Wisconsin Vacation

Time to blog about our wonderful vacation we just back from a week ago! Oh I how I was looking forward to this vacation... I needed a break from work so bad. I hadn't taken a day off in a year, so it was time. :) 

We've gone to Wisconsin almost every single year since I was 8... but this year we went to a different place. A place that would be better with the little kids and that was a closer drive. We left on Saturday morning, and Daniel and I rode with Heidi & Luke and the kiddos. It was only a 4.5 hour drive which was wonderful!

The kids traveling...thank goodness for portable DVD players!

Lunch stop at Culvers!

We went to a resort that was on a lake in Arkdale, Wisconsin. On Sunday afternoon I went fishing out on the boat with these guys:

 But the fishing wasn't the greatest at all. I think maybe a total of 5 fish were caught.... I gave up fishing pretty much on the first day. I decided I wanted to spend my time otherwise, even though I love to fish. I seriously spent my week doing what I wanted to do. Sleeping in, eating delicious meals, running, going to the pool, eating, going to the pool, playing tennis, playing board games, playing with the kids, going on walks... you get the picture. :) Basically eating and sitting by the pool! But it was so wonderful... I would've done 2 more weeks of it!

Bridget became buds with Daniel real fast. Probably because he's overly silly with her..especially in the pool!

Dinner time...the condo was so spacious!

These boys keep looking more and more alike...

The resort was on a golf course and a lake. Our condo was more on the golf course part of it. No one in our family really golfs, but the boys borrowed some golf clubs just to go to the driving range in the evenings a couple of times.

The boys going to the driving range

The boys ended up in our backyard of our condo...

Such a good smile of Adam

Daniel

We all loved having the kids around for a week! They were so darling and good!

I really don't have many good pictures...there wasn't much to take pictures of since we didn't do much. So most of my pictures are of the kids. :)

The kids loved playing basketball in the pool

We played games a lot in the evenings...which usually ended in a slap happy mood. :) At least for me! I'm not used to staying up that late!

Carter's hilarious..he eats anything anyone gives him. He ate all of mom's salad one night!

The lake one evening... I didn't wait for the sunset, but I should've. Adam has beautiful pictures.

Me & Daniel

                                                   

One view of the resort, where our condo was

Bedtime stories with Grandma

This is what Dad did a majority of the trip...trying to figure out his new smartphone, and downloading apps. :)

More pool time...the kids usually went before their naps and after too!

Playing by the lake and the sand..

Too sweet!

Carter was doing exercises with Grandpa one morning...

Bridget thought anything of mine was great...(like the sunglasses)

Ready for bed... Carter stealing all of my grapes. This kid eats sooo much!

The last night we were there we were going to go out to eat. But none of us felt like getting ready/cleaning up, we just wanted to enjoy our last night there. So mom and dad went and bought some frozen pizzas for supper. 

Messy eater! 

Watching Pinocchio with Grandpa!

Family pictures before leaving on Friday morning... I do not have a group picture, that's on mom's camera.

The ones who made the trip possible...thanks Mom & Dad!

The night before returning home, but had us go around the table and tell our highs and lows of the trip. I didn't have any lows... my highs were the following:
-Sleeping in until I want to
-Getting to go to the pool everyday
-Playing Tennis... I discovered I love it! (and I think it's the only sport I can actually play...)
-Going on runs and walks
-Not having to cook, just assist (Thanks mom!!!)
-Watching Anne of Green Gables... even the sequel. My family loves this movie...Daniel had never seen it, and it's kind of a tradition to watch it on vacation every once in a while. :) I was a little emotional by the end of it... :) That movie never gets old. I just love Anne.
-Getting to be with my family and the kids was great, but it was also GREAT to spend that much time with Daniel... he didn't have to go work any night shifts or anything. We haven't spent that much time together since our honeymoon. (Sorry if that was cheesy, but it's the truth...)

