Summer Crafts

This summer has been WILD.  We might have over planned this summer, cramming it with doing all of our favorite things and hanging out with all our favorite people.  We don't regret a thing, but it did mean that my time for crafting significantly declined.  Add in starting a new job this summer and I've been feeling like my time for just sitting around watching TV, knitting, sewing and reading as been extremally limited!

That being said, I was able to accomplish a few projects this summer - including this sweet little moose for Hazel (a future Christmas present).  Last winter she asked me to knit her a moose (or a reindeer?  I can't remember exactly), so when this adorable little dude came up on Barrett Wool, I knew I had to order him.

The kit I ordered cam with everything you needed to knit the moose, two sweaters and an adorable little cardinal friend to go in his pocket.

The cardigan came with a hood and a cute little scarf for around his neck.  For the record, I hate making pom poms!  But, between the three I needed for this project, and then the National Park hat kits I've got to whip up for other Christmas presents.  You can't gift homemade items and start in October!  This I've learned.  

Last year I came across a new friend of Instagram - a fellow reader and knitter that also loved traveling to National Parks and she posted about a pattern maker named Nancy Bates.  She creates park inspired hat patterns and I was hooked!  I asked for the pattern book for Christmas and signed up for alerts for her kits.  I've got a slew of them to post about but the first one I tackled was this Yellowstone hat.  It's inspired by Grand Prismatic.  We're headed to Yellowstone this coming January with Jenny and Jack for Jenny's 40th.  I'm pretty confident she doesn't follow the blog, so I'm not ruining a surprise when I tell you that this hat will be her birthday present on that trip.  I'm excited to gift it!  It's perfect.

The hats knit up quick, and the little leather patches you can pick up to label them are adorable.  I see many of these in my future!  In fact I've got kits for 2 other parks already and I've already picked up the yarn to make them for Acadia next year.

The pom pom to emulate the steam coming off the thermal pool is just perfect! I just might have enough yarn from the kit to squeeze out a second hat.  We'll see!  Might be worth a try just to have one for myself.

Devils Lake Tri

Quickly becoming another favorite summer trip - the Devil's Lake Tri was on the books for a second summer.  It's the same weekend as Dan's birthday and after Labor Day weekend.  It's the time of year when things start to slow down for us a tiny bit but still the perfect weather for camping!

We've spent a good bit of time in the Devil's Lake area this year with the family reunion earlier this year but it gave us a chance to try some lesser known hikes and check out some other areas nearby.  We're looking to purchase a piece of land up in this area of the world, so being able to drive around and check out some of the surrounding areas is very fun for Ryan and I.  

I made everyone drive about 20 minutes away from Devil's Lake to the Natural Bridge State Park.  As expected, if you get 10 minutes away from Devil's Lake the crowds thin to nothing and you have the entire ark to yourself.  We hiked this park for maybe 2 hours and geocached our way the entire time - the kids loved it!

We even found our second ever trackable - they are so fun.  This one wants to travel around the world so we picked it up and we'll deposit it at a cache in Marengo so it can continue along on it's way. 

Sunday was dedicated to Ryan's race.  He started in the last wave, just like last year, but he finished a few minutes shorter than his time last year and in the top 100 of the entire race.  Not quite top 10%, but not too far off!  There were about 800 total participants, so he was top 20% for sure, and maybe even top 15%.  He said it must have been all the extra beers he drank that helped power him through - lol!

The kids don't remember the old days of racing but between this year and last year they are starting to understand how it all works.  Hazel got 75+ high fives when we cheered at the finish line - I mean, how could you not high five a cute little girl cheering you on?!?

Our first time at Lambeau Field

 

Sometime during the early COVID days when I was feeling really lonely and sad I realized that I'd never been to Lameau to see a game and I made a comment to Mom and Dad - "before you die I want to go see a Packer game with you at Lameau".  Dad quickly responded "Do you know something I don't know...?" which of course got a good laugh and it's become a joke since then.  But I meant it!  I wanted to go see a game there with my parents.  To see what it was all about and to experience it alongside them.

In the fall of 2020 they decided to run football games without fans - just cardboard cutouts in the stands and then in June(ish) of 2021 I logged in the day tickets went on sale and actually tried to purchase 4 tickets to see Bears/Packers.  I had them in my cart, I hit buy and we would have gone if Chase hadn't declined the purchase thinking it was fraudulent.  I tried a few times that night and then got frustrated and gave up.  

Fast forward to 2023, a different time, a happier, less stressful time and I tried to coordinate a game again for the family.  This time I opted for inexpensive pre-season tickets where we could go before it got too cold, we could camp, and bring the kids along for the whole experience, all for around $60 per person - it was the prefect combination.

The game was scheduled for noon on Saturday so instead of the traditional tailgate of brats and burgers we brought the Blackstone and did eggs/hashbrowns/sausage and pancakes for the kids.  The real pro's put us to shame though.  We didn't bring Bloodies or Mimosas (a big miss!) and we forgot a few key things, like a garbage bag and maybe a table to eat at.  It was a little cooler than we expected, the first smell of fall and it drizzled for most of the morning, but it didn't stop us from having a great time before the game started.  

