The last couple of weeks have been busy, even a bit
overwhelming. The last two days I've basically slept and tried to recooperate from the craziness.
June 23rd-24th ... was our work retreat at White Pines. It was a beautiful couple of days, and we all enjoyed the sisterhood and were able to relax while still getting a lot of work done. We stayed in the Pine Creek Cabins and took time out to hike, and even get a little toasted after hours.
June 25th ... was work as normal
June 26th-27th ... the management team joined a leadership training in Springfield at the state offices. It was a decent training and we had a nice time, but it was such a long week that by Friday afternoon we were all ready to get on home.
June 28th-July 2nd... Jeff and I left for the Wisconsin Dells. We had an excellent time, the Dells were beautiful, and not too busy. We took both an upper river cruise, rode the ducks for the lower Dells area and took in many of the other sites as well. It was a sobering site+of+PICT9135.JPG)
though to actually walk out onto the lake bed of what had formally been Lake Delton. The locals all seem optimistic that things will be returning to normal fairly soon but it still has to have hurt many of the local businesses, especially Tommy Barlett's water show.
We did take in a couple of geocaches, one of them at a State park called Devil's Lake. It was a beautiful area, and much less commercialized, though the skeeters were like little flying devils. I think they even made away with the cache because we never did find it.
On our way home, we made a stop at House on the Rock. I don't think we will be returning there any time soon. While there were some interesting things to see, it was a disapointment for Jeff and definitely not quite the attraction I'd remembered it being when I was a kid. It was almost creepy in a way, it felt dirty and smelled really bad imho.
July 3rd ... we spent the day getting ready for the Annual Patty Family Picnic. We shopped, and basically loaded everything but the kitchen sink into the blazer.
Sadly however, that day I got a call from my Dad saying my Aunt Shirley (my Godmother) had passed away. She was someone I cared for a lot....I sort of put it away for after the picnic as my Mom wanted to go ahead with our plans for the day.
July 4th ... we hosted the Annual Patty Family Picnic at Centenial Park in Rock Falls, Illinois. It turned out to be a great place to have it (after all the stress of trying to find the perfect spot with
the campground flooded.) I think we'd consider having it there again next year even. We took Jack with us, and all the kids had a really great time, as did the adults. There were paddle boats and fishing and lots of yard games and as always plenty of the best food ever!
July 5th ... i was exhausted and basically slept the whole day. I did work on my facebook page that night and stayed up entirely too late (Saturday)
July 6th ... i was still exhausted but Jeff and I managed a short little drive to just get out of the house. He put me in charge and so I just drove...we ended up at the lock and dam near Fulton, then over to Clinton for something to drink. Something to drink turned into Taco Bells and then to Pauls to just snoop around and finally home. We watched a couple of movies, nothing big, I worked on a few odds and ends on my computer and that was it.
July 7th ... is today. Today I slept late, and am doing a bit of cleaning and posting to this blog. When I finish it's off to shower and get dressed for my Aunt's visitation/funeral. It's going to be a tough day. She was my mom's last living sister and they were very close. Before Aunt Sirley went to the nursing home a couple of years ago she had moved within blocks of my mom and dad and they spent lots of time together. My mom is 84 or will be at the end of this month, so it doesn't matter how strong you are, just being 84 can really kick your butt at times. --bleh
I'll add photos later,
Jen
overwhelming. The last two days I've basically slept and tried to recooperate from the craziness.June 23rd-24th ... was our work retreat at White Pines. It was a beautiful couple of days, and we all enjoyed the sisterhood and were able to relax while still getting a lot of work done. We stayed in the Pine Creek Cabins and took time out to hike, and even get a little toasted after hours.
June 25th ... was work as normal
June 26th-27th ... the management team joined a leadership training in Springfield at the state offices. It was a decent training and we had a nice time, but it was such a long week that by Friday afternoon we were all ready to get on home.
June 28th-July 2nd... Jeff and I left for the Wisconsin Dells. We had an excellent time, the Dells were beautiful, and not too busy. We took both an upper river cruise, rode the ducks for the lower Dells area and took in many of the other sites as well. It was a sobering site
+of+PICT9135.JPG)
though to actually walk out onto the lake bed of what had formally been Lake Delton. The locals all seem optimistic that things will be returning to normal fairly soon but it still has to have hurt many of the local businesses, especially Tommy Barlett's water show.We did take in a couple of geocaches, one of them at a State park called Devil's Lake. It was a beautiful area, and much less commercialized, though the skeeters were like little flying devils. I think they even made away with the cache because we never did find it.
On our way home, we made a stop at House on the Rock. I don't think we will be returning there any time soon. While there were some interesting things to see, it was a disapointment for Jeff and definitely not quite the attraction I'd remembered it being when I was a kid. It was almost creepy in a way, it felt dirty and smelled really bad imho.
July 3rd ... we spent the day getting ready for the Annual Patty Family Picnic. We shopped, and basically loaded everything but the kitchen sink into the blazer.
Sadly however, that day I got a call from my Dad saying my Aunt Shirley (my Godmother) had passed away. She was someone I cared for a lot....I sort of put it away for after the picnic as my Mom wanted to go ahead with our plans for the day.
July 4th ... we hosted the Annual Patty Family Picnic at Centenial Park in Rock Falls, Illinois. It turned out to be a great place to have it (after all the stress of trying to find the perfect spot with
the campground flooded.) I think we'd consider having it there again next year even. We took Jack with us, and all the kids had a really great time, as did the adults. There were paddle boats and fishing and lots of yard games and as always plenty of the best food ever!July 5th ... i was exhausted and basically slept the whole day. I did work on my facebook page that night and stayed up entirely too late (Saturday)
July 6th ... i was still exhausted but Jeff and I managed a short little drive to just get out of the house. He put me in charge and so I just drove...we ended up at the lock and dam near Fulton, then over to Clinton for something to drink. Something to drink turned into Taco Bells and then to Pauls to just snoop around and finally home. We watched a couple of movies, nothing big, I worked on a few odds and ends on my computer and that was it.
July 7th ... is today. Today I slept late, and am doing a bit of cleaning and posting to this blog. When I finish it's off to shower and get dressed for my Aunt's visitation/funeral. It's going to be a tough day. She was my mom's last living sister and they were very close. Before Aunt Sirley went to the nursing home a couple of years ago she had moved within blocks of my mom and dad and they spent lots of time together. My mom is 84 or will be at the end of this month, so it doesn't matter how strong you are, just being 84 can really kick your butt at times. --bleh
I'll add photos later,
Jen
