Kay’s 19! How did that happen?!

 Kay turned 19 last week but decided she wanted to wait for Jimmy to be home to celebrate. It was SO MUCH FUN!  We had her favorite (fondue) and shared our 19 favorite things about Kay ... She had a Vegas themed birthday (again) and her "big" present is tickets to Country Jam in Wisconsin this week, a 4 day country music camping debacle, I mean party, I am parents worst nightmare, I mean a 19 yr olds dream come true:) 

19 things we love about Kay...

1. funny
2. fierce
3. courageous
4. creative
5. good cook
6. good baker
7. great party planner
8. athletic
9. competitive
10. kind
11. generous
12. loyal
13. determined
14. stands up for herself and others
15. loves animals - especially maui
16. clever
17. works hard when she has a goal
18. her co workers & 1st graders love her
19. she is an amazing fisher person!

Kay, we love you beyond measure.  Big hugs, love and all the best we have and wish for you...coming your way xoxox Mom and Dad

Favorite candy

The crew

YUM!

Seriously good

Family photo op

Beach towel!

New boots

Vegas hat

kittens at fishing camp

Throw back photos

Cutie pies 

Fishing everyone under the table! 

In her element

Rain or shine 

More throw back team photots 

Thats our girl

National Champ and Gotcha Day

 Tracy and Billy spent a FULL week in Vegas cheering on the team and working their butts of at TKD nationals (Tracy with mom stuff and Billy as an athlete)

TKD rules say that you have to compete in the age group that you'll be on 12/31 so...this was Billy's 1st year as a 18-33yo, he is going to be in this bracket for a VERY long time.  

Billy KILLED it! Despite being the youngest and smallest

Day 1 - 6:30am flight with other insane TKE families - LOTS of waiting in line to board, get registered (the system when down twice) and then ge into the hotel room. Luckily Master Ruby had a room and we all hung out there.  Busy day but did the needful.

Day 2 - Sports Pomsea - this is scored like gymnastics.  They start at 10 and deduct points. Billy did pretty good but there were 30 people in this bracket and he did not make it to the next round. Thats OK!   It was also his Gotcha Day so we all sang to him:)

Day 3 - now things are getting real. Got the tournament at 8am and Billy was one of the last to compete at 9:45pm. Yep ALL .... Day.... He did Olympic Pomsea and Open Pomsea and won bronze in each. He also took 1st in weapons - upholding his title from last year. We were all going crazy!  A gold medal at nationals as an adult. Too crazy!

Dat 4 - No one on the team competed so it was a free day. Sleeping in. Hunger Games, Vegas sign. Dancing Fountains and the HUGE ferris wheel. Needless to say, Billy did all this with friends and 1 other mom, Tracy was in the hotel room, working.

Day 5 - Tyler and Tyra sparred and were beyond amazing! They both took "true" 3rd (ie: they were beat by the 1st place winner) and now get a chance to compete for the national team at team trails in 2 weeks. SO SO SO exciting.

Day 6 - Master Corwin, Master Franklin and Billy competed.  Despite a major panic attack and extra $40 (they added a lower weight class that we didnt know about until AFTER he weighed in so there was a lot of begging and bribing to get him into the right weight class < 119lb).  He was definitely the smallest and youngest person there and he really held his own.  Master F took 2nd and Master C took 1st, securing her spot on the national team.

MN Star BROUGH IT! its a small but mighty team.

They also had so much fun, swimming, good food, video games, science tv shows, they truly made the best of the whole hot week.

Love you to the moon and back Billy. So proud of you!  You are kind, determined, committed, happy and so very zen.  You know what you want and work hard. You are gracious when you win and lose. You are the #1 supporter of your team mate and friends. 

XOXOX - Mom and Dad

(not to mention, he got home and was asked to join the select team on Friday for a rugby tournament in Green Bay - Sue got to watch!)

Master Ruby - bronze!

Hunger Games

Gold in weapons!

Don't mess with our team!

Master C and Master F- GOLD for Master C 

Billy's sport pomsea score

Bucca di Beppa

Ironing his uniforms

Gotcha!

Goofballs

Gold! He shook everyones hand and told them how well they did

Working out at the pool

Team trials here we come! 

Love this team!

Day after gold

Getting checked in

Hangin' before heading out

Masters

Getting ready to compete and repress! 

Bronze

Pool time

Medal winners 

More medals

go team! 

