The End of Summer

 

Monday September 7- Its Labor Day, and the end to a real busy fun weekend. We got a little rain last night and it looks like it could rain some more this morning. We had to get up early and head to Seth and Katie's, they along with Justin and Molly are playing in a golf tournament. I just hope they stay dry......they did. We got to spend the day with our two favorite kiddos. Jeff and Ashton got started putting together the Wright Brothers Flyer that we got him for his birthday. Well they said easy assembly but it wasn't all that easy. It took them a little while but they got it done.

 

 After finishing the plane everyone was hungry, we decided to go for a late breakfast at Perkins. We all got breakfast except Hailey, she went with a cheeseburger and fries.

 





Well after being entertained during our brunch, we finished up and headed back to the kids home. Around lunch time Seth and Katie got home so we went home then. Justin and Molly came out for dinner. Jeff made them some salmon on the grill. We showed them the lodge we rented for their rehearsal dinner next year. They thought it would work good. After they went home we sat down and relaxed. That was one busy weekend.

Tuesday September 8- After all the excitement I was a bit slow to start. I went up and gave my shower house some extra cleaning. Went to Walmart to get some supplies. Took a quick look in the clearance isle. Jeff saw an easy bake oven. I wanted to get Hailey that for Christmas so we picked that up. We like to get all the Christmas for the kids bought and wrapped before we leave for warmer temps. After getting lunch we took advantage of the Tuesday special at the movie theater. This time we saw A Walk In The Woods. Jeff and I both really liked this one. Again we skipped the popcorn its so hard to get that out of the routine...I love movie popcorn. Its still kinda warm but the temperatures are dropping a little.

 

Wednesday September 9- Well its cooled off more, just about perfect out there. I took advantage of the weather and went for a long walk. Jeff finished up the cleaning on the outside of the truck. I also did a little cleaning inside. Since it was so nice I even gave the dogs a bath outside. They didn't care for that too much. We had an early supper and went in to watch Hailey tumble. She gets so excited for the class and she really pays close attention to the instructions. Its really fun to watch.

 

That was a good way to end the day. Its always good when you can spend time with your grandkids.

 

 

Thursday September 10- Another real pretty day. On my way to clean the shower house I spotted a rainbow. The funny thing was it hadn't even rained. Little did I know that was to come later. I went on my walk and as I was finishing up it started to sprinkle. I had to pick up the pace. It just sprinkled a little. I cleaned out some cabinets while the weather was wet. It cleared up and we went outside to work on our to do list. Jeff brought in the slides so he could wax above them. I waxed under the front cap. I washed the RV tire covers and my bike. Jeff greased the shackles. We both felt like we accomplished some important tasks today. We had supper and then went in to watch the grandson at hockey practice. He is really getting good and his listening skills are improving too.

 

 

Friday September 11- It just doesn't matter how much time passes, that date always brings back very horrible images. It is a very beautiful day out today. The sky's are blue with lots of very white fluffy clouds. Jeff made us a campfire this morning to sit and enjoy our coffee with. A funny thing happened today....well Jeff thought it was funny. We were talking to our neighbors, I was standing under the edge of there awning. A big gust of wind came and a whole bunch of water that was in there awning came down right on my head. Everyone thought it was funny....I thought it was cold. It almost seemed like someone was up there and dumped a 5 gallon bucket of water on me. Since it was so breezy I went ahead and did the laundry. After supper we headed into the ice rink because Ashton is having tryouts for the traveling hockey team.We thought he did good but the tryouts continue tomorrow. I am sure he had the biggest support system there. He had 12 people there cheering him on...silently because you couldn't yell.  It's hard for me to be quiet.

 

 

Saturday September 12- Started off with cleaning the shower house. I try to get up there early before all the campers wake up. I walked and made some kettle corn for later. We headed back to the ice rink to watch the second part of try outs. Ashton did a good job again. They won't find out the results until next week. Went over to Seth and Katie's to watch the Iowa Hawkeye's play Iowa State.  The Hawkeye's weren't really playing that good and so we left at half time to head home. We brought Ashton home with us to stay over night. We actually got to finish watching the game at home and after halftime they looked a lot better and they won!!! 31-17.
After the game Ashton wanted to try out his fire starter so Papa helped him. He did a good job and they made FIRE!!

 

 

 The rest of they evening we just relaxed and watched some T.V.

Sunday September 13- It was a bit cool this morning. Ashton and Jeff started us a morning fire.  We had a fire log and that worked real wel. It was a perfect fire to sit and drink coffee by.

 

 

 The fire was so perfect we decided to be a bit crazy and have marshmallows for a morning snack. Ashton figured out who the best marshmallow cook is.....Grammy.

