In Da UP

Hey Der!

We spent the weekend driving across northern Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan to attend a friend's wedding in Marquette. Despite the constant cold, rainy weather, it proved to be a fun-filled weekend. The kids were actually pretty good in the car. (A special thanks to the Show Machine, Nemo, Milo, Otis, Dori, Larry, Bob, Merriweather, and the cops who didn't pull us over despite our kiddos sleeping on the van floor...)

I accidentally put the photos in in reverse order, so here goes.

On the way home, we went on a hike somewhere in the UP. The girls were getting restless and we wanted to get them good and tired for a nap...SO....we drove sixty some odd miles looking for a rest stop. When no rest stop would come, I told papa to "JUST PICK SOMEWHERE!@!!!!" (Mama's coffee, water, and BLADDER were simply finished. nuf said.) So, papa pulled off the road at some random old logging site for a hike. We braved tall wet grass and a "sort of" path, and the girls examined various types of pine trees, moss, and lichen. It was wet and took a little bit of imagination...but I think we had fun. Julia enjoyed petting the moss, Mary thought the milkweed was simply delicious. When our hike was finished, we made a big bed out of the back of the van and attempted "naptime." Before we even got up to highway speed, we passed a BEAUTIFUL rest stop on the side of the road, complete with potties and real hiking trails. Drat. Mama, you should be more patient!!!

The fall color was gorgeous. I'm sorry this picture is not, but say "oooh and ahhhh" to yourself anyways. I have never seen Fall Color like there is in the U.P. Wowzers.

Before we left, Mary took a turn at the wheel. Beep Beep!

After breakfast at the HOliday Inn. Two tired, stuffed kiddos. Julia ate TWO whole servings of eggs benedict...Mary dissed all the breakfast food and went straight for the bbq ribs. Good thing we were at a buffet.

Wedding reception: Jessi, Jamie, Dan, and I danced "THRILLER." Jamie commandeered the DJ's computer and we had a blast. We stopped their ghetto rap crap (nooone was dancing anyways) and danced to a barrage of Michael Jackson, along with Mr. Robato, The Devil Went Down to Georgia...and even Convoy. I have not danced to Convoy since I was at a tiny bar near camp about seven years ago....but it was just as fun....

Papa and Julia take to the dance floor. Mike gets kudos...he spent half of the wedding reception putting our kids to bed. What a guy. I owe him big, which is why he is enjoying a captain and coke tonight.

Julia....dancin the night away.

Mary...eating. Another buffet. This time it was a huge pile of corn. We saw that corn again just this afternoon.......

BIB.

PRODUCE!

Mike and I joined what we affectionately call "The Hippie Farm Co-op" this year, which means we get big box of fresh locally grown veggies every Monday. This year, since September was so very warm, they had some extra canning shares of broccoli and tomatoes. At Mike's request, we bought one. I was thinking we'd have a few jars of each and we could eat them sometime in January...



WHOA. When the "canning shares" arrived, I finally figured out what I had committed to: a winter of Rabbit-dom. FIFTY POUNDS of broccoli awaited me on our doorstep...and then came a box of SIXTY POUNDS of tomatoes. !!! I had a hundred and ten pounds of rabbit food on porch...and two days to pack it away before we went on vacation. Ugh!



That night, I cleaned up my favorite cleaver (yes we have more than one) and spent five hours hacking away at the broccoli pile. I didn't know this, but broccoli wants to be steamed before you freeze it...which meant I was dumping steaming piles of green cruciferous vegetable matter on any flat surface I could find. With the added smell of the HUGE box of tomatoes on the floor, our kitchen smelled like a V8 factory.


HACK.

The next night, it was time to can tomatoes and spaghetti sauce. When it came time to do the work, Mike popped his head around the corner and said, "Dear, I will be back in two minutes to do the canning for you. I think the canning part is a little complicated for you. Just give me a sec to sew one corner on this mitten." (He was making grandma Mitzi a pair of mittens for her birthday...) So, slop, squish, squirt, smush...I peeled the little red suckers and gutted them for TWO HOURS before I saw my husband....apparently the mitten tried to get the better of him. Conquering the Tomatoes was supposed to be a team project, but the other half of my team copped out at game time. Oh well. I had a blast listening to Metallica and being a Domestic Diva. I learned that you don't have to use a spoon to neatly remove the seeds and juice from a tomato....after you peel it, just hold it over the sink and squeeze. Pretty soon, a little stream of tomato guts comes zooming out of the fruit and hopefully lands somewhere in the sink (or on the wall...or ceiling...etc) What fun! After awhile, I even learned to aim properly.

The sixty pounds became sixteen quarts of tomatoes, nine quarts of sauce, and a bunch of pint jars with various combinations of the above. Ahhh...success.

