Our Annual Trip to Waldvogel's Pumpkin Patch

We took our annual trip to Waldvogels Pumpkin Patch on Saturday.

Not sure how many years we have been going there, but it's been at least six or seven.

It is always a great time.

This year was no different even though we had to fight off some very vicious mosquitos!

The weather was cool and wet after lots of rain during the week.  It did not rain while we were at the patch though.

We stopped at walmart to buy some cute pink rainboots for the girls as well as some fuzzy jackets that they just had to have.

The boots proved to be a great thing to have in the muddy fields.

Here are a few photos of our fun day.

It was definitely a great, fun day for all of us.

Fall is here, bring it on!

Phew, I almost lost this blog!

Tonight I was beyond frustrated.

Last night my computer refused to get past the "starting windows" screen.

I googled and tried a few random things but no luck.

I emailed a computer geek here in Watertown who told me how to wipe it all clean and start fresh, but I think I want some of the photos on there, so not sure that is the right decision.

Anyway, tonight I brought my school computer home and started bookmarking all my old favorites.

When I tried to find this blog, all that popped up was the way my readers see it.

I was not able to post on it anymore.

 I could not remember the password or even which email I had used when i set it up years ago.

I know very few people read this blog anymore, but I like to use it as a journal and my hope is that someday, someone who cares will read it and smile as they remember good times we shared.

It's a legacy of mine, I guess.

At any rate, I was not ready to give it up yet.

I googled and researched and tried this and that and the other thing until finally, two hours later, I found it!

Thank you, God for your help.

Now if only God performed another miracle and started up my old computer!  

So glad I can still post here.

A Bike Ride with Soliana

On Saturday, John and I went to Oshkosh to spend some time with Soliana.

Courtney had a cheer clinic so she was gone most of the day.

Soliana just learned to ride her bike without training wheels and she is fearless.

I love it.

We rode to the park, the zoo, and the train.

It was a great adventure.

I will let the photos tell the story.

It was a great Saturday.

John and I ended it with pizza and beers at On the Rock.

On Friday night, I went out with the Merry Drinkers from Mary Linsmeier.

It was great to catch up with all of them again.

Best Laid Plans

This past weekend, we celebrated another Tiziversary.

It was eight years ago that we first met our sweet Tizita as she walked off a plane from Ethiopia, right into our hearts.

Everyone, including Alissa and Nathan were arriving on Friday.

There was a big cousins night out planned on Friday.

So excited to have Mallory around, too.

My original plan was to go to the Art Museum on Saturday, but we all woke up and were having so much fun just doing face painting, nails, and other fun stuff that, when asked, Tizita decided she would rather just stay here and do other fun stuff.

Tizita designed new clothes for all of us to wear to our "bar" party in the basement on Saturday night.

The girls had a ball bartending for us behind my dad's old bar.

So many happy memories tied to that bar.

It was a great, fun way to spend the weekend.

Here are some photos from the fun.

 That is a dress on her requested chocolate cake.

She is into fashion design now so that explains the dress.

 Happy gals!

 Twenty bucks from Gigi!

 Painting Grandma's arm

 Painting Soli's face

Doing mallory's hair and nails.

 The outfit that Tiz designed for Gigi

The girls behind the bar

 The outfit Tiz designed for me

The outfit Tiz designed for Alissa

 Gigi in her complete outfit

 The shirt Tiz designed for Courtney

And, finally, me, as a black cat.
I am just thankful that this all washed off.

It was a great weekend to celebrate a great little lady.

The Summer is Officially Over

It's Labor Day weekend.

That bittersweet time of the year when we have to switch gears from the freedom of summer's laid back schedule to the daily "grind" of school and its more rigid schedule.

Tomorrow I will be going to my 37th first day as a teacher, add to that my 17 years as a student and I have had 54 first days of school.  Yikes!  You would think it would get easier and in many ways, it does, but I still get the first day jitters and I know it will be hard to sleep tonight.

I just want to get that first day under my belt and move on.

Stay tuned to see how it went.

I always like to do something special on Labor Day weekend to bring a fun end to summer.

We have done Galena, La Crosse, Bloomington, Red Wing, just to name a few.

This year, I was debating where we should spend this Labor Day weekend.

Well, as I was thinking about it, my friend, Terri, called and said they would be at a wedding in Elkhorn, heading home to Medford on Sunday.  We decided we would meet in Stevens Point for lunch on Sunday.

There was my destiniation.

Stevens Point.

I had heard that they had a great bike trail there called the Green Circle Trail, so we decided to take our bikes and ride.

We made reservations at a Day's Inn and took off.

It took us five hours to ride the entire 26 mile trail.  We were so happy to have done all those miles especially after a summer of no real bike riding.

The trail was wonderful.

It is divided into numerous sections each well labeled.

We went through woods, marshes, urban areas, parks, and along both the Plover and Wisconsin Rivers.

Each time the trail started to get a bit tedious, the trail would change and I got a new spurt of energy to keep going.

We will definitely do this trail again.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the trail.

 Beginning of the trail

 One area of the trail has chairs carved for the four seasons.  I am on the winter one.

 We saw this hawk along the way

 Nice little spot for a rest.

 This area has beautiful tall pines.

 The Plover River

 Our artistic photo

 Iverson Park, a fun little stop along the way.

 The WPA built these stone bridges.  We have a few of them at Riverside Park in Watertown, too.

 The Wisconsin River which runs along the trail for quite a distance.

 I liked how all the miles were marked along the trail.

 We ended in a sculpture park.

26 miles later, we were both still alive and ready to eat pizza and beer at a supper club.

My Lularoe outfit for the night out.

The next day we met Terri and Mark for lunch at the Hilltop pub.

We had a great visit as always.

It is as if no time passed when we get together with these dear old friends.

It was a great end to summer.

Now bring on the kids.