 

 

 

 We watched as everyone started pulling out. We got Ashton's Wright Brothers Flyer out and sent it on its maiden voyage. It took awhile to figure it out but the wind picked up so we put it away.

 

 

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 We hung around the campsite. Jeff showed Ashton some knots to tie and after a few tries he caught on pretty quick. Jeff got Ashton's new fishing pole rigged up and gave Ashton some tackle to put in his new tackle box. They took the bikes and rode over to try and fish a little. They weren't gone very long and came back. Ashton had a headache. We ended up taking him back home a bit early cause he headache got worse. We had supper and called it a day.


Monday September 14-I got an early phone call this morning. It was Seth, Ashton is still not feeling well. I'm going in and spending the day there. I packed up and got some things to keep me busy for the day and headed to town. I did get my laundry done. It was a long day there. I decided to go get the scrapbooks that I have stored there and take a look. That was a fun, I haven't looked at them for 3 years. I came home as soon as Seth got home from work.


Tuesday September 15-I felt I had a lot to do today. I didn't do any cleaning in the shower house yesterday, Jeff did it for me. So after I cleaned there I came back and got started with some things here. I cleaned out the microwave, sinks and my favorite job defrosting the freezer. Jeff was busy outside, he replaced a switch on the back bigfoot. We have had some problems with it bringing the foot all the way up. Sometimes it works sometimes not.  Jeff then has been trying to figure out what I did to the computer....because I couldn't get the blog to work right. I'm not sure what I did but Jeff got it fixed. So now I have some serious catching up to do.


Wednesday September 16- Today was really nice out, warmer than usual but there is plenty of wind. Went in to get supplies. Soffee our weiner dog is having more medical issues. It looks like another vet visit is in the works. I took advantage of the apple tree in the campground and made some apple crisp. Boy was that good. Went in to watch Hailey at tumbling. She's so fun to watch. I used to do dance in my younger days.

 

 

 After tumbling we stopped at Justin's to get our mail. Then we headed back home.


Thursday September 17- It was a very rainy day. We called the vet this morning and they told us to bring Soffee in. They looked at her gave her some medicine and home we went. I get so scared every time she has those problems. I don't know what we can do to avoid it. She is 13 and looks very gray. We are very used to her being around. Them pets sometimes a real pain but don't know what I would do without them. It rained the whole day. I did some quilting and we did make it in to watch Ashton's hockey practice. He found out today that he made the team. He was so excited about the news and we are very proud.


Friday September 18- It was really a wet day today. I went to the eye doctor today. I got a pair od glasses ordered. The ones I'm wearing I have had for 3 years. My eye doctor is in Walmart so after my appointment we looked around and we found Ashton's Christmas gift. It rained all afternoon. I mean it poured rain. We met some friends at White Star Ale House downtown. Janie and John Dean, they are full time RVers too. Justin was playing at White Star tonight so after dinner we listened to them play. The rain just wouldn't quit. The show was good.

 

 Saturday September 19- We got up early and it came quick since we had a late night. The good news the rain had moved out and it was a beautiful day. Jeff's brother Fritz and his wife Shawn came up this morning. We met them at there hotel and went down to the farmers market. It's the last one of the season but the first one we made it to. The weather was perfect for that. Justin and Molly met us down there too. We didn't get much but it was fun to walk around and look. After we decided to go for lunch. We called Seth and Katie and they met us at Emil's Hideaway. Justin and Molly came too. We had a great lunch. Everyone had something different and all of us liked it. The best part was the dessert. Molly and I shared it and I cant even tell you what the name of the pie was but I can tell you it was super good.

 

 

 After lunch everyone went there own way. Fritz and Shawn came out to the campground and we visited first then made supper. The Hawkeyes wee playing a night game tonight. After supper we went in to Seth's and watch the game. The girls were upstairs helping Molly with the wedding guest list. The Hawkeye's won 27-24 with a 57 yard field goal with no time left. Yeah Hawkeye's!!


Sunday September 20-The park is still full but not for long. Fritz called us and they came out to the park. The weather was great again. We took a nice walk around the park. We made some chicken noodle soup for lunch and Jeff made Fritz some of his healthy bread pudding. It was nice to sit and visit with family. We took the dogs for a walk after our company left. Then we got the dogs stuff together and took them to Justin and Molly's. We are going to Chicago tomorrow and they get to doggy sit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 









Summer, with a dash of Fall

Monday August 24--Brrrrrr its a bit cool out there this morning and windy too. The sun came out and it was really a pretty day. It was a work day, I did my cleaning and Jeff worked on waxing the last side of the rig. I went in and got some groceries. It was the first day of school for the kids today.  We are expecting the campground to slow down. When it clears out here the hummingbirds seem to show up.






















