Long, Long, Long Winter

It's been so long since I posted on my blog, I forgot which e-mail account to use to access my blog, and there are new passwords, Goggle accounts, no phone number to call for help ... arrgghh!  I finally figured it out all by myself!   Yay!  So ... here are some pictures to give you a taste of what the Caseys have been up to the last six months - just ONE from each event or we'd be here all day!



I had a chance to sing with the Augsburg Choir again in October.  We had a 100th birthday celebration honoring Dr. Sateren and 200 choir alumni showed up to sing songs he composed.  It was awesome, and I have a CD from the day - we sound just like we did back in the day!

 

Paul and I had a chance to go up to Lutsen in November for a few days.  We did some hiking up by Grand Marais.  You can see Canada from these falls!

 

We had the traditional Catlin Thanksgiving at Ted and Pat's and the Illinois connection were there , too, this year.  It is so much fun to have all the little kids together.  Teddy carves the turkey - another little kid!

 

 

We hosted the Casey Thanksgiving Game Night on Sunday - and of course, had to play some dominos in honor of Roger!

 

Jane, Jenna, Maddox, Charlie, Mabel, and I made Grandma Linburg's bread on a Saturday in December.  The kids all got to throw in handfuls of raisins - YUM!

 

Our Waterbrooke Children's Christmas Musical - The Night Shift Before Christmas - took up a lot of time in December.  I helped make the poodle skirts for our 50's themed diner - a falafel house in Bethlehem and also did the choreography for the songs.  The kids did a terrific job.

 

 

 

 

The Waterbrooke ladies had a cookie exchange the Monday before Christmas.  There were WAYYYY too many cookies for my diet, but boy, were they tasty!

 

 

Casey Christmas was at Mark and Karena's house.  Paul and Drew are twins separated at birth - all that musical talent in their little fingers!  Tyler and Samantha announced their engagement - o boy - a wedding in the family! Annie and Ryan have since announced baby # 3 - those little ones are such fun at family gatherings!

 

The Catlin's had their now traditional Chili Feed at Corey's on Christmas Day.  It is so relaxing - chili brunch, dominos, and a movie and whoever is in town is welcome.

 

Paul and I had a FANTASTIC vacation the last couple of weeks in January and the beginning of February - we missed one of the polar vortex weeks while we were gone - thankfully!  We went to San Diego, Palm springs, Sedona, Tucson, and Phoenix with our friends the Bykowskis.  It was incredible, all the things we saw and did in a short 17 days!  I took over 1,000 pictures!  This fountain is at Balboa Park in San Diego.

 This fountain is at the oldest mission in San Diego.  We had to take about 4 shots to get a good one of everybody using the monkey claw tripod sitting on Joan's walker!

 

 

Since getting back from the vacation to warmer climes, I have taken up snowshoeing!  Gotta do SOMETHING to make it through this winter!  Karen, Mary and I have explored the Arboratum and Baker Park Reserve so far.  If we keep getting more snow, we'll tackle more destinations, I'm sure!  Will it ever end?

I helped plan the Waterbrooke Youth Ski Trip and Retreat the weekend of March 14-16 at Welch Village.  I still love skiing, though I only get out about once a year.  We stayed at the Three Crosses Retreat Center in Cannon Falls and had a great time with the kids.

 

Well, that about does it.  Spring should arrive tomorrow.  Be prepared for the big melt off and the return of GOLF!  I'd better write down how I accessed the blog so next time I don't get so frustrated and stressed out - LOL! 

 

 Happy Spring, everyone!

Up North with the Bykowskis

Since Tim, Joan and I retired last June, we decided to spend the first full week of school up north at their cabin this fall.  Paul was invited, too, even though he is still a working man!  This was our only summer vacation this year!

 First day of school and I didn't have to go!  We are ready to head north!

 Golfing at Black Bear south of Hackensack.

 

 We didn't really plan the color coordinated outfits, but, there you are!

 

 Joan - my trusty chauffeur (how DO you spell that?  Oh yeah, spell check will help me!)

 

 On Wednesday the guys went golfing again at a different  course and the girls went SHOPPING in Walker.  This bird lives at the flower shop - isn't he pretty?

 

 Hmmm ... a successful day at the shops!  We also went out to eat at Zona Rona's on a retirement gift certificate from Kathy Ellsworth - our Dean of Students at STME, who has a family cabin near Walker, too.  Thanks, Kathy - it was YUMMY!

 Next, we headed out for a sunset fishing expedition. Will we catch anything this year?

 

                                     

 Here we go - look out fishies, we are on your trail!

 Yep - Paul caught the first sunfish - not bad, but we can do better!

 

 Nnyeh - this thing is going back in the water.  I think I caught him two more times!

 

 Circling the lake we go past Camp Patmos - someday we're going to have the Waterbrooke kids rent this place!  It looks like a great camp location.

OK, Paulee, whatcha got?

 Here comes the sunset - or should I say there goes the sun?

 

                                     
                                     
                                     

 I love taking sunset pictures!

 

                                     
                                              

 I'm getting the net ready - I feel a big one just around the bend!

 

 Here it is - the catch of the day!  A big northern! It's a keeper!

 

 Back home again, the guys go watch a Youtube video on how to fillet a northern - it's full of Y-bones, you know!  I concentrate on more sunset photo ops!

 

 This is NOT a real bird, but he makes a cool silhouette!

 

 Here we go ... I hope they wrote down the directions?

 

 It's getting dark - Paul is very helpful in this filleting process - he holds the flashlight!

 

 YUMMY!  Joan knows just how to fry up some very tasty fish!

 

 Thursday morning we go for a breakfast cruise - searching for loons or eagle phot ops. It's a bit chilly, so we have jackets and coffee to sustain us.

 

 Hmmm ... the loons are hiding - all we saw was this nasty seagull.  Oh, well.

 

 No black and while loons, but we did see this black and white cow???

 

 And, yes, took quite a few shots of the resident eagle in his tree.  We had to circle the lake, though, because he wasn't in his normal perch.

 

 Are you a bit chilled?  Ready to go in now?

 

 Time had to head for the cities on Thursday afternoon for a photo shoot, but we stayed and tried a bit more fishing.  Paul is the substitute captain and we headed out.

 

 The fish were hiding this time - I think Joan caught two babies and we threw them back.

 

 But ... the sunset was really a pretty pink this time!

 

 We played nine holes at Black Bear on the way home - hmmm - he looks red to me?  Oh yeah, this is the women's tee box!  I get a break, lucky me!

 We dropped Joan off in Elk River and headed to the U of M to see the first Gopher Volleyball game using the season tickets that we got from the girls for Christmas.  We won!

 

 Hey there, Goldy, throw a tee shirt my way next time, would ya?

 

This is the Diet Coke Classic tournament, and we won all of our matches on Friday and Saturday.  It is going to be a great season, and best of all, our seats have chair backs on them!

 

It was a fun mini vacation - maybe we'll get in a few more days this fall to see the colors. 

 Retirement is awesome!