Bears Win!

Patrick and I went to the Bears game against St. Louis Rams.  Bears win 23-6.  It was a beautiful day and everyone enjoyed singing the fight song after the scores.  On this day they are definitely the "pride and joy of Illinois"

Happy 80th Grandma Brown

Lab BBQ

Museum of Science and Industry - Mythbusters!

This weekend Bart, Alex and I went to the museum.  It was the last weekend for the Mythbusters exhibit and Alex really wanted to see check it out.  We had not been here in many years, its not our favorite.  But we were in for a pleasant surprise.  The place was transformed into a modern state of the art museum.  Reminded me of the exploratorium in San Francisco, but maybe better.

Alex in front of an exhibit about waves.

A neat exhibit about light, colors, and reflection.

Bart and a really great plasma ball.  Love the way his hand glows.

Couldn't pass on a chance to make my hand do the same.

They used reflecting pools on the second floor to illustrate wave behavior below.

The Mythbusters exhibit had a bunch of stuff from the show, including this shark model.

This is the canoe made of duct tape.  It worked!

Here the boys test the idea of if you get wetter running or walking in the rain.

Alex found out how hard it is to transform into a superhero in a phone booth.

Bart's favorite was the card throw.  He was very good at it.

He also dodged a light bullet.

I always love these.

Alex defeated Bart in the brain relaxation competition.

Spider Lake

Got to do the annual fishing trip to Spider Lake in Northwestern Wisconsin.  5th time I think.  Thanks Ed!  Its always a great trip.  Alas, this year I did not catch a Muskie.  And it wasn't for a lack of trying.  I fished my butt off.

Cuda caught one the first evening.  More than 36 inches.  It was in the first few hours of his first visit to spider lake.  Luck boy.  

Ed caught a nice one, maybe 40 inches.

Andy caught a duck decoy.  Luckily it was above the legal length and he got to keep it.

Hope Family Retreat - Lake Vermillion MN

We decided to have a Hope family retreat this year.  We rented a house on Lake Vermillion in far Northern Minnesota.  

The fishing wasn't as good as we had hoped.  Wrong time of year.  It was still great to get the family together.  I caugth this nice northern with a big bucktail Mepps.  This would be the biggest fish of the trip.

Alan had great skill for catching crawdads on his leach.

He did catch the best Walleye.  Alas this one was too big and not big enough.  It fell in the slot for catch and release.  Prime reproductive age.  

The lake was beautiful.

The kids played in the water.

Grampa caught some nice ones.

The perch were yummy.

so much fun that everyone needed a nap.

The cousins had a great time playing together

One afternoon we went to the Vince Shute Bear Sanctuary.  They feed wild bears.  In the fall when the bears migrate, there are many bears there for the free and easy food.  It was quite a sight.

The viewing area is above the bears on a series of platforms.  You are right there looking down at wild bears.

we also went putt-putt golfing.  The mosquitos are pretty big in Minnesota. 

So are the Walleye

Diane did catch a nice one.

It was also overlapping Elijah's birthday (or close enough).  He was able to get all the candles.

Bart catches a smallie on Salt Creek