East Coast Tour '08

Ahhh - where to start. After working all day on Wed July 23rd, we got home, did laundry, cleaned the house, ate, bath the kids and started packing. To be totally honest, I can't recall what time we left. I want to say 11:30p. I started the driving and only got pulled over once. The cop gave me a warning after being a butthead so it all worked out. And again, I can't recall what time we pulled into Grandma Karen's drive way, but - we made it. We got to visit Great Grandma Kenyon and spent a fun filled day at Papi Bill's camp hunting in the creek for crayfish, jumping in the pool and riding the 4 wheeler.




Click the link to see a slide show of Clearfield.

Slide show of Clearfield




This is a little video clip of Acacia holding the newest member of the Learish family - Baby Ella! :)

Randy's 25th high school reunion was Sat the 26th. I thought it was pretty well attended! I met some "interesting" folks and Randy had a good time getting caught up with old friends. Mike was able to join us for the evening so at least I knew one other person!!



Click the link to see a slide show of Reunion.

Slide show of Reunion






On Sunday the 27th of July we packed up the van again and headed to Seven Spring resort in Sumerset, PA. All of Randy's family attended. We had 3 condos surrounding the pool. We did it all! Fishing, golfing, climbing wall, jumpers, biking, alpine slide, chair lift rides, bowling, go carts, mini golf ... well you get the idea. Something for everyone. Uncle Tennis / Chicken / Kevin was instrumental in entertaining and feeding the kids! I think Chris may be up for Wimbledon! Uncle Sean managed to get some way discounted tickets to a local amusement / water park. It was perfect for all ages!









Click the link to see a slide show of 7 Springs.

Slide show of 7 Springs



This is a pretty long video of the alpine slide. I took the video while riding down the slide so I was not going as fast as you can. It was a very cool slide!!



This is just Acacia coming down after climbing the wall. Sorry it's sideways. I'll have to remember that when taking movies!!



This is Chris, Acacia and Tyler "driving" their cars.

After about a week we cleared out of our condos in the mountains on Friday August 1st, packed up the van again and headed to Northern VA. We made a pit stop along to the way to see my college roommate (Christy) at her place in MD and then on to Julianne's house. Chris and Yoli, Mom, Dad and Nani and all the Berg's were there already. We arrived in time for home made spaghetti sauce / pasta, salad and bread! Just like mom used to make ... oh wait ... she did make it! The kids attempted a camp out complete with Brare Rabbit stories from Nono. Luckily we ended up bringing them all in as they were just not going to sleep. As it turned out, it rained big time that night and the next morning the inside of the tent was more like a small lake. On Saturday we loaded ourselves into two vans and drove to Baltimore, MD to see the Aquarium and take a little submarine tour. All very cool. A bit crowded but I guess typical for a Sat during the summer. We saw some amazing things, dauphin show and a cool 4D movie. Mom maneuvered the entire day in a wheelchair but this seemed to gain us some unexpected privileges as we were moved to the front of a few lines to see shows!! Valerie arrived crazy early Monday morning after spending a month "working" in Hawaii and a few days in CA for cousin Jeff's wedding and visiting with our CA cousins!! We spent Saturday chillin at the pool before Mom, Dad and Nani had to head home to NC.








Click the link to see a slide show of VA visit w/Emme, Nono and Great Nani.

Slide show of VA visit w/Emme, Nono and Great Nani



Emme, Nono, Great Nani and Zander headed to NC Monday AM. Not soon after their departure we all headed into DC. We drove a bit and then took the metro. It was uh - um a bit hot that day but we had a mission. The goal (proven to be a bit too lofty) was to walk and see the all the Monuments, and then see the Air and Space, Natural History and US Postal Smithsonian's. The walk from the metro to the Lincoln Memorial proved to be a bit taxing in the heat - not to mention the distance. Although we did manage to see the Washington Monument and a newer memorial for WWII. Just amazing. We made it to the Lincoln Memorial and back and met up with Chrisy and her kids at the Museum of Natural History. I don't know where the time went, but were spent over 2 hours in there alone. By the time we got out everything was closing. The sun was starting to go down and the temperature had dropped dramatically. Making us realize we started out our mission a bit backwards. We said good bye to Christy and her kids, hopped back on the metro and headed home.