This list could go on and on and on... needless to say, I cannot wait for our next family vacation! This was a TRUE vacation, getting all rested up! :)

Nathan & Michelle's Wedding Weekend

I am a bit behind on this blog... I have lots of random summer happenings to post, plus vacation pictures... but I decided to post Michelle's wedding first because it was just this past weekend, and I was blessed to be able to be a part of it! We got home from vacation on Friday night, and bright and early Saturday morning it was picture time!  It was good to come home to something so exciting though! Bless Elisabeth's heart, she did my hair early Saturday morning. We went to Glen Oak Park for pictures, and all of us bridesmaids were early...that was a shocker!

Bridesmaids + little Cecily

Michelle's Family

Ellie, Me, Jenny, Michelle, Joy, Kendra, & Lena

Bridesmaids with Nathan



Such a dear friend to me -her dress was soo pretty!

Me & Kendra- Oh how I love this girl!

The Wedding Party

I'm not sure what we were doing :)

Me & Ellie

Kendra & Ellie

The Wedding Party + the ushers...everyone looks so nice, I'm not sure what's up with my smile...

Pictures went really fast... twice as fast as ours did it seemed like! After pictures, Daniel & I went out to lunch at Great Harvest with Troy, Ellie, little Cyrus and Kendra. We hung out at Ellie's parents afterwards and chatted. Before we knew it, it was time to race home and change for the rehearsal.

Rehearsal was hilarious... Shelly laughed all the way down the aisle every time. :) The dinner was in Speer, so we had a fun car ride with Troy, Ellie and Kendra. The weekend was full of laughs... so much fun. We're never all together like that!

Looking at their scrapbook

This picture cracks me up. The men of the core-4... also tallest to shortest ;)

Core 4 with the men!

These girls are so dear to me!

Bridesmaids...except Jenny. Sorry Jenny... we didn't know where you were! :)

Sunday was good. Elisabeth came and did my hair again.. don't know what I would've done without her! It was nice not to mess with it.... and just another excuse for someone to do my hair because I love when people do. :) I wasn't nervous to walk down the aisle, mostly just excited because of all the people that were there that I would get to talk to. :) It was so nice to be in a bridesmaid position this time, since the last time I walked the aisle it was myself!

Ready to walk down the aisle!

Officially married!!

Daniel & I... take 1

Take 2... :) We're not always the best with pictures.

So excited to hang out with them as married couples! :)

Good friends

Kendra, Kristin & Holly at the reception

Nathan & Michelle leaving... notice Michelle is squirting her cousins with a squirt gun!

Sorry that all of my pictures are of all the same people.... obviously you can tell who I was with most of the time...and who I love the most. ;) Just kidding..
Sunday afternoon was busy, we went to Michelle's reception for a bit, but then ran over to Kristin Stoller & Nate's reception(another good friend of mine that got married the same day!), then raced back to Michelle's so I could play the piano 2nd shift.

Sunday evening we went to Daniel's parents house because all the family was there for the evening. Going to bed Sunday night, the last thing I wanted to do was go to work the next day... After being on vacation for a week and then having such fun weekend with the wedding. But I had to get back to reality eventually!

What a smell!

Let me tell you about something I've never quite experienced before.... the most horrible smell you can imagine!

A few weeks ago, on a Wednesday night we headed off to church in Daniel's car. I thought it smelled when we got in, but I thought it was maybe just from Daniel's car sitting at the farm all day. Or his leftover sweat smell since it was so miserably hot that day. 

All the way to church I kept making comments about the smell. Daniel always says I have a super sensitive and good nose... so I think he thought it was just another one of my weird comments....(I don't think I go a day without making some kind of comment about some kind of smell..) He didn't think the smell was that bad, just faint.

After church, we got into our car, and the smell was HORRIBLE. Just imagine, a super hot, humid car(it was sooo muggy out that night) and the worst possible smell! I told Daniel it smelled like a rotting animal. He said "there HAS to be something in here....what is it?"

Then he remembered...... hold your breath(or stomach, whatever which you need to...)

Chicken Gizzards.

