No Snow Here

Chrissy and Jeff and Roger and Brittany left for home this weekend.  It was sad to have them leave...even sadder to think they were heading for the tundra.  There was 13 inches of snow on the ground back there.
Bummer.

On the other hand, here it has been sunny and warm...80's...AC on.  Yesterday the Krehbiels, Justuses and Roger and me took another trip over to Downtown Disney.  We'd forgotten it was Preident's Day and there were so many people and it was so hot, and we had to wait everywhere.  So what should do?  What every other person down here would do.  Head for home and jump in the pool.  Now that was a smart choice.

Last night we babysat so Heidi and Eric and Greta and Adam could go back to Downtown Disney and enjoy themselves...and they did!!!!

It's summer in February!

We arrived in Florida on Valentine's Day along with Chrissy and Jeff who caravaned with us.   We stopped in St. Augustine, a charming little village on the ocean, and were able to walk around, stretch our tired bodies and enjoy the town.  We then drove to our house in Kissimmee, unpacked and did some grocery shopping.  Roger and Brittany arrived later in the afternoon.  We're having just a great time.  The sun is shining, the temperature is in the 70's, the pool is a balmy 91 degrees and we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves.

We spent yesterday afternoon at Downtown Disney, and are heading out to one of the bazillion flea markets in a little while.

Tomorrow the kids are going to Universal, and we are going to ..............  don't quite know yet........whatever we feel like doing, for starters.

Spent the good part of today poolside just relaxing and enjoying our vacation.  This could easily become addicting.

Winter in Wisconsin

We have had a regular winter around here...a beautiful white Christmas, not too cold, just pretty and white.  I thought it was so nice that I had Roger take my picture on our deck.   That's me next to the bird feeder, and there is a lot of snow, but not so much for winter.

Fast forward to today, the day after the big blizzard.  Whoa!!!!  Lots and lots of snow.  So much snow that I made a snow angel on our deck, but then the snow was so soft, that I could hardly pull myself up.  So much for the snow angel.

Roger spent over  two hours snowblowing this morning, and this afternoon we went to the park for a walk.  The path in the park hadn't been plowed yet, however, so we cut short our walk.    It's tough trudging through 2+ feet of snow.

So what's the moral of this story?  It's winter in Wisconsin, need I say more?

That's all there is...there ain't no more

Friday night Roger and I and another couple went out to eat and to a play.  The dinner was quite good except for the rolls which were so hard even Roger had trouble breaking  them in half.  The server,  was clever, witty and fun.  The rest of the dinner was great.  What we didn't know was that the dinner would be the best part of the evening.

We left the restaurant and headed for the play.  Talk about a real bust!  The play was all that and more.  The acting was not stellar, but for amateurs it was okay.  The story itself was the problem.  It was so bad that when it was finally over, we all sat there waiting for the stage lights to come back on.  Much to our surprise, they never did.  Apparently the play was over.

We have been attending these plays with our friends  for 3 years.  In all that time we've seen some good, some not so good, and some rather poor renditions.  This one, however, takes the cake. It's also the first time in 3 years that the good old Wisconsin audience didn't rise to their feet for a standing ovation.  Why didn't they?  Because like me, no one knew it was over.

They're putting it on next weekend as well.   We should go again.  Perhaps this time they'll  finish the dopey thing.

Traveling

It's been a long time since I've posted anything, so I figure this is a good time to start.  I'm writing from the lovely little Amish village of Shipshewana, Indiana.  You can see black buggies drawn by beautiful horses everywhere.  Really, they are every where.  Today we rode in one and got the 15 minute tour of the town.
It's full of shops, many of which sell Amish made products.  Tomorrow we hit those.  Already we've shopped at one of their bakeries.  Yum.  Delicious pies, breads, and anything else that sounds good to eat.  We ate at one of the restaurants here that sells Amish made food.  This was probably the nicest experience eating out we've had in a long time...including the Port Hotel. :)  More, tomorrow.

Well, what a great day!!!  We went to lots of shops in Shipshewana.  They're really like a lot of the shops in Door County.  We spent the entire morning walking around, shopping, eating breakfast, taking a few pictures, etc.  Then off we went to Frankfort...the capital of Kentucky.  Tomorrow we're going to Pleasant Hill, KY where we'll tour Shakertown!  Roger was in a village like this before on his way to Maine (back when we were moving there).  I flew to Maine with Heidi and Greta, so I didn't have the opportunity to see it back then.  I'll get my chance tomorrow. It's been a wonderful couple of days, and we're just beginning our travels.  More later.......