Before we could get to all the canning, Miss Mary came along to help. She loves tomatoes, and I do believe she ate ten or twelve of them. Since they spent two days sitting in a box on the kitchen floor, she had plenty of time to help herself to a bite when passing through. She would bite a hole in the tomato and then suck out all the insides. It was funny until I discovered that she was secretly hoarding them upstairs. I noticed that there were red splotches on the carpeting through the living room and up the stairs. After following the trail upstairs, I found a small heap of juiceless tomatoes under the crib. Queen Mary was sitting near her throne of tomatoes, with gobs of tomato guts on the front of her onesie. mmmmm... Thank God for Lysol Deodorizing CArpet Cleaner...

Julia's new bike

OK, I have a LOT of blogging to do. I have been trying to remember to take pictures here and there, so the next few posts will be a "blog hotdish."

I'm going to start with two weeks ago when Mike and I picked the cherries from the bushes in our yard and actually made them into a pie. It was grueling...the darn things are about the size of a little bitty marble. Oh well. We were sad watching them get too ripe and fall off the bushes...so we spent five hours picking, pitting, and pie-ing.

Just for the record, and in case I ever read my own blog: SARAH: YOU HATE MAKING PIE CRUST. It is the most abomidable task I can think of. Messy, requries exact measurements, requires lotsa counter space (not little countertops made for an Asian midget like we have), and feeling comfortable about using a recipe that calls for a CUP of crisco. Ew. I pledge to you, my family and friends, that I will always buy extra frozen pie crusts when I"m at cub just in case I get the urge to make a pie at home. !@!!

I was so tired by the time I was making the filling (damn that stupid pie crust) that I accidentally added three tablespoons of baking soda instead of cornstarch to the cherries. It was incredible. Within seconds, the cherries became a molten, fizzing, bubbling, oozing mound. I stared in shock and awe....what the heck? Then I tasted it (because whenever you make some oozing red mound of stuff by accident, the first thing you should do is eat some!). It was very salty. And then I realized what I did. Luckily, the cherries cleaned up nicely with a little bath and we were back to where we started.

Here is psymuhn, with a couple of cherries stuck in his fur. He is trying to tell me, "you idiot. You KNEW they had cherry pies on sale at Super One for only $3.99. Fool."

Here is my replica of the sculpture in the cities in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.

I had a weak moment. There was a princess trike on sale at Target and I went for it. Mike frowned. He wanted a red trike for "when" (HA!) we have a boy someday. I guess he has a point: why get more than one trike? Girls can ride on red, boys, too. But before I had a chance to return it, Julia saw the box and started to jump and scream for Joy. You can see the results of our rash, emotional decision. Eldest-daughter bliss. Papa put it together for her right away. What a softie.

Labor Day Weekend

The Sprengeler clan spent Labor Day weekend at the Lake in Deer River with Grandma Beth and Grandpa Dick. We also had the joy of hanging out with auntie Annie and SOON TO BE UNCLE MARK!!!

Yupper, my baby sister, my favorite sister, my only sister, is officially engaged! She somehow found a wonderful guy in her organic chemistry class last fall and they clicked. Let's just say there are eerily similiar characteristics between "Mark" and my "Mike." First of all, their names. Secondly, they are both the same build: Six foot or so, and about a hundred and fifty five pounds. And they can both eat more calories in one sitting than Annie can. Yup, I know...amazing. They both have moms who work at their respective Lutheran churches. Mark knows how to sew. They both like science...Mark is taking analytical chem right now, and Mike wishes he was. Mark wants to be a PA. Mike is a PharmD. Healthcare careers, nerdiness, skinniness....whoa.
I remember meeting Mark in my kitchen one day.....He was standing with his back to me and I didn't know he and Annie were at our house yet. I completely mistook him for Mike...(He had a sweatshirt on from JC penney that could also be found in Mike's closet...) I handed him a knife, and said, "honey, could you cut up this green pepper for me?" He took it and began working straight away. I came in the kitchen a few minutes later to a nicely diced pepper and a look of shock when I realized it was NOT my husband who was standing there. It was then I knew that Annie would marry him. She and I are similiar beings...and he would be a perfect match.

Anyways, we spent Labor Day Weekend with the newlyengageds, had some dinner with DAn and LIndsay, the newlyweds, and went sailing, swimming (after Annie and I jumped ship and left the guys on the sailboat...), hiking, and even NAPPING. Yes...it was a blast. And a nice time to see the fam. Unfortunatly, I forgot my camera. I wished I would have brought it. I could have gotten some hilarious pictures the night I gave my lightweight parents a drink of Bailey's, Brandy, and chocolate ice cream. We put the electric piano on "demo" mode and danced the night away over a game of pool. Ahhh...it was fantastic. Dangit...I WISH I would have had the camera. My mom invented a new pool game, amongst other things. :)

State Fair 2009

This picture was supposed to be at the end, but I accidentally deleted it. Julia was asleep before the car left the parking lot. Nice work, mom and dad!

