Grant

As we were leaving the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair we found out that Tommy's cousin Grant was tragically killed. We drove home, unpacked the camping gear, and packed up to leave for his memorial service. As we were leaving we saw a beautiful double rainbow.

We love Grant very much and it hurts to have him gone. His memorial was extremely moving and we saw a rainbow circle around the sun during his memorial.

It just doesn't seem real. We think about Grant everyday and we will continue to think about him everyday. He was a great person that really gave a lot. He was a unique person and one to be admired for so many wonderful qualities...qualities I know we will try to model. He taught Tommy a lot of lessons growing up and gave him a lot of fond memories. It's just not fair, and it hurts.
**Edit on 18Jul2008**Thanks Dana for your comment I found our wedding pics and scanned one along with a couple of others. I remember that day so clearly, coming up on 15 years! I also included a couple other pics we took before we had a digital camera, so the quality is not that great, but you can clearly see his wonderful smile shining through!

Here he is in 2004 with Reeve and Kyle

Devil's Lake State Park

We went camping at Devil's Lake State Park in Baraboo, Wisconsin for the 4th of July weekend. It's Wisconsin's most popular State Park. People make reservations 11 months in advance. I made ours late in February...at that time there were only a couple of tent spots left! We only have one pic of our campsite...

we got one of the worst sites in the place! I believe the campground is situated on what was a golf course in the early 1900's. The campground is very open with really no private sites. We've been spoiled camping in the Provincial parks of Canada. Canadians KNOW how to camp! Mind you this is not backwoods camping, so I was fully expecting some "comforts." There were no handy "dishwashing" stations for the campers...where were we to rinse food off & dishwater...at the campsite??? Also there was no recycling stations! Just a big dumpster for all garbage...this really infuriated me!! It's suppossed to be Wisconsin's best State Park, something to be proud of, a good example of how to enjoy Wisconsin's finest beauty, and they couldn't even set up a simple recycling station??? Ugh! Our campsite was situated on a slanting hill about 20' from the central bathroom/shower and across the way from the stinky dumpster. It was a social site as we met everyone coming and going to the bathroom, eww! Camping aside it was a great place to see and visit. We started the 4th out with a nice half-day 5 mile hike around the lake.
In June they actually closed the park for a week or so do to all the flooding. The beach was still totally underwater.

If you click on the pic below it will enlarge and you can read about glaciation in Wisconsin...just make sure to click the back button on your browser to get back to the blog.

Our house is nicely located in the "driftless" area of Wisconsin. They call it "driftless" because the glacier stopped and the glacial drifts never flowed through this area.

The lake is a little over a mile in lenghth. The lower trail on the west side of the lake was closed due to flooding, so we started out walking the railroad tracks on the east side of the lake.

The lake area is full of huge rocks.

The most prevalent rock is quartzite or "pink lady" as it is fondly referred to by the State Park naturalists.


This part of the trail was easy, and we enjoyed looking at the west side view, wondering if we could actually make it to the top of the west bluff with Reeve & Kyle.

When we arrived at the south park it seemed the flooding was worse at this end...no wonder this is where a huge river flowed in glacial times. There was no beach at this end either and a lot of picnic tables were in the water.

After the park we decided to keep going despite the fact that the road was covered with about 3" of water.

The kids thought it was really neat to walk on the flooded road and chase the little fish.

Luckily the water wasn't too deep, and it was nice and warm.

After the flooded road it was all up hill as we started on the west bluff trail.

I was pretty nervous about the kids getting so close to the edge on the rocks. People die in these bluffs every year, and I've heard of some pretty gruesome accidents that kids have had here.

Reeve did feel restricted, but I'm happy to report that we all survived without injury...the kid in the campspot next to ours had broken his arm at the park the day before.

The view was breathtaking. You can see the flooded north shore in this pic. The beach normally about 10-20' wide...and it's currently all underwater.

The next day we rented a boat and rowed around the whole lake for 4 hours. We didn't take the camera. I forgot my bathing suit, but Tom & the kids enjoyed swimming in the clear lake water. I think in the future we'll just spend day trips at this park, and not camp.

