Deer Creek State Park

This weekend we made the trip to Deer Creek State Park in Mount Sterling for some hiking and fall foilage.  On the way, we stopped for lunch at Ben and Joy's Restaurant; food was good and service was excellent.  With the boys re-energized, we headed to the park.

The lake level was below normal pool allowing more room around the shoreline for hiking, fishing, and exploring.  There were lots of birds out catching a meal as well as squirrels hiding their winter stash of nuts.  However, except for hardwoods, most trees have lost their leaves but we were not disappointed.

At the beach, we enjoyed swinging on the swings overlooking the lake, then we took a quick walk on the large beach.  The spillway offered a great place for children to play and plenty of space to wet a line.  Once the boys spotted the abundance of shad, they had to get a closer look.

Don't mistake Historic Harding Cabin as a place for visitors.  It's for rent, and you will be disturbing the tenants if you try to enter like we did.  lol.  One key feature of this cabin is the private dock.  We might have to give this a try sometime.

The main lodge is more modern than many other lodges at Ohio State Parks we visited in the past.  Our food at the lodge was mediocre, but views overlooking the lake were fantastic.  

Planning our visit during the day on Friday, we knew the park would not be crowded and we were not disappointed.

Kurt 2nd Grade Flag Football - Game 5

Kurt played like a champ today in Game 5.  On defense, he pulled more flags today than he has in all games combined.  On offense, he had one catch, a tough run, and helped spring team mates for long runs with good blocking. 

The team came back from a half-time deficit 10-0 to win 22-18 with a late touchdown for the win.

Kurt 2nd Grade Flag Football Game 4

Kurt played his fourth flag football game this week.  The video is below. 

2014 Golf at Sunbury Golf Course

The boys and I have not been golfing in a while, so we took the opportunity on Sunday at Sunbury Golf Course.

I am sad to say the boys are growing and in need of longer clubs. 

2014 OYAA Flag Football First Three Games - Kurt

Kurt is playing flag football again this year.  Here is some video from the first three games.

He caught a pass for a extra point attempt and is getting more confidence as a runner.  Look for better second half of the season because he is getting a taste for the end zone.

2014 Baseball season highlights for Luke

Luke played baseball this season.  Below is a link to the season highlights.  In one inning, Luke scooped three consecutive ground balls and completed the throw out at first base.  Enjoy the video below.

First Day of school

First day of school for our 2nd grader and our kindergarten. I think Luke was excited to ride the bus more then going to school.  I hope they have a wonderful first day of school.  It should be a great 2014-2015 school year.

Trapper John's

This week we wanted to take some road trips around Ohio before the boys headed back to school.  Today's idea was to take the boys on a canoeing trip down the Big Darby river.  We had some very inquisitive and excited boys about the trip.  We headed out on the river around 11 am. No more then half hour into the trip Kurt caught a bass and about 10 minutes later he got other bass.  That would be our only fish for the day.  Dad had several go backers, and Luke fished a little and helped Mom row the boat.  Dad had a little help with rowing maybe for 10 mins. Then Kurt went back to fishing. We did make a couple of stops to have lunch, swim, creek, and net crayfish. We got back down to our stop around 3:30.  It was a fun, relaxing, and all around great day.

  

Traps

Back at Grandma and Pappy's house they have lots of deer who like to come eat their apples and vegetables in the garden.  The boys told Grandma not to worry they will take care of the "deer problem". They spend the rest of the evening planning and building their traps for the deer.  Now they wait to see if they get one.

Fair food

During the Ohio Sate Fair I took Luke down to enjoy some yummy fair food.  We had fresh cut fries, cheese sticks, and Der Dutchman noodle with mashed potatoes.  But Luke was very happy when he found Bacon on a stick.  Yes bacon on a stick, you could dip it in chocolate or leave it pain.  Luke likes bacon, I mean to say Luke LOVES bacon. So I feel it is safe to say that the bacon on a stick was Luke's favorite fair food.

Kalahari

  Nana wanted to take the boys somewhere fun before school started.  So we picked Kalahari for our trip away.  We had fun going down water slides, family raft slide and fighting the waves in the wave pool.  Nana and Luke enjoyed going in the hot tub, while Kurt and Mom went down more slides.  The boys were surprise when Daddy showed up to have fun with us.  They could not wait to take him on all the slides.  However Daddy also took them on the zip coaster and the big big water slides. Like I said I'm a big chicken so thank goodness for Daddy.  I think their favorite ride was the cheetah racer (pictures below). I took picture while they raced down.  It was a great couple of days.

