2022 Recap

It's that time of year! My annual recap is always a source of fun for me. My memory isn't quite what it used to be, so going through pictures helps me remember all the good things we did. 

What a picture doesn't show: struggles, mental battles, heartache, and moments of despair. For those reading this now, I want to preface this blog with the fact that these photos show the things we did. Every year I hear things like, "Oh, how I wish my life was like yours" or "You never seem to let anything bother you." Our life isn't perfect, we have real struggles just like everyone, but I also have a God that I trust in who is always there, no matter what happens and because of Him I can look back with joy. 

Without any other further explanations or clarification, I give you the Ely Eberts 2022 in review:

January 

We began the year on 3rd Avenue East, but about half way through the month we were able to get moved into the Harvey Street house. This would not have been at all possible without the help of so many friends. We knew the minute we moved in all work would come to a decisive halt and we were desperate to get it finished. We still have several projects to complete a year later, but once we're recovered I'm sure we'll finish them up. 

I'd be remiss if I didn't again thank everyone who helped work on our home. Every time I look at a wall, a missing wall, the floor, the ceiling, or the upstairs bathroom, I remember and am thankful for you. 

But the house isn't all we did in January.

Ski League began again for Caleb and Isabel. Technically, Isabel was too old to take part in ski league, but they let her "help" this year. We were still under COVID restrictions, so it wasn't the typical ski league year, but the kids still enjoyed it. 

I used the time to do some reading.

February 

We had a good snow year, so Caleb was able to run around town on the kick sled he got for Christmas ♥️

Curt's 50th birthday was this year. In fact, it was a big year for us. We both turned 50 AND it was our 25th wedding anniversary.

Some friends helped pull off a surprise theme party for him. Many of our friends dressed up Jeremiah Johnson style and helped us celebrate. 

That evening was the opening ceremonies for WinterFest. If you've ever wanted to visit Ely in winter, the first week of February is the time to do it. There are a bunch of activities and the town explodes with visitors. 

I just think this is a cool photo. 😁

There are fire cauldrons all around the park to get warmed up by.

And the greenhouse owners create a skate rink and keep it maintained for several weeks after so the kids can skate at the park. We also have an outdoor rink at the rec center, but this is closer to our house. 

Sadly, Curt's birthday party turned out to be a COVID super spreader and Curt went down with it a few days after, followed by Isabel and lastly Caleb. Somehow I managed to not get it so I nursed everyone diligently for a week and a half. 

BUT 

DOMINOS PIZZA CAME TO TOWN!!!!!!!! 

We were SO excited to have a delivery option while we were isolated.

When we were finally able to get outside, we went and visited the snow sculptures in the daylight. The artists are so talented.

And we went for a dogsled ride. 😂🤣

To show how much snow we received, Curt posed by this parking sign. 

And Caleb was able to play outside without a coat at the end of February. I don't know if he was just acclimated or if it was truly this warm.

But the most exciting thing we did was cut ice blocks for the icehouse at Wilderness Bay Lodge on Snowbank Lake. 

We walked across on the way out, which was quite the jaunt. 

These are some of the photos I took when I paused from my workout. This is not easy work!

March 

We started March off with a photo shoot for the Ely Visitors Bureau. If you go to the website you can find the professional photographs that were taken, but here are a few of the shots I got. It was SO hot the day we got these. In between places we would stop and unzip our coats, whip off hats and gloves, and watch the steam roll off our bodies. 

I just think this picture is beautiful. We have the most awesome winter sunset photos of anywhere I've ever seen. ♥️

Our friends, the Hammonds, came for a visit and we did all sorts of fun things while they were here, besides dancing 😁.

Like, going for a walk to Bass Lake. ♥️

Caleb and I did some hiking of our own...

We weren't sure how long ice would last on the lakes so Caleb went for a little stroll. We shouldn't have worried. Ice didn't go out until May because our snow fall was an incredible insulator. 

April

April tends to be a month that traveling AWAY from Ely is better than traveling TO Ely. It's nothing but a melty mess most of the time. The weather is warm enough to get outside for some running, but we still get quite a few snow days.

With winter holding on tightly, we ran out of firewood for the woodstove. Thankfully, we have friends that spend the winter in Texas and they told us to help ourselves to their stash. Unfortunately, their drive hadn't been plowed all winter so we had to tromp through feet of snow with our sleds to get a good supply. Talk about a workout!

