The new pool

Last year I picked up a 12ft pool on clearence for Jordan. We set it up a week ago. As you can see there is about 4 inches to spare between the garage/pool/fence. Jordan has been in it everyday since Saturday, Joe and I have also been in it as well. Jordan spends more time with her head under the water then above it. So far it is a huge hit, well worth the money spent. It sure beats a membership to the pool, and the crowds that go along with it.

Green Striper

Jordan received her next belt in karate the other day, white with a green stripe. She was really proud of herself, and so are we. She is really enjoying karate so I am going to sign her up for another 6 months, through January and we will see how she handles it when she starts school.

Jordan on vacation

Jordan had a blast camping. She got to drive the boat on Whitefish, which she loved. She also made a sailboat from a boyscout kit. It went for it's maiden voyage at the beach at Kilworry resort. It probably would have sailed better if someone didn't get such a kick out of swamping it, oh well, fun is fun. We also brought along a butterfly net and Jordan caught a moth. She walked around with it for a long time, she touched the wings so much that it could no longer fly away. She wanted to keep it as a pet but I told her that Diego would eat it if we brought it home. She also did a lot of bike riding at the campground, up and down the driveway, to the pump and the outhouses. I am so glad that she was old enough this year to go to the outhouse by herself. Albert was a big thrill for her too. She loved socializing with him and asking about Anja among other things. She even left him a note on his camper door telling him to have a happy day, he swore not to tell Gail so she wouldn't get jealous!

She also spent lot of time swimming at various remote sites and the beach at the campground. Coming in at a tie for her favorite vacation moments is meeting her new friends, Jordan and Faith, who she played with all evening on Monday (they even exchanged numbers) and the camp potties at the remote sites. She can't stop talking about the socks in the potty hole at the one site. I guess someone forgot to bring t.p. and that must have been the only other option. She even told the kindergarten teacher at her assessment all about the socks in the potty. I can just imagine what kind of people they thought she had for parents. She just does not hold anything back!

All in all I would say she had a good time,but was happy to be back home and is currently watching Mama Mia in my bedroom.

Fishing trophies

Vacation started out good this year. We went up to Kilworry resort on the Whitefish Chain. I caught 2 nice keeper walleyes, which tasted really good. We also caught more northerns then we could count. We has a nice meal of fish with Joe's Mom and Dad and Patty and Phil. We stayed there from Wednesday to Friday morning when we headed up to Cut Foot Sioux.

Here is one of Joe's big fish, he caught 6 walleyes that had to be thrown back because of the slot limit.

Up until the last day of fishing I was the one who was able to catch fish we could actually eat. These are 2 of the ones we got to have for dinner.

Finally I catch one that had to go back!!!!! This is the biggest walleye I have ever caught. A nice 21 incher, big but not big enough to go on the wall has to be 30 or more for that. I guess I will have to keep trying.

And finally Joe, the big cheater, caught this monster. At 27 1/4 it wasn't big enough for the wall either. We could have kept it for dinner, but at that size if you are not going to stuff it you might as well out it back.

Jordan did not catch any fish, but she didn't really try either. She was content to watch and play Barbies in the boat. I'll get some pics of her up soon.

Gardner Joe

On thursday we all spent the evening outside. While I was mowing the grass Joe and Jordan replaced one of the leaky sprinkler heads in the side yard. He did much better on this one then the one he replaced last year. I think he dug up half the yard fir that one and the grass still hasn't recovered. Anyway, they replaced the sprinkler and it worked great. This inspired Joe to adjust all 30 or so sprinkler heads so they had better coverage of the yard. We should have no dead spots now. It only took 4 years to get the sprinklers spraying right, now we just have to figure out how to program the system!

We also trimmed the trees in the yard. There were quite a few branches that were touching the ground an some that always attacked me as I was mowing. So the yard is looking good dispite this drought we are in. It is raining a little now, hopefully we will get a good soaking, we need it.

Next week we are off camping, should have some good stories and pictures when I get back from there.