Tuesday August 25- It was a nice day after the wind died down. Joan the park manager called and said some of the hosts in the second loop are going to the appreciation picnic for the State Park volunteers. Since they are going Joan is going and driving. She invited us to come along. We thought we should go but we had already rsvp'd that we weren't coming. Joan said that didn't matter. Then I had to make something to take. Its about 2 hours away so I thought cookies would be the safest thing to take. So I got busy making some peanut butter cookies, only thing I had the ingredients for. It was still kinda below normal temperatures so we made chili for supper. After eating we went to town, we are going to the Brit Floyd concert and we had to get the tickets first. The concert was at the McGrath amphitheater, its an outdoor venue so I brought a blanket. We brought our own chairs and found a good place to sit. They have quite a light show so they had to wait for it to get a bit dark. The show was very good and loud. It was a late night for us. We were home by midnight. We needed to get to sleep cause we have an early morning tomorrow.

Wednesday August 26-We got up early because we were going to meet Joan, Sandy and Mary in town to go to the picnic. We needed to be heading in by 7:30. We met everyone at Menards and away we went. Off to Big Creek State Park which is just north of Des Moines. When we got there we rode around to see the park before we went to the shelter where the picnic was happening. Its pretty new and located close to the beach area. They just redid that whole area, really nice. They had some speeches and talked a bit. Finally they let us eat. After eating the vender there that runs the boating consession let us go out on a pontoon boat. That is  really a nice consession, they have pontoon boats, fishing boats, kayaks, stand up paddle boards, and bikes. That was really nice and Jeff was the driver. It really warmed up too.

After the boat ride we loaded up and headed for home. Boy it was hard to keep my eyes open. We were kinda concerned about the dogs cause they were home all day but they were fine. We didn't make it to Hailey's first tumbling class but Katie sent us some pictures.





















Thursday August 27- I got my walk in this morning and it was a great day for that. So nice I decided to do the laundry too. We decided to go to town and see the kids, went early to run a few errands. We got to hear about Hailey's tumbling and how Ashton is doing in school. We went to Ashton's hockey practice. Then we stopped by Justin's place. We visited with Justin and Molly for awhile then we headed home.



Friday August 28- Today looked like rain and the forecast says all day....rain. We knew we weren't going to hang around here all day. We thought about taking in a movie. Since we are going in town thought about looking for some wallpaper. Both of us don't like the backsplash we put up and want to replace it. I thought some vinyl wallpaper might be a good option. We did that at our old home and both liked it. So we left early and stopped at Sherwin Williams and looked at some books. We brought a book home to see if anything would work. Then we went for lunch before the movie. Jeff liked the HuHot so well the last time he wanted me to try. It looked really good but it still wasn't my favorite.

Next we went to the movie, went and saw Paper Towns. The movie was only so so but the popcorn was 2 thumbs up. We stopped by Seth's house cause he said his garage door wasn't working. Jeff wanted to make sure it wasn't something he could fix before they called someone. On our way home it just started pouring rain. When we got home the rain stopped so we unloaded everything. The rain started up again and with the campground full for the weekend we started having electrical issues. Lots of breakers being tripped. The rain just kept falling, the rest of the night.


Saturday August 29- Kind of and exciting day. I met Molly to go try on wedding dresses. We went to Hopes Bridal in a big pink barn. Molly's mom and friend came too. It was something. She looked so pretty in all the dresses. I took lots of pictures but can't post them just yet. After trying on quite a few she found the one.... It is so pretty. We looked at some bridesmaid dresses too while we were there. While I was away Jeff had some issues at the campground. He blamed it on the neighbors, said they had a black cloud. We met them last year and are very nice folks. Dan and Laura camped right behind us and we had a good time visiting with them. Seth called and asked if we could meet them at Best Buy. They are getting a new TV and wanted us to deliver it. They paid us with pizza.




Sunday August 30- It was a cloudy morning, we did some visiting with Dan and Laura before they headed out. We planned to go into Seth and Katie's, we are hoping for perfect launch weather. We gathered up all the rocket stuff and headed in. Ashton had a few friends there so we walked up to Cherry Hill Park. It's a great place to launch. The wind cooperated so everyone was excited. First we launched the one stage rocket, then the bigger two stage rocket but only used one engine.

We only had two engines, and Ashton let each one of friends push the launch button. I thought that was nice of him. The boys thought it was awesome and didn't have a problem finding them when they came down. They landed right were they were suppose to. We came home and thought the place would be quiet and empty. Then we noticed that people are already tagging spots for next weekend, oh yeah its a holiday weekend.


