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

Nov 1 2024

wow...seriously havent posted since May! thought i did...

so backing tracking to may. garden was planted and came up well but the critters that could get thru the fence did and ate most of garden over summer. grrrr! tomatoes and peppers ended up doing ok but the rest was basically eaten..double grrrr..

rode bike (toms electric) about 500 miles or so over the summer so that was good. always love spending time at the campground with our friends. had a couple of potlucks which are always delicious. went up to hayward a couple of times and got together with old friends from the hospital. spent a couple of days at the cabin with val. just a girls weekend fun! . val and ken came to the campground for a couple of days too. spent quite a bit of time with my mom over the summer. she's 93 now and starting to show her age.  but overall doing great. tom had his hip replaced in june and seems recovered from that.  

we left the campground sept 20th and headed to Mt for granddaughter Breanna's wedding. camped in erics yard for a week. i got quite sick while there and spent most of the week sleeping. the wedding was beautiful and breanna soooo pretty! many years of happiness to her and TJ.  Kolsyn was adorable in his tux. got to meet all the grandkids significant others and new great grandson Laythe. 

along the way to florida we spent 4 days in Pueblo Co and went to Pikes Peak. the air up there is very very thin. lots of drought out west and air was smokey most of the time. stopped in Eureka Springs Mo on the way. very hilly and a big tourist town. wasn't thrilled with it. Stopped in Medora ND on the way to Erics and went to Teddy Roosevelt NP again. saw lots of animals.  and of course the mandatory stop in Atmore AL at the casino for 3 nights. big surprise lost again. spent a total of 30 days traveling from Wi to MT to FL. 13 states in all 4 411 miles total. lots of set up and take down of the camper. got pretty good at it...

got to the house on oct 20th and had a lot of cleanup to do from the 2 hurricanes that came thru the area in oct. minimal damage to house but oh the tree debris all over yard/house/roofs. finally, feel like i have a handle on things. tom was able to help a lot more this year so that was a plus. 

adorable Kolsyn.

view from pikes pike

close quarters at some campgrounds

breanna and TJ

dalton and tamara

wade and peyton

love this picture of breanna

eric and breanna coming up the "aisle"

heather and kolsyn

braden, kieiran and laythe

us with laythe

ericd camping spot for us

walked up this hill in medora

hard way to travel in the "olden days"

great street sculptures in medora nd

cousin betty ann came for a visit to chippewa falls and we spent a lot of time together getting to know each other again

aprill and i went to the bar for bloody's while the guys went to a packer game

payton at her horse show

moms 93. great pizza at the Sandbar. 

karen, joel, miles cindi tom lainey marisa me and mom. 

my corn got tall but tasted terrible

campground guys grilling chicken with big sky for a pot luck. delicious

fun day gathering with old co workers in hayward

mothers day 2024

 May  7th 2024

Back home to Chippewa! Yay! trip home went pretty well. we stayed at a few new places and enjoyed them. took a different route thru alabama in order to meet up with breanna, tj and kolsyn near Huntsville alabama. one incidence of dropping the camper onto the truck bed that was totally my fault. fortunately no real damage to truck or camper. scary tho.  we luckily avoided most of the bad weather coming home. lots of bad weather coming thru the country on a weekly basis but except for some bad wind one day which caused us to stay an additional day in DuQuion Ill . no big deal tho. things looked good in the big camper except for some shredded paper in the silverware drawer. hummmm. no leaks and everything hooked up well. took a full day to empty  sydney out and put everything away in the beast. another to clean up sydney. now onto getting everything set up around the yard, garden and of course the cleaning of the bathrooms. still on duty for that. oh well, keeps me busy. had a kentucky derby pot luck on saturday here at the campground so it was good to see everyone and catch up on the winter.  saw mom, cindi , joel and karen over the weekend. 

took 2 weeks to drive home. nice traveling that way. also stayed 3 nights in atmore al and el paso ill one night

duquion ill state fair campground

view from akron al JenningsFerry  Landing

tallahasse COE landing park

grandpa and kolsyn enjoying a popsickle by the fire. beyounder getaway campground hillsboro al. #304 $27.50

was fun in the water until the snake crawled over tjs foot!

milan tn. city park $25 #3

us, tj, breanna and kolsyn in alabama