moms 94th birthday!

 Nov 4 2025

and here it is another winter in florida and i didnt post a thing all summer in wisconsin.  so back tracking to april. we took 2 weeks getting back to wi. traveling up thru alabama, stopping at casino in atmore. i lost....but love to stop there. got to chippewa on the 29th and opened up the big camper with no issues! yay. had a little kentucky derby party  at the campground. always fun. had stunning weather the first couple of weeks we were back so got the garden planted and 2 days later had a heavy rain with hail. flooded out half the garden, so some replanting was required. spent a lot of time with mom and us girls all had our annual pedicures for mothers day. went kayaking once with debbie and karen. dont know why i dont go out more. did a little  bike riding over the summer but not that much. brad and family came for a few days in june. so great to spend time with them. had a little gathering at our place while they were there. grandaughter payton graduated in may and we went down for her party in june. off she goes to stevens point for college. val and ken came for a weekend visit at the campground. so good to catch up with them. in august we took sydney and drove to erics for bradens wedding. kevin, aprill and brad flew out so it was great all getting together. was great meeting new great grandson Roman and playing with Kolsyn. Sadly never got to spend any time with bradens laythe.  once we got back to chippewa it was time to start winding down for the summer and loading up sydney for the trip south.  i canned a lot of produce from the garden so it was loaded down pretty heavy. we decided to head to brads for a week so we left on oct 1 and spent 5 days driving out. we had the kids for a night and brad and mallory had a whole night to themselves. bode wanted to come and stay by himself one other night. they were all so good while with us. they all love  there s'mores. bode was all about keeping the fire burning.  once we left brads we went to mt airy nc. for 2 nights at mayberry campground. great campground and passport america so half price. double yay as most campgrounds we stayed at were $50 plus and some not all that great. got to the house in Inverness on oct 19. then spent a week unloading sydney, putting everything away and cleaning up a very dirty camper. then discovered the roof coating that was put on last fall by como rv was peeling off so back to the shop it went. didnt know if we wanted to bring sydney down this yr or not but after seeing the poor workmanship i am glad we did as it is all under warranty. probably wont bring it down next yr.  so since being back here we have gotten together with friends beth, todd, gail, scott , fred and sharon. along with friends from the park. eric and heather are coming down in jan but otherwise i dont' belive any other company is coming. got the garden planted but a cold winter is predicted here. 

happy 51st anniversary

flooded garden. fortunately is mostly survived

after an initial nice couple of weeks the cold returned to the campground and fires and winter coats were needed, tom with dean and doug

brett and i

maddy and i

childrens museum in eau claire was great for kids

mom and kevin

val and i on our annual tubing trip down the namakogon river

paytons grad party

new great grand Roman

wade, brad, kevin, aprill and dalton at bradens wedding

breannas wonderful family, tj, breanna, kolsyn and roman

family pic in montann

brad, dalton and keving. 

most of erics family. 

roman and i

my buddy kolsyn

tom and roman

mallory and madison

bode and i

loving camper life

bode

house is looking good

 march 30 2025

another winter almost over. we plan to head back to wi in about 3 weeks . just had a great weekend with brad, kevin, and eric in hollywood fl. fun fun time with them. went to the horse track, casino, out to eat and hung at the house catching up and doing a segment on brads podcast.  enjoyed ourselves immensely! from there we went to the everglades for a couple of days. interesting park. saw lots of gators, took a tour and got in two airboat rides and a swamp buggy ride. fun. ate a our first cuban restaurant at a darling hispanic type restaurant. friendly and great food. said goodbye to laurie 2 weeks ago. she has already said she doesnt know what she will do next winter but she wont be using sydney.  so we dont know if we will even bring it back down next winter. if we do we will have to pay for storing it somewhere. not a big deal i  guess. beth and todd bought a place in homosassa  last month and they are now moved in. its just far enough away that we probably wont see much of them in the future. things change. garden  did just ok. tomatoes are really starting to ripen and taste divine! got  4 meals of green beans and are now done. cucumbers didnt survive the cold weather in jan. already have different ideas on how/what to plant next fall. i am going to help with the walk/run cake by the lake race again this yr. trying to get more involved with the community. 

fun night out with the boys

laurie, dianna and i out for a concert at the valerie theater in Inverness. wonderful show

amaryllises' that i was given did well

two thorns amongst the azaleas 

super fun time at the racetrack. even better since i won!

mango tree roots along the boardwalk in everglade city fl

pretty along the river

walkabout

another national park checked off

havana cafe. delicious!

 Happy 2025

Another year gone by. busy but i guess we are slowing down. got all settled in at the house and the little hurricane damage we had has been taken care of.  Planted a raised garden bed in the back and it is doing well. But seriously cold weather happening right now. a high today of 50 and freezing again tonight.  geez, this is florida! been covering up my babies nightly for a week already and will continue to do so for a week yet. 

we went to brads for thanksgiving for a week and it was a great visit! did a lot of walking with bode. he is a good hiker. madison loved watching football with grandpa tom.  kevin and aprill and the girls came for a couple of days at christmas. aprill, the girls and i hit up the farmers  market in town and all of the gift shops on the main drag. it was a lot of fun. beta and todd finally got here the 1st of dec, so we have gotten together  a few times since then. always fun. went to spring hill fl to visit some friends dan and bonnie that we met the first year we started traveling. also went to the villages to see friends scott and gail that we met in gulf shores a few years ago. funny how so many that we met the first couple of years have now bought places in the area and we still keep in touch. i have been doing my bike riding and doing the swim classes 3 times a week. keeps me busy. tom had cataract surgery on dec 20th and is now loving his better vision in the left eye. get together with ray and rita, john and diana next door a couple times a week for happy hour.l

kevin, aprill, kendall, payton and tom and i

my tender babies all tucked in for a while

brett is growing up!

aprill, kendall, payton and i supporting the local shops in Inverness

dec 19th

nov 8

brad, mallory, brett, bode , madison along with tom and i  at thanksgiving 2024

went for a number of walks while visiting

thanksgiving dinner at brads with friends gary and amanda

watching the packers play

madison. she is so fun at this age!

tree decorating bode was really into everything christmas this yr