Last Thursday was our annual trip to the Great Minnesota Get-Together, aka the State Fair. Mike's family is nutso about the fair, so we always "get-together" with them and make a go at it. This year, we went on opening day. What fun we had!

We have also sort of made it a tradition to stay in a fancy hotel for as cheaply as possible (thanks priceline.com...) the night before so we can get the most of the day with the kiddos. They expire in the early afternoon, so walking onto the grounds by nine gets us through a few extra exhibits.

Julia partakes in the raspberries that grandma brought. She is eating them on a featherbed...

Mary explores the new turf

The first food of the fair: foot-long CORN dog. Julia had the first bite. It was a delicious breakfast.

mmmmmm...

The next series of photos are quite amusing. After eating Kettle Corn, the Corn Dog, a Deep Fried CAndy Bar (Jenny ate that herself..), we mosied on over to the Horticulture building because Julia wanted to see the honeybees. In the Horticulture building, you can buy a frozen apple cider for 75 cents...probably the best buy at the fair. It's like an apple juice freezie.

Well, I bought one of them for each of the girls. Julia liked hers for a few minutes, then left it in the stroller. Mary, on the other hand, was in seventh heaven. She wrapped both hands around the frosty thing and started digging in with her incisors. Of course, after a minute or so, she had eaten all of the freezie she could reach...the plastic sleeve got in the way. A blood-curdling scream echoed through the Horticulture Building. Mary was in tears. John had a fingernail clipper in his pocket, so I tried to take it away from her so I could cut some of the plastic away.

The second I took it away, my second child went completely postal.

She stopped shrieking and mounted a loud, deep HOLLER. Tears of anger flew slid down her frozen cheeks as she walloped her daddy with the back of her noggin. She was VERY UNHAPPY. She wanted that freezie back NOW.

I tried to cut it as quickly as I could...I managed to bathe my entire face and chest in the sticky apple juice that poured out of the holes she had gnawed in the bottom. I finally was able to cut an inch or so off the top and I gave it back to her.

Silence. No more tears. Smile!

Whoa.

Because I like science, I decided to try this little experiment again just to see if Mary would predictably behave in the same way. See the pictures below for your amusement.

Before. Happy. Life is excellent and everything is in its place...

Papa's hand reaches in and moves the freezie away from the Baby. Fear and anguish...

NOOOOOOOO!!!!

GIVE ME THAT BACK, YOU #(&!$& (!$)%$#!!!!!!!

oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh

Damn you, papa.

Ahh...I love my children!

Next, we took a ride on Ye Old Mill. Julia loved it. Mary's freezie ended somewhere inside, so she had another nuclear meltdown in the dark, wet tunnel. Our boat rocked something crazy...Grandma's sweater took home a sampling of the unnatural blue-hued water.

Mary, recovered, plays with giant legos at the Thrivent booth

They had this cute little farm exhibit for kids. We took the girls through it. They picked corn, fed fake animals, drove fake tractors, and even had the opportunity to plant plastic veggies in real dirt!

Mary takes a ride on her big green tractor

Julia's favorite moment of her life: she got to sit in the cab of an EXCAVATOR. She adores construction equipment. The excavator is her favorite, and she will drive one for her job someday. Then, she informed me, she will "also tell the other men how they should be driving their excavators."

Look out, world.

Auntie Jenny took Julia down the big slide. Julia had a great time.

This was a very odd scene. While we were waiting for J and J to get down from the slide, I noticed a 50-something woman taking a nap on the very busy boulevard. She didn't have anyone with her, and she was wearing ALL WHITE. I checked to see if she was still breathing, just in case. She was. And now, she has her picture on the internet. Ha!

Julia was getting very very tired toward the end of the day. She did get the chance to see a huge pig give birth to piglets. She was fascinated with the placenta. I didn't want to start explaining that one...

Mary took a nap in the stroller and awoke with vigor. She is saying, "Ohhh..."

Julia and uncle John

Julia had the chance to meet a real live princess! This one was about to have her head carved in butter. Julia was green with envy.

By 4:00, we were in the car. Mary does not sleep in the car. She would rather shriek and demand things that are out of her reach.

There is supposed to be a picture of Julia here, who fell asleep before our van left the parking lot. It's at the top of the page.

Farewell, state fair! FArewell, calories!

Farewell H1N1! I'm glad we didn't spend too much time in the 4H building.... eek!