I have to skip ahead a few days here ... It's now Friday the 8th. Since we did not get to see the US Postal Museum, we decided to get that in today. Back on the metro we all went to see Owney the Mail Pouch Pooch. A true story about a dog back in the late 1800's that travel the world protecting the US mail. He retained a tag from every city he visited and the post office in Albany, NY (where he started) made him a doggie jacket to pin all his tags on. You can read more about Owney. Just Google him ... Luckily we got to see him. He is stuffed and on display with his jacket and pins.













Click the link to see a slide show of DC.

Slide show of DC



Tuesday we kind of chilled out. We went to see a movie and that was really about it. Wednesday Randy left to go somewhere in PA to do some work and the rest of us went to the library and the pool again. Even on the days that we seemed to do nothing, we were walking chaos and never seemed to get to bed before 10p - more like midnight! Thursday we planned and got up early and drove to Luray Caverns. You know - stalactites and stalagmites?? This was just amazing. Even the kids thought it was pretty cool ... for the first 15 minutes. It was just over a mile walk and just over an hour worth of a tour before we were out again. Then we spent about 45 minutes on a quest to find the 4 clues in the giant hedge maze! This was a lot of fun and the sporadic "misters" along the way made the event quite pleasurable.











Click the link to see a slide show of Cavern.

Slide show of Cavern


So this ends the photo portion of the trip. Back to Friday the 8th. After we left Owney in DC we drove (well sat in a lot of traffic) but got to MD and spent a little more time with Christy and her kids at the local Burger King with a play land. Then headed to Pgh. We went to Sean and Dianne's place. Randy had arrived there about an hour before us. It was close to 10p by the time we arrived there. Sat the 9th, Sean and Randy went out to their new house to do some manual labor. Dianne took me out to see the new house a little later. It's just amazing. I can't wait to see it completed and try out the visitors suite!! It was about 4p before we finally left Pgh for home. We pulled into our driveway at 2:30a, (2,840 miles on the odometer) unloaded the car and went to bed. Sunday was catch up day. Massive yard work, groceries, the kids getting reacquainted with their friends .... Then back to work Monday ... but wait ... I receive an email from my boss that our building will not have water on Monday so it will be closed! Sweet! Well, I went in anyway - just a bit late. Not too bad for a first day back after almost 3 weeks! Sadly, all the yard work I did Sunday earned me a nice case of poison ivy and Wednesday I ended up with some kind of stomach flu. I am now heavily medicated with a nice steroid that makes me rather ravenous and euphoric. I can't complain. The kids are back in school (well summer school). Today Acacia's class had a littler talent show. Then we went to the pack the park at our local park. Kid games, prizes and Shrek III in the big screen. Acacia starts back to horseback riding tomorrow. Real school starts Wed the 27th. Then soccer 4 nights a week, swimming once a week, life group once a week and somewhere in there Chris will play hockey at least once a week. Ahhhhh ... it's good to be home!

Land O Lakes, WI - '08

This past week end we were lucky enough to be invited to share in some Kaji vacation time. We packed up our van with two of the three Kaji kids (& our family) while the Kaji van had mom & dad (Eugene & Jining), Eugene's brother, Ken from Phili, Jining's mom & dad (Ranee (Ama) and Tom (Agon)), and Baby Joey! Four and a half to five hours later and much north, we arrived in Land O Lakes, WI (supposedly where the butter is from - although we saw no evidence of this during our stay). We stayed at the Sunrise Lodge Resort. There is no actual hotel. We each had our own little cabins (or huts as I liked to call ours). We had one bedroom with 2 double beds a bathroom and living area with full kitchen and living space (complete with fire place). One might not think a fire place would come in handle in July, but in Northern WI - it did. Our "hut" was right on the lake. This place made our beach house on Leetz Island in CT look large!




This is the view from our porch.