It felt like winter would never leave. Regular winter is great. The snow stays firm and there's no end to the things you can do outside. This stage of winter is the type Illinois has and it just sucks the life from you.

Easter ♥️

We were in need of a break so we headed to the North Shore for a short trip. We stayed in Silver Bay at a hotel with a waterslide and we all enjoyed just relaxing. Lake Superior had given up her ice and it was wonderful seeing open water. 

Yes, that's snow coming down...

May

The big lakes were still frozen at the beginning of May. Absolutely crazy!

But that didn't stop track from starting up for Isabel. 

As the thaw began, it was soon apparent we would have some major flooding going on during this abbreviated spring. Kawishiwi Falls was ROARING.

Normally the lake is much further out.

Gabe came for a visit. We had all been missing him quite a bit.

We spent time with our life group. If you look over Janet's shoulder, you can see there is still ice on Shagawa, but you can also tell by the gray color that it wasn't going to stay much longer. 

What do you want to do for Mother's Day, Teresa? Go backpacking of course! We took our annual trip to Angleworm Trail. The trail was crazy flooded, but we made it to a campsite, which is better than we did with our fall trip to Angleworm, but that's getting ahead of myself.

I live in a beautiful place ♥️.

The kids played baseball again this year. Both made Majors and siblings are placed on the same team, which is fantastic for families!

The end of the month brought my nephew's graduation. We made the trek to Illinois to help him celebrate and play with cousins 😊

It isn't very often that all the kids are in one place together. I so treasure these moments.

A big event means a giant sleepover at Grandma's!

June

Curt's folks, my mom, and Gabe all came up to see Isabel's dance performance again. Curt was able to take his dad fishing at an undisclosed location. 😉😂

The highlight of the trip however, was getting to go to the Bear Research Center. Yes, these are wild bears. Yes, that's a mom and 2 cubs. No, she didn't attack. No, the bears would never let us do this away from the cabin. Yes, I was nervous letting my kids get this close to a wild bear. No, the bears are not "acclimated" to humans. What is being done here is best not repeated anywhere else. Dr. Rogers knows what he is doing, we do not. 😁

We all fed the mom and the babies, but these are the only pictures we got. 

The reason they all came up:

This was a bizarre summer. All the plants and animals were on overdrive with production. This isn't snow, it's Aspen seeds. Our roads and trails were covered heavily in them. 

We had VBS

A piano recital 

And Caleb earned his next ranking and moved to the Scout Troop.

Remember how I said it was a weird year? These are Army Worms. They tried to destroy my trees. I'm hoping I destroyed them. We'll see next summer. They are SO gross!!!

We get all sorts of visitors in town. 😁

At the end of June we had the Ebert Gala. This year it was held in Pigeon Forge. We had a wonderful time, but it was also stressful. Curt's dad had a heart issue and spent the majority of the time at the hospital, which meant Curt's mom did also. We really missed them, but we're thankful the doctors were able to get him straightened out. 

This was my first time whitewater rafting.

We did a small hike on the AT. We went from Max Patch to Hot Springs, about 20 miles. These are our beginning and ending photos.

We took an extra day and just explored Gatlinburg. Truthfully, I have zero desire to go to Gatlinburg proper ever again. I love the rest of the area though. ♥️

July

Summer is a time of playing in Ely. We made the most of the beautiful, cooler weather this year and tried to be outside as much as possible.

We made it home for the 4th of July festivities

It was pretty wet and cold the day of the parade.

We made a quick trip out to South Hegman Lake and had a picnic supper with friends.

Seriously... I never get tired of how beautiful it is here.

All of our time on the water isn't spent in a canoe though. We played one afternoon on a friend's pontoon boat on Shagawa Lake. 

And what summer would be complete without me hiking the Bass Lake Trail several times?

This is my favorite spot on the trail. I could spend all day here.

They were such troopers. It was a hot, long hike. 

August

We took a Boundary Waters trip to start the month. I'm just going to leave you with a photo dump. The trip was wet, hot, but wonderful. We ended up cutting the travel distance because Curt wasn't feeling well, but we still managed to have the BEST time. ♥️ You can read about it here.

Back to Illinois! This time for Gabe's college move in. Football started early in the month, so he had to move in before the rest of the student body. 

Curt and I got out for some fishing.

Among the dumber things I have done, Caleb and I decided to hike the entire Angleworm Trail in one day. The reason this was dumb, is no one actually knows how long the trail is. After a very quick research, I concluded the trail was about 13 miles. Wrong! 

