It’s fixed!

I can’t believe how much better Andy got my hitch working!!!💞

This hitch is supposed to rotate…

 The hitch system that that came with my camper is “supposed” to articulate in all directions…You can’t see that it wasn’t working so well along the roll axis!  Here’s Andy putting ALL his might into it.  His biggest pipe wrench, a four foot cheater bar, and everything he has and we only managed to move it 20º or so.  BUT, he kept working at it, I kept injecting PB and Kroil penetrant, and we slowly made progress…

Check out how much he’s lifting the back corner of the Jeep! The boy is a BEAST!!❣️

Feats of strength and skill…

Andy and I had to test out his new hammer.  Of course, that led to who can bury a nail in the least blows.  I think he got a clean three.  I was probably a four. ❤️

Geesh! It finally showed up!

Loving the zirblast handles and the blade style!  Over the top for sure

I got to see a King of the Hammers race rig!

The came straight off the race, onto a trailer and right into the Off-Road Expo this past weekend.  Looks about like mine, NOT!… ;) There are a lot of similarities though.

Of course I find a watch with mud in its name!

Haunting….!

I came around the corner in the hallway to see THIS.  A little creepy! Hahahahaha.

Valentine’s Day hoodie presents

AND freebie hats from the giveaway.  We're super-fans now… ;)

A cool social media banner for the Cyclones

Andy has a great new way to “sign” his invoices…! Percy❣️

 

Nooooooo. Don’t resist mud, embrace it!!! 🤪

Using the same hack for next year

You don't have to buy all the games to be a season ticket holder.  It pays to be nice to people too since they gave me this hat when I mentioned I liked them.  My guy is taking good care of us!

A picture I accidentally took with my iPad…

I snapped this by mistake while setting my iPad on my table.  Didn't turn out too bad. ;)

Decided to try one of these

I am hoping these quick release cuck adapters works well on my inflator?

Getting the mail on the way home.

I thought the lights and the snow were pretty.

My GoPro mount looks cool in the night lights of my Jeep

Fun memories❤️

It also made me remember the impact that little things can have on people's lives.  Invest a little in those around you. :)

Isaac mentioned these bracelets we made so many years ago.  I still have mine!  They were our first foray into knotting paracord.

Prepping for ice cream!

Of course we had to have dessert after the presentation from Dave & Deb!  Bartons = ice cream!

They brought us some gifts from PNG.

The bimi bag on the right has a picture of the drum on the left on it.  I got to play the drum too. :)

It was so nice to see Dave & Deb again.

It's been fun to help support their work in Bible translation for so many years!  Seeing the real impact to people is easy with their letters, pictures, and presentations❣️

It’s a Barton thing…

…You wouldn't understand.  Or maybe you would if you tasted my mom's chicken broccoli casserole!

Fun prepping for our get together with Dave and Deb last week.

Where Barton's are gathered, there will be ice cream.  Maybe even an ice cream social style buffet!

Testing out my camper battery.

I can brew coffee and charge a Milwaukee battery and still last for three hours.  That's a couple batteries and coffees worth 🤪

I found the guy that built my camping trailer :)

He has several videos where he walks through designing and making it.  Now I know everything I need to, including a full parts list.  It's also fun to see the history.   I'm enjoying getting my stuff put it in and organized.  I feel like my Grandpa when he did that with his retired work van. You can see the first video, and find his channel for the others here: https://youtu.be/zNM3YWWzok8

Season ticket holder “hack”

Turns out you can get most of the season ticket benefits buy buying ticket packs.  It's late enough in the season, we only need to get six and we're in!  We're enjoying going to a few games together.  It brings back college dating memories❤️

I was trialing Spotify

I thought their goodbye message was pretty creative.

Perfect fit…

Now Andy has his random tools in draws instead of strength into a bag that's impossible to dig through.  Nicely done mister!

“What project”, you say?

More packout arrangements for his van, of course!

Andy finally had to get a new tape measure

He made me christen it on our first project together❤️❤️

Following my wife through the net of terror at the aquarium 🤪

She's easy on the eyes❣️

It is fun to walk over top of the shark tanks and see them from above too.  I find it interesting that some people are scared by the experience others want to go round and round again.  We're in the latter category.  

A new favorite?

This seahorse was particularly colorful and unique.  Called a sea dragon.  Appropriately named… I can see how the concept of a dragon could have been created from seeing something like this!

