Sunday, May 24th, 2026

 Happy Memorial Day weekend!

This weekend our family went over to Platte River State Park in Nebraska to go camping with Amy, Brandon, Logan, and Emma. This was the second time that we have gone camping over there, as we did the same thing for Memorial Day in 2024.

It was a good time to have all of the cousins hang out. We went hiking to see a small waterfall, we climbed up a viewing tower, we sang karaoke and played games back at the cabin, and of course we had a campfire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows.  

Today before driving home we all went out to eat at Ashland Brewing Company.  Overall it was a fun weekend with family, but I do think that I will sleep well in my own bed tonight!

I also wanted to mention that Nolan and Maxwell only have 4 more days of school!  They are looking forward to wrapping up the school year and having a fun summer. Who knows, maybe we will even see more of the Shostaks soon...

Here we are with the view from the observation tower at Platte River State Park.

Sunday, May 3rd, 2026

This weekend I took Nolan up to Yellow River for our annual camping and trout fishing trip.  He had a field trip on Friday, so instead of getting him out of school early like some years I waited until his regular school day was finished. Because of that, it was after 7:00 by the time we got into Harper's Ferry.  We had time to set up the tent, but we did not try to fish any on Friday. Friday night it was very chilly (lower 30s for temperature), and there was frost on the ground when we woke up on Saturday.

Saturday morning I had to stop into the store at Harper's Ferry to get a battery for the key fob for my car.  After that I drove Nolan over to the fishing hole by the Wexford church, but we did not even have a nibble there. Next, we tried our luck at the handicap area at Little Paint, but again we did not get a bite. Then we had an early lunch at camp before heading out fishing again. We stopped by the fishing hole close to camp, where Nolan caught a nice rainbow trout. After cleaning that fish, we took the trail back behind Little Paint. We ended up fishing at the rock wall, where you go left from the fork in the trail. There had been some people there that had their dog playing in the water, so you would think that the fish would have been spooked, but after they left I was actually able to catch a nice rainbow trout! Later that day we did try the handicap area one more time, but no luck. So we ended up making a fire, grilling hamburgers, and making smores. 

This morning before packing up camp we tried fishing at the spot next to camp, but we did not even get a nibble. So in total we caught 2 trout, one for each of us. It is worth noting that Little Paint campground seemed to be more busy than I had ever seen it before.  So all of our usual spots were getting fished pretty hard, and it was difficult to even find spots that did not already have people fishing.

This was the 6th time that Nolan has been fishing at Yellow River. Here are some previous times that I have blogged about being up there: 2025, 2024, 2023, 2021, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2014, 2013, and 2012.

Nolan with the trout he caught 

Nolan with the Harper's Ferry sign

Nolan with our tent.  This was the first time we had used this new tent.