Well, the trail is that long, the portage to get TO the trail is about 2 miles, which means we hiked almost 17 miles that day. I ended up hurting my knee from overuse which wrecked my hiking plans for the rest of summer. Ugh. So stupid.

On the other hand, Caleb and I know we can easily knock out 17 miles with time to spare for ice cream, a movie, and a fun dinner. 🤣😂

September

August marks the beginning of fall for us. September gives us the colors ♥️.

We started the month off with Isabel being baptized. She had been at camp and she came home saying she had a real understanding of what it means to follow Jesus. Our church held a baptism ceremony at Semers Beach over Labor Day weekend.

Caleb started football. He is a free safety and he's a quick little bugger. 

School FINALLY started. There was a delay because of construction by a week. Isabel began her public school career in 7th grade.

Caleb is still home with me.

Isabel played volleyball for the first time. 

And Caleb and I were finishing up our season of working at the resort. On Saturdays, I clean and he is training to be a handy man. 

Race weekend was the last weekend of September. Caleb did the 5K on Friday 

And the kid's marathon on Saturday. Through the months of August and September kids run 25 miles. On race day they run the final 1.2. He placed second again this year and he has asked to run in the half marathon next year. 

I began working a couple hours a week at Ely's only, and best, bakery. It's nice getting out of the house a couple times during the week and talking to adults. 😁

September ended with us making a quick trip to Carlinville. One of Curt's deacons from our first church passed away and they asked Curt if he could do the funeral. It was an honor and privilege to be able to do so. 

October

When friends get new toys I sometimes get to go play, too. ♥️ We took a cold ride to see some of the waning fall colors. 

We fired up the woodstove 

Caleb's 11th birthday was celebrated with a sleepover 

And we got some snow.

For my birthday, I went on a quick backpacking trip with Caleb and a friend. We were supposed to do the Angleworm trail, but flooding and an overactive beaver made it impossible to get past the creek. We had to turn around and instead went to my old, trusted Bass Lake Trail.

The temperature got down to about 23°.

Curt has been working on this square stern canoe for trips to Basswood. This was its maiden voyage and he quickly realized some more tweaking was necessary.

Halloween brought Game Warden Ebert face to face with a couple hunters trying to take a bear out of season. He quickly made an arrest. 😂

November 

November started off full of excitement. Isabel finally got braces!

I went on a 50th birthday trip with my sisters, back to the Smoky Mountains 😍

We spent time hot tubbing, hiking, hot tubbing, playing games, hot tubbing, eating out, and hot tubbing. They gave me ridiculous 50th birthday novelty gifts and the whole trip ended with my sister gaining a grandson! Since we were so close to where he lives, she skipped the flight home, waited for her husband to arrive, and went and visited the newest member of their family. ♥️

This just cracked me up. Donut holes at the cockpit panel. 😂

We have life group on Sunday evenings. This photo just makes me warm and fuzzy. Everyone was kicked back, legs up, watching the video. ♥️

The snow started stacking up!

I've already discussed the events that happened at the end of November extensively. If you somehow missed it, here is the link to the blog where I wrote about losing Curt's mom. 

For those interested in the spiritual side, you can read about that here.

Needless to say, Thanksgiving was hard.

But it was nice getting to visit with my folks unexpectedly, even if they couldn't stay awake to actually talk with me. 😉🤣

December

Obviously, December started out rough. The days of the visitation and funeral were long and hard, but it was so good to see many old friends. ♥️

We were thankful to get back to our wood stove. I just love sitting in front of it .

Caleb took part in a Christmas play through our homeschool co-op. He was Joseph.

All the kids did a great job!

I went to Duluth with some friends to see a play, have dinner, stay the night, and Christmas shop. Duluth is a pretty romantic place at night. 

We never take good pictures 🙄😂

So, this is a cool phenomenon. It's called blue snow. Do you see it?

A stack of firewood, snow pile, a kick sled, and ice lantern.  Pretty Northwoods right there. 

This is where I normally sum up the year. Kind of like giving it a grade. The truth is, each day had its own challenges and silver linings. Each and every day was good and bad. Even through the very toughest things we had to endure, there were still times to smile. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I see so much worth living for. So much joy in the sadness. So much love in the tears. 

Thank you for being part of our lives. Whether we talk daily, monthly, yearly, or very seldom, I am grateful you have been part of our story. 

Here's to 2023. I'm looking forward to each and every hour you have for us. ♥️