Daddy and the boys off the Rapid Rhino, that I did go on the next two times with them.

Luke is the one coming down first on this trip.

The boys coming off the Cheetah racer.

Nana playing basketball with the boys.

Kennywood

Our good friends asked us if we would like to join them at Kennywood theme park. It was a great opportunity to see how the boys would do riding roller coasters.   The day was wet and cool which is better then hot and crowed with people.  The boys really enjoyed the roller coasters. Unlike their mother who is a big chicken.  I did do the little coaster but that is my limit.  Thank goodness for everyone else taking Kurt on the bigger rides.  Even with the wet rain and the cool day it did not stop us from having a great time.  We didn't spend more then five minutes in line on a ride. It was a perfect day of laughs, screams and friends.  Thanks so much Albrecht family and Morris Family for letting us crash your family day.

Fish Ohio Saugeye trip

Three generations of moke family launched the boat at Alum Creek about noon on 7/26/2014 to do some fishing. The pleasure boaters were right on our tail, but our mindset was to embrace sharing the lake. Leaving the boat ramp, we encountered a stiff south wind which made drifting and trolling easy with 3/4 oz bottom bouncers and worm harness, and it also meant we could concentrate on fishing with minimal distraction of boat control. In shallower water, we caught more species but not the target keeper saugeye. Throughout the day, we caught 8 different species including crappie, largemouth, yellow perch, rock bass, sunfish, channel catfish, white bass, and saugeye.

Pappy was catching most of the fish on a green harness with gold hammered blade; the only one I had on the boat. So, pappy did what pappy's do; gave his harness to Kurt and retired for nap. Wasn't long when pappy's nap was interrupted by this guy.

 

Kurt caught it completely on his own; his only assistance was netting the brute. That's all we heard about the rest of the day, and we loved all the ribbing we got about Kurt's big fish of the day. At 7 years old, Kurt is really an accomplished fisherman. In last 30 days, Kurt has two "Fish Ohio" muskies and now a saugeye.

At 4pm, we headed to the ramp to avoid the approaching storm, but the pleasure boaters beat us to it. With about 30 boats lined up at the ramp, we put the rain fly up to ride out the storm (including small hail on the deck), and then got back to fishing.

 We caught one keeper saugeye during the storm. After the storm, we found the fish stacked up in 20+ ft. of water; on two passes we had double saugeye hookups, and missed a triple because pappy had a swing and miss.

Here is another 17 inch saugeye that Kurt caught.

 

 Most of the keeper saugeye were taken in 20 to 25 feet of water. We ended up keeping saugeye of 18, 24, 17, 16.5 and 16 inches as well as a yellow perch that took the hook too deep.

Target speed was between 1.0 and 1.5mph most of the day. When action slowed, we change speed and direction with s-curves over the target depth. Here is a picture of the total catch.

 

 Kurt could not wait for Mom and Luke to get home from the fair to show off his catch.

Creeking..

Nothing like a little creeking for the soul.......

Natural Bridge State Park

I can't believe all my years in Ky I never made it down to the Natural Bridge area.  It was so beautiful to see the bridge.  We had lots of fun ride on the chair lift up the mountain.  Then hiking around the area to see the Natural Bridge from one side. Then hiked to the other side and walked on the Natural Bridge.  Then we took a hike to see the cave and the balance rock.  We did lots of hiking and all the kids did a great job. I even did a great job. It was a great day of exploring.

Forth of July

For the fourth this year we planned a last minute trip to meet up with family in Ky.  Uncle JJ, Aunt Jayna, Rylie and Alivia made the trip from TN.  We made our trip from Ohio, along with Grandma and pappy making the same trip.  We headed down to my old neck of the woods, so I was excited to show the boys were I went to collage.  

 

The cousins were so excited to see each other and had so much fun swimming the whole day.  The rest of us enjoyed relaxing by the pool, talking, swimming and having fun.  That night we watched the fireworks from the parking lot of the hotel we stayed in.  We all enjoyed the fireworks, poppers and glow sticks the kids had. Happy Fourth of July!!!