Fishing Trip 2008

This past weekend was the annual Jacob fishing trip in northern Wisconsin. We fished Little Arbor Vitae lake. Uncle Ronnie taking a brake from traditional fishing to use a motorized boat with a small bobber and hook attached to it. I didn't think there was a chance in the world that he would catch anything with it.

Here his is taking it on its maiden voyage. The boat had some power to it.

Driving past a weed bed about 15 feet from the dock.

Believe it or not he caught a fish on his first attempt. Granted, I think my big toe is bigger than this fish, but a fish is a fish.

Eric decided to use my pole and lure a make one last cast from the dock before going into town for dinner. He threw it at the same weed bed where Ronnie had just caught his little blue gill. The fish swirled the water about a half sec before the lure landed. The pike took the lure almost on the surface of the water. He caught this northern pike, one of the bigger fish of the weekend.

Two fairly large crappie that we got on the last night, after the sun had gone down. I caught 3 fish in the last 30 minutes, which brought my total for the weekend to 5. It was a very slow fishing weekend. We didn't see anyone catching much. We had a good time anyway.

Our last night there we at a dinner club that was full of stuff animals. Here is Bucky Badger.

A raccoon drinking a cold refreshing Miller Light

A porcupine

The fellas halfway home from our weekend. From left to right, Eric, Brian, Bob, Ronnie, and Gary.

I got in the last picture, just to prove I was there since I didn't have any fish to bring home for evidence.

Isaac in the backyard

Isaac doing his part to keep the grass short. He likes to pick grass then attempt to eat it. I can't wait until he is willing to play in the backyard without trying to eat everything he picks up. We will have to make sure he understand that Stanley's land mines are not for eating also.

Here he found a leaf, better than dog poop!

Crawling through the grass, he loves the feel of grass on his hands and feet. My niece, Kaydence, used to hate the grass. When you sat her in the grass she would attempt to lift both legs out of the grass while sitting. It was hilarious.

Isaac walking and me attempting to run out of the picture.

Isaac watching me run out of the picture, and thus not looking at the camera. Guess that plan didn't work out so well. We tried this multiple time with the same result.

Any one need some toilet paper?

You always know your baby is up to no good when you can't hear what he is doing. I found Isaac in the bathroom with about 20ft of unrolled toilet paper. He makes me laugh every time I catch him doing some naughty. As soon as I find him he takes off running in the opposite direction, as if he is "making an escape." This is picture #1, the next pictures are his escape.

Picture #2, halfway out the bathroom.

Picture #3, almost out. Freedom is just an arms reach away.

Sarah and David's Wedding

At the reception for Sarah's wedding.

Heather's cousin Brian and his wife Gina. Heather and Gina started the night out with a bang. They each had a glass of wine, champagne, and a mix drink at the same time. I have heard of double fisting before, but never three different drinks. Shortly after the drinks, they started talking about stealing the cake from the neighboring table.

Gary and Margo, one of the few recent picture we have that doesn't include Isaac.

The first dance. Sorry the picture isn't better. They had numerous photographers, who had spot lights on there cameras so it made it hard for my flash to work right.

Us, you can tell I have had a few drinks because my face is red.

Heather's godson Jacob. He made a pair of glasses out of glow rings.

Without the flash.

Zach with a glow ring beard.

Evan dancing with his mom.

Packer Fan

Isaac in his Packer gear. He looks so grown up in this picture.

The little gentleman.

Ok, enough sitting around. Get me down so I can cause some trouble.

Isaac first Badger Game

Heather and I with my parents before the game against Marshall. We won the game 51-14, but we started the game down 14 points. They had me a little worried for the 1st quarter. We have some things to fix before the Big Ten opener at Michigan.

Isaac with Nonnie. Isaac was in head to toe Badger gear.

No yawning Nonnie, the game is about to start!

Power to the Badgers! Go Badgers!

Isaac had his own transportation to the game. Via Gus the sheepdog express.

After a bumpy ride on Gus, Isaac decided he would walk.

Isaac spotted a beer cup on the ground and was making a bee line to get to it before someone could pick it up.

The Stapleton family in front of Camp Randall

Isaac in the stand with us. He did really well at the game. He watched some of the game until it got out of hand, then he just napped for the rest of it.

Nap time, wake me when we are about to score.

Post game picture with Heather's parents.

Grandpa hauling a tired Isaac into the house. Those Badger games are rough on everyone.

Back to the Basics

Enough vacation pictures already, we want to see Isaac. Ok, back to the reason the blog was created...Isaac and his cuteness.

Here he is taking a little snooze with mommy.

A closeup of the cutie.

Munich Day 5

This is a picture of the Munich train station. It is pretty impressive. We said goodbye to Dan and Annie and had the last day to ourselves. We decided to go see the Dachau concentration camp.

I was surprised at how many concentration camps there were throughout Europe. Each main camp had satellite work camps, as show in the picture. Some camps were only men, and other only women. Dachau was a men's only camp. I am not going to show all the pictures we took due to the graphic nature of some of the pictures and for respect for the dead.

This is a map that shows the incoming population of the camp per year. It also shows what country all the prisoners came from during its operation.

They had a patch system to identify why the person was a prisoner in the camp. I don't remember all the classifications but some were Jewish, homosexual, gypsy, political prisoner, and so on.

They rebuilt one barrack as an example of what used to stand. They demolished all the others and left the spots open as a memorial to those who died in the camp. Each barrack was built for around 75 people but at the height of the population of the camp, there were as many as 300 people in a barrack. This is a picture of the beds in the barracks.

This is a picture of the foundation where the old barracks used to stand.

Another picture of the barracks and the single shelf they had to put there things on.

The gate to the camp. It reads "Freedom through Work." It started out that way at the beginning of the war. Political prisoners came here for re-education. Once they had served their time they were allowed to go. That changed as the persecution of the Jews became the main reason for the concentration camps.