Dock day at Higgins

It's memorial weekend, which means it's time to resurrect the dock here at Higgins lake. Yesterday was busy, busy with people all around raking leaves and organizing, or disorganizing, the effort to place the lengths of dock together. Our dock stretches quite a ways out into the water, so therefore it takes some time to get the project completed. It's worth the work, however, because we can use it freely today in relaxation. Mom, Dad, Maureen and I plan to take a nice little boat ride on the relatively calm, but most likely cold waters, which means it is unlikely we'll go for a nice little swim. Well, unless you consider mom...she very well might;)

Race Season

We spent our Valentine's Day in the frozen 'tundra' of Drummond Island. Most people know it as a snowmobiling attraction, but usually only the trail-riding version. We go there for one reason, and that's to race. We realized this year that we have never seen the island in the summer. We have only ever seen snow there, and it is a beautiful place, so surely it is equally as beautiful in the warmer months, when everything is green! We finished fourth in the enduro, and Isaac had a blast. Thankfully we had great weather that weekend:)

The next weekend was at Caro, so a much closer trek for us. We took 9th even after the track derailing and losing numerous laps in the process of fixing it. Isaac has never raced there before, like many of the guys in the circuit, and it was definitely an experience. Nothing like Drummond and Lincoln, but still a good race day.

Lincoln is our favorite track and like most years it was the final race. This was only last weekend and we had quite an ordeal on Sunday. The sled was in top shape and Isaac & Joel (our other driver) had the team in second or third place before Joel crashed pretty badly into the flagstand and brought it and the flagman down in a pile of rubble. It looked and seemed pretty serious until everyone was able to get the mess cleaned up and the two men to the emergency room. The flagman was relatively uninjured and Joel was lucky to only have broken his collar-bone...still, ouch! After this traumatic event, Isaac hopped on a different sled and the rest of the day went smoothly with no accidents. Thank the Lord! Unfortunately though, Isaac's team 33 wasn't able to place that weekend and therefore are unlikely to have a top spot in the overall points championship. At the very least, he had a lot of fun that last race:)

Here's a slideshow of some photos from the season:

Make a Smilebox slideshow

puppy L♥VE

awww.

The puppies are now almost 5 weeks old. They are getting so big, and so noisy:) It is really fun to watch them play, and wrestle, and altogether make a huge mess! Attention and love they crave in abundance, of course, and it is so easy to give it. It's curious how the brown ones seem to be more squeamish when I pick them up or play with them, but the black ones are more calm. I wonder why that is? Isaac's favorite is the brown male, we named Max (Maximus), which he wants to keep:) My favorite is the one with the white 'socks' in front, because she lets me cradle her just like a baby.....I call her Fancy. Yes, I named all of them so I'd have a way of telling them apart. I coincide the names with different features. However, when the families come to see their new pup and take them home, they will not know what I've been calling them, and they'll be free to create their own names. I'm pretty sure the puppies won't be accustomed to any particular name at this age. I've started feeding them small bits of rolled up hamburger, and baby rice cereal. I did lots of research online, and I've been following some tips from a breeder, so everything is very specific, and some of it I just disregard, because it seems a bit overkill. After a week or so they will begin eating tiny kibble puppy food, and gradually stop nursing altogether. Soon after that they should be ready to move into their new homes:)

My own 'littlest pet shop'

So it's been a bit crazy around the Wolfgang household lately....
and I do mean 'household': those who dwell as a family under the same roof --. Our family expanded to 14 about four and a half weeks ago;) Okay, so we've always had 3 dogs, one of which had 9 puppies early in the morning on Saturday, January 24th. Maureen rushed over to the house and we watched at least 4 of them come into the world. It's amazing to watch and experience. I am thrilled to say that they have done well from the beginning and she's been a very good mother:) Our lives have been very hectic since that day, keeping track of all the little ones, helping Chloe (momma) and being there to let her out, keeping everything cleaned up, and on and on. We've had several people that have been so helpful to come over and dogsit for us, whether once or every week even, including Maureen, mom, Mary & Ted, Jon & Taylor, Joel & Danielle, and Betty........thanks guys:) They are definitely a mixed breed, and the most adorable little pups, some brown, some black, with bits of white here and there;) I will be relieved when they have grown to 7 or 8 weeks and go off to good families. Three of them are spoken for, and another couple is a maybe, so we still have quite a few to find homes for in the next few weeks! I'm sure it won't be too much trouble, especially if people just look at their sweet little faces:)

The Greatest Event in the Whole U.P!