Dad did some scouting before we got there and found us the perfect tailgating location - with the perfect background for pictures.  

We hung out by the truck for awhile and the decided to explore the Titletown area (made for kids!) and did a walk around the stadium.  Mom and Dad bought the girls cheese hats and long sleeve shirts - they were decked out for the game!

The biggest bummer of the day?  Mom was sick and didn't feel like joining us for the actual game.  She stayed back at the camper and slept and watched some of the game from the TV in the camper.  Copper was happy to have someone there to hang out with, but she was very missed at the game!

The game was fun - we stayed til nearly the end.  The Packers won and I even snuck away for a bit to go check out the pro-shop solo.  The kids did a great job and didn't complain about being at the game.  At one point Dad asked Abby if she understood what was happening in the game.  She responded "Not really, but why do they have such big butts?".  It made us all laugh and was very reminiscent of when they took us to go so a baseball game as kids.  When the parents asked us what the score was one of us kids responded "205 to 307" (turns out those were runs, hits and errors...or something like that).  Hey - we were kids!  What did you expect?!

It was a very fun weekend and we might try to make it happen again next year.  We ended the day back at the campground so we could hang out with Mom too.  The campground in Green Bay is actually just a few minutes walk to a zoo so when we got back we did a cool ropes course/walk in the trees that took us through parts of the zoo.  The kids loved it - I'm not sure if we'd do that exact part a second time around, but we'd go back and visit the zoo next time for sure!

The summer of 2023 will officially be known as the summer that I ate more 'smores then I've eaten in my LIFE!  I can't even count how many bags of marshmallows we went through this year.  It was for sure more than 3 - ek!  But...we've got some great memories and truly, who is sad about a 'smore?! 

First Day of School 2023

 

I missed the first day of school this year, but you know what, it was amazing because it meant that Ryan go to be there for the first time.  Life has been wild lately and the next 5 weeks will be even more wild (with both of us traveling nearly every single week over the next 5 weeks and one week we're on opposite sides of the country - him in Oregon, me in NY), but it's meant that Ryan is getting more time with the kids and this was just one of those chances.  Didn't he do a great job with the photos!?  

Auntie Erin whipped up these amazing signs for the girls while we were camping this past weekend.  Seriously, I don't know what I would do without everyone else to help keep things moving forward.   

Enough about me - look at my sweet peanuts!  Abby is going into 6th grade this year, a real big kid that now moves classrooms for each new period.  And Hazel is in third with Mrs. Campenelli - we're really lucky to be in a small town with a small town school.  I love where we live and this is one of the many reasons why!

12th Annual Cuzzies Camping - 2023

You guys!  I went back and dug it up.  12 years!  We've been doing Cuzzies camping for TWELVE years.  That means we started this tradition before any 3rd tier cousins were born.  We started it before some of the people on this trip were even dating!  We started it before some people on the trip were even out of college!  Wow, now I feel old.  This is how it happens, right?  You're just going along, living live and having so much fun and all of a sudden you've been doing things for a really really long time and even though you feel old, you also feel so thankful.  So blessed.  And so so happy!

12th annual Cuzzies took us to a new location - the Indiana Dunes.  While I hate the drive to north west Indiana, we did it anyways and we had an amazing time!  We call it Cuzzies Camping because that's how it started.  But this year we found a private campground that also had cabins and it turns out only 2 of us actually camped.  It's ok, if it makes it easier for others to hang out with us and do something we love so so much, fine by me!  We had a total of 25 people and 3 dogs and I think next year might be even bigger!

We landed an amazing day weather wise.  Partly cloudy (perfect for the beach) and cool enough that we could complete the 3 Dune Challenge (hiking the three tallest dunes in Indiana) with the kids (t-shirts to prove it!) and still have the energy to head the beach for a few hours.  We had an amazing day with the kids - truly!  The big kids did amazing and played together so nicely - us adults were in heaven, feeling like "we've arrived".  

The families with little kids that still needed naps went to the beach somewhere else and we all ended up back at the campground for a big community dinner together.  The cabins made it perfect for the little kids to go to bed and their parents were able to come back out and join us for a campfire, 'smores and lots and lots of laughs.

The weather was amazing.  Cool enough to do everything we wanted to do and warm enough to make the beach fun.  On Sunday as we packed up, you could feel the temps rise and we started the first of a 6 day streak of temps over 100 degrees and high high humidity.  As I type this, it's still hot, but tomorrow the temps start to fall again.  It's the hottest it's been all summer and I'm so thankful that we had great weather last weekend.

**Look at our sweet dog.  He's a pain in the butt a lot of times (especially when it comes to camping) but THIS is why you get a Golden.  He's a good boy and I wouldn't trade him for anything!

Good god do I love a big group photo!  These are some of my most favorite photos ever.  Thanks to Sarah and Jenny for making this one happen.  I was feeling tired and lazy but they pulled everyone together for maybe on of my most favorite photos of the season!

McGrath Family Photos 2023

I just can't resist posting more than too many photos in a post like this.  These are for me, for posterity, so just scroll on through and enjoy.  There are lots of good ones in here that you'll see printed and framed around the house.  Here are my favorites.