Today we toured Shakertown in Pleasant Hill Kentucky.  Very interesting life style those Shakers.  I learned a lot about them, and while I don't really understand their beliefs, it's always so much fun to learn about someone else's way of life.  This was no exception   The area surrounding their little town is just beautiful.  All in all it was just a really nice day.  Tonight we're in Beckly, West Virginia, and I've got to say that West Virginia is gorgeous!   We've been driving through the mountains of WVA all afternoon.  The trees are just beginning to turn colors, and really, the view is breathtaking.  I don't think Roger nor I expected to see so much beauty on this trip.  We sure do live in an amazing country!!!  More later...

We made it to Virginia!!!  We met my friend Barby Leigh for dinner and it was a great reunion!!! Sunday we  went to Barby's home, which is right on Lake Monticello, and enjoyed a tour of her lovely home.  Then we drove up to the Blue Ridge Mountains and saw absolutely the most beautiful views in the world.  We even stopped along the way for demonstrations of wool spinning, log cutting (Roger helped for a little while), and some other fun things to see.  It was a really nice day.  We ate a picnic lunch overlooking the mountains...who gets to do  that?  Lots of fun.



Monticello



Today we went to visit Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home, which is just beautiful.  We learned a lot about Thomas Jefferson, his family, his plantation, his friends and his lifestyle,  and it was so worth the trip.  Oh, and lets not forget the gift shop!  It was a great way to end the tour.   We then drove to Charlottesville, the town only minutes away from Barby's home, and we walked around there for a little while.  I got enough walking in today to last a long time.  We even enjoyed a ride in a pontoon boat around the lake this afternoon.  Now that was really special for me.  Not only do I love the water, but I love boat rides.  How better to end such a wonderful day?!!!  Tonight we went to dinner with Barby and Jim before saying our good-byes and heading back to our hotel.  Tomorrow we head for home.  This has been such a great trip!  We're really so happy that we took the time to take this vacation!

Triathalon and More

Well, I'm back home  after experiencing my very first triathalon through my six, soon to be seven, grandson.
It all began this morning at the Baraboo middle school pool, where Jason was to swim one length of the pool.
Was he pumped?  Could he hardly wait to begin?  Pictures say it all, so here is Jason BEFORE he jumped into the pool.

So, it was finally time for "heat 11, lane 3" and Jason was in the pool swimming.  After splashing through one very difficult lap, he was out of the water, drying off quickly, running towards his bike and off to the second phase of the triathalon...biking.  He really pulled out all stops as he and his dad came racing down the hill riding their bikes to the track.  Once there, the helmet came off, the bike was abandoned and off ran Jason to complete the race by running one lap around the high school track.  How did he do?  Was he still in a state of trauma?  Did he ever recover?  We'll let you be the judge.

To top off the day we all went back to Heidi and Eric's to celebrate Lara, Jason and Max's birthdays with homemade mini pizzas, great mint/chocolate chip cake and presents to boot.  Everyone having fun?

I would say, "YES"!  Happy Birthday Lara, Jason, and Max!  And congratulations, Jason, on a great triathalon performance!!!!!!

A Walk Down Memory Lane

Well, we're back.  We left right after church on Sunday and headed for the north woods to see Roger's Aunt Betty, sister to Roger's dad, Alfred Klumb.  She spends the summer up near Hayward, WI, nearly 8 hours from our house.  She had written us and asked us to come up.  We needed to get away for a while and thought this was a great idea.  Actually, we had no idea where Hayward was and didn't remember that Roger has jury duty from August 20-September 10.  So, we called when we arrived at Ladysmith, 7 hours from home and although the trial scheduled for Friday had been settled, the one for Wednesday was still on.
Wouldn't know if that was settled until Tuesday after 6:00pm.  All that way for such a short time.  Well, what could we do?  Make the most of it, I guess, and that's what we did. 

We went to see Betty Monday morning.  Roger helped her with a few things around there and then by 2:00 we were headed back home...we didn't want one day of eight hour driving again.  We stopped in Eagle River and walked there for a little bit, and even found his cousin, Chuck"s, store.  Chuck had gone home for the day, but his wife stopped in just as we were there...usually she's not in on Monday afternoons.  So we got to visit with her for a few minutes and then we were off.

We drove through the Menominee Indian Reservation for old times sake, and then stopped in Shawano for a drive down memory lane.  We saw our old house,

saw the elementary school with its huge addition,

went to Hal's Halmark,

checked out a wall with a stone for our family,

and

went in to some of the stores.  We even ate a meal at a restaurant that was there when we lived in Shawano...Anello's Torchlight.  It was delicious.

Pretty soon it was time to head home...don't go by way of hwy 47 until next year...major construction and horrible out of the way detours.  We finally arrived home late Tuesday afternoon.  We then called the courthouse again and?!?   You guessed it.  The trial scheduled for Wednesday (today) had settled and Roger didn't need to check back until the night of August 29th.

So, all in all, we had a great time, did too much driving, were under a time crunch, but were able to get home, relax and know that he didn't have jury duty the next day.  Needless to say, we won't be planning any more adventures until his term expires around September 10th.