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We had a busy summer this year…here are some of the fun things we have done!

I signed Nolan up for a few single day morning camps (9-12pm) at our nearby Cave of the Mounds. This turned out to be one of the best summer investments. The kids learned lots of new info, took a cave tour and toured part of the gardens/grounds near the cave to look for evidence there is a cave below (including some newer sink holes) every camp day. They also brought home a souvenir related to that day’s topic: fossils, rocks/minerals, etc. Nolan started out as a cave pro this summer and now I think he’s considered a cave dictionary!

Here is a map of the grounds surrounding the cave. If you look closely you can see the trails as well as where the sink holes are located, etc.

While he was in camp one of the days I played with my camera…

and found some wonderful things to photograph inside…

and outside of the cave! (If you want to see more cave photos view the Cave of the Mounds album on the ohshoot website: www.ohshootphotos.com.)

Nolan was also in a “tweaked” version of Snow White. He and another kiddo were skunks that had to “spray” the queen away.

There were more animals than dwarfs in this version…

and of course no kissing! In fact, the prince was instructed to “touch” Snow White’s shoulder to wake her and he (like a true 3rd grade boy) reached out with his pointer finger and “poked” her. Despite the rolling laughter from us parents in the audience (during the dress rehearsal) the play’s director had to pause the practice and ask the prince to use his entire hand next time.

We also made a slightly last minute trip to MI to attend Kelly’s 92 year old Grandmother’s funeral. The 9 hour drive went surprisingly well…

and of course we stopped at our favorite park along Lake Michigan in Gladstone, MI.

We found creative ways to keep fidgety hands and feet busy—Nolan was quite the hula hoop show off!

And Grandpa Bill surprised us with a really cool remote control helicopter. It kept everyone’s hands/arms busy making sure the darn thing didn’t land on our heads! (It was a little hard to control inside, but not meant for outside use!)

Nolan became reacquainted with a fun Michigan cousin, Mary Ellen—don’t let the pictures fool you, he loved the attention!

We also stopped by to say hello to Kelly’s dad and answer all of Nolan’s 273 questions. This was started in part by us talking about going to a funeral and Nolan asking, “What’s a funeral” and us realizing he was right–he hasn’t had to learn that word yet! It’s amazing what all we have to learn about life!

WARNING: The following pictures may induce periodic laughter–take meds now, before viewing, to prevent injury or illness! :))

Grandpa Dave, Kelly and Nolan went on a fishing expedition. Step was a trip to nearby Black Earth Creek. This was a good place to set up the fishing poles, lines, etc. and practice casting.

Kelly showed Nolan a little one, two, three process…Then of course Nolan wanted to do it all-by-himself…

and he preferred to use his tippy toes as he reeled the line back in…

and as he realized it was reeling in something big, he called Papa over to help…

Unfortunately it was not the snack we were hoping for! Note: This photo can also serve as a reminder as to why I can rarely get photos of either Kelly or Nolan with their mouths closed!

We also journeyed out to the Wisconsin River for a second day of fishing over Labor Day weekend. I am hoping to post some of those pics in a fall part 2 post soon.

This summer Nolan decided that the simple and slower ice skating lessons he’s been doing are no longer enough. So, we signed up for a shorter summer program of hockey skills, drills and 3 on 3 partial ice scrimmages. I was apprehensive about hockey–mostly because of all of the stereotypes. But I have officially learned that I don’t really have much to worry about until he turns 9 and the games become more competitive.

In addition to all of this we signed up for the summer hockey in early June and as we found ourselves in one of our hottest summers of the last 10 years or so, I became increasingly thankful for the constant 40 degree ice arena we were entering twice a week! In fact, as the heat increased outside in July I got to wear I could sit in the arena for an hour (in sandals, shorts and a t-shirt) and not need my usual fleece and gloves! Okay now…on to the photos!

Believe it or not, these two photos were Nolan’s idea!