The Kaji's had more of the Executive Hut. Three bedrooms, 2 baths, much larger living area and kitchen .... But, we all had plenty of space. This resort was just amazing. It had everything you could think of doing if you were a kid. And it was all included!! Play grounds, mini golf, shuffle board, basket ball, tennis, soccer, softball, volleyball, capture the flag, fishing, swimming, boating, bicycles and trails, pool tables, air hockey, library, scavenger and treasure hunts, pizza and cookie making, water balloon volleyball, movie night with popcorn, cook outs with s'mores and ghost stories, bingo, canoeing, hiking and crafts (just to name a few).

The Kaji's rented a jet ski and a pontoon boat so the Learish's got to partake in that fun as well. They also had skies and a tube. No one really knows how much horse power the jet ski had, but it got me up on a slalom ski, Eugene on two skies and pulled the kids on the tub!! The pontoon came in very handy for fishing and tooling around the lake.

Sunday ended up being a bit colder then we anticipated (50's). So, a trip into town was needed. I forgot the name of the store we found but we were able to get what we needed. We also found a horseback riding place and went for a 30+ minute trail ride.

This place was like luxury camping! It was great letting the kids just run around outside. There was just no end to all the fun they could have.

Moving on to one of my favorite topics ... food. You could do an all inclusive deal and have all your meals paid for or just order off the menu. Every meal was just amazing. Obviously many fish dishes were always offered. Steaks, chops and pasta. Soup, salads, home made breads and bakery. I honestly think I gained about 5 pounds in the three days we were there. For sure we will go back and hopefully stay longer.

Click the link to see a slide show of Land O Lakes, WI.

Slide show of Land O Lakes

Click the link to see a slide show of Kaji - Land O Lakes, WI.

Slide show of Kaji - Land O Lakes

The kids spent hours looking for "stuff". They found minnows, snails, leaches and frogs ... They had little nets and buckets and just kept adding more stuff to them.

Eugene built a fire every night we were there. The kids spent all their time searching for pine cones and whatever else they could collect to toss in the fire. We made s'mores. This is a photo of the group minus Jining's folks who had already retired for the evening.

Tom really enjoys fishing. So, they hired a fishing guide and went out Sunday morning. Randy and Chris got to go along with Ken and Tom. They all had such a great time. 58 fish caught in all. We even had the resort cook some up for lunch that very day!

Mom Rides!!

Sharon has some crazy plan to get me on a horse that worked this past week end! I rode for the first time in over 17 years (at least). It's kind of like riding a bike ... errr - well not as easy though. I remembered what to do but it sure was not smooth, pretty or even close to what the horse would expect from a rider. My legs were telling the horse to go left while the reigns were telling her to go right. But, over all it was very fun and I think it's my job to show Acacia how easy it is to canter!! Baahaahaa!! More on that later. Oh, my inner thighs are uh ... kind of hurting ... a little ....

Click the link to see a slide show of Mom Rides.

Slide show of Mom Rides

The Circus for Chris

With Randy in an air cast from toe to knee and on crutches, 6 kids and our friend Matt, we drove about 45 minutes to see the circus for Chris' birthday. Chris asked for a space shuttle cake - so I did my best. Gotta love the aerodynamics of the thing. Anyway, special thanks to Audiovox for providing the in-route entertainment. For sure, Randy and I would have just put the van on cruise and just jumped out of the windows if we would have had to listen to 5 kids go on an on in the car. As it was, listening to the commentary of the movie from Chris and Kirin was indeed - entertaining to say the least. The circus was .... interesting. The majority of the performers might want to consider any or all of the following: day jobs, new choreographer, a new costume manager and / or new dietitian. The men in full body PINK leotards with beer bellies catching the women and their thonged butts mid air had a little something for everyone. The cool conclusion was 6 motorcycles in the big steel cage ball thing all running at the same time. That really was cool. After the 2 hour event ended we said good bye to Matt and Alex and headed to find some food. McDonald's drive through: Lisa: "What is the largest quantity of nuggets I can order?" Speaker box: "20." Lisa: "I'll take 40 ...." Spending $27 at a McDonald's was a first but that fed 7 people!! We took the food to a local park and ate and played before we packed everyone back in and headed back to Madison. A grand time!! Enjoy!

Click the link to see a slide show of The Circus for Chris.

Slide show of Circus for Chris
















Oh - Acacia wanted me to take this movie. Exciting footage ....

Riding a new horse!

