Barns

I'm from Wisconsin. My mom grew up on a farm, but I did not. Still, I have a soft spot in my heart for barns. Red barns. With a silo nearby. While driving home from Michigan last week, we drove all the way across Wisconsin (northern...not southern where I am from) on Hwy 29. We passed many wonderful barns. I didn't make Charlie stop the car...I took all of these from the car traveling at 65 miles per hour down the road.
I really love barns; I really do.

Big Boy Hodag

I was reminded by a friend that the Hodag's name is Happy. Just seems wrong.

Two of my favorite pictures from our recent vacation...enjoy!

Even more Disney

The first one deserves an explanation. I was calling this Cinderella's castle all morning. Then I found out it is Sleeping Beauty's castle. oops. I'm sure I had a few people around me snickering...

Zoo pages

Here are some pages from the SD Zoo. The animal pages are simple. I had some fun shots of us, too...

Disney Pages

I know I have a few Disney fans in my readership...so just for you... Here are the Disney pages I've finished so far. Many more to go, but this will give you a feel for them.

I am really enjoying scrapping Disney photos because the colors are so bright and there are such good stories with every page.

Magic

"Mom, Mickey kissed me. Twice!!!"


I was frankly surprised at how much Margaret loved the "magic and fantasy" of Disneyland. I knew Amelia would get into it, but Margaret? I wasn't sure. Well, Margaret ended up being the one who loved the parade and the characters and all that.

I love this picture I took on the teacups. We were riding it during the parade and it came right by. This is a picture of Margaret waving (either to Ariel or to Mickey an Minnie). Look at her face. Glowing. So into it.

She did not, however, like the fantasy of the rides. Turns out that any ride that the line was in darkness, she would not go on. Nemo's submarine ride scared her. Even Alice in Wonderland (right next to the teacups) was not for her. She deemed it "Kind of freaky". (Well, I agree it's kind of freaky too, but in a good way) So she wouldn't go on anything except the roller coaster in ToonTown, Dumbo, the Teacups, and the Carousel. This is a kid who has been on Excalibur and High Roller at ValleyFair. This just totally amazed me.

Amelia, on the other hand, actually went on The Pirates of the Caribbean with her dad (I ended up going alone so we could do the kid swap thing). This girl won't even go on the kiddie roller coaster at ValleyFair. So I was REAL proud of her. She loved the rides like Nemo's Submarine and Alice in Wonderland. So this girl EARNED her pirate ears (which I totally love. Totally).

OK... and here's Shamu...

In the interest of equal exposure... we had one Mickey picture, some zoo pictures... here's some SeaWorld pictures. Much more to come on all of these topics...but I'm just going through the pictures for the first time myself...

The coolest experience of my vacation...

...was not Shamu or Mickey, as wonderful as both of those experiences were.

This was...


and look for the baby up in the tree in this one...



Look close. She's real small. But I can't believe how high in the tree the little one climbed!!!

We got to the San Diego Zoo right when it opened. It was a chilly morning (for SoCal) and threatening rain. So... we walked right up to the Pandas and got to stand and watch them for as long as we wanted. No one prodding us along.

And one more cool photo. We went back several times throughout the day. Just totally cool. Really...

Home...

Lots to tell. Will fill you in over the next few days. Glad we missed the snow earlier this week...

Back from Boston

I had a little bit of a whirlwind trip this weekend to Boston. Left on Friday am and came back this am. My big brother Steve got married. I got to see my niece and nephew. Had lots of fun!!!

Here's few pictures...I'm not into much writing right now.

Whooping Cough anyone?

Yeah. I think that is what it is. Doc also said it might be drainage from chronic sinusitis. Perhaps with asthma. Yikes.

All was calmed (in my head anyway) when I read this. It pretty much exactly describes my journey the last six weeks. I don't feel poorly, but I had to go to the doc since I had been coughing for six weeks. And "whooping" for the past four. (I didn't know that the intake was the whooping part. I thought it was characterized by a whoopy outflow. (Kind of yelping like a seal.)

Yeah. I was vaccinated as a kid (Pertussis). Doesn't work anymore (turns out most of the vaccines you have under age 12 don't do any good when you're an adult.)

My kids are vaccinated so they won't get it. I guess I had always thought of it as a child's disease (so does WebMD, notice the name of the link). Not so.

Home again!

Made it home. We drove the last hour in the rain. And it's chilly here. Like a different world from the 90 degrees and humid when we left.

Laundry is started. Mail is being gone through (Two boxes for me!!! One from Tally Scrapper and one from Jenni Bowlin!)

Now to download and order pictures!



Margaret jumping over the "waves" on Lake Michigan


This is a porcupine in a tree. Trust me on this. We saw this guy and his mom several times, this was the only time I had my camera with me.


Amelia learned to kayak with help from the waterfront crew. Pretty cool!


There were tons of monarch butterflies all over the place.

School Shopping

We went to Target tonight to get school supplies. I like going early so there is a better selection of backpacks.

