Okay so here is the untold story about the canoe actually tipping!

So we were heading to the other side of the lake(away from the start of the river). Well Aunt Laura started shaking the canoe while Joey and Katie were in it. Well that made them get really mad. So Maddy and I switched canoes with Katie and Joey.

So now we were with Aunt Laura. Well she let the 2 of us jump in a couple times. Well whenever we would jump in we would first bang on the bottom of the canoe to scare the fish away. Well both Maddy and I were out of the canoe and there was an eagle in the air, so everyone was paying attention to it.

Well I decided that it was the perfect time to get in the canoe. That was not a very good assumption. Well the extra weight in the canoe made it kind of tip. So everyone except Aunt Laura got in the good canoe. So once we got to shore Dad and Aunt Laura emptied the canoe of water and the day ended happily.

I won't go into detail about Joey crying. Also we were wearing swimsuits.

Lake Itasca - the start of the Mississippi River

The first few days of our summer camping trip were spent at Grandpa Z's sister's house - Mary Zajicek.   She was celebrating her 80th birthday and GPaZ would be celebrating his 75th birthday later in July.   So all of GPaZ's relatives turned out for the big party.   We had a grand time but I'm sorry to report that I didn't take any pictures as Grandpa was taking the pictures.   Once I get the pictures from him, I'll post a few.  We really enjoyed meeting Grandpa's family.

After the weekend, we headed to Lake Itasca.  This is where the Mississippi River begins, and this was Joey's choice of a vacation spot. 

Look at those cute kids getting ready for another Kreiling / Little vacation!

Here's the gang at the headwaters of the Mississippi -

And of course one must be able to say they have walked across the Mississippi River -

while the kids took the shortcut across...

I'll let Nicky tell the rest of the Lake Itasca story!

So you know how when aunt Laura posted the thing about the canoing on our camping trip? Well she said she wouldn't say anything about the canoe tipping. I feel like it is important for you to know. So here it is. Maddy, aunt Laura and i were trying to fight the wind so we could get back to the dock. (Dad, Katie and Joey were near the shore.) Well we were paddling as hard as we could (we had just found a rhythm ) and Maddy noticed some foam in the water. Well then she starts to cry because this is where the boats go and were going to get run over. Which makes me stop paddling. Then the canoe starts drifting backwards!!! Aunt Laura starts telling us to paddle or else. Which makes us both paddle and while where pushing as hard as we can to get it turned around, I start to lean to get more leverage. And what do you know the next moment the three of us are almost in the water!!!!! But in the end we all end up safely in the dock. YA

So this is my first post ever ever ever so catch anything that i do wrong.

This is a picture of one of the Arctic wolves from the wolf sanctuary.
I can't tell witch one it is. But i think it looks really cool. :-)
So this one over here is all 4 wolves.
The leader is an arctic wolf named Shadow than the other arctic wolf is Malik. The only girl wolf is named Maya witch is a gray wolf and the other gray wolf is named Grizzer.

SOOOOO i hope you liked my post. :-) :-) :-) :-)

A week at Nana's house

 

After our week in Chicago, we headed to Nana's house for a week.  We had lots of fun making cookies, golfing, swimming, sliding, playing croquet and just hanging out.   Here are a few pictures -

Making yummy gooey chocolate cookies

 

The annual flag changing ceremony

 

 

 

 

 

Tractor riding & driving (much to Mom's dismay...)

And 4th of July at Nana's house

The much awaited grill!

The gas still is not connected so we can't grill just yet. With all the rain we are getting, I'm not sure we could grill anyhow....





When the sun comes back out (hopefully not too soon since the A/C is out - another story for another day) and I get the pool cleaned up, I'll post some more pictures of the whole thing.

Sailing the ocean...err, Lake Michigan blue

So, first, I'm using Microsoft's LiveWriter to make this post.  It's a new blog editor that's supposed to be really cool and make blogging easier (to add pictures & stuff - wysiwyg - etc.)   We'll see how it turns out.

I'm horribly behind in posting pictures from the summer, so with much prodding from Walter, I'm going to post some entries about our summer, the kids and the dogs.   Enjoy!

On to the subject of this post...

While the boys and I were in Chicago this summer, one of our highlights was going sailing with Mr. John.   Although Joey got a little seasick, we had a great time.   Mark & Karen joined us, too.

Here's the sailing vessel, Leander...

And a few of its passengers...

Finally, who's that steering????

Thank you, Mr. John, for a great day!

Shield your eyes - below you will find the offending house! :) Can you get more "sublte" than brown???? Maybe we should appeal the HOA based on that fact that we are not exactly sure what "sublte" means. Maybe the HOA should spend more time learning how to use spell check and less time harassing home owners. I think my next plan of action will be to knock on the 5 other homes that have the exact same color on their house and see if the HOA is making them re-paint those homes to a more "sublte" color????