Long and Narrow

He's got Wild feet...

...and he's a Red Wings fan!

                                                                                 

Grandma!

New Grandma with her
 grandson soon after birth

Mary and Ellis the second day  

Love at first sight!

The new little family, looking a little tired but happy!

New Family

The new family
Ellis with his Mama and Daddy

New Daddy Jim admires his little son.

Jenice looks amazingly calm and beautiful.
 This is the easy contented smile of a happy new mother!

Ellis Michael Hansen

My new buddy, the most perfect little boy on earth.  My grandson.  A new life.  New beginnings with endless possibilities.  Limitless potential.  There's something awe inspiring about a newborn.  I fell in love at first sight!

Meet Ellis Michael Hansen

Born 11-11-11 at 11:39am

8lbs 13.4 ou

21.5 in long

Girls Weekend

Last weekend Heather, her mother Lynn, Maddie, and Brooke came to visit for a "Girls Up North Weekend"...the second annual I might add.  It was sunny and warmer than most November days so we spent some time at the beach, in the yard,  shopping around town, dinner out and all kinds of fun indoor stuff!

The girls with their bag of beach treasures

Maddie in the late afternoon sun
Petoskey State Park

Maddie and Heather at La Senorita

Brooke with her baby and all the proper equipment

Brooke's new friends look on while she
 colors her place mat

A visit to Grandma Hansen

                                                                                       

The Girls!
Lynn, Heather, Madison, Mary, Brooke

Maddie picked a flower for "Grandma Handsome"

Maddie's very awesome shoes and sox

Erich wasn't allowed until the last day.
 Then he made a big hit with the young ladies.

       

Chippewa Falls

     My new favorite picture of us..

Mary and Erich at Chippewa Falls near Erich's home

Vacation by Proxy

Vacation by Proxy?  Let me explain.

A couple of places we
didn't get to see in L. A.

Years ago when Erik, Jim and I visited Mike in Los Angeles there were a few places we wanted to see but he apparently did not share our enthusiasm.  I suppose after having countless visitors who all want to see the same tourist attractions he was bored with most of them.  So he said,
 "You don't have to go there.  I've been there a bunch of times and you can see my pictures."
                                                         

Fast forward several years.  Erich and I are in Austria, homeland for him but first visit for me.  I expressed an interest in taking home some souvenirs representative of our trip to Austria.  His reply,
"You know you can get all that stuff on Amazon a lot cheaper."

Mary, walking away from a Salzburg market
 full  of souvenirs with just a bag of grapes.

What is it they don't understand about "the personal experience"??
To be clear, my ribbing is all in fun - both trips were fun, exciting and adventurous thanks to two special hosts - in spite of my moments of "vacation by proxy"!

Happy Birthday, Priscilla!

We celebrated Priscilla's birthday today!  The cake had three candles:  One was for 90 years and the other two were one year each.  You do the math.  We had a nice dinner and some lively conversation.

A toast to 92 years!

Priscilla has always been like a mother to me ~ What a sweetheart.

It looks like Priscilla enjoyed the celebration!

                         

Geocache #4, Chippewa Falls

Chippewa Falls, at Batchawana Bay near Erich's house

The Travel Bug we deposited at the Falls location

Found it!

Kathy and I had the idea to drop off the Travel Bug from our last Geocaching at a site in Canada so she found one online at Chippewa Falls  near Erich's home.  It was a great opportunity for us to try out Erich's new GPS and we found the hide in short order.  The little roller blade now has a temporary new home in Northern Ontario.  The last entry on the log for this hide was June of this year so it could be there a while...

Erich with his GPS

Geocaches Numbers 2&3

Kathy and I finally got back to the Offield Nature Preserve to find the cache that eluded us a few weeks ago.  This time she had her hand held GPS which took us closer to the its location.  The first one was difficult to find unless you're looking up!

Mary retrieved the cache from above

                                                     
Encouraged at finding the first one we decided to look for another cache hidden at the same preserve.  That one contained a "Travel Bug" meant to be taken to another location.  Some of the Travel Bugs can be tracked online and some have a desired destination indicated by the person who hid it.

Kathy with the Travel Bug and her GPS