Saturday May 28th -- On the Road Again
Olivia was such a trooper, she seems to only be able to tolerate about 3 hours in the car at any given time, but she did so well. We left bright and early in the morning and what was normally a 4 hour or so trip, it took us about 5 and a half since we stopped to feed Liv and got stuck in some sort of auction traffic in Crivitz, (which incidentally hit us at about the 3 hour limit for Olivia so that part of the ride sucked...

Sunday May 29th -- Tickin\' Me Off
This place is full of wood ticks...were both all crawly. small price to pray for the peacefulness we have up here...tick or not, we love it here.

Monday May 30th -- Memorial Day
We went to Iron River today to meet up with some old friends of ours that we hadn\'t seen in nearly a year. They now have to daughters, (Emma & Clara), and it was our first time getting to see the youngest...who happens to be about 2 weeks younger than Olivia. We were kind of shocked to how much bigger Olivia was than Clara, but unfortunately they didn\'t get to spend much time together Clara went down for a nap shortly afterward. Emma had grown so much since we last saw her, and now she won\'t even look at me. I think she was scared of the goatee.

Still it was so nice to see old friends and that gave us all the more reason to start putting the ball into motion on figuring out how the hell to get ourselves up here for good.

Tuesday May 31st -- Kayaking At Last
I finally got my boat in the water...damn am I *ever* OUT OF SHAPE! Needless to say it didnt\' last long. About a 20 minutes paddle, the sun was hot, the water was cold and since Carrie couldn\'t enjoy it with me, I decided to cut is short. Maybe we\'ll get the chance another day yet.

Wednesday June 1st -- Fixed Windshield
Had to take a quick trip to Iron Mountain today to get Ellie\'s windshield replaced. We were driving to Iron River on Monday and just *noticed* a nice long crack on the passenger side. Good news is that the insurance will cover it. Bad news its, sucked 4 hours out of a very beautiful day!

Thursday June 2nd -- Carman & Joe revisited
Carman & Joe swung down to Goodman today for a visit and wound up staying for dinner. It was great yet again to spend time with some of our closest friends. We miss them terribly and they are just a few of the reasons we want to live up here.

Olivia and Clara got to play a little together...well by play I mean stare at each other alot...but it was cute and I\'ve got few adorable pictures to share. Hopefully it won\'t be another *YEAR* until we get to see them all again.

Friday June 3rd -- Local Heroes
Carrie & I *both* finally got to get our boats in the water today. Lake Hilbert isn\'t exactly a vast expanse of \"fun\" water, but it is completely out in the middle of nowhere and you hear nothing, (when there are not motor boats around and being a weekday, this was the case).

We were just about to call it a day when an elderly fisherman went flying by us in a small little fishin\' boat with an outboard motor. He was trucking pretty good and disappeared around the point just in front of us and then the boat stopped making noise. I\'d just assumed that he reached his destination, but as we pulled around the point we realized his boat had capsized and taken in *ALOT* of water. He was hanging onto the bow of the boat, looking rather exhausted and clinging for dear life as he could not touch bottom.

We paddled over to him to see what we could do, (I actually got to use my side-stroke). We ended up just pushing little by little until we got him to an area where he could touch bottom and walk the boat to his dock. The best we could manage was to paddle away from him, and then charge as hard as possible towards his nearly sunken boat and push off when we got near. After about 10 minutes or so, he was able to touch and we just sorta chatted with him nearby as he walked to his dock. We did get an invite for coffee, but we had to decline as Olivia was getting close to her next meal time. (I think he wanted us to come inside more so his wife wouldn\'t yell at him for tipping the boat. We now have another friend in the north woods...here\'s to ya \"Wet Irv...\"

Saturday June 4th -- Graduation
Off to our niece Kim\'s to attend her graduation party in Escanaba, MI. Man we\'re old...she\'s off to Ferris State in the fall to major in Pharmacy...smart chics are cool...

A few things I missed while we were gone:

• Technology...there isn\'t much up there
• Our bed and my pillow..slept like crap

Things we didn\'t miss at all:

• Traffic
• The Madison collective
• Neighbors
• Sounds of living in a neigborhood

Someday we will live up that way. We both dread heading home after spending time up there. Either I am eventually going to have to convince my current employer that telecommuting is a viable option for what I do, or I am going to have to find another job doing the same thing. I really like what I do and who I do it for, so the latter is really not my favorite option. Plus, the things I work with and enjoy working with really haven\'t taken off up there just yet. However, I guess that would sort of make me a \"pioneer\" of sorts up there.
*sigh*....someday....someday