December island style

Here is the final photo of the cottage for 2017, thanks to Chris for sending...

December 2017

Southaven adventure coming in 2018!

2018 will be a new adventure for the Stenger family and our continued Kelleys Island experience. In late November, we purchased another lot in Southaven Woods...

Here is a sneak peek of the lot looking north towards the lake.

Southaven lot

The plan is to break ground in the Spring of 2018!

Big October!

The weather on the island this Fall has been the best I can remember. We took a few weeks off from the island, but as soon as we got there, Neil insisted we go out for "dinner".

Here is Anna and Neil enjoying "kid-friendly" Brandy Alexanders.

Saturday, we visited all the family activity sites from carving pumpkins to the hayride.

After years of hearing about "The Cut", we went on a family hike to find on Sunday. Sophie lead the way since she had explored this area with her nature photography class earlier in the summer.

We finally found "The Cut"!

See you soon!

Anna - Homecoming 2017!

This is a just an extra post unrelated to Kelleys Island or the cottage. However, I just wanted to add a little something for our daughter Anna, who is a freshman in high school now. This was her first Olmsted Falls High Homecoming!

We are so proud of you as a beautiful young lady who excels in school, singing and everything else she does! We love you!

Anna - Homecoming 2017

Big September!

September came like a bang! We kicked off Labor Day weekend with a visit from John and Amy Pyke.

Labor day weekend was super fun. Here is a shot of the crew taken from behind the bar by Bonnie.

After nearly waiting 10 years for a golf-cart, our island dreams came true. Bonnie had the new ride delivered on the ferry the last week in September. Party on!

Big August!

The summer of continuous fun continues...

We had Anna's crew up for a few nights. They got in some kayaking and hanging out downtown.

Spend a nice late Sunday afternoon, getting ice cream

Kelly Miller circus, always our favorite

Neil had swimming lessons at Camp Patmos. By the end of the week, he was jumping off the diving board all by himself.

We wrapped up the month with the Toby Keith concert on Put-In-Bay!

Here us Bonnie and Lisa on the party ferry en route to the Bay. Big fun had by all.

Big July!

Having an "extended vacation" on Kelleys Island this summer has been great! Hanging out with family and friends has been fantastic.

Bonnie and me met Uncle Al, Lori and their friends on Put-In-Bay

Our friend's from Columbus were at their lake house in Catawba and boated over to Kelleys for the afternoon. Great seeing you guys!

 Sean and Emily from Columbus

Bon talked me into yet another day trip to Put-In-Bay.

Bon's first time to the pool bar behind Mr. Ed's bar

Summer wouldn't be summer without a trip to Cedar Point. Here are some shots of the crew on the Matterhorn and then lil Neil on the Kid's car ride

Cedar point is fun!

Neil riding a pony in Frontier Town

Memorial Day Weekend

Had a nice long weekend with the family. The kids are officially done with school and summer can start!

Papa T's Ice Cream time!

Me and the lil ones

Last weekend I went up to the island with Sophie and lil Neil, since Bonnie and Anna went to Cedar Point on Saturday with her school group.

The goal of this weekend, was all electronics...

Friday night, I installed and mounted a new flat panel SmartTV in our bedroom.

New mounted TV in bedroom - no wires!

Saturday, we ran a buried cat5 cable connected from Chris's cottage router into our crawlspace and up behind the main room console. Then, I terminated the signal with a new Netgear - Dual Band - Wireless Access Point. So far, so good. We should have super reliable internet/wifi now. The rest of the weekend it worked great, so fingers crossed!

The kids played all weekend. Here is a photo of them on the beach, early Saturday evening.
 

Kids on the beach

Sunday, I attempted to mount the main room tv on the wall. The photo looks better than the results. I need to fix this install since it was so close to the wall that it pinched all of the wires and many don't work. More to come on this...

Work in progress

The whole crew

Last weekend we packed up the truck tight and managed to bring the entire crew (all five of us) and all of our stuff, plus like 8 bags of mulch and 6 bags of stone. We were in a mad rush to make the last ferry at 6:00 pm. Good news, we made it to the ferry by 5:55 pm but the line was so long, they had to send another boat to pick us up at 7:00, argh!

Here are some photos from Saturday night. The little kids had a riot and played all weekend.

My boy

Nothing like roasting hotdogs over an open fire

Sun-setting in the west behind the cottage

Sunday afternoon we had a long hike over on the north shore. Love being back on the island!

I got several cool projects done including...

• Installed the new speakers
• Mulched the flower beds
• Added new stone around the firepit
• Started on the "portal" (this is a path thru the woods to connect to the Loop)

Pre-Easter family weekend

We went up to the island with the whole crew, minus Anna who was staying with Lily. Friday night, Captain Ron had us over for a fish fry. Bonnie started her new job at the Captain's Corner.

It was a short weekend since we had to leave on Saturday night to be home for Easter Sunday.

First family weekend

It was officially Early Bird Weekend and time for the whole family to come up to the island. Bon, Soph and lil Neil headed up on Friday after school and Anna and me went later on Saturday morning since she was just coming back from her 8th grade Washington DC trip.

Anna on the ferry

Saturday, was the annual Early Bird party at the Village Pump. We had a great table right by the live entertainment. Good times.

Bon and lil man dancing

Sunday, we went fishing at the State Park pier. It was a beautiful day but very windy. No bites!

lil man

Soph

Ready to start enjoying the season!

Opening Weekend 2017

Welcome to the 2017 season! We went up last weekend to open up. You never know what you're going to find, so I was happy everything worked except the outdoor spigots. I need to spend some time trying to figure out the issue, but everything else plumbing related is working fine. This is a bit of a mystery...

2017 - Let's roll!

Justin can up with me on Friday night and then Brad joined us on Saturday afternoon. The weather was decent for mid March. We hung outside playing guitar for hours.

Justin and Brad

Later that evening, we went to the Village Pump for dinner and then back to the cottage to re-engage the fire. Chris and Winston joined in the festivities.

Good times

 Glad to be back on the island