sister! And watch Owen lean in at the end to give Margaux's head a little kiss. He is already smitten.

Welcome to our family, Margaux!
We can't wait to get to know you!
Congratulations Tom, Jen, Ellie & Addie