Happy 4th of July

I haven't posted in a long time. Father's Day we went for bike ride and I crashed on the bike trail about 5 miles into the trip. We couldn't take my bike because the stem was too short for Reeve's trail behind bike. I'm not a very good bike rider. I love to ride a bike, but I'm the type that likes to ride with the handle bars up high, not down low & bent over like a speed racer. Well...the bike Tom rigged up was not suited for me and to top it off the trail behind bike frame was bent which forced Reeve to ride lopsided. I switched bikes and rode Tom's bike...for me it was even worse. To make matters worse I noticed I had a huge swelling on my right wrist from pulling weeds in the garden. My hand was so sore I could barely pull the break lever on the bike...I like to go slow so I use the brakes a lot. I'm sure a lot of you are scratching your heads right now at how a little dare devil like Tommy married such a non-risk-taker like me! Anyway I tried to rest my hands on Tommy's aero bars...they look something like this:

I lost my balance and crashed. Luckily I was wearing a helmet because I hit my head hard. This was the result:

It doesn't look so bad, but remember I'm a wimp when it comes to personal injury. It hurt really bad, and I had to pick the gravel out of my hands & toe. The skin on the heels of my hands was scrapped off by the fall, so I couldn't use my hands for a couple of days. Reeve helped by doing dishes. I gritted through the pain and was all better by the end of the week. Now I will always ride my bike, wear biking gloves, wear my helmet, and wear covered toe shoes.
We're raising monarch caterpillars agian this year. Luckily I snapped some pics of them before they turned into their chrysalises. Reeve wanted to be a little silly in this picture.

They eat a lot of milkweed and grow at an incredible rate.

At the last minute we decided to go camping at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair in Custer, WI. There was a HUGE turn-out this year. It's always fun to hang out with cool like-minded people.

We were incredibly lucky that the folks who run the campground at the fair took pity on us and offered us an unofficial campsite off the trail. I promised next year we'd make reservations:

We had a great time listening to and dancing to the funky sweet soul music of Paul Cebar & The Tomorrow Sound (aka Paul Cebar & the Milwaukeeans). Kyle really wanted to get Reeve to crazy dance with him, and eventually we were all out there shaking a leg.

After some dancing the kids found some horses to feed.

The next day we woke up with the sun and had a delicious breakfast in the Organic Valley tent.

Next the kids and I found shelter from the downpour of rain in the "Fun with Animals" tent. Oh that poor bullfrog getting squeezed!

Kyle liked petting the snake.

The kids are in tennis lessons this year.

They're having a lot of fun with it.

On Monday Kyle came up to me during his lesson and asked me to get a bug away from his ear. I couldn't see a bug and he said he kept hearing buzzing. Then after the lesson we went to the library. In the library he let out a little scream and said something bit him in his ear. Then he said he heard more buzzing. Recently someone told me their son had an earache and the doctor had found two ticks stuck way in his ear. YUCK! I wasn't going to take any chances and we went to the clinic right away to see what, if anything, was in his ear. Sure enough the doctor looked into Kyle's left ear and saw a bug that looked very much like this

crawling around in Kyle's ear! The doctor said it gave her the willies to see that bug in his ear, after she composed herself she was dumbfounded because Kyle and Reeve couldn't stop laughing. Reeve was having a fit and was literally on the floor in tears because he was laughing so hard. The doctor tried blowing the bug out. That didn't work. Then the doctor tried to drown the bug and put water in Kyle's ear. The bug bit Kyle again. I had to hold Kyle on his side while the doctor, on her knees, tried once again to get the bug out with water. Finally the silly little mean bug came out. The doctor said that was the funniest visit she's ever had. I'm glad we were able to brighten her day.
We're off to go camping at Devil's Lake State Park. Everyone please have a safe & happy 4th of July.

Happy Father's Day

I feel very lucky to have one of the Greatest Dad's in the whole world! He's ALWAYS there for us when we need him, and he gives the best well-thought advice. Countless numbers of times recently and in the past we've consulted him for advice and we've always benefited from it. THANK YOU DAD! WE LOVE YOU!

Here are some family & friends pictures from our visit to Winnipeg.
I like the fact that we all separately chose to wear lime green that day.

Did you know Winnipeg has French Quarter? This was something I did not know. I wish this picture had not been so bright in the background, but behind my lovely family is the gorgeous St. Boniface Cathedral. The majority of it was destroyed in a fire in 1968 and they left the ruins up and built a new cathedral behind them.

This is my Great Aunt Louise. She is Great in more ways than one! She ALWAYS remembers to to send us a card for EVERY occasion. I don't know how she does it, but I admire her tremendously for it.





We visited with my Mom's friends in Winnipeg. They traveled from Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Texas, and Indiana for their Nursing Reunion. Everyone stayed at Sonja's. Sonja and her sisters Chrissy & Linda grew up with my Mom in the back woods of Ontario. I loved the stories they all shared.

This is truly the neatest group of women I have ever met. We had such a great time.


Reeve and Kyle LOVED climbing this tree. Reeve's been longing to climb a real tree for quite some time.

Kyle LOVED Sonja's sauna.


They were in heaven eating this cake.

After cake...snuggle time!


I took my cross-stitching project on the trip, and I finished the Summer Chair. One more season to go!