Lumberjack Competition

Last summer when we were at Country Thunder and debating if we wanted to attend again in 2019 Chris mentioned that he'd always wanted to go to the Lumberjack Competition in Hayward Wisconsin and it was always the same weekend as Country Thunder.  Now, having spent the majority of my childhood summers in and near Hayward I was surprised to find out that this existed...and I'd never been!  So, that's when the planning began.  Of course, you never have to twist our arms to go on vacation - especially to northern Wisconsin.

The girls and I left a day early with my parents and Ruby and I've never been so thankful for the work from home life!  I worked the entire drive up - until I lost cell service - and then I finished off the day at the Loon Salon on a call with the UK and Canada (and a beer on the table next to me!).  Leaving a day earlier meant that I got to spend an entire day at the lake with my parents and Aunt Peggy before the rest of the crew arrived.  I knew I'd feel torn staying at a house on another lake and not spending enough time at Trapper so I'm so glad we made it work to go up a day early.  We played cribbage and Yhatzee....my mom and Peggy did a treasure hunt for the girls and we just relaxed and settled into a vacation schedule. 

On Wednesday afternoon Ryan, Chris/Brenna/Rowan and Sarah/Dan all arrived and we checked into the VRBO house we'd rented on Nelson/Spider Lake.  The house we found was perfect for us and we rented a pontoon for 2 days so that we could explore the lake and get the most out of our time there!

Thursday we set aside to visit Hayward and attend the Lumberjack Competition.  Chris/Brenna and Sarah/Dan actually bought 3 day tickets to the event but I had my doubts about how much the kids would like it so we just went for the one day.  It turned out it was Family Day and they were celebrating Smokey Bear's 75th Birthday.  So, they had lots of things for the kids to do and overall I think they enjoyed it.  Now that we've been once we sure know what we'd do differently next time.  Like - don't show up until like 5 or 6 pm!  While there are SOME things going on before that, the main show really doesn't start until the evening meaning we had LOTS of time to kill that day. 

I didn't end up with a lot of pictures from this trip - my phone randomly started acting up and completely shut down for 2 days.  I'm glad it started working again, but I feel like I missed some stuff along the way for sure!

Friday we had a boat day planned so my parents came over to spend the afternoon/evening with us.  We took the boat out and explored, did puzzles, smoked brisket, ate too much, drank too much and generally just relaxed and enjoyed the amazing weather we'd landed on!  It was mid 80's during the days and low 60's at night.  The sun was out and it only rained one time on Saturday afternoon (it missed us at Trapper lake!).

Finally on Saturday Ryan and the girls and I spent the day at Trapper while the rest of the group hung out at home and went back to Lumberjack for the finale.  As always, Ryan had a project - helping to install an electric outlet for campers at the lake.  But probably my favorite part of the day was when we took the kids fishing at they actually caught fish!  We'd tried a few other times during the trip and didn't have any luck.  But, thanks to a stop at the Loon Salon to grab night-crawlers and the adults hooking fish for the kids to reel in, we finally got some fish on the hooks and into the boats.  Though, I think the girls favorite part was Uncle Joe's 4 wiener dogs!

Up North is such a nostalgic place for me.  I have so many memories of my own summers up there - I always leave wishing we could have had just one or two more days.  I think we may try to carve out a full week up there next year!