Ghosts of Weekend Pasts - A whole bunch of water time

By now everyone around here should know that the majority of our summer weekends are spent on the water and of course, this weekend was no different.

Friday evening started with an upgrade to my cell phone.  Honestly, I am not very happy about it.  I loved my old phone and some of the features.  So basically I will be whining and pissing and moaning until I get used to my new phone.  Also to the salesman who tries to sell me on there latest and greatest idea where I can just tack the new phone onto my monthly bill via installments...GFY, dude.  I am way to detail ($) oriented to not over analyze your glorious plans prior to walking in your door and this cheap bitch is not paying out an additional $500 over a two year period for your "great new idea".   Good for you...bad for me.  Thank goodness we drowned the sorrows of sitting in the cell store with some tequila.

Saturday morning was Paddle the Marsh.  This is an annual event put on by Friends of the Horicon marsh.  Basically you put in at a place we call Greenhead and paddle 6.5 miles down the river thru the marsh (to grandmother's house we go) to one mile.  They have speakers along the way, great volunteers, and even a shuttle service. I was very thankful it was not as windy as it was the last time that I went. Here are some snapshots from our morning:

 This would be the king aka Moo, who got to cruise the river in comfort in his recliner

 One of the first stop was learning about the different kind of song birds that call the marsh home.

Here the speakers are on the air boat that they bring out for this event.  At this stop they are always nice enough to fill up water bottles.

 

Below is one of the bald eagle's nest which is located in the marsh area.  There are three babies in this nest.  We were lucky enough to see two of the eagles hanging out.

My kayaking buddy, Cooper, and I.  A little tip for kayaking with little ones...be prepared to counter steer their playing in the water, offset their wiggles, and do not give them a net to play with (it creates more drag). Next year we may have to get him his own to paddle.

 

We were attempting to pick us some lily pads.

 

Since we survived our morning paddle and no one fell in, it was time to hit the water in a little more leisurely style aka Swagtime.  Today you will be saved from numerous sandbar pictures.  I can say though there were quit a few tipsy folks out there.

 

Of course the most glorious moment of my sandbar time was taking my new turtle out.

 

 

Oh he looks so pissed off.  It was the best $9 I spent though.  The thing even holds me up so I can just lay around and soak up the sun.

 

Now I just need my floating beverage holder.

 

No boating time would be complete without a trip to Skalliwags aka the tiki bar.  It just happened to be pirate day.  Everyone was treated to some good ole pirate music and food.  Plus they had ax throwing....

 

 

Come to find out I am pretty good at throwing axes, which makes the hubbie slightly nervous.

 

And there was face painting...technically you were suppose to get your face painted like a pirate but....

 

Spiderman is just as awesome.  After all of that we went home had some dinner and then I took the littles to park to burn off some energy before we had to go to bed.

 

And Uncle Jamie may have just told us we needed to settle down before bed. 

 

Sunday found us getting some donuts for breakfast, cleaning cars, grocery shopping, family dinner and all the other normal stuff that goes down in the sack on a Sunday.

 

Now, we begin a new week looking ahead and anxiously awaiting our next beautiful summer weekend.

 

 

 

 

Summer Bucket List

 

Since Summer officially began days ago, thought I better get it together here and declare this years Summer Bucket list for the Family.  The greatest part is technically some of these were done before Summer started, Winning.

 

First let's get the dogs out of the way.

 

Chuck : Sleep (yeah that has been taken care of about 15 times over already)

 

Bullet : Catch the Mailman (everyone needs a dream)

 

Little Man : Catch a Bird - Winner, winner robin dinner or close.  He caught a bird, it got away and everyone lived happily ever after.

 

Teenagers...

 

Forest : Work and Go to Mexico - Done, done and done

 

Gillian : Old World Wisconsin, Boat/Jetski - got the boating happening, World Market Trip - Done and she loved it

 

Old Folk...or Spring Chickens

 

Hubbie : Go to NOLA (send money please), Sweat Fat off Ass, Perfect Teen Car - Got it, Make wife happy (aka I will be sending you a shopping list soon)

 

Me: Mexico - Done and glorious, Explore a new state park (scheduled), Kayak unknown waters (planning), Kayak Camping (scheduled), Find Horicon Geocaches (really need to get my shit together on this one)

 

And as a reminder to what we want to accomplish, I hang this in the house. 

 

 

What are your summer plans, goals, or otherwise?

 

 

Work It Out - June

Ready set bring on June.
Week 1 : During the first I Started my Monday with a 5 miler mid-pace run.  Tuesday we did some lifting.  Wednesday was a very quick 3 miler. Then nothing on Thursday with a 4.5 mile "long" slow run on Friday. Not really that long but there has been conversation that the treadmills really need a priest this week. They have been kind of possessed and turning on and off when they just feel like it.

