Winter Hike 2009

Ian got together with some other former UNHers on Boxing Day to do their traditional winter hike. The weather was pretty poor so they opted for Little Haystack rather than the original plan of going into Tuckerman's. Here they are emerging above treeline where the winds were sustained at 50mph or so. Chilly!

Colin - sorry about the non-stop baby pictures. But we thought this series of pictures really captures his moodiness lately. Within a matter of 60 seconds he went from furious to jovial. When something else exciting happens to us you will be the first to know.

noises!

Funniest commercial I've seen in a long time

Sorry for the long time between posts...we've been enjoying the time with Mom being here for

the past few weeks. Here are a few pics:

Hunter likes to dangle his feet in Cindy's crotch...

...and nap on her chest. Ian is jealous.

Nana's back in Minnesota!

We are tickled to have Nana Webb back for a few weeks. Sleepy head wakes up from a nap and enjoys some time on a warm shoulder.

Full (or almost) moon tonight, as seen from our driveway.

Visitors from Woostah

Nana and Grampa Webb came to Rochester for a week. We were sad to see them go yesterday...it was so nice having them around. Fortunately for them the snow melted before they got here.

Finally some normalcy?

Hunter is nearly 3 weeks old now and we think we have finally regained control of this ship. T'was a nice weekend marked by several exciting events that are outlined below:

1. Cindy reviewed some classic American literature

2. The leaves started turning:

3. Hunter got his hair washed:

4. We watched the cats watch the squirrels eat our pumpkins

1 week old

At 1 week of life, here are Hunter's statistics:

He ate 57 times

He peed 43 times

He pooped 34 times

Kill Bike Thieves

Friday, September 25th 2009 was the first day that we had rain since August. I can't remember the last time Ian had to don his Frog Toggs and ride his bike into work in the pouring rain. He was late for his statistics final and couldn't find the key for the bike lock. Foolishly leaving his bike unchained at the bike racks, he rushed. Who would steal his weird bike, particularly on this day that was so poorly suited for pedaling? SOmeone did! Oh the fury!

Cha CHa CHa CHia!

We started eating chia seeds. They are really nutritious because that have a lot of omega-3 precursors; something that vegetarians have a hard time getting in their diets without fish. Anyway, you can add a few spoonfulls of chia seeds to water and let them soak for a few minutes. The seeds swell up with water and take on a really great gelatinous consistency. There's no flavor so it is like drinking water with fish eggs in it. See below...Ian pounded this glass of chia-water emulsion. CIndy had a small taste and went into labor a few hours later. Take notes ladies.

Baby Hunter

Most of you have seen our mass emails with pictures of Hunter on Day 1. This type of photo is really cliche with babies, but it does nicely illustrate how tiny and cute Hunter's fingers are in comparison to Ian's gorilla sausage finger.

There are very few things in Minnesota that remind us of New England, but apple picking season is one of them. It's a bit early for apple picking, but the University of Minnesota developed a new cultivar that was bred as an early-season variety for colder climates...the Zestar. It's a cross between the honey crisp and Zestril, the common ACE inhibitor. Not only is it a sweet, delicious apple, but it also lowers your blood pressure.

Ian is feeling bloated

Jen and Brian got it narrowed down to 3 pumpkins.

We decided not to stray too far from home this weekend...it's still 2+ weeks until the due date, but we didn't feel like doing anything too exciting. We were thinking about goinh up to the MN state fair to see the largest hog in the state, but people freaked out about swine flu and sent 200 or so 4H kids home. So we did something that locals never do...we took a tour of the Mayo Mansion from where Charlie Mayo once ruled the world. No pictures were allowed inside, but here is a shot of the outside (above) and Cindy posing in front of one of the ice boxes behind the kitchen (below).
Tired preggo

Belly at 37 weeks...it's a-percolatin' nicely.

Time Lapse

Baby Lanza?

Ashfield thought this was the perfect place for a cat nap.

Cindy is going to kill me for posting this, but it's worth it. She's a natural!

Sew what?

I've surprised myself with how much sewing I have done this summer. Here are my most recent projects.

This is the quilt I made for Baby Lanza. I still have to do the actual quilting, but this was the hardest part. I didn't work from a pattern. I picked up a bunch of fabric I liked and thought looked good together. Then I had to decide how to piece it all together. It took quite a bit of thought and some math, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

I had been wanting to make this tote bag ever since I got the pattern about, oh, 3 years ago.

Scaredy cat!

We had the ducts cleaned in our house today. The cats don't like normal size vacuum cleaners and this massive one absolutely terrified them. While Ashfield quickly hunkered down under the futon, Rosie frantically scampered around looking for a place to hide. She finally decided on this unlikely spot.

Squash anyone?

Upon returning from our trip to New England, we ventured over to our garden plot and had quite a surprise. The one in the middle is the size they should be when picked. The other two measured about 18 inches long and 5 inches in diameter. Wowsers!

Peaks Island Maine

We just returned from a wonderful long weekend spent on Peaks Island in Casco Bay for Colin and Amanda's wedding.

Crafty

I have always wanted to make my own cushions for our outdoor furniture and, voila, here they are finally. Now that these are finished, I can begin working on my other summer sewing projects. I hope to finish them all before little Lanza arrives because I don't foresee having much spare time for sewing then.

2 guys, 1 canoe

Ian and Colin drove up to northern Minnesota to spend a week in the Boundary Waters Wilderness. Ian went last year with Dave and had a blast (see blog post from a year ago). The basic concept is canoe camping with small portages between lakes. It is over a million acres of untouched wilderness with such an abundance of lakes, rivers, and streams that one can cover a large distance in a canoe with some hiking between.

Here they are posing with their awesome, lightweight, kevlar, high-performance canoe that they rented from an outfitter. It weighs only 42 pounds, making it a pleasure to carry overhead on portages.

It weights a bit more than that in the water with 2 people and gear / food for a week. The gunwales ride a bit low, but it is still easy to paddle.

Day 1: Homer Lake

They hit the road early and arrived at the ranger station by mid afternoon. Then on to the outfitter to get the canoe. Amanda's sweet Honda Pilot was really comfortable on the 30 miles of gravel road that we drove to get to the entry point on Homer Lake (thanks Amanda!). They paddled across Homer Lake and made camp early enough to do some fishing and skinny dipping.

Day 2: Trekking from Homer Lake to Middle Cone Lake

Colin slept late (a theme of the trip), but Ian woke up early to get some pics of the mist on the water.

Colin threw in his line on Juno Lake and pulled in some impressive fish. Here he is holding up a nice Walleye. He also wrangled a few Northern Pike.

The campsite on Middle Cone Lake. A quick dipper in the lake was followed by a nice campfire with a view. Ian really likes the island campsites because it is less likely that a bear will get into the food. Just in case, the food went up in a tree.

Day 3: Middle Cone Lake to Long Island Lake

Colin demonstrates perfect portaging technique as we head into a marshy area connecting to Long Island Lake. A big portion of this area is still recovering from a windstorm and fire that left the landscape looking like armageddon.

Day 4: Long Island Lake to Cherokee Lake

Colin making the morning cup of coffee..."Sweet nectar of the gods!" In the other picture he is tying on a lure. There were quite a few fishing lures lost on this trip.

Ian takes a few casts into a deep pool in a stream.

Days 4 and 5: Brule Lake

Brule was the only big lake that we hit. We camped on an island (as usual) and got tossed around a bit by some stormy weather

Wildlife: