Christmas 2009 was a great time of family and fun. After a VERY hectic work week, and everything needed to get the radio stations ready for us to getaway for a few days, we made it it Appleton by early Christmas Eve. Danielle's brother Geoff had driven from Minnesota for the weekend, so the Derk's family was all together for the holiday. We enjoyed many great homemade meals, and lot's of fun. We went to the movies on Christmas Day to see the new Robert Downey Jr. movie "Sherlock Holmes"...it was a good movie. It was an ole' school CSI without Grissom. We napped throughout the weekend, so catching up on sleep was a thoughtful gift from Santa. Saturday night, we enjoyed the company of Steve and Gail, who are from Kentucky. Rick & Lynn spend time with them in KY each year.

We left Sunday to come back home, and since we need to stop every 45 minutes, we stopped at Burger King in Slinger, WI for some lunch. After we finished, we made an unplanned trip to an attraction that can be seen below.



More posts soon!

This weekend, we spent time in Crown Point Indiana at my parents new home for the first on numerous baby showers for Danielle and Edie. Lots of family we on hand and their support and generosity were overwhelming. Below are pics from the event.

Today, Danielle & I had another doctor's appointment with Linda. This was a normally scheduled visit just to get updated on our last appointment, which included the official ultrasound. This visit was to go over the ultrasound, and discuss any issues. The only issue was that they were not able to see all four parts of her heart, so we had to have ANOTHER ultrasound. Everything is going great, and all is forming well, so no worries. These extra, unexpected pics really make our new addition very real. She was turned face down most of the visit, but during the last 30 secs of the visit, Edie actually turned over, and gave us the pics below. These are some of the coolest pics of our new baby.

We have scheduled a 4D ultrasound with the grandparents in two weeks, so we will have even more pics very soon.

As summer has come to an end, and warmer weekends are fading into the past, this weekend we squeezed one last three day weekend at a cabin in Boot Lake Wisconsin. Rick and Lynn's friends, Frank and Marti have a very nice cabin set along a calm lake just outside Townsend, WI. They were nice enough to let us spend the weekend there to relax and unwind. As usual, I need to find the things in everyday life that amuse me...this time it was the bear footstool in the cabin. As you can see below, he quickly became a BIG part of our weekend.

This was one of many things that kept us laughing all weekend.

We have waited 18 weeks to be able to have our official ultrasound to find out more about the new addition to Team Zapchenk. Susan, our Ultrasound tech, said everything looks just fine and both baby and mother are very beautiful. Baby Edie, yes the baby is a girl, is 0.9 ounces and VERY active. Click below to meet Edie for yourself.

Below, is the first picture I have of my child...at work...Danielle has one on her desk too!

Both sides of the family got together in Crown Point at the new Zapchenk ranch for a weekend full of fun, family, and grand child talk. And nothing brings the family together more than a Harley ride. Experience the road with us below:

~Getting on the bike can be the hardest part~

~Safety first...wise words from the driver~

..and we are off!

Ride On!

More stories from the weekend coming soon!!!!!

We went to the baby doctor today and got to hear Paddle's heartbeat.
ENJOY!!!

We get the official ultrasound and gender in two weeks.

Well...after 13 weeks of keeping it secret from our "blog family," we would like to welcome the newest member of the family...DANIELLE IS PREGNANT. We have been to the doctor twice now, and Danielle is almost 14 weeks along now, with an expected due-date of Feb. 3rd 2010. She has been described by our mid-wife as the "perfect little pregnant woman," since she has not thrown up during her first trimester. Today we got to see a better, larger pic of the baby with the second ultrasound. We were able to see the baby move, and actually "look" at us to pose for the pic below.

You can see the "V" on the pic is the front of the baby's head.
Click the PLAY arrow for a better shot of the pic.

One of the highlights of this whole process was to tell our parents about the news. We thought it would be fun to record their reactions so we could share with our child to show them later in life how their family reacted to the news of their arrival.

We will be sharing ALOT more over the upcoming weeks...so stay tuned, and thanks for your support as we start this new chapter of our lives.

One of our summer projects is to get the '55 "up to speed" to cruise around McHenry County. The car is currently in-progress at Mickey's Car Barn in Crown Point, Indiana. The engine has been removed to make room for a rebuilt bigger engine and new mechanicals. All of these updates will make the car safer for us to go cruising to get milk shakes and hang at the drive-in.

At Mickey's...after the engine is out!!

Before the engine was pulled!

With the engine out and the engine bay cleaned and painted...
ready for the new engine.

How do you spell weekend if you are in Whitting, Indiana???...
P-I-E-R-O-G-I!!!!!!!!!
Danielle and I spent Friday night at the new family ranch in Crown Point, IN. After spending some good quality "family time" and even "antiquing" with my father(that was a last minute decision on his part...not mine!)...we headed over to experience all that is PIEROGI.

The in-laws are back in town...and that means...HARD YARD WORK!!!! Just kidding!
They worked their magic in our "desperate landscape" by creating what you see below, all in two afternoons. We are very lucky to be able to reap the benefit of their talents when it comes to creating beautiful arrangements. The front yard has been waiting EIGHT LONG YEARS to look this good. You really need to see it to appreciate. One thing you need to know about the cost of this project...it cost approx. $600. For most, it would be more, but due to some "unauthorized" procurement of 50% of the vegetation see below, it cost less. I can't answer anymore questions...I plead the 5th. By the way, we did make many trips to Home Depot and Menards, as well as "The Barn Nursery" in Crystal Lake to purchase the other 50%.

Front yard

Front & Side yard

Front View #2

Side view #2
...all the way at the back

To those of you that have been waiting for a new post we appreciate your patience. That's you Amy Casselberry! The Zapchenks have been busy and things are great. A few weeks ago, Eric and I made our way up to Appleton, WI to see my parents and bid my brother Geoff adieu to Bayou La Batre, Alabama! Geoff will be working as a site director for his job with Youthwerks and hoping to start a shrimpin' business. Our main objective was to help my parents get their yard in order. If you haven't seen my parents garden, it is amazing and they have been spotlighted in the Appleton Post Crescent. So...with a couple trips to Menards, 200 bags of mulch and flowers planted in 40+ pots, we finally put a small dent into what needed to be done. Along with the gardening, my Dad likes to find new tools to rent. This time, it was an extendable chainsaw to cut high tree branches. This was the best tool for him since it included safety gear and the blade was at least five feet away from him at all times. Here is a stunning picture of Rick Derks in his tree cutting attire.

To wrap up Saturday, we all went to George's Steakhouse for a special night out. George's is one of those old time steakhouses that have a little appetizer bar (spreadable cheese and macaroni salad with a sneeze guard,) oil lamps and a piano shaped bar. Classy! We had a great time and I think our server enjoyed our group.

Let's see...we have also had two WIND events since our last entry, Obama the first 100 Days and The Two Fore Tee Golf outing. This was our first golf outing for the station and it was a long day. Eric and I were up at 2:30am for a morning remote broadcast...(luckily I did get to sleep after set up for a couple of hours) but then registration started at 11am and golf at 12:30pm. Did anyone know that an 18 hole course takes almost 5 hours. Take up minature people it is less time consuming. The day wrapped at 8pm after a chaotic dinner including live and silent auction items being bid on by guys that have had a little too much to drink on the course. Maybe that is the end goal, but it sure was crazy.

We hope everyone is doing well and will do our best at keeping you up to date as we head into the summer months. Love Danielle and Eric

With our last full day of vacation, we ventured out into San Fran to see what this city had to offer. We walked over to a breakfast joint that has the best pancakes in the whole city. Usually the line is down the street, but since it was Monday we didn't wait too long. I have to say the pancakes at Sears Fine Dining was extremely good.

After a delicious dine we walked through Union Square to the Powell station for the trollies. The trolly took us through the city all the way over to Fisherman's Warf. The Boudin Factory was in full swing making sourdough in their demonstration window. The baker was making boudin shaped turtles and alligators.

The next stop was the Museum Mecanique on the pier that had antique mechanical arcade with some modern games mixed in. There were a lot of interesting things including Jolly Jack, a laughing sailor. Slighty creepy...but check out the video.

When Eric finished all the games he wanted to play, we walked over to the Marina and Ghiradelli square. Mom's... you will be not to thrilled to know that we ate a hot fudge sundae for lunch. It's vacation what do you expect. I guess it gave us the boost we needed to walk up Larkin Street where Russian Hill Park is and then up again to Lombard Street and then up again to the crooked part of the street with 8 hairpin turns. Experience the ride for yourself by clicking the video below.

Then we hopped back on the trolly to the hotel and took a quick break to figure out the second leg of our SF trek. Picked up our car and headed over to Mel's diner for DUNCH (reminiscent of Happy Days) and ate some more with a chocolate shake and a souvenir T-shirt that featured a "55 Bel-air ...how appropriate.

After some great food, we traveled on the SF 49 mile drive (Zapchenk style). The 49 mile drive goes through some of the best spots in the city for pictures and vista views. A couple places we stopped at or drove through: Golden Gate Bridge, Palace of the Arts, Haight Asbury District (hippies), Alamo Square (painted ladies shown on Full House opening credits) and much more. Eric and I had a great time on this trip and are excited to get back home and see Bud.

Time to kiss this vacation goodbye...and come home!

Today we headed into wine country to experience Napa and Sonoma Valley. We got up early and went over the Bay Bridge to find some breakfast. We ended up in Berkley at the Bread Factory. It was interesting because it was a very organic hippie-esque restaraunt. You will be glad to know that Eric's egg platter was organic and from a sustainable farm. He also got organic apple juice in this cute little glass jug. However, the picture below looks like it could be used for a urine specimen.

Apple Juice or urine...you make the call!

After a hearty breakfast we got back on the road and Eric found the visitor center for Napa and Sonoma that had free passes to the wineries...always in for a deal. We figured out the area and met the visitor center vintner David. We tried four different ports / muscats and he gave us some advice and tips on wine etiquette. Loving the orange muscat we left with a bottle and a map of endless wine adventures. Our first stop was Darioush. This winery was started by an Iranian man that came to the US with nothing and started a grocery store. After making some money he decided to start a winery. It was a beautiful building that incorporated stone from ancient Egyptian ruins. I had a small taste but we didn't stay for a full flight.

One of my favorite parts of the day was going to Taylor's Refresher. They were on The Food Networks best burgers show and Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. We got there and there was already a line formed. Eric had a regular cheeseburger and I had a blue cheeseburger, it was probably the best burger I have ever had (second to Mim's in Menasha, WI...kidding). It was a really cute place if anyone is ever out in St. Helena, CA.

After lunch we went to Robert Mondavi vineyards and got a tour and tasting. It was really interesting and had a lot of fun.

Then we drove into Sonoma to see the HGTV Dream Home. Even though we didn't win, we still needed a picture for our Christmas card. We strolled through Sonoma's town square and it was really cute. The funniest thing was these two little kids came up to us wanting to know if we would like to buy some fine porcelain pieces. It was really cute and funny at the same time because it was painted pieces from some kind of homemade kit.

Finally, we ate more food at Johnny Garlic's in Santa Rosa.
It was a fun filled day and we are looking forward to a great day in San Fran tomorrow!