Angle Inlet Parade

This is how we make a float up North. Kind of like Apple Blossom in Wenatchee, but 22 degrees and no crowd control.

That is Rick's brother Brian driving. I haven't had any pictures of him on the blog yet, elusive creature that he is. Maybe I'll do a whole Bio on just him. He would love that, I just know it.

This looks like they're surfing. I wonder if we could make that happen........

It got ugly when the ride was over and the kids each had to go home. Silly little addicts.

Cabin 2

Here are some pictures of cabin 2 to give you an idea of what our little bungalows look like on the inside. Cabin 2 is the one we stayed in when we first arrived and it is my favorite. I'm not sure why I'm so partial to it. The cabins aren't identical, but all have the same basics.
Front porch, looking over the lake.

Kitchenette, there is also a couch, fridge & microwave in this room. The kitches are stocked with dishes, silverware, pans, toaster etc.

One of three bedrooms in this cabin. Each room has two beds.

Self-explanatory I presume!

Now you've seen my office, pretty spacious right? Not bad to spend the day in!

The Parents Are Here!

After two and a half days of driving, my parents arrived at the Angle. They now know what it means to be in the middle of nowhere. As each day passes with them here, I'm reminded how far out we really are. There isn't much for entertaining our guests in the winter months unless we want to icefish and drink. I gave them a tour of our little community on the first day and after 20 minutes that was done and we were left with nothing to do but play with the kids. This was the whole point of thier trip, so we've met that goal 8 times over already.

My mom dressed in my dad's bibs and hat, looking like a teenage ruffian. She didn't run around like this. She only wore this get-up to walk from our house to the cabin they are sleeping in.

Andie took to them right away and is acting like her usual coo'ing laid-back self. You can probably guess they don't like her at all. :)

The raucous games of patty-cake started right away. I'm not sure who is more entertained.

This is the best I could get for a group shot. Trying to get everyone together and smiling is a skill that takes practice and fast cat-like movements. Tyson is potty training and the only way we have success is if he is naked below the equator. We'll try to keep it PG. Needless to say, his bare bottom has graced every surface of my brand-new home.

We had a fish-fry at Big Rick's with Brian and Jenny. My mom is running to get out of the picture. She moves pretty quick for a sick lady when the cameras come out.

Tyson and Grandpa Bill taking a walk through the campground. We were worried Tyson would be shy when my parents arrived, not having seen them in over 3 months. When they pulled up, he was in the window grinning ear to ear. As if they wouldnt' have given him the moon before, that greeting pretty much sealed the deal.

Some coloring to pass the time. Today we took them out on the lake for a drive on the ice road and lunch at Sportsmans. (The iceroad makes me sick to my stomach and zaps my appetite. I'm thinking this may be a good diet option for losing baby weight.) It's fun to play tour guide and show them my new digs. They are here for a few more days, so there will probably be more of the same going on. Lots of time together and being entertained by the kids. But I'll have my camera ready should anything document worthy occur.

I continue on my quest for a good picture of the kids together. That perfect picture still eludes me, like Bigfoot or jeans that fit just right. They are always in pajama's as they are slower in the morning and I'm more likely to get them to sit still. One day, one momentous day, when the stars are aligned---they will both be smiling, looking at the camera, eyes open and I will capture it. Oh yes, victory will be mine and I will mail each and everyone of you a copy of that perfect picture.

Does that face say "ARE YOU DONE YET?" or is it me?

Snowmobile Raffle

Yesterday was the raffle and lunch for the snowmobile club. Held at Jerry's, naturally. There were a ton of things to win....t-shirts, snowmobile jackets, cookware, BBQ, TV. Rick won a rifle, which was very exciting. For him. A hockey player from the Winnepeg Jets won a sweatshirt we donated. I wanted to take his picture, but I didn't want to be the superfan and annoy him. He did sign a crockpot that got raffled off. Hockey and crockpotting go hand in hand. Sadly, we don't harbor a bunch of famous people up here, he has family in the area.

This guy sold you your $10 lunch plate. Plus door prize ticket. I won no door prize.

Jenny scored a Bud Light hat and "drool towel". What in the world is a drool towel? Am I the only one who doesn't know?

This is Rick buying tickets for an attempt to win a snowmobile helmet. He did not win it. Our friend Al came through the door and basically swept the whole raffle. The man won everything. He's so nice we can't even hate him for it. The man on the left with the black sweatshirt and envelope in his hand is Miles, the MC. He is a very funny guy. He looked at our table with the 4 little kids and congratulated the McKeever boys for bringing up the population by 7.2% in the Angle. He also said for them to keep up the good work. Silly.

Miles and the lovely assistants pulling out the winning ticket.

Jenny putting in for the pink Polaris jacket we were both coveting, but neither of us won it. I don't think I'll fit in up here until I have a pink Polaris jacket. It is a must if I want to show my face in Warroad.

Ava eating some lunch. Tyson was too busy for pictures, showing his muscles to everyone. And I do mean EVERYONE.

Bridger passed out, exhausted from all of the excitement.

Andie & Aunt Sheila (Big Rick's sister)

This was a really fun event. It's funny that I live up in the middle of nowhere and I have more of a social life than I ever did at home. It's easy to do when you don't have the 40 hour work week plus commuting and daycare and blah blah blah. I actually have the energy to leave the house on the weekend and not feel guilty about spending quality time with the kids. Now we get so much quality time, I could just pop thier little heads off.

I kid! I kid.

