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.

Far from Perfection....

Perfection..... Who invented this game anyway? Certainly does not describe our household. Anyways, Autumn asked her dad to play Monday night as he was getting ready to leave for another week of working out of town. She has been playing lots of games lately from her DS to the Wii to board games, to Perfection. She just loves it when we all get to play something together. By the way, it hurts when you step on one of the pieces-lol. Ambrea's face cracks me up as she was doing an impression of "it's gonna get'cha" while it was Autumn's turn to try and distract her.

The Jump Offs....

Tonight we have jumped our little hearts out, and the results are (drum roll please......) We are going to Bloomer!!! That's right, Autumn got first place with 42 jumps and a jump off with another gal so she officially jumped, 42, 25, 33, 39 to beat out her class mate. I seriously thought she got second, but she took it with the 39 mark. Not to bad, as last year she got third. So it is off to Bloomer on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2009 for Autumn. Good luck girl. As for her sister- she didn't do to shabby herself. She took second place with a jump score of 33 and 26. She had taken first place last year, but was still happy to take home a trophy. She is holding the trophy high above her head, but I had to crop some people out of the pic so her trophy went with the cropping -sorry. The moment we got home we called daddy to tell him and he was super excited to be able to have another chance at seeing one of them jump. I do have to say that when its your child up there jumping your heart skips a beat and you pray for the best. They both made us proud. WAY TO GO GIRLS.... I had some really great pics of the girls with their friends, but because I forgot to ask if I could post them I can't share. I wish I could because they were so cute.

Silly Girls

Okay these girls are just a little wrapped up in silliness. They decided while American Idol was on that they too could look just as ridiculous as some of the contestants. Since it was a commerical, they dashed in the bathroom and returned as the "BO GO" girls. Not sure where the name came from, but they must have drank some silly juice as they couldn't even talk as they were laughing so hard.

They were to be getting ready for bed and then again why would they want to do that since daddy is gone this week and mom is such a softy for a good laugh. They then proceeded to try and sing for me. I say, I think I need to move as neither of them can carry a tune. They just giggled and I insisted on a picture of the two of them and their head wraps. Silly girls for sure!!

Sledding with Dad....

I had a girls weekend out and my girls stayed home with their dad. Apparently, they only had sledding on their minds as they had went everyday and spent a couple hours of up and down the hills. They rammed hard and seemed to be pretty popular with their big tube (and they shared it with the other kids sledding) as it went the fastest and furthest. Except there was a catch- they had to bail from the tube when they got to the end of the run. The park had not pulled the Christmas display out yet and since the tube picks up speed the more times you go down, lets just say -they could take the displays out themselves. There was only one incident . Ambrea decided not to bail and met the tree personally. She was okay and only came out of it with a bruise on her hip. She learned and was much better at bailing. I am glad the girls had a great time and I am sure that theywill be asking to go again.

Lost Tooth....

I cleared off some pictures off of our camera and came across a huge moment. Ambrea's lost tooth. Boy had she been waiting for this moment. Her sister has lost a few by now and was worried that she would never lose a tooth. Needless to say, she hurried up and put that tooth in a baggie, stuck it under her pillow. When I had tucked her in that night I felt under that pillow to make sure that it was still there and by george it was. When she woke up that morning she came into our room with that baggie in hand and a $1.00. She was happy as a lark and put that $1 in her bank. Since October she has lost one more tooth. It was literally loose for one day and when I got home from taking her sister to piano she was greeting me at the door with it. No patience at all with this girl.

Tab's Photo Blog

If you haven't seen it - check it out. What you say? My photo blog! See the link posted at the left. Hit it - its just the beginning.

I said in an earlier post, months ago that I would be pursuing an interest I have had for a long time. Well its just time to dig in deeper. I will be featuring photos that I have taken for my own personal growth and I hope to be taking pictures for others. It will be kept separate from my family blog as I still need to keep up with the family things. With photo "sessions" it will allow me to practice and gain that confidence I am looking for. I am soooo stepping out of my comfort zone, but that is one of my 2009 resolutions - get out of your shell. It's time. I hope that you will be willing to work with me if I call you or for that matter you can contact me. I would love to get going and who knows maybe I can sneak out some great photos for you. Oh! don't forget to post comments on something you see - whether you like it or not. I do need feedback to know what people are liking and what they are not. I am working on candid photos and using natural lighting. None of this studio stuff please. I have enough of those photos and paid way to much for something that turned into a nightmare just to get there. I believe we are more relaxed in our natural surroundings and the smiles are much more appealing.