Our Annual Bike Ride to Point Beach

It's Memorial Day weekend.

We take time to remember those who have died defending our right to enjoy weekends like we just had.

We have been riding the Rawley bike trail for many Memorial Days.

It's become our tradition, although we cannot remember when we first road this trail, but it's been quite a few  years now.

The weather for the entire weekend was cloudy with a change of meatballs, no, that's not right, cloudy with a chance of storms, but we don't let a little weather stop us.

The weather on Saturday actually turned out beautifully for our ride.

We started out with jackets on but shed those by the time we got to the beach.

We ate brats from a brat fry at Pick and Save just up the street from the park where we start the trail.

We had a great ride, another year in the books. 

We spent the night at the Van Auken B and B.

They were camping so we had the place to oursselves.

We headed to Christiano's for dinner, a huge storm kept us in the car until the rains stopped a bit, but the dinner was great once we got in the restaurant.

Today, we added a few items to the girls' fairy gardens.  Some smurfs have taken up residence there.

Then we decided to walk out to the point on Lake Winnebago.

The sun was shining when we started but then we had to seek shelter when a huge downpour started.

We waited the storm out and then were able to proceed on with our walk.

We made it to the point!

We took a scenic route home.

It was a great weekend.

A Visit to the Hunters and a few State Parks

We just returned from a great weekend at the Hunter House in Bloomington.

I missed going down there for Mother's Day as in previous  years, so I suppose you could call this a late Mother's celebration.

On the way down, John and I stopped a Matthiesson State Park.  We had planned on stopping at Starved Rock until Alissa's friend Kim facebooked me and told me about the other state park in the same area so we decided to try something new.  It did not disappoint. 

We had to park in the overflow because everyone and their brother from central Illinois were apparently visiting the park that day.

The weather was gorgeous.

We hiked to the Lower and Upper Dells areas.

We had to cross the river a number of times.

Sometimes they had placed nice big cement circle rocks in the stream so crossing was easy, but other crossings were not so easy and I finally just decided to step right in the water and take the wet shoes over trying to stay on the rocks and logs.

We hiked over 12000 steps, four miles and three hours.

Here are a few photos from our fun day:

After our hike, we headed to Alissa and Nathan's house.

As usual, it was beautiful and we had a relaxing fun time just what I needed!

We had dinner and beers outside at Mugsy's.

After that, we had a few more beers on their deck and then we moved the party inside and had a musicfest.

It was a good night.

On our way home today, we stopped at Carved Rock State Park near Rockford.  Again just about everyone in that part of Illinois was there, but it is another very pretty park.

After a short hike, we enjoyed Fazoli's.  Perfect way to end a perfect weekend.

Tomorrow I start my last week of school for this school year.

The time went so quickly, but I am so ready for summer.

Bring it on.

Tomorrow would also be my dad's 88th birthday.

He died 26 years ago.

We miss him, but never wish him back.

We will see him soon enough.

 

 

 

Time to Catch up

Well, it appears that I am behind in my blogging.

Let me try and catch you up because I am sure you are just holding your breath to hear about my exciting life.

My kids sang in church on Mother's Day.

They sang "I am Jesus' Little Lamb" and they sang it beautifully.  A wonderful gift to their moms.

On the Friday before Mother's Day, John and I took mom to Menard's to buy our flowers and plants for our yard followed by dinner at the Blue Moon in Lake Mills.  We all enjoyed the pizza and a few beers.  It was nice to spend that time with mom.

Even though we live together, our daily routines can get in the way of just sitting and talking together.

On Saturday, John and I went to Mirror Lake State Park for some hiking.

It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the pretty scenery.

John actually agreed to bring the Merrimac Ferry home, so my Mother's Day could not have been any better.  I love taking that ferry.

So often when I suggested taking it, the girls and John would protest and then conveniently miss the exit.

Here are a few photos from our day:

On Sunday after my kids sang, we went over to Vikki and Kev's for a brunch.

It was very good.

Came home and worked around the yard.

All in all, a nice, relaxing Mother's Day.

This past weekend, Soli, Tiz and Courtney came out on Saturday to do some city wide rummaging.

It was so cold, there were even some snow flakes flying about.

We found many good bargains including an igloo for Soli, a stuffed monkey for Soli, an inflatable sleeping bag also for Soli and some electrical thing for Tiz as well as some horses with moving heads.  It was a very successful rummaging day, but could have been even better if the weather was more cooperative.

Courtney left to return home while the girls had a sleepover.

We baked, painted, played in the igloo, and watched TV.

It was a fun weekend.

After church on Sunday, we had lunch at Culver's and headed to Oshkosh where the girls planted some fairy gardens.

Another very nice weekend.

There, no I have caught you up on things.

 

Early Mother's Day

Since it is the year for Courtney's little family to go to visit the other mom for Mother's Day, we decided to do an early celebration.

Alissa came up on Friday.

My mom, John, Lissa and I went to Bismark's for dinner and a few pitchers.  Kev and Vikki joined us and then there were a few more pitchers.

It was great fun with lots of good conversation.

A great way to start the celebration.

Lissa and I headed up to Oshkosh on Saturday.

Did lots of shopping before heading over to the Van Aukens.

We all went out for pizza.

After pizza, Paul took the girls home and Lis, Courtney, and I went out for some fancy drinks.

It was lots of fun, lots of laughs.

It is good to spend time with just my girls sometimes.

On Sunday, John and my mom drove up to Oshkosh to join us for church and lunch at Beckett's.

We enjoyed dancing shows performed by Tiz and Soli and more fun conversations and laughs.

It was a good start to my Mother's Day.