New Home

The day we drove back from Wisconsin to Cook we picked up a u-haul and as soon as we got home loaded it all up.  The next morning we were up at 6:30 in the morning and drove all of our belongings down to Baxter.  We met property manager at 11:00 AM to finish up paperwork and to pick up our keys.  We had all of our stuff moved into the apartment by 12:30 and were on the road again to a furniture outlet in St. Cloud.  We found a superb deal on a couch and a love seat which we promptly bought.  We had to go over to the distribution center to pick them up.  We had both pieces of furniture stuffed into the empty u-haul and back to Baxter we went.  Erin and I managed to get both out of the u-haul and up the stairs into our apartment.  We spend the evening putting things away and making the place look somewhat presentable.  We then invited Mike and Axton over for a little dinner.

Here are a few pictures of what the place looks like now.

There is also another spare bedroom, but it had boxes in it right now, so I’ll post pictures of it when we get it somewhat setup.

Wisconsin Trip

Well, last week we headed over to Door County in Wisconsin to visit Erin’s relatives that live out there.  It was a pretty jam-packed trip.  We left Cook around noon on Wednesday and drove the 8 hours out there pretty much straight on through.  We stayed the night at Erin’s cousin Mark’s house which is very big.  Good thing too because there were 14 of us staying there including his family.

We got up the next morning and headed out to a park nearby for a little bike riding.

We went about 10 miles that afternoon on the bike trails through the forest.  It was nice to get out and enjoy the fresh air.  Jesse and I headed to the “off road” trails while the rest of the crew stayed on one of the main loops that go around the park.

We all ended up meeting up at a beach where we took a little rest and then headed back to the car for some frozen custard.  That evening we relaxed in the sauna in the house and had smores out by a campfire in the back yard.

Friday we went out for lunch at a restaurant called PC Junction.  Its a little place on the side of the road that has a train track around a circular bar in the main room.  A model train cruises the tracks delivering you your food.  Its a fun little place to go.

[QUICKTIME http://bbryson.com/bill/files/2007/07/train.mov 320 260]

After lunch we headed out to a cherry orchard where we loaded up on tart cherries.  Two huge bucket fulls for 10 bucks . Not to mention the few that made it into our mouths in stead of the bucket.

That evening the boys headed to the races and the girls went to a movie called Hairspray in the theater.  The races were fun, I’d never been before, so it was quite the experience.  No real big crashes, but exciting none the less.  On our way to the races we stopped off and bought Payton, Jake, and Eric some candy to eat while they watched.  Well Jessie and I snagged Payton’s skittles and were playing a game of keep away from him.  This was all fun and games until the bag literally disappeared.  We looked all over for them and couldn’t find them.  Crazily enough after watching the races for a couple of hours we were walking back to the car and found them on the ground.  So Payton was in luck after all and Jesse and I were off the hook.

[QUICKTIME http://bbryson.com/bill/files/2007/07/race.mov 320 260]

After the races we took another sauna and headed to bed.

Saturday Jim, Jesse, Mat, and myself joined Erin’s cousin Craig on his boat out on lake Michigan for a little salmon fishing.  Craig has a very nice boat, and was a gracious host.  We were out on the water for the entire afternoon and evening.  We ended up with 2 salmon and 3 trout.  We lost about that many through out the day from broken lines and other mishaps.  It was very nice to be out in the sun on such a nice day.

Sunday we drove the 8 hours back to Cook.