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Now, for the long overdue update.  I’ll let Annie go though the last month and a half and pick her favorites for her photodump.

We’ll start the tour at Easter.  Peter was pulling himself up at this point.

He gets first lick on the spatula while cooking.

Crawling is a bit too hard on his knees when the floor isn’t soft.  To combat this, he has taken to crab walking on hard floors.

He got a Walker Wagon to help with the walking.  It doens’t turn well, so he just rams into things.

Swinging at the cabin.

Mmm.  Brats on the pontoon.

Snuggling around the campfire.

Gratuitous sunset shot.

Riding on the front of the pontoon with his new hat and life jacket.

Kart and Kristen were able to make it up for a weekend this year.  Karthik impressed everyone with his mad pontoon piloting skills.

Yargh!

“The cabin is awesome!  There are toys everywhere!”

It’s tough living for tiny dogs.

“More toys!”

Loons.

Bonding time with Grandpa.  Note the new hat.

Zoey and Peter are keeping a lookout for lake monsters.

Although he isn’t walking yet, he has figured out how to walk on steps.

Helping dad with some plumbing.

Wow, more than a month without an update. We’ll have to work on that.

When Annie and I arrived at the cabin, we were sure to inspect the new equipment.  Annie assured me she was thinking warm thoughts.

Sadly, we were not yet able to launch the craft.  The lake still had a bit too much ice on it.  Next time…

Saturday, we went over to Pede’s to help make some syrup.  The guys had assembled 65 gallons of sap at this point which would eventually make ~1.5 gallons of homemade maple syrup.  To get down to the final volume, the sap first had to be boiled and boiled and boiled over a wood fire.  Here, the pan is working on 5ish gallons.

All of us were tasked with important jobs.  Evil, Annie and I were forced to determine if the beer would be of a high enough quality for the ensuing year – a chore we did not take lightly.  Donna got to stoke the fire.

It’s hard work making syrup.

Unfortunately, Peter did not make the trip with us.  We thought it might be a bit chilly for him to be at the cabin at this time of year.  However, Jim and Sherry were nice enough to offer to watch him while we were away.

And next time, we’ll have pictures of the pontoon on the lake.  It’s going to be a fun year!

P.S. – After much discussion we came to the conclusion that the beer would be acceptable for consumption during the ensuing year.

We may as well make kaelder a quick reference for some recipes while we’re at it.  Tonight’s special experimental recipe was chicken fingers.  I took a normal chicken breast, sliced thin, and then dredged through a mix of:

1 cup Alton’s pancake mix
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
1 tablespoon black pepper

After the first dredging, the breast pieces were washed with milk and then dredged again.  After the final coat, they were dried at 375 until they were done.

The finished product was delicious.  The only thing that could possibly make it better would be some of Evil’s buffalo sauce – and maybe some High Life from the cabin. 

Next time, I’ll make sure to take pictures.

Per Paul’s request, our wonderful basement wallpaper.

The green and white portions are normal, textureless wallpaper. However, the orange parts, well, they’re flocked. The result of this combination is supremely 1970s.