the eric update - day 1548: big fun at the apple festival.

all work and no play at the apple festival is no fun, so after working the apple festival parade, odin had more than a little bit of fun enjoying the amusements.

the eric update - day 1548: odin's works the apple festival parade!

if you happened to be in gays mills, wisconsin today, enjoying the parade during the 50th annual apple festival you might have seen odin and us walking behind the organic valley "refer truck", handing out stringles and pencils.

odin had big fun handing out goodies to the locals and i think it might not be too difficult to convince him to work the parade circuit year round :-)

the eric update - day 1540: the imaginaut.

odin and i went to eckhart park which we've done countless times before. but this time odin really, really wanted me to climb up to the top of a large wooden rocketship that stands on one corner of the wooden "enchantment playground".

it's not really made for adults of my, er, stature, but i dutifully climbed aboard. odin immediately proclaimed that we were going to have a picnic on the moon while cranking on the steering wheel. he even had a complex logic associated with the effects of pressing on the various icons above the steering wheel. press one and the windows opened, another closed the door. and various combinations slowed or accelerated the rocket.

i was amazed at the rich imaginative world odin had constructed and left scratching my head because until that moment i had no idea he had such a deep understanding of the moon, rocketships, space and navigation.

happy 10 year anniversary to us!

it really is hard to believe that 10 years ago, kris and i were standing on the shores of lake michigan on the lovely björklunden campus, saying our marriage vows. it's even harder to believe that we began dating 17 years ago!

we didn't get each other any traditional anniversary gifts. but then again, we're going to be much happier with our anniversary sauna than tin.

the eric update - day 1534: finally! hockey season ( almost ) begins!

odin thought they day would never arrive, but it really is almost time for hockey! the ice isn't ready yet, but we did get signed up for his second season of the local "learn to skate" program and he was very excited to get fitted for his new equipment.

so excited that he doesn't want to ever take off his pads or helmet, which makes eating dinner quite a challenge :-)

just 3 weeks until the ice is ready!

the eric update - day 1534: odin's new piano!

well, sort of new ( to us ). if you follow along on twitter you already know the piano arrived a month ago and then we took the trip to the u.p. and now i've gotten myself so far behind in storytelling, i don't know if i'll ever catch up :-)

the piano was given to its previous owners on the condition that they give it away when the time came which happened to coincide with when we were looking for a piano. it's hard to imagine, but i suppose if we ever decide to become piano-less, we'll give it away as well.

we're lucky enough to have a capable piano tuner in the area and he came by and quickly fixed some broken hammers and gave it a initial tuning. after the piano has "rested" for a bit, we'll get ivory on a few keys replaced and have the final tuning done.

as with everything else, he's a quick study and has already taken to practicing major third harmonic intervals and little melodies. he says he's interested in having an occasional 15 or 20 minute lesson and we've found a local teacher trained in the suzuki method who has agreed try a few lessons to see if he finds them agreeable.

if so, great and if not, that's great too - i'll just have that much more time to practice my family holiday piano sing along songs.

sauna cedar!

if you've been following along you know we've decided to finally build a finnish sauna which means we needed to collect lake superior sauna stones on our "vacation" in the u.p.; and while we were at it, we figured we might as well fell enough cedar trees to tongue and groove the sauna and changing room.

we estimated that we needed about 50 logs and ended up felling about 42 logs before the remnants of hurricane gustav forced us to quit.

we'll have a local sawyer bring in a mobile saw mill and plank the logs and the planks will then get sent to a mill to get tongue and grooved.

all-in-all, an honest week's work while on vacation!

the eric update - day 1525: riding in grandpa's big, red truck.

if you ask odin, he'll tell you that riding in grandpa's big, red truck out to camp is one of the best parts of spending time in the u.p..

yes, there's nothing like quietly watching the miles roll by - until pesky poppi starts taking pictures :-)

the eric update - day 1523: little sauna boy.

certainly, he is his mother's son and a trip to the upper peninsula wouldn't be complete without sweating in a finnish sauna.

and someone couldn't be happier that his mamma and poppi are building their own so he can take a sauna any old time he pleases.

the eric update - day 1521: a bulldozer ride in The Hundred Acre Woods.

is there a better way is there to cap off a long day of hanging out at two of the great lakes than taking a ride in your uncle's antique bulldozer in The Hundred Acre Woods?

it was a little bumpy but i'm sure odin would be more than happy to help moving some earth from here to there in future summer vacations.

the eric update - day 1521: odin finds a beach buddy.

we didn't bring pushhkin along with us on our visit to lake superior, but odin found a beach buddy anyways :-)

they had big fun frolicking in the sand together. just don't tell pushkin.

the eric update - day 1521: flying on the sands of superior.

the eric update - day 1521: let's play another round of, how cold is lake superior?

on our recent trip to lake superior, odin went in for a swim.

supposedly the superior water temperature is around 58 degrees F ( 14 C ), but i swear it felt more like 45 F ( 7 C ) at best. chilly! cold enough to make your legs numb after a few minutes.

odin, of course, couldn't have cared less.

superior in thirds.

lake superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area, near where the au train river empties into au train bay.

funny that this sandy beach is just a hop, skip and jump away from the rocky beach where we collected sauna stones.

the eric update - day 1521: sort-of helping mamma and poppi collect sauna stones.

our 10 year wedding anniversary is rapidly approaching ( on september 17th ) and we decided that it was a fine time to build the traditional finnish sauna that we've always been meaning to build. and you certainly need sauna stones for a finnish sauna, so we set out with odin's grandparent's and a cousin to an undisclosed location on the shores of lake superior to collect stones that had the most perfectist properties for holding heat and "throwing steam".

it was a tough job and odin sort-of got into the spirit of collecting stones, while taking more than few breaks to throw stones into the lake :-)

the eric update - day 1521: odin and pushkin visit lake michigan.

ah yes, odin enjoys the simple pleasure of dipping one's hands in the cool waters of lake michigan while on vacation in the upper peninsula of michigan.

and pushkin? this is his first time visiting the great lake and i think it's not too hard to imagine that he very much enjoys running along the shoreline without being restrained by a leash.