Nolan made a huge transformation this summer. He went from ice skater to speed skater with some hockey stick and puck control too. I couldn’t believe it. It was so incredible to watch the changes right before my eyes. I’m hoping the following photos will show at least some of what it felt like to watch him grow and change. Oh well, and of course there were hints of the old Nolan too—like this one where he is the only player not looking at or listening to the coach!

These two photos are showing some of the drills they had to do. In the first one they are supposed to weave the puck in and out of the spaces forward and then back down again. In the second photo they are to simply hit the puck back and forth under the red “bridge”. In order for this to work you can’t hit the puck too hard (or too light) and you have to lift your stick up in-between—it’s all about puck control!

The next 7 photos are like a series. It was one of my favorite drills they had to do. The object was to power skate, then drop to their bellies and slide under a stick, get back up on their feet, short skate, drop to bellies again slide under second stick and then back on their feet and keep skating. This whole process is fairly fast.

The very first time Nolan did this he was extra cautious, dropped to his knees first and never remembered to drop his butt—so he and then stick proceeded to move forward! The second time he did this exercise he dropped to his knees and then his belly and because he took longer he lost all of his momentum and stalled out under the stick. He had to act quickly as another kiddo was coming up behind him, but he figured out how to do a wacky sort of army crawl on the ice to get out from under the stick without touching it.

I don’t know how well this will translate in photos, but it was really fun to watch. There were mistakes and corrections and lots of laughter!

Power skating toward the stick/cross bar…

dropping to knees…

dropping to belly and stalling under stick.

Power skating toward stick/cross bar…

dropping straight to belly this time…

and gliding all the way through! Whew—got that down now.

And of course that’s not all! In between all of the dropping down to ice and getting back up again the kids would have to skate around and then jump three times over three different sticks on the ice. This too was a process for Nolan. At the beginning of the summer he was doing a step jump, but by the end he was jumping like a pro!

Jump!

Did I tell you they were skating fast???

A silhouette of concentration!!

Well, this mega post must come to an end. I hope you all enjoyed the photos!

And then there was first grade, a total of four teeth lost and a goofy open mouth! Until next time…

Let’s see…what we have been doing the last couple of months?

Nolan had his hip-hop recital in June, which went very well. He has learned lots of new tricks and has been working on perfecting his tripod into a handstand move—probably not an ounce of fat on this kiddo!

The dance always ends with a little freestyle (he is doing the coffee grinder here)…

and a group picture! (This was the dress rehearsal—not the actual show, which sort of explains why 4 kids are not in performance clothes!)

We also took a big family vacation to Montreal and Quebec City, Canada to see where Kelly was born and lived for the first 6-7 years of his life! In this photo is the Quebec City hotel we stayed in called Hotel Clarendon. It is the oldest standing hotel in Quebec City and located in the heart of Old Quebec.

Our hotel view—which was wonderful for the two of us obsessed with rainbows! :)

We took a horse and carriage ride through Quebec City to get quickly acquainted with the city’s lay out and best places to view/eat. Our guide’s name was Pierre!

It was an excellent tour!

Quebec City is very unique as there is a large wall that encircles a huge part of the city. The top of the wall is very wide (big enough for a small vehicle) and grassy—a stark difference from walking along the great wall of China’s stones!

I really loved all of the beautiful old architecture and stone work, including the bridges in and out of the walled city area as well as the cobblestone lined streets. I had a hard time finding things NOT to take a picture of!

“Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day…I’ve got a wonderful feeling…visiting Quebec today!” (Side note: It’s okay to pretend that the excessively happy smoking french guy is not really drawn on the wall!!)

This building is the Quebec Parliament building where all of their government decisions are made. The building is amazing both inside and out. The three of us went on a guided tour and learned that the province of Quebec makes up 1/3 of Canada’s population!

Inside the parliament building there were many stained glass windows. This one was one of my favorites as it went up to the ceiling and then back down the other side too.

This is Quebec City’s Notre Dame Basillica…a little smaller than the ones in Montreal and Paris.

