Men at Work

This is my little brother Mark.... not the truck, but the guy in the truck; you can barely see his white hard hat.

Governor Dodge State Park

Despite local climbers' discouragement, Greg and I decided to head out to Governor Dodge State Park for a quick weekend break from LIFE.

Governor Dodge (located at the star) is about 2 hours and 15 minutes west of Milwaukee and absolutely beautiful. Greg told me to keep its a beauty a secret so that all the climbers don't head there, but I'm not very good at keeping secrets anways..... The park has two lakes with canoe and paddleboat rental, tons of bike trails, hiking trails and even horse trails. Apart from the regular camping it also has tons of HORSE camping. The climbing is very simple: there is only 1 small area that I know of (although I have heard there is another) and it has about 9 climbs. On Saturday we got on two of the routes with the intent to climb more on Sunday, but Sunday the bugs had taken over and claimed the area thier own; After 1 climb each we headed to the lake.

Right outside the park there was a giant Boehing C-97 signed by Farah Fawcett. It's parked in the lawn of the Donn Q Inn and I don't really know why.... I think it is simply a tourist attraction.

Of course aside from the climbing we got in the best part of camping..... Cooking dinner and roasting s'mores.

Right now I've got two loads of laundry in and am gearing up for the next trip.... I leave for Kentucky on Friday after work. :)

Roman is Gone

Roman came and left too quickly (his mom was here also:). He was a blast and I was lucky enough to spend an entire day with him while Anne was at her friend Amanda's wedding. Roman is the goofiest of the little ones. He can be a little mischievous, which he tries to cover up with a huge squint y eyed smile and a quite the socialite. He has started to talk more clearly and has two main tones that stand out... either he's yelling or the exact opposite: talking in his sweet soft high pitched little boy voice.
Reminds me of Mark.....Loves pushing around his own stroller....Cousins......Soo SILLY!
Who woulda thought sheboygan was so pretty......
The hotel that we were at had a water park, which was perfect for him. I told Anne that Roman is the bravest little boy... Anne replied "He's not even brave; he's just absolutely not afraid of anything" or something like that. Which explains how he was able to go down the water slides that some of the 5 year-olds were hesitant to go down.

With Anne and Roman gone, I am back to my busy schedule. Aside from signing on an apartment a few days ago, my newest enthusiasm is getting in shape. (The office life had been taking a hold of me.) So far I have run 3 days straight and I am joining a 'wellness' activity at work: Basically I have to walk 800,000 steps over twelve weeks; That is 10,000 steps/day. Once I complete them I get a Target Gift card.

Tomorrow I headed to Governor's Dodge State park for a quick little camping trip. I need one weekend away from BUSY. (and of course I need my climbing fix)

June is already here. WHAT??

Although we were all doubting it would happen, summer finally came in quick and strong; This means baseball, the beach, bars, tomorrow is the first night of Jazz in the park and I already got my tickets lined up to see the Black Keys at Summerfest.

Brother Mark and I.....

Brats, brats, brats

Anne is currently visiting us with Roman! She is in town for one week because her friend is getting married this weekend. Roman and I are going to accompany her to the wedding in Sheboygan.

Roman made the basket!!! Grandpa was just as excited.

I love all the babies so much and am so lucky to be here and close to them. Being an Aunt is awesome and I am having a blast watching them grow. I wouldnt trade my auntism for anything. Look at this little lady :)

Well its about time alright.

The other day I finally sat down to blog. Then I realized that without pictures there is no blog. I'm not a very good writer and I always seem to only skim the surface of what I really wanna say. I've been told I can be too diplomatic. Well, whatever the case it dawned on me that I needed to buy a new camera sooner or later. Okay, more like ASAP. So i found one on sale that I liked and I bought it. And here's a picture. Yes, it's a selfie..... what happend was when I got the camara all ready to go I had no subject or thing or rusty stop sign or anything to photograph. So i decided to do a selfie of me blogging....... fairly appropriate to put in my blog. right?

i've come the conclusion that things will never slow down.

Goodmorning. It's Easter! Happy Easter to everyone. So where have I been, what have I been up to??????

Well, I haven't been writting for about two weeks now. Since I got back from Philly I have not had a second to breathe. I spent one entire week babysitting for a family whose parents were in Rome visiting their eldest daughter on the UD Rome campus (my stomping grounds about 10 years ago...........)

Anyways it was a busy and exhausting lemonade stand, soccer practice, macaroni and cheese, dog walking, ponytail pulling, ballet costume tacking, track meet, basketball, laundry, birthday party sleepover, hair appointments, Disney channel, snowing, sunny and rainy extravaganza. I was with the kids for about a week. Each day I dropped the youngest off at a friend's house and the other children walked to school, then I went off to my job and came home to them at the end of my work day. I love kids, they are awesome and simple and keep you grounded. I was thrilled to be with them for the week and happy that the parents had the opportunity to escape.

Sorry no pictures. I have no camera.

SOOO once I got back home and got my freedom back I found out that I would be having eye surgery on Friday (as in a few days ago). I am still recovering, but ill get back soon with the overall results of that experience..........................................

Those pictures that'll be fun to pull out in 16 years.

So my second vacation was actually thanks to my brother Peter and my sister-in-law Sarah. They had a conference and work out near Philly so they decided to take Amaya and i out there with them. Amaya and I spent the week with Anne and her little Roman (Pete and Sarah joined later in the week). I had an absolute blast with the little buggers. It was so great to see them play together and be with Anne, well actually AUNT Anne.

Everything in twos...... It was a fast-paced, fun-filled time, a play marathon, if you will. We played at the park, bounced on the bed, did stickers, went to the Disney store, out to eat, to visit Uncle Ant at work, rode bikes together, played baseball and of course, made them take a bath together so that we can show them pictures and completely embarasse them 16 years from now. I love being an Aunt.

Okay so maybe they didn't get along the whole time.........

The weather was a little bit yucky, but we found lots to do...... at Roman's house you are allowed to play bubbles inside.

When we were leaving to go to the airport at the end of the week, Amaya kept asking for Roman and wondering where he was. It was adorable.