Acacia started to ride a new bigger horse this past week. I have also been instructed to wear pants and bring a helmet to next weeks lessons. I have to learn to ride so I can attend the mother/daughter picnic! Wish me luck! And, Chris got to sit on Danielle while Acacia was riding Mister. He was not as comfortable up there as Acacia seems to be!


















Here is a little movie too.

Remodel '07 - Before and After!

Does anyone recognize these rooms? We had decided to get new carpet throughout the house and put in wood laminate in the living room and foyer. To save some bucks we decided to take the carpet out ourselves. This involved Randy and several of our friends moving every single thing we own that touches the floor in the house and moving it to the garage or the living room (phase I). My responsibility was to keep the kids out of the house while this took place. We returned the night before the carpet was to be installed to our dressers and 2 mattresses on the floor in the living room. Nail strips and tacks all over the floor and the basement wood paneling half painted with primer. The primer was not part of the original plan .... So, now we have committed to painting ... Long story short - all the base boards, molding around the doors, windows and closets have all been painted white. The wood paneling in the basement is one tone and the rest of the walls (through the entire house) are a lighter tone. We took the (fake) ceiling beams down from the ceiling in the basement and painted the ceiling white. We did an accent wall in the living room (same color as the wood paneling in the basement). There is a short shag like carpet in all the bedrooms and hallway and a looped carpet on the steps, to the landing, down the rest of the steps and through the lower level family room. The living room has the wood laminate. All the bathroom, bedroom and closet doors have been sanded down and stained a lighter pecan color. It is an amazing transformation and looks totally different. Randy and Dale did all the painting and several friends helped with a lot of the labor. With the exception of the actual carpet installation, Randy did everything else. I think he is trying to keep up with Chris (Wheeler). So, what do you think? Want to come visit now?





No more carpet or pink walls!





We took the wood beams off the ceiling and painted over the lower level wood paneling. The chair rail is white and the walls are a sandy color now.

Chris is 5!!

Well, we have not really done a whole lot for Chris this year. But, Acacia and her cool baby sitter made Chris an Easy Bake Oven cake and we all sang to him. He got a hand full of presents - transformers are very cool!! We are going to take Chris and his friends to the circus this coming week end. 10 kids ... should be interesting to say the least! Wish us luck!

Even More Outside Riding

She's moved up into just wide open spaces now. The film where there are two riders, Acacia is the one in front.

Oh, How sweet our neighbors lawn is ...

This is Acacia in our neighbor's yard. Randy started to mow the yard but you can see how nice and long her weeds get. Just lovely ....

... not.

My Olympic Gold moment!!

How cool! Mark Johnson from the 1980 US gold metal winning hockey team ("Do you believe in miracles??") is the UW Madison's women's hockey coach now. We (Rec Sports) asked if he would speak at our Big Ten Rec Sport conference and he said ... yes. He brought the gold metal and just passed it around! He spoke for over an hour on the entire experience. He also attends our church and did a service several years ago where his metal was passes around. So, I have actually seen this gold metal twice. Still very cool!! I went up to speak with him after his speech and I got my picture taken with him (and the hockey puck he signed for me)!! I don't know what the deal was with the camera as the color is all weird, but still - it's him!!

Another Sleeper shot!!

I just don't know how they can sleep like this. But, the actually sleep better with each other ....

Riding Outside!!

The weather warmed up enough to allow for outside riding!! What an adventure! Acacia just LOVED this!! She did amazing especially given the terrain was not even at all! Way cool!! She is hoping she can ride outside the week too!!

Fitchburg Days '08

Another successful Fitchburg Days Carnival! Food, fun, rides and fire works!! For a mear $80+ you can ride all the cheesy carnival rides and eat some quality deep fried Twinkies!! Oh, and you can't forget the strategic games that win you amazing prizes that make only the most pleasing noises that last forever!

Click the link to see a slide show of Fitchburg Days '08.

Slide show of Fitchburg Days '08

Spring Soccer '08

So, spring soccer '08 is officially over. Acacia's team had a great season! The team is really coming together and they are learning skills and strategies now. They have one more year of co-ed soccer and then it switches to all girl teams.

Click the link to see a slide show of spring soccer '08.

Slide show of Spring Soccer '08