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

 april  7 2024

another winter is nearly over. a very quiet winter. gathered up with beth, todd and laurie. but it didn't seem like near enough times. tom is still struggling with his hip and looking forward to getting a new hip. not much for company this winter. aprill and kendall came for a couple of nights so we could  go to the  world equestrian center for a day. always good to see them. mike and sue from pine harbor came over for a day from orlando when they came down on vacation. i rode my bike well over 500 miles this winter and swam in the pool at least 3 days a week. now it is time to get the house ready and sydney packed up for the trip home. granddaughter breanna and her fiancé are in Huntsville alabama for a bit and we will try to connect up with them on our route home.  going to take 2 weeks to get home this year.

erics family at christmas

concert at the Manatee festival in Crystal River

Withlacooche Bike trail

always a pretty ride

50 years. yikes!

Our azala bush this year

listening to music at Big Bass in Lake Panasofkee

sunrise in Inverness. b

 

 Jan 7 2024

Another yr gone by. We are pretty settled in the house and having a quiet winter. It has been much cooler than last year here in florida. windy and cloudy too. i have done quite a bit of bike riding and started out going into the pool 3 times a week. but the  pool  had some issues and was closed for a month. . hopefully, now things will get back in a routine. friend laurie got here from canada and is all settled in Sydney.  beth and todd are here too but i dont believe they all are as happy at their campground as they were last yr.  beth and todd are in fact looking to buy a home somewhere in the area. we all got together at our house for christmas day and had a great time. eric and heather  were here at the house the first week in december and it was a lot of fun. heather and i got in a couple of bike rides, we did a airboat ride in crystal river out into the golf, saw a few dolphins playing. went to a christmas party at friends fred and sharon in Hernando and also had them over for dinner one evening. they had a park wide thanksgiving dinner and the food and company was amazing. nice to be getting to know the park residents a bit better. 

beautiful sunset one night

opps ran into an alligator while riding the sidewalk near our house. he won. i turned around

friend laurie loves the new lounge chair

we had windows put in one of the bedrooms . turned out well. and we now spend most of our down time in the new 'Man's Cave"

 Nov 1 2023

 Now in florida for the winter. as always the last few months have been busy. the garden was the worst garden i have ever had. very poor production for the most part. got just enough tomatoes canned to get us thru the winter. had to dig potatoes  early because something was eating them underground. onions grew but were overall smallish. as were the carrots and peppers. no cukes, corn, peas.  garden was all done before the end of august..frustrating at best. All the kids and most of grandkids all came for visits this summer, which was wonderful. our second camper sydney came in super handy for overnight visitors . Got in a few bike rides  but not as many as usual and only walked with friend wanda a few times.  we did take sydney out for a camping trip once. went to Sarona and met friends val and ken for a couple days. super fun. spent quite a bit of time with mom this summer. she loves Culvers and so that was our usual lunch stop when out and about. tom found out at the end of summer that he needs a hip replacement so it will be a long painful winter for him this year. we cancelled going to Gulf Shores for november this year. just seemed like too many things going on. we had a long stressful trip from wi to fl. we both got covid within a few days of leaving wi. we both felt like crap and wanted to do nothing more than stop for a few days somewhere on the ways to Brads and could not stay anywhere for more than 1 night  except at some questionable campgrounds so we just kept going until getting to brads area. we stayed there for 9 days and definitely needed the rest. from there we were going to stop along the way to florida but just decided to keep on going till we got to the house. glad to get here. everything was good at the house so that was a pleasant surprise.  neighbors all welcomed us back. its starting to feel like a home here. took a bit to get sydney unloaded and things put away in house but its mostly done.

neighbor Diana did a great job keeping the plants alive and well all summer

friend Wanda did a great job on making my quilt larger

questionable walmart neighbors one night

bretts 15!

madison. 5 months. longest eyelashes on a girl ever!

bode's first sleepover in camper. of course campfire and smores are mandatory

New River Gouge NP. it was pretty but overall disappointing. i think we went to the wrong end of the park.

iconic bridge. once a year they close it and people reserve a spot to jump off of it. yikes

rykal brothers and sister in laws gathering before we left wi. randy found out next day he had covid and was kind enough to share with tom and i

end of season campfire at jan and dougs. fun night

brad and madison

eric and grandma. she requested McDonalds for lunch

breanna and kolsyn came for a visit for a few days. he is soooo fun to be around.

grandpa and kolsyn enjoying popsickles

my cupboards needing cleaning out

grandma sperber, bode and madison. fun visit

a  4 generation picture

a visit  to the Irvine parik zoo. toooo hot that day tho. all the animals were hiding inside

grandpa and madison enjoying the sunshine

neighbor Colton brought us a catapillar that turned into a beautiful Monarch.