Sunday Walk

Wow,
Finally we have/had a nice day. It was so nice today that Ken and I decided to go for a drive and long walk. We chose Forestville State Park as our destination. One of the reasons we chose Forestville is that the Peters family is having Thanksgiving Day dinner there this year, and we wanted to see what the warming house is like. On the drive there we stopped and asked Ann & Roger if they would like to join us....Ann joined us, Roger chose to stay home. We had a nice walk, saw some robins, the afternoon was just beautiful. I hope you all had a chance to get out and enjoy it.
The warming house is really nice, it has a wood stove in it, and attached to it is restrooms with flush toilets, and a picnic shelter. It would be an awesome place to have the family picnic this summer (if it is available). The river is close by, there are trails to enjoy, but no playground equipment (so would have to bring outdoor games for the children). I'm sure the guys have already decided to bring fishing poles if we chose to have it there. The biggest drawback would be every car that drives in would need a park sticker. Park stickers cost $25 and is good for 12 months from the time you buy it. I'm pretty sure you can just buy a day pass also. Of course, we could car pool, park outside of the park, and have someone pick you up etc. If you think this would be a good option for the family picnic........let us know, so we can see if it is available.
Enjoy the next couple days, sounds like we should be having some nice weather.

What have we been up to?

The first picture is of Bob working on the deck for James' house. The old one was getting pretty rotten so we decided that a new one was needed. We had to tear the old one completely down and start from scratch. We had hoped to just be able to replace the deck boards, but when we got into the tear down process we realized that everything was rotten. So we ended up building it from the ground up. I think we were able to save ONE of the posts, but that was it.
The next few pictures is of our road trip to Cabelas. Bob has been wanting a new varmint gun, so we decided to drive down and see what they had. BAD IDEA (for me at least). You will see that Bob got a new Thompson Center Arms gun in a 204 Ruger caliber. And of course he needed to get a new scope to go on his gun, so he got the Leupold VX1 4x12x40. I don't know what that all means, but he is happy with it. I got a new set of dishes, so it wasn't a complete loss.
That is what we have been up to for about the last two to three weeks. The weather has been pretty nice here. Up into the 50's and 60's for the most part.
Hope everyone is doing well.
Bob and Julie

Ann

It's Saturday so Ryan showed me again how to add pictures. Sending pictures of what is left of Matts barn and the addition to his house. It is a beautiful day out today, I am really looking forward to spring!

For Kim

These are mostly for Kim..........it's pictures of Debbie Macomber signing Kim's book. This took place in the MOA on Feb 14 at the Knit Out. Enjoy them Kim.

Shawn's Family Update

Now that hockey season is behind us, we have a little bit of "down time" if there is such a thing. So, I thought I would give an update on our family.

Shawn - is still looking for a job. For those of you that don't know, Shawn was laid off last November. Since then he has been playing Mr. Mom at home. Jordyn is liking it since he gets to take her to school and pick her up. He has also taken on some extra Boy Scout work and is now the Lodge Advisor to the Order of the Arrow. That, along with helping Spencer at Copy Cat when he needs help, tends to keep Shawn out of trouble.

Alex - Hockey is done. It is kind of a bitter-sweet thing, though. It is nice to have some extra time with the family, but yet for 5-6 months of the year it is your life and you make some great friends. It is like saying goodbye to them. In the next month or so, Alex will start soccer and also have tryouts for baseball. He is also active in his Boy Scout troop as well.

Jordyn - what can I say about Jordyn…………..she is a social butterfly. She loves hockey season since that means she gets to go to Alex's game and see her friends. She is in preschool 3 mornings a week and loves it. She also does dance once a week.

Heather - same old, same old. Still working at the credit union and trying to keep up with who needs to go where and when.

BLOG CHALLENGE

Good Morning Family,
This is a blog challenge.................every family reading this is challenged to put an entry out at least once a week for the next month. This is a family blog - a good way to let everyone know what is happening. It can be something as simple as .............."wow, I saw a great sunset last night" or "let me tell you about the funny thing I heard last night". If anyone is interested, I can tell you how to post or just send it to me and I will do it.
Let's heard from some of you and let's get this blog moving with information.............
you can send your posting to
hayesfamily9@gmail.com
then it shows up on my homepage and I will post it asap

Drive Home

The drive home was the type of drive that Ken and I are getting used to whenever we go to Chicago.

We left Chicago in the rain, by the time we hit the Illinois/Wisconsin border we had driven thru a couple heavy downpours. Shortly after getting into Wisconsin it started freezing rain, then went to sleet, and finally snow. By the time we were in Madison it was snowing pretty good. Drove in snow from Madison, thru the Dells and into Tomah. Since we had left Brian's late morning we thought we would stop and see Aunt Therese in Tomah. When we got out of the car at her place there was 4-6 inches of snow on the ground. We stayed and visited with her for about an hour (maybe a little longer). The roads from her place to I 90 were still snow covered, but when we got to I 90 it was clear and smooth sailing. That was a relief after seeing atleast 6 cars in the ditches.

When I would get tired of watching the snow and counting cars in the ditch, I would start knitting. I have been finding that is a good way to pass time in the car. This green knitting is a sweater for Dakota.