I was a bit sad about one thing that happened. Margaret was so excited! She found a Hello Kitty backpack and matching lunch bag. (She's going to be in first grade... excited about the lunch at school thing) I don't know what happened when, but about 10 minutes later she put them back and said, "I don't want anyone thinking I'm a baby" and she picked out a plain purple backpack and lunch bag. I so wanted to make her get the "Hello Kitty" stuff, but knew I shouldn't. I was kind of sad about that. Peer pressure starts way too early (and I'll bet there are plenty of high school aged kids with Hello Kitty stuff, but she wouldn't believe me, I'm sure)

Amelia had a hard time choosing between the "High School Musical" backpack and the "High School Musical" book bag. She chose the book bag...which was good because it doesn't have a HUGE picture of Troy on it (just a smaller one).

We got all new pens and pencils and everything, even though we likely had some used at home. I like the feel of all new stuff when school starts. Charlie didn't understand.

School doesn't start for over a month, but at least we have that part done. Now on to school clothes shopping. Ick.

A lovely weekend

We all had such a lovely weekend. We drove over to Merrill, Wisconsin on Friday afternoon. (About 20 minutes north of Wausau, if that helps you). We stayed in a hotel with a really nice pool and hot tub. In all, we spent about 3 or 3-1/2 hours in the pool this past weekend. The girls are not big on putting their faces in the water. But Amelia finally figured out how to "swim". Yep. It's classic dog paddle, arms and legs flailing with head held above water. But she figured it out. And she was sooo proud of herself (as she should be) I heard "Mommy, look at me!" more than 100 times this weekend. The girls both did a maneuver called the "flying squirrel", which was basically pushinng off the steps in the pool into the water. I pretended to be a dolphin (and they would be baby dolphins and I would give them rides) or a whale (and I would jump up and make big splashes). Both moves would be met with claps and glee and asking for more. Even with just the pool experience it would have been great.

But the reason we drove four hours was not to go to a pool... it was to go to a family reunion. This is an upbeat, fun, organized family. We had a horseshoe tournament (my cousin Todd and I won) a water balloon toss, a pinata, a craft (glue tissue paper on glass votives), a campfire with lots of singing, and lots of motorboat rides with tubing and skiing. It was cold there on Saturday (I'd say low 60s with a 20 mph wind off the lake), but that just meant we sat up near the cabin and talked more. I got to spend more time with family. Very nice.

Margaret went tubing with 3 other 6-7 year old girls. Cute factor off the scale!!!

The girls are 1st or 2nd cousins and they really had a blast playing all weekend. Margaret especially enjoyed playing with Madeline, my cousin Kathy's daughter.

My brother Mark's family from Missouri was all there. No small feat since their boys are a 9th grader, a 12th grader, and a college junior.Let me tell you, they ate half the ham all by themselves! I don't know how you can afford to feed three young men those ages. It is amazing to see how they have grown and their areas of wisdom and their areas of silliness and immaturity.



Amelia also enjoyed the motor boat rides this year. She is a bit more timid than Margaret and I don't anticipate her tubing anytime soon. She also hasn't liked riding on the motorboat in past years. This year, however, you couldn't get her out of the boat! Fun to see her grow up, too.

At the campfire, there was a lull in the songs at one point and Amelia plunged in with "My home's in Montana, I wear a bandana, My spurs they are silver, my pony is grey" Three verses. She knew all the words and everyone sat and listened to her. She got big claps at the end. She has a pretty voice and it was fun to see her using it.

Speaking of singing, Sunday morning my Uncle Bill set up for the family to sing at their church service. I wasn't really that interested in getting up for church at 8:15, but I was glad I did. It was fun to sing with my Aunts and Uncles and mom. There were only 3 of us "cousins". My cousin Anne is a music teacher and has such a lovely voice. I could tell that my mom was very happy and grateful that I came and sang...that was worth it all by itself. I guess we were on the radio. Hah! My brush with fame.

After that, we went back to the "lake" for another afternoon of boating and tubing. Margaret went out again.

It's hard to watch, because I'm always so scared they will fall off. That would really scare her, but no incidents!

After our drive home, we got into the cities just in time to take the girls straight to choir practice. A woman at our church is a music teacher and is having a choir over the summer. The girls are performing at the Episcopal Church home this coming Saturday and at church next Sunday. They were sooooo tired. Margaret looked like she was going to fall asleep on her feet. Amelia has a speaking part and sounded good talking into the microphone.

Let's just say we were all tired. I downloaded pictures from my camera to my computer (I will put some on this post tonight) and then we basically went to bed. I'll have to do laundry tonight.

It was a perfect night to sleep with the windows open. We have windows on two sides of the bedroom, so we get a nice cross flow. With the big elm tree overhead, it feels like sleeping in a tree house sometimes. I woke up this morning just grateful for everything... my family, safe travels, my house, my job. Everything.



That, my friends, is what a weekend is supposed to do for you.

The sky is blue in San Francisco

I just talked to Charlie and told him that I hoped the weather holds out here until he and the girls show up. I said "It would be great for them to see the city like this".

His reply..."Why? They wouldn't be seeing San Francisco the way it really is, then."

Spoken like a true San Franciscan. They're so proud of their fog.

When we lived out here 20 years ago, I would tease Charlie that he was making the whole fog thing up. It seemed that most times we came into the city is was clear and beautiful.

I don't care if it's not real. I love the blue sky and being able to see the GG Bridge from far away. Some of these pics were taken from the room (25th floor) where I had a seminar all morning. Some were taken at lunch hour during a 20 minute stroll I had to Union Square and back.

Yep. The hard life here.







Obligatory hill and cable car shots.




Tree in bloom at Union Square.



Cool colors and Texture.