He went fishing in the morning before work with his brother David. He used the frozen chicken gizzards from when they butchered chickens this summer. Well he put them in his trunk....and they sat in that nasty heat and humidity ALL day long. 

As soon as I knew what it was it made the smell even worse. I told Daniel to pull over and throw the things out in the ditch! (Thank goodness church is in the country!) 

So we pulled over on the side of the road to get them out of the truck. Some guy stopped to see if everything was ok.... hahaha! "Yep," we said, "just getting something out of the trunk!"

Daniel waited to throw them out since there was a guy right there.... so we drove a bit with the gizzards on the drivers side floor...(don't worry they were in a plastic container). I told him to hurry up and throw the things out! He told me to toss them.... Ewwww, but anything to get those things out of the car! I took them from Daniel and tossed them right out the window.

Apparently I tossed them a little too soon. Right into someone's ditch by their house.... whoops! I was praying their dog ate them before they saw or had to smell them!!

So let me just tell you. I have never smelled something like that in my life. And I hope I never do again.
Daniel gets me out of my little box sometimes...with little things like this(which happens rather frequently), to camping, hunting, and the list goes on...
BUT I wouldn't have it any other way! :)

Camping & Canoeing

Daniel's family spent a weekend in the great outdoors in June at the Lughinbuhl's lake and woods. I haven't done that type of thing in a long time. I enjoyed it, but to be honest, I am not a camper or a "great outdoors" woman at all. :) Actually I think what put a damper on the weekend was that I was sick...I had stayed home from work sick on Thursday afternoon and all day Friday....and then bright and early on Saturday we went canoeing down the muddy Mackinaw river. I do love canoeing and I didn't want to miss out on the weekend..so since I didn't have a fever anymore I went anyway!


The group (minus Mom L)

Seth L went with us, Tmothy, Joe and Tuke the dog

Elisabeth went with us in our canoe. Us girls got to take turns sitting in the middle of the boat.

She is such a dear to me!

We went canoeing from 10am to 4pm. The water was perfect... however there could've been more sun to work on my tan. :)  Elisabeth and I may have freaked out at the flying carp in the river... there were a ton of them! One almost jumped right into our canoe! :) After canoeing we spent the evening at Lughinbuhl's pavillion by the lake. We invited Les & Judy down for dinner. They were so kind to let us use their lake, boat, gator, 4-wheeler and everything outdoors.

 

Mom L, Letty, & Judy

 

 

 

Joe made us all dinner on Saturday night!

You can call me weird, but I love fishing! (Oh, and that's their beautiful home in the background!)

Fishing with Fred & Jodi

Sweet little Letty was such a trooper camping... she did better than me! :)

Saturday night was a rough night of sleep... I even took 2 Nyquil, and I could not fall asleep. And if I did, it wasn't for long. I felt like I only got a couple hours of sleep. At 6am Sunday morning I told Daniel to take me up to Les & Judy's house, I wanted to sleep on the couch in the basement for a little while before church. Even though I couldn't sleep because of my coughing, it felt great to be in the air-conditioning and in the house! We showered at Les & Judy's and then headed to church. Robert & Mary met us at church, and then we all went back out to the lake to celebrate June birthday's that afternoon and evening.

Elisabeth & Letty

 

All the boys swam. Shiloh & Daniel

Sisters...Mary & Elisabeth

Robert & Asher

June Birthdays: Elisabeth, Daniel, & Shiloh

 

 

Enjoying Dessert

 

Les & Judy- such a sweet couple!

 

Shiloh opening his presents... he's 3 years old!

 

 Not the best picture of us... but this is proof that I truly felt horrible! I look so sick in this picture!

 

Birthday boy proud of one of his new toys :)

 It was a great weekend... I really would've enjoyed it if it wasn't for being sick. Hoping the next campout we go on will be better than this one! If there is another! ;) Haha... oh what I do for my husband! ;) I'm kidding...the family time was great, and I knew Daniel was having a blast, so it was very much worth it, even if I joke about it sometimes. :)