Outdoor Activities

Our household has been stricken with some sort of super strain Minnesota bird flu. Thus I haven't done anything fun or been anywhere exciting. It started with Tyson and has worked it's way through each of us, attacking us one at a time. It's the kind of virus where you feel so horrible, you just know you have pneumonia at the very least....if not bubonic plague or worse. These pictures are a few I've taken here and there, no rhyme or reason to this post.
One day while I was laying in my bed, contemplating if I met the criteria for meningitis, I could hear what I thought was a chainsaw going in the woods. It ended up being the Polaris team testing snowmobiles, right there in our back yard! Rick took a couple pictures, but couldn't get all that close. I found it very exciting, but missed it all.

The weather has been pretty decent. I find anything 20 degrees or higher isn't bad at all, especially if the sun is shining. Jenny and I bundled up the kids and got them outside for fresh air. You can see the snow is hitting Ava right about her ankle. Just not much snow to speak of. We didn't get a picture of all of us together like I'd planned, but Jenny and I each had a baby strapped to our chest. I just never pictured myself taking my 4 month old out in 20 degree weather for the sole purpose of wandering around in the snow.

Tyson cruising around on the lake.

This is just a funny picture of Tucker. He looks like a wild man on the attack. We don't go anywhere outside without at least one dog showing up to explore with us.

Our house sits in the campground. These are a few pictures to give you an idea of what it looks like. Our "driveway" is up there on the right. Tyson is doing some digging with his backhoe-- without a permit.

This is the view out Tyson's bedroom window. The gazebo is there on the left. Jenny and Brian got married there. There is also a Labor Day BBQ that takes place there. Those reds things are buoys from the lake. I have no idea why they sit there, I just like how it looks.

**I have another item to add to my bucket list. I plan to keep adding to this list and then look back at it in a year. Who knows what kind of crazy stuff I'll have listed there. I call it a bucket list in humor, but it is really a list of stuff I have never given one thought to in my life. Sometimes those are the things that stand out and make you smile more than any carefully planned event.

1. Breastfeed baby while icefishing.

2. Attend a tupperware party in a bar on a Friday afternoon.

**Sidenote #2: My parents are headed this way to visit next week. Don't think I've abandoned the blog if I don't write for that time. I plan to spend every moment hugging on my momma and won't likely be sitting down to the computer.

The Church

Here is the little church of the Angle. It's very small and heated by woodstove. I would guess it holds 40 or 50 people maybe?? I understand it doesn't have the same speaker every week, so no specific pastor and no specific denomination. The piano player was gone the week we went, so we didn't get to hear any music. We were sitting right in front of the woodstove, so it was a little warm for me. Rick will tell you the hotflashes were because Mike,the man leading the sermon, was calling on people to read out loud from the Bible. P-A-N-I-C. I'll admit that thinking about trying to look up a Bible passage under pressure in front of people I didn't know, that all knew each other, had me looking for an escape route. Tyson got restless and started crawling around under the pews, so I had to take him outside. Thus I never got called on to read and I didn't get a good idea of the sermon. But it is a sweet little church filled with nice people.

**A few days later I was going into Warroad to do my shopping and realized that Mike, that did the church sermon, works at the border as a Customs Agent. As he checked me through to the US, I had to smile to myself. I was thinking that this man working for our country, also works for the most important Customs Agent there is. He checks me into my country, while the big guy will check me into eternity.

For Mom

Happy birthday to my momma back in Washington. The toughest lady I know, who has complained less about cancer than most people do about a common cold. You gave me everything you could, even when you really couldn't. You put up with me as a nervous child, through my wild teen years and my college years when I had no direction. You became my best friend when I finally realized you really did always know best. You were there to welcome both of my children into this world and I'm proud that your face was the first one they saw. I love you. I miss you. I thank you for the home you made for me.


Love, Hugs, Kisses, Smiles.

The Dump

It seems that living in the Angle teaches you that the most simple and ordinary things can have the best stories. The mundane details of daily life, such as going to the dump, can have thier own rites of passage. Rick drove to the dump as a kid, long before he had a license. He can't remember what age he started driving there, but he knows he wasn't big enough to see over the steering wheel. He sat on a Sears catalog but still couldn't be seen by oncoming traffic. He knows he was driving there alone by age 11 or 12 maybe. The bears spent a lot of time there and one particular bear crawled right in the back of the truck. He says he would coax the bear cubs in to the truck bed so he could try to pet them. Apparently the bears weren't threatening for the most part, and you just got right out and threw your garbage away without waiting for them to leave.
The dump is about a 5 minute drive from our house and one of the guys goes there every few days. We just throw our garbage into the "garbage truck" each day and when it gets full, someone drives it there. This is one of Tyson's favorite things to do. He gets to "work" with his dad and throw stuff into a machine. A little boy's dream.

The trash squisher. That isn't what people call it and I don't care about it's technical name.

As I've said before, people put up notices for events at the dump. The top one is advertising a progressive dinner this Saturday, if you're interested. To the right, are the upcoming specials at Jerry's.

It's very neatly organized and has bins for everything. Nothing is out of place, nor is there litter on the ground.

The dump is also known as "The Mall". People drop stuff off that they don't want anymore and other people can grab it. You can get all kinds of used goods here. The picture isn't close enough, but there is a remote taped to that TV. Free to good home! I've only been here in the winter and haven't seen The Mall at it's prime, but I've heard it gets quite the collection of stuff....appliances, antique type things, toys etc. Plus, you'll most likely know whose house it came from.

It isn't the usual smelly heap of dirt that we're all used to. It looks more like a nice recycling center.