Some pictures of Nana and GpaZ's visit.

Nana and GpaZ planted themselves on the lanai and have been enjoying our good weather that arrived just for them....











They even enjoyed the pool and hot tub with the girls.














This one is for Amy who wanted to see the lanai area now that we have it all set up...













We took Nana and GpaZ to the airshow on Saturday. A fun time was had by all. It was a beautiful day - perfect for an airshow!

The gang's all here, but where is the Mystery Machine????

Happy Halloween! Here are some pictures of the girls hard at work carving pumpkins. By the way if you are looking for a pumpkin patch in NW Florida - there are none... The grocery store is the best source for pumpkins - kinda takes the fun out of it.

























The finished product....














Our VERY spooky house! No the house isn't on fire - that's the fog machine that goes with the strobe light with thunder! :)

So we took another trip to Disney and went camping at Fort Wilderness. That sure is the way to go - it was only $35/night and you get all the benefits of staying at one of the resorts. Plus you get to have a sing-a-long with Chip and Dale every night! :)




See how wet the girls are in this picture??? We had been on this ride two times in a row and I knew I was testing my luck by staying dry. Since there was no line, I let the girls go on again by themselves. Good thing - my luck would have run out!










We went to Epcot and dined in Germany - it sure wasn't as much fun as when you have Walter along.... But the girls enjoyed eating some Oma noodles. Although since children 10 years and over are charged the adult rate, i'm not sure Maddy ate $27 worth of spatzle!

We decided to take a trip to Disney the other day while Craig was in Texas for a few days. It was an awesome day - no one was in the park, so no lines! The park was decorated for fall. I'm not sure when it will feel right to have all these fall decorations when it is still 90 outside, but it was beautiful.




Where Nick when you need him????? We had to ride on Space Mountain with no one to ride in the front, so guess who had to do it?




And then we had to ride again and again and again and again and again....



Can't wait for Nick and Joe to come down so I can ride Space Mountain AGAIN, because I just can't get enough of that ride..... Are the kids old enough to ride alone while I sit eating a turkey leg from the Lunching Pad yet???? :)

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????

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADDY!!!! Ten years today - how did that happen?????









Ok - here are the promised forgotten vacation photos.... We usually spend time hiking, biking, canoeing, and having fun in nature. But there always seems to be one memorable moment/activity that always makes the vacation memorable for the kids.... Who can forget the begging last year for the gem mine? And it was fun wasn't it Uncle Wally????

Here is this year's memorable moment:
















How many of you have had the opportunity to ride a walleye???




And the trivia question for the vacation.... Can you name Paul Bunyan's home town???? The answer is in this picture.

As summer is winding down for you northerners, we are just getting ready to be able to enjoy the outside again! :) Here is a picture of our latest project - the outdoor kitchen. Aren't we trendy?????

Because our gas line is by the back door, we had to put the grill there....








And because it is right by the door, there was no room for a counter to eat at, so we had to build a counter seating area on the other side of the lanai (for you northerners - that's the Florida way of saying back patio...)








This is the grill area up close.... Betcha Walter is just dying to get down here to grill something!





This is the counter where Craig will be mixing all the fruity/slushy drinks for Amy and me..... Anyone else care to join????





Also, just for GpaZ (who happened to be chatting with me when I found out I forgot to turn off the hose while filling the pool this morning and it is now 4pm.....) Look at the picture with the pool and you will see it is full to the brim. I am now draining my pool. Let's hope I don't forget to turn off the drain because I understand that is worse than overfilling - with the water table so high, your pool can pop out of the ground! Anyone want to play guess what my water bill will be this month????


Tune in to my next post for some forgotten vacation pictures that some may wish remained in the forgotten pile!

Look at Lucy! Hasn't she grown since our last photo? And check out her stick - the bigger, the better!