For anyone who may not have known, Isaac's passion, hobby, and essentially his 'life' in the winter is snowmobile racing! Isaac raced his fourth year at the International 500 in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan this month. It's a 500-mile race run on a one-mile, ice-oval track. The sleds reach speeds of over 100 mph, which in my opinion should give Ike his speed quota for the rest of the year;) Our team, #33 Skid Row racing just missed finishing the race due to the sled being broken into several pieces from our third crash of the day. Don't worry, both drivers were uninjured:) The team took 13th overall, of the 26 sleds that started the race. Fewer than 20 actually finished the race (not exactly sure how many). We really have a blast racing in the winter, and I love to take lots of photos and videos! To see photos of Isaac's crash follow this link: http://www.jjpromotions.ca/Albums/Race09/index_21.htm. It starts with the center photo on the bottom row...

Isaac and his dad, Ted

Isaac & Joel

Keep checking back...three more races to go!

Check out more photos on my facebook profile:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2287052&id=21715770&l=77d72

a Moon full of Honey

Once we were married at last, we headed out to spend some special time together. We decided to visit Virginia Beach, a choice which became more questionable as the wedding day drew near. As you all probably know, September is hurricane season in certain parts of the country, and hurricane Hannah had just blazed along the East coast, where Virginia Beach is located. Hannah had passed through early enough, so we weren't worried, but unfortunately, and quite ironically;), hurricane Ike was coming next! So we started making back-up plans just in case it was too dangerous to go to the coast. However, the path of Ike did not follow that of Hannah, and went southwest, so we decided it was safe to go with Plan A. We made the 12-hour drive straight thru, and arrived just in time to get some desperately needed sleep! Neither of us had been to Virginia before, and we had a great time. Isaac even had his first view of the ocean! It was a short, but fulfilling vacation. Here are some of the highlight photos.....

Make a Smilebox postcard

The Big Day!

Photo by Diane Baldwin

Our wedding day was everything I could have hoped for! We had so much fun, everything was so beautiful, and most importantly, we were finally married!!! I did most of the planning myself, and it was so cool to see it all come together. I had so many great people helping me right up until the end, especially close family and friends. My mom, dad, Maureen, and Danielle were up so late with me finishing table & seating cards and the programs one night. Dorothy, Mary and her sisters were mixing and baking those scrumptious pumpkin, chocolate-chip cookies the day before....which I believe everyone loved! Aunt Diane was helping mom, the bridesmaids, and so many others decorate the church that very morning. (Thank you all so much again!) Isaac was such a sweetheart, he brought me flowers early in the morning before I got my hair done, along with a musical card that played, "I wanna take ya to Bermuda, Bahamas, come on pretty mama..........." Haha, so cute. So all in all it was a super fun day, and I wanted to share some of the wonderful moments with you here. The photographer(s) had taken so many photos (like 800+) that it's definitely hard to show all of the good ones, so I picked a few of my faves and used them in another one of these sweet little scrapbooks:)

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Here are some more of my favorites from our own family photographer;)

Photos by Megan Bartley

He gave me a ring!...we set a date

These little scrapbooks are so adorable and fun to make!......{thanks Sara:)}

Our engagement photos were taken in March of '08, except one obviously, and it was chilly but fun:) Rick from Mirror Image Productions in Saginaw took the shots...he did a wonderful job!

http://www.mirrorimagepro.com

other photo:

http://www.guysanddollsphotography.com

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Our years together....

I put together an interactive slideshow of photos depicting our first few years together.....seven to be exact! We've spent so much time together, through high school sports and dances, graduation, summers at camp meeting or at the lake, snowmobile racing, friends' weddings, and so much more. Together we learned and experienced so much. If we were blessed enough to have you at our wedding you may have seen some or all of these already. A few of them are not of great quality; blurry, grainy, and such, but that is just proof of how quickly and greatly technology grows and changes!

Make a Smilebox photobook

NEW!

Welcome to the Wolfgang Family blog!

I'm so glad to have finally put together some things to share with family and friends about our life together. It has been a long road for us, and it is only the beginning! We are so blessed to have a full and wonderful life complete with new home, our precious animals, a growing business, and, of course, each other:) So if you're interested in keeping updated with all that's going on, feel free to visit our blog anytime, and hopefully you will create your own so we can enjoy all of your great happenings too!