Gecko eyeball!

I was playing around with macro mode on my phone and was very happy with the results.

This arapaima was awesome!

Two of them at the aquarium were longer than my wingspan.  Easily over sex feet each!  So unreal and prehistoric loooking!

Gecko head!

Some of my favorites from the Newport Aquarium last weekend

I've always loved lion fish ever since I used to read about them in a kids book we had growing up.  So crazy looking!

With a name like hellbender, you better be awesome!

Julie and I enjoyed a visit to the aquarium as part of Valentine's Day weekend (I had off for President's day, so we went on Monday).

Its day has finally come…

Andys already replaced the ruler in the measuring tape I gave him growing up.  Now the case has enough cracks that it won't retract any more.  He's gonna hafta get a new one :( I am sure he'll take the original tape and case, put them back together, and give it a place of honor in his house.  He always liked seeing where I'd written his initials on it when I gave it to him as a kid.  

This should be fun…

I decided to get a tiny camper trailer so I could have my camping stuff at the ready and not have to carry it all around on the trails.  Julie and I picked it up over Valentine's Day weekend on our way to the aquarium.  It's exactly what I was looking for.

It's a hand built custom, designed for off road use, with just enough room to get in out of the elements.  I plan to set it up so it can be self-sufficient.  Most of the camp sites in off road areas are primitive.  It's wired up already so I should be able to brew coffee, charge my phone, etc.  All without needing AC on-site.  I have a battery pack and solar panel, so wish me luck…

Coming soon, but currently lost in the mail…

I finally got a bougee knife like the boys have.  Been saving up and selling other ones in prep.  Excited for new knife day which I hope comes soon…

I swear the USPS has the worst ability to track something.  Our packages so often just float around out there for a week or so with a status of "arrived at the next location still arriving on time" It usually says that for several days PAST the expected delivery date.  Then they mysteriously show up, and you stop worrying…. Oddly, the tracking info reconciles and you find out it's been traveling back and forth all over the country from some odd reason… \

We couldn’t convince her…

Zoe normally goes right into her box all on her own each night at bed time.  This time, no amount of coaxing, cajoling, or commanding would get her in there.  THEN we realized why…! Cat😼

We got there early for our free puck stuffy!

Of course, our stuffed puck hockey buddy has a missing tooth!

They sure hype the place during the hockey pre-game!

Let’s go Cyclones!

Julie and I have been enjoying going to a few hockey games.  These are our favorite seats to watch the game.  The goal we defend twice.  Almost front row, but still cheap seats. 🤪 They offer a really good view of the whole game.  

I laugh trying to figure out what this even is…!

What a great add.  From the pictures I think we have a golf cart sitting on a tractor with a bed and hoist welded on…?  If this is the tow truck, I'm curious about what it's towing.  If this is what's rescuing you, how bad is the thing being rescued…?! I also like the ad, "Not sure what's wrong with it".  I think they ment, "Not sure what it is"?

Not very often we have flood AND snow warnings…

White out?

It was a little challenging to see out of the windows for a bit this weekend…

Snowy day!!

We got a nice little storm this weekend.  It almost seems like we've had an actual winter this year. :)

Kind of glad I didn’t try it…

Just happened to see this random video which shows how steep the Sleeping Bear Dune climb is… It gets worse at the bottom.  That isn't obvious when you're standing at the top contemplating it…

More Valentine’s Day fun ❤️

This is what happens when you have a graphic designer for a boyfriend.  Poor Savannah. ;)

Hanging out with Andy and John for breakfast

Percy wanted to be on my lap, but I don't think he was happy we were looking at knives instead of petting him hahahaha.

Valentine’s Day fun at John and Savannah’s house…

John got Savannah this game, Hues Cues.  He's color blind and she uses more words than the game allows.  It's quite fun to watch them try to play… This is a screen shot from a cute little video they sent us.  I like the tulips and roses in the background too.  Savannah got Johnny the tulip plant and he got her the roses.  Fun!

You can see me discover my custom Funko Pop character Julie made for me.

 She had fun getting it and was dying for me to get home so I she could give it to me! She had fun showing it to the boys and our friends at the range ahead of time. Everybody got a good laugh out of it. Even me.

I arrived home to this GREAT Valentine Day gift from Julie❣️

Complete with a phone in one hand, coffee in the other and Zoe by my side!