Now, you have to know a little more of the story behind this. Apparently in both Quebec City and Montreal street performers are everywhere. On this day Nolan and Kelly decided to take a little break and watch the performer while I went around photographing everything in site (including the ND Basillica I just showed you). I was gone less than 10 minutes and when I turned around…I was surprised to see my WI kiddo (with his tie-dye Brat Fest shirt on) standing next to the street performer and joining his show. Of course I had to stop and come back over to see what they were going to do!

It’s a little dark as I forgot to change my exposure switching from sunny blue sky to in the shade, but I think you can still tell that Nolan is like a straight stiff board and the performer, Vincent is rotating him around. He also had Nolan try a hand stand on the two bars visible below. After this was complete…everyone clapped and once again I walked away. (This is important for the next photo.)

When I heard the crowd cheering I turned back around to see what Vincent was doing next and realized that now Kelly and another gentleman had become his helpers. I had to walk back over again to take pictures of this too! Vincent proceeded to use Kelly and the other man as replacements for his bars!! Apparently Vincent thought we would be good tippers!(or between Kelly’s belt and Nolan’s smiling brat tie-dye shirt we were more than obvious tourists!)

One of the tallest and more famous hotels in Quebec City is called the Chateau Frontenac. It is only about 125 years old, but has many memorable stones and pieces that are more than 300 years old. It sits right on the St. Lawrence river and has amazing views. Part of the upper section of the hotel was under construction and to my amusement I noticed that the construction sheeting covering that side of the chateau had the chateau’s side painted on it. From a distance and at certain angles it looked like the Chateau without any construction. I thought that was a really cool idea!

This cute little building is the oldest restaurant in Quebec City and was built in 1677. The windows are so tiny because they were brought over from France in barrels of Molasses. It appears though…that they were able to clean the molasses off!

For some reason that we do not yet understand…there were Italian restaurants everywhere. I felt a little frustrated at times because I just wanted oodles of French and French Canadian food—not Italian food! :)

This is the Chateau Frontenac again as dusk is setting in. I bribed Kelly into taking the kiddo back to the hotel for bedtime while I wandered the streets—just me and my Canon.

Don’t get me wrong…I love Nolan more than anything, but I would never be able to take a photo like this (really you need to view it much larger!!)…

or one like this and answer all of his 1000 questions at the same time! I think he was happy to be asleep too! I have really only barely grazed on the amount of amazing things we saw on vacation (I took over 1400 photos in Quebec City alone). All of the pictures in this post were of our 24 hours in Quebec City. I am hoping to post some of Vermont (the go between) and Montreal very soon too. I hope everyone is having a great summer!! See you next time!

Today I learned that chickadees use their beaks and their feet to crack a tasty nut shell open!

I think chickadees are daydreamers too—what a beautiful view!

Since when does 6 look so grown up? (did anyone notice the t-shirt? :)

Look at all those freckles that appeared after our trip to Texas!

I don’t care what anyone else says—up here 75 and sunny means it’s hot enough for smoothies!

Yum—EGG SALAD SANDWICHES!!!

So, exactly how many can I eat? And can I have these in my lunch for school and can you make these every weekend and…

I think this makes number 3 and the egg euphoria was definitely penetrating Nolan’s brain!

This year we decided to do tye-die Easter eggs—they turned out awesome and somewhat brought back Airbender memories!

Not an ugly egg in the batch!

These 2 are pictures of a hail storm we were subjected to back in April. It caused a lot of roof and siding damage in our neighborhood and up and down Airport Road, plus the west side of Madison. It started out dime sized and coated everything like snow, then paused and all I can say for sure is that the hail became big enough that I could no longer be outside takign photos and inside it sounded like the war of 1812 on our walls and ceiling! The second photo is a chunk of ice I grabbed after the storm to preserve in the freezer. What? Don’t you do that too? :)

Then…a week or so later (just before May) we received a really bizarre collection of weather—the meteorologists didn’t even know what to call it. It was snow mixed with sleet and sometimes rain and then more snow and somewhere int here tiny bouncy ice balls too. I was only able to collect the tiny ice balls.

