Our Easter trip, part II

Sorry for the lag in posting, y'all, but between recovering from a nasty little bug I came down with as we returned from Wisconsin, and having to work on a funding proposal, I haven't had much time for anything else...

Let's see, I left off as we arrived in Rhinelander. We had a good series of visits with friends and family, even though it snowed every day we were up there, and didn't get above freezing until the day we left to return to Monticello. The highlight for the kids was probably getting to spend time with cousins Michael and Emma, and to get spoiled by Aunt Lisa, Rick "Bumpa" Pruden, and Ann "Nahma" Pruden, who joined us for Easter weekend. In the picture above, Kenny, Emma, and Michael are making sure Uncle Bob doesn't get too comfortable...

Coloring Easter eggs was also a big hit for the kids--notice how Mom provided plenty of newspaper to be sure her new kitchen and table didn't get too messy!! Ann Pruden was quite the trooper

We (myself, Uncle Jon Hurlburt, Kenny, Michael, and Emma) also spent part of an afternoon hiking through the woods north of Mom and Dad's looking for shed deer antlers. We saw plenty of rubs, scrapes, and other deer sign, but it looked to be a "bust" until towards the end Michael starting shouting that he found one--sure enough, he was waiving a nicely formed antler. We started scanning the immediate area for the other half, which Uncle Jon spotted but Kenny jumped on first. Quite an adventure!

We had a big Easter dinner on Saturday, and then took the kids swimming at the hotel the Prudens were staying at. We then started south by mid-morning on Easter Sunday, with a quick detour to visit Uncle Bob's new apartment in Columbia, Wisconsin, about 20 miles from Madison. We helped him move some furniture into his apartment, and then took a quick tour of his work facility, before heading over to Morels on the west side of Madison. For those of you unfamiliar with Morels, it is a FANTASTIC game-oriented restaurant operated by Mark Valasky, husband of Aunty Lulu (my sister Laurie). Easter weekend is one of their busiest during the year, so they were unable to join us in Rhinelander. We made reservations for Easter Sunday evening, and snuck in a brief visit with Laurie and Mark as we lavishly dined... Rick and Ann Pruden also traveled to Madison with us to extend their visit with us, and to likewise indulge--their travel distance doesn't differ much if they go through Madison. After dinner, we drove a couple hours further south before stopping for the night.

The next morning, we continued southward. I noticed pretty early on that I wasn't feeling great, and by mid-morning I felt too worn down to continue to be the driver, so Hope took over--this almost never happens, so you know I was sick! The rest of the day passed slowly--not only was it a long drive, but I continued to feel worse and worse. I am finally getting over this cold or whatever it was, but combined with a busy work schedule and trying to remodel our main bathroom, there hasn't been time for much else! Kenny's been attending t-ball practice, and we've had an occasional opportunity for leisure--we made a trip to Alexandria, Louisiana, this week, where I worked and Hope and the kids went to the local zoo.

Hope also got a visit from a special lil' friend... She had pulled off some window moldings in our master bedroom just the day before our Louisiana trip with the idea of getting a jump on this part of our remodel, and the next morning after getting up she walked past the window, and heard the blinds move, only to find:

This picture doesn't do the spider justice--this female spider was pretty darn big! It is harmless to people--probably some type of comb-foot spider or orb web spider--the local experts couldn't be sure without killing it. Hope wanted me to smash it with a shoe initially (spiders in the house automatically earn the death sentence), but we put it in Kenny's bug collecting jar so we could show it to the kids when they awoke (they, of course, thought it was the neatest thing). We then later released it in the woods near the UAM campus so she could continue her life of preying on bugs.