Northern WI State Fair 2009

I thought I would get back on the family blog since its been like forever. The Olson's have been really busy with lots of different things. I tend to put some stuff off and keep up with the most important stuff that is happening at the moment. Like our girls playing ball, me taking pictures of some really fun people, Dave coaching, or just being with family. It's summer what can I say.
This year I got to go with the girls to the fair. Normally, it is a "dad-thing", but since Autumn has no fear and wants to ride on as many rides as she can and Ambrea is a little more hesitant I was asked to go so Ambrea would have someone to sit on the sidelines with. Truthfully, I didn't mind at all. It was hot and I tried to be a good sport, but lost momentum at about 4:00 p.m. and we left at 4:30. I am not sure if I will get asked to go next year or not. Time will tell! We did meet up with some friends though and Kaylee and Autumn got to ride some of the rides together for some time. Addison wanted to ride some too so the bigger kids rode a few of the smaller rides to humor her.

First Turkey...

A brief summary of Dave's turkey hunting experience this past week. Starting on Wed. Dave had a Jake come in and decided that he was going to pass him up for something bigger and was out battled by the dominant hen. Thurs. morning the Tom had landed behind him and strutted around for a bit and ran off with the dominant hen. That night Dave and Autumn went out and watched two young deer play and stomp at the decoys and had one hen come up behind them. Autumn was super excited to witness this event and, in fact, could not sleep that night. Fri. morning the dominant hen was at it again and Dave passed up that Jake and kept calling right along with the hen and when she would stop Dave would start again and low and behold led by a Jake the Tom was ten yards behind and as you can see Tom walked into the shooting lane - end of story!!!! I can safely say Dave is hooked and already thinking about next year and how he can get me out there.

loving her = loving a piece of life

this is me holding on to just a piece of my life. this is me not wanting her to get any older. this is me and her spending our days together. this is me wanting only the best for her. this is me loving her to the moon and back. this is me being a mom for nine years. this is me not wanting to let go. this is me giving her strength to go for her dreams. this is me laughing on the inside. this is me crying when she cries. this is me amazed by her. this is me happy.....
this is not the best picture taken, but it is with her and that's all that matters!!

Kalahari? We're there!!

So mid-winter break was upon us last week and we took the kids to the Kalahari. We had a blast. We did just about everything the girls wanted us to do. Ambrea was dead set that she was going to make it up the rock wall. She had five rocks to go and they were out of her reach, but wow! Autumn wanted me to go on the rope walk high above the crowd (literally). I did it - did not enjoy it cuz once you are up there and started you must finish. Yeah - Autumn zoomed through it and was playing games again with her dad before I was even done. She then proceeds to ask me what the heck took so long -thanks! We did water slides I recommend the water roller coaster or as my girls referred to it as the "big blue one." At first, Ambrea went down with her dad and was done doing that the moment she stepped out of the water. She went on the other slides that one just wasn't her cup of tea. Autumn, on the other hand, was bound and determined to get her sister on it again. With a little coaxing - okay a lot of coaxing she caved and as long as she sat in the back of the tube all was well. They went down it 3 times in a row. Autumn's mission to go as many times as she could, full board, don't rest. Dave - well he just wanted his pic taken with the ape. So of course, we had to make sure we got that pic. I actually laugh when I look at it - that's all that matters. We played lots of games and the girls did a couple rounds of Lazar tag. They loved every minute of their time playing and by Sunday afternoon they were ready to go back to school (or maybe we were glad)

Me and my girls.....

Just mom and the girls waiting around and we thought what the heck we could take a pic. Dad was talking with someone else at the time (what's new) :)

Bloomer Jump offs....

Oh I am behind on some blogging items! On 1/31/09 we traveled down the road to the Bloomer Jump offs. Autumn had done a great job to get there and then didn't quite make it past the preliminaries to finals. But we commended her for doing a great job and she learned that jumping in front of a full crowd, in front of three counters and two back ups, on a gym floor all by herself was just a little intimidating. We took them up to Chetek afterwards and stopped at Gilligans for lunch. She was better after she ate something. We just thought it was a good experience and no matter what - she made it there. Autumn is warming up in the above-pic apparently I did a movie of her jumping and not one single shot of her actually jumping.

Shed hunting.....

Dave and I went out shed hunting on Valentine's day (yes, I know I am behind with my posting). We had not seen anything until we came around to the food plot (the same food plot I posted about awhile ago) and all of a sudden I hear Dave say, "YES!" It reminded me of a little kid getting a great toy and when I looked over he had just picked up a rack from a 10 pt buck. See, it is very unusual to come upon a "set" of these. You will normally get one side, but today was his lucky day.