The early May weather was great though. Kelly even decided to give the famous dragon kite a try…

with some pretty good success…

well, at least until the dragon kite decided it was too tired to go again.

Despite the rather wacky weather for both April and May…it was still fun watching all of the foliage come awake for Spring.

My Murano needed some fine tuning a few weeks ago (it is already 8 years old!!) so the car place lent me a 2010 Murano for the day. Of course this didn’t occur to me until after I was seating comfortably in the driver seat—what a sneaky ploy on their part. They were clearly marketing the car too! I mean seriously—check out the backseat. Where are the cracker crumbs, books and toys??? I had totally forgotten what a car could look like sans kids!

Check this out—Nolan thought this was the coolest new feature—a moon roof for the front seat and the back seat!

OMG!! I had to share this too—they added a button to open/close the back hatch (my Murano’s hatch only opens from the outside). In fact, it was so exciting—-do you know how much easier that would have been when my hands were full of child, grocers, stroller, book, hats/mittens, etc????—that I had to play the beeping sound (of door opening and closing) for anyone and everyone I saw or spoke to that day! I guess you could say they had me at the hatch button!

Yes, that is Mr. Nolan Senecal under all of that gear and yes, we’ve (at least for now) opened the door to hockey. If anything doesn’t look quite right—that would be because I have no idea what hockey players wear, where the pads go, etc. I sort of just googled it and made it up the rest of the way. It ended up being okay—just a few minor tweaks here and there. I at least knew nothing was supposed to cover his eyes.

Nolan’s been taking skating lessons for almost 3 years…he decided he was ready for the next challenge—and I have to say it looked really cool/amazing seeing him in the full gear and out on the ice.

You’d think he wasn’t even wearing the 10lbs of gear that I know I put on him!

We are lucky for now…for his age group it’s mostly cross-ice. If there are games they are small—like 3 on 3 without the pushing and shoving. We won’t have to be super worried until he’s 8-11.

One thing seems to be true no matter what—ice or not—gravity always wins!

Quick sidebar: I’ve been doing a special art program (that the school runs for all of the grades) for Nolan’s K class and for the month of April I presented some info. on Monet, showed his famous lily pad paintings and then had them create a special art project related to the month’s theme. We did a combo of oil pastels and water colors and the kids loved it.

Holy cow—it has been a year of the silly bandz. If you aren’t sure what I’m talking about click HERE for a description. I don’t remember how many jelly bracelets I had back in the 80s, but I think Nolan has me beat!

The goldfinches have arrived—yeah!

I took another photo class…and had the opportunity to go to my favorite photo teacher’s home (in boondocks, WI) and play with his ultra fancy (and expensive) lenses. This photo is one of my favorites that I took with my favorite lens (a 17-55mm w/soft focus in macro) Anyone have an extra $1,300 they wanna give me so I can buy this lens for myself??? :)

Grandpa Sam and Grandma Kathy were here for Mother’s day weekend and we stumbled upon an amazing Mother’s Day brunch—on the lawn and away from the outdoor heaters. Some how we came and went and I didn’t manage to take even one photo! We also made it down to Madison’s zoo—and to our surprise everyone else had the same idea! We’ve never seen so many people at the zoo, but we aren’t usually there on the weekend either! By afternoon it was hot—in the mid-70s and very sunny! We also noticed that Madison’s zoo’s foliage was at a different stage than the trees in our yard—it was like we drove into summer. It’s amazing how much lots of concrete can change things! Look at this poor grizzly… doesn’t he look hot to you?

We officially swapped Nolan’s bedroom and our home office room. We decided it was time he have a little more space. He also upgraded from a toddler bed to an official twin. Things are looking up! Thanks for checking the webiste still—6 years later. Have a great week!