Monday August 31-The last day of the month I can't believe its almost September. It sure doesn't feel like September it's really hot out today. I did my usual cleaning and decided to clean up under the one apple tree in our loop. The mowers are coming and there are so many apples on the ground I didn't know how they could mow. I went up with a 5 gallon bucket and the more I picked up the more there seemed to be on the ground. After 12 trips to the dumpster it was cleaned up. I even got a bag to take home and bake with. I made some apple crisp and it was so good. I also got started on drawing Ashton's birthday cake. I draw what they want and then I use the drawing as a template to cut out the cake. This year he decided he wanted a fish cake with a bait can. So I got that all figured out today.


Tuesday September 1-Another scorcher today....where's Fall? Since its so hot we thought of things we could do inside. I called to get Belle's x ray set up. We had planned on taking care of this as soon as we got back but with all of Jeff's issues we put it on hold. She hasn't had any symptoms so we were ok to wait. We decided to go to town and take back the wallpaper book, nothing we liked in there. Went to Menards and looked again at these stainless tiles. We had thought of them before but decided against them. Well, we should know by now to go with our original idea. Those are the ones we went with on the second try. We bought some but of course they didn't have enough so we have to make a trip across town to the other Menards to get the rest. It's never easy.



Wednesday September 2- It looked like it was going to rain today so when I took off for a walk I wasn't sure if I would get it all in. It didn't rain so that was good. Jeff got to waxing the truck. He's been wanting to get this done, the weather has been to hot. I got busy on making Ashton's cake, I used a different cake pan and when I went to flip it out it broke it to pieces. Wasn't going to be any fixing that. I had to go to town and get another cake mix. Ashton wanted a white fish cake, so that's what I needed to get. We went to the other Menards and got the rest of the stainless tiles. This time they didn't have all the trim we needed so we had to come up with another idea. Really?
We went to Seth and Katie's because we were going to Hailey's tumbling class. She was so excited to be going, and we were excited to watch.






















We did have a bit of good news. One the way home we got to take Covington road, it has been closed since we got back. It's been under construction, this doubles the time to get to Seth's place. Made the trip home seem really short tonight.


Thursday September 3- Today is Belle's vet appointment in Vinton. Its about a half hour drive. We have never been to Vinton and both of us thought it was a nice clean little town. The vet we haven't met, but our vet doesn't have an x ray machine and he suggested him. After talking to the vet he told us x rays weren't needed. He explained things to us and told us what he would do. So instead of $150 we only had to pay $25 for the advice. Good news all the way around. When I got home I got busy on Ashton 2nd fish cake. I have to have it frozen to frost it. The heat has returned, our poor air conditioner cant hardly keep up. We spent the afternoon working on the new back splash. It should have been easy, but those are famous last words.

It wasn't as easy as we thought but both of us love the end result.



Friday September 4-It was super hot today, I couldn't even walk this morning. Katie and Ashton was coming out for one last time on the beach. It was almost to hot for that but there was a breeze which made it bearable. I spent the rest of the day frosting cakes. First I got the fish cake out of the freezer.

As you can see, we have a problem. I didn't have any more time so I just got the frosting out and got busy putting it back together again. After some work you couldn't even tell.

Again this took longer than I thought. Now I just have to transport it tomorrow. Hoping it will stay together.


Saturday September 5- Happy 10th Birthday to my favorite boy Ashton. The party is at 2 o'clock but its opening day for the Iowa Hawkeyes. There game is at 11:00. We didn't make it for the kick off but got there by noon. The cake made it but the frosting on the can started to slide down. Its really hot out there today. Ashton loved his cake and thats all that matters to me.

Ashton had a wonderful birthday. The cake was good and the Hawkeyes won. It was a good day for sure. It's not over yet. After going home to tend to the dogs we went back to town. This time we went to the ice arena...the stable to watch an exhibition game for the Cedar Rapids Rough Riders. Hailey and Katie stayed home cause Hailey wasn't feeling well.

Well it was an exciting game The Rough Riders won in overtime 4-3. A great ending to a busy fun packed day.



Sunday September 6- It felt a little cooler this morning but that didn't last long. We met Seth and Katie in Coralville at the mall. They went to play hockey, we met them so we could go visit Costco. They are members so we have been wanting to go and today just worked out. It was nice but not anything we would take advantage of. We don't need to bulk buy. I can see if you are raising a family it would be great. We did a little shopping and had some lunch before heading home. When we got home we just relaxed the rest of the evening. Wow what a busy fun weekend and technically its not over...there is still Labor Day.