Souvenir from sparring 

Pool time and pizza party

Finally the Fishing Opener

 It was touch and go this year as too wether or not the ice would be off the lakes in time to go fishing. Turns out it was mostly off Lake of the Woods at least Rainy River was open.

So up north we went, I was lucky to be invited by my friends Mike and his son Jack and his friend Garrett. 

We got onto the river late Friday afternoon and just boated around and got the lay off the land. The river was really flowing as the water was really up and the deadheads (logs, tree branches, ect.) were everywhere. I smoked a pork butt and we had a great dinner and early to bed for the opener the next morning.

The weather on Saturday was nothing shy of terrible, rain, 25 mile and hour winds and cold. We had little success in the morning and then headed in for breakfast and to warm up. The afternoon at least the rain stopped but not the wind, however we did start to catch fish. Enough to in fact have a fish fry on Saturday night, but nowhere near as many as we wanted.

Sunday morning was not much better we caught 2 wallets and I was able to bring some home for Tracy. We did however have a great time despite the weather and we planned to go back next year! Thanks again Mike, Jack and Garrett for a great time!

On another note my friend Tom Pearson whom is a guide on Lake Mille Lacs as well as having a cabin on the lake invited Carl and I to come up and fish for a couple days and man one man fish we did.Tom is an outstanding person as well as a great fisherman and guide. He put us on incredible small mouth and it was beyond a blast. Tom's friend Al who lives on Lake Vermillion, that is another story, joined us and we could not have gad a better time. 

Next trip is scheduled for the middle of June when Kay, Billy and I will join Carl and his kids on Lake Vermillion, gas prices depending!

More to come....

Nicer fish on and happy Father’s Day!

 

The yearly father/kid fishing trip took place ON Fathers Day weekend this year. Tracy was actually calling it Mothers Day:)  A note from Tracy, before an update from Tom.

Tom, SO glad you were able to do this trip with Billy and Kay. I'm sure you were missing Jimmy. Even though you didnt get showered with presents, dont forget you are a gift to us. You humor, love, cooking, willingness to help ANYONE and your support of your friends and community is SUCH a blessing to so many. We love you beyond measure and are SO grateful for you.  Love you to the moon and back.

XOXO

T. (& the kids and dogs)

So due to the pandemic and last minute issues two years have gone by now without the Annual Peiffer/Murphy Fishing Trip! Lake Vermillon once again was the destination we were however missing Jimmy and Charlie but we marched on.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and once the camp and cabin were set and organized off we went. Saturday was super nice mid 70"s great weather and caught as usual a ton of fish. Tom had remade an awesome meal of Jerk Chicken, red beans with rice and apple fennel salad. 

Reliving previous trips around the campfire after dinner was of course epic.

Sunday morning Carl, John and Tom headed to fishing around 7:30 and were doing quite well actually Tom and John Carl was in third place. About 9:00 it started to rain and by 9:15 we could hardly see each other in the boat, it was a down pour then it starting to thunder and lightning so we had to climb onto an island and wait out the storm. We finally made it back to camp around 10:30. We had a big breakfast cleaned up from the storm and took a nap.

The Peiffer headed out at 2:00 and the Murphy's shortly after we fished together for about an hour when we had to make a quick trip back to our cabin. Billy, Kay and I found a nice cove area with rocks and sand mostly out of the sun, it was 95 degrees. To our enjoyment the fish were super active and we were going gangbusters with Kay of course leading the way. We caught walleye, perch, northern, blue gill and both large and smallmouth bass, fantastic. We also had an interesting wildlife day seeing a fawn swimming on the lake, a bald eagle and bluebird fight, an enormous beaver and Kay almost stepped out of the boat right on a huge muskie sunning itself on the rocks.

By 7:00 we were sunburned and fished out so we headed in to wait for the Peiffers, as they tend to be out long after the agreed up return time.We were super excited for dinner as Carl was making pheasant fettuccine Alfredo. Turns out they gave up fishing around 4:00 because they were not catching fish and were bummed when we showed them our stringer of fish, first time we out fished and out lasted the Peiffer's! Dinner was great more stories and S'mores rounded out the night.

Monday we slept in had a big fish fry for brunch and the Murphy's packed up and headed home.

We booked the same accommodations for next year and only hope we have Jimmy and Charlie to get the whole band back together. One of our favorite trips pf the year! More to come...