Week 2 : Hello Mexico...this girl didn't do shit unless swimming in awesome water counts.   Ok there were more workouts than I could count.  We swam in an underground river every full day we were down there, plus there was tons of walking going on.

Week 3 : Monday started back slow with a 4 miler at a slow pace.  Tuesday we worked out the upper body in prep for the future kayaking trip. Wednesday I did a mid race pace with pick up run for 3 miles.  Then Thursday was the lower body.  Could tell it was a while since I did the lower body since I was hurting on Friday.  Walking down the steps like a little old lady.

Week 4 : Now this week...Monday we had appointments so I opted to skip out of the workout.  Turns out Tuesday morning due to over excessive comsumption of popcorn (note to self get the smaller bag) no work out.  Wednesday morning did a 4 mile run at a mid-pace.  Thought about running outside, but then I wouldn't have gotten to finish my episode of "American Horror Story".  And hell must have frozen over because it was actually cool in the gym today.

On the horizon though for having a half ass week is kayaking the marsh on Saturday, which is a 6 mile paddle....a walk in the park as long as the wind is calm.

 

Until next month when I should have no excuses on why I was a lazy ass...

 

Ghosts of Weekend Past - A Three Dayer

 

Friday was the hubbie's birthday. So I made a quick stop on the way home to grab a cake and stumbled on the above puppie cake.  Now I did get him a more grown cake too...but that one was so darn cute.

Jersey Street Music Fest was happening this weekend and being directed to a specific band on Friday evening we ventured down for our local music fest.  I can say much to my disappoint the music/band was being held within the dance hall. When I think of a fest I think of dancing and the bands in the street not in a hall.  While I understand that the focus of the organization putting on the event has been the restoration of this hall (which is a majorly great thing for the community) to shift the music fest to an indoor concert feel was disappointing for me.  I would understand utiliziling the hall as a back up area in case of bad weather or for the evening bands only, so they would not disrupt the neighbors.  Which I guess Friday evening late, dance hall would make sense.  We stayed and listened from outside in the cool, skeeter laced air illuminated by the patio lights that cast a yellow glow making it feel as if you were lounging in a backyard.

On Saturday, we switched things up a bit with rainy weather in the forecast and decided to get a start on the house cleaning.  It is has been too long since we did the major house cleaning game and I can tell you that the house really needed it.  You know the moment after it is done and your are like yesss this feels great.   In the midst of the cleaning the little bro showed up and grabbed us to go up to the parade that was being done in conjunction with the Jersey Street Music Fest.  

 After that we headed down to the park to grab some lunch from the Taste of Horicon event that was going on.  Sadly there were no cupcakes this year, but I did manage a chicken burrito. In case you didn't know the chicken choice makes the burrito healthy and then there may have been a piece of apple pie.  They also head a petting zoo and some local businesses and artists.  I got to get super close to a tortoise and took a selfeie with a llama for the win (yeah that went on snapchat and I forgot to download, genius I know). 

  I got to make the really cool tile thing at one of the artist stations.  Turns out she is from Horicon and just getting started in pottery or throwing on the wheel.  Now since I am a total pottery lover, I got to have some great conversation related to pottery.  Saturday the music was in the dance hall, the weather man was predicting rain.  Thankfully though it missed us and we were able to sit outside at the event. As much as I love the Jersey Street Music fest, I was saddened that the bands were moved indoors.  I felt that it took away a portion of the festing experience aka walking around eating and laying on a blanket chilling, enjoying summer, listening to the bands .

After our afternoon festing and since the house was clean....I decided to give the dogs a bath.  Our bullet loves a bath.  Then it was a stop at the parents house to drop off my dad's birthday and fathers' day present and I went for a walk with my parents.  The evening closed with us watching some Jurassic park to get ready for the new movie viewing which was planned to go down on Monday.

Sunday the main plan was to be out on the water, so after some early morning grocery shopping and doing a few other things we headed out.  Sadly the jetski had a few problems, so the hubbie ended up as a no go. He was hell bent and determined to get the jetski fixed.  The steppie and myself headed out though with the littles and my bro.  Sunday an aqua car (sorry not sure if that is the official name for them was at the sandbar)  Very cool until they got kind of stuck in the mud.

And here are a few more sunshiney snippets from our Sunday.

 

Now Monday I had the day off also...dental appointments in the morning for the family, we grabbed some breakfast and managed to do some shopping.  We also checked out Nordstrom Rack for our first time.  Maybe I am cheap, but I was taken back by some of the prices.  Forest created a little game for us in the shoe section of "what's the sale price and then the real price".  It was crazy.  Also, took the steppie to check out World Market plus she bought something with her very own money from her very first paycheck.

 

The evening found us going to see Jurassic World.  All I am going to say is that it was good...since I don't want to give anyone any spoilers and I, of course, ate way too much popcorn to the point of feeling sick, yet again.

 

And check it out we have the longest dog ever...it takes eight legs for him to move around

 

 

 

All down hill from here...or not

The time has come where the top of the hill has been reached and it is all down hill from here.  Which in reality is good thing right because climbing up the bitch is a hell of a lot harder then going down it.  I think though, we will chill and hang at the top of this hill enjoying the view and all that has been worked for.

 

Now in case you didn't catch that underlying meaning...it is my hubbie's 40th birthday today. Happy BiRtHdAy!   Today's post shall be my view of his greatest moments, times and things from the last year:

 

1. Completing his first 5k

Yeah, yeah I am a runner so this makes me proud. Being able to cheer him on crossing the finishing was fantastic. 

 

2. Some pretty awesome purchases went down that will up our fun level and make things easier

Oh the jetski.

and then the camper

And a brand new riding lawn mower.

 

Thank goodness we bought the jetski and camper to enable great tales since the stories of the old lawnmower, like how the wheel just fell off, will now be gone.

 

3. Growing your hair back....no but really just being able to have fun and enjoy life no matter how much of our awesome is showing.

 

4. Loving me because really we know how difficult of a task it really is and you choose to put up with my strong willed nature on the regular

 

5.   Quitting smoking and changing to vaping.  Quitting smoking is one of the hardest things a person can do (in my opinion).   I so proud that you choose to quit smoking and were able to conquer that.

 

Happy Birthday!!! And cheers to the view that will be enjoyed from the top...my love, always and forever.

 

 

Graze Box

 

When it comes to mid-afternoons, I have a tendency to become kind of crazy hungry.  I could have even eaten not more than an hour before the hunger pain hits.  Now take that and add in a long drive with dinners commonly not occurring until almost 7 in the evenings, I started to get in a bad habit of hitting the vending machines for a snack.  Those vending machine snacks always end up being the worst choices (aka I go for the king size peanut butter cups) and not single servings. 

 

One day while browsing a magazine, I stumbled upon Graze. With a promise of a free box, I figured why not.  I went in got my account all set up plus went thru and marked all the snacks that I would not like right away.  This is a key part to making sure that you get items you may be interested in trying. If the snack listed has something you don't like in it, just click "trash".

Here is what was in my first box (seen above):

1. Caramel Apple - Dried apples with caramel dipping sauce for the win
2. Cocoa and Vanilla Flapjack - These are kind of like granola bars...they are delicious and I can understand why you can now order a box of just flapjacks.
3. Pomodoro Rustichella - Tomato, Basil and Oregano Almonds, mini tomato breadsticks and cheddar bruschetta.
4. Garden of England - Apple pieces, strawberries and black currants

I can say I loved the first two things and liked the second two.  This whole box though was a win.  I decided that this was a subscription service that I am completely enjoying since the items I have gotten are unique plus I would not have purchased these on my own.  Watch for my second box review soon...and if you are interested in your own box, click here:  GRAZE

Enjoy you snack time

disclaimer: All opinions were my own and I have not been compensated for this post. I just truly love their snacks and service

 

Our Door

 

Hola, Buenos Dias. Pardon the closed up doors and the drawn curtains over in these parts. We are currently working on recovering from our little excursion to Mexico.    Very soon though the stories and lessons learned shall be shared.  I can say today that every person should have the chance to experience international travel.

 

Soon...

 

Ghosts of Weekend Past - Hello Summer

This last weekend finally felt like summer arrived.   After doing some errands on Saturday morning, we finally took the boat out for the first time of the year.  When we left it was a little chilly, but by the end of the afternoon we were kind of bummed we left the jetski home. 

 

 

Another thing I was doing while we were driving out was scoping out some places to hide some geocaches.  Of course, they will represent our love of the water.

 

Here is how the sandbar looked when we arrived.  We got some stellar parking.

 

And I got to test out the fish that I got for my nephews.  We learned that the positioning of the tail is very important.  Once we were lucky to find it and then twice it scared the living daylights out of steppie and me by popping up when we thought it was gone.

 

Soon though everyone else realized the beautiful day and we had company.  A little beer pong action going on too.

 

Since when we left we thought it would be to cold to literally chill in the water, we left the big floaties at home.  So in a lame attempt, this was our makeshift raft.

 

Clearly the water was cold and our raft was a fail.

 

And a day would not be complete without a stop at Skalliwags before heading home.

 

Sunday...house cleaning, shopping...and packing for Mexico.  Yeah I am basically finished.  For someone who loves traveling, I sure do hate packing.  Oh and I would like to close with "thanking" my husband for getting me to watch "Orange is the New Black" on Netflix.  An additional underlying factor why it took me hours to get my packing close to done.   Guess what I may be watching on the plane...yeah.

 

And with all that said...Adios, see you all when I have sunned my bum.