Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain

Monday, July 6, 2020

Things Are A Changing

Monday June 8- Today is a big day....After much discussing and lots of looking we are going back over to the trailer park and making an offer on that one we both like. We both have decided that with the way things are we feel like we want to have a home base again. We don't want to spend our winters in Iowa. For now we will finish up our camp hosting job here in Iowa after labor day. Spend some time in the new place before heading south for the winter. This seemed like the best option for us. We will be located in between both of our sons and it fits what we want. This was a really hard decision, harder than selling everything and going full time. We will have options to do some camping in the summer. We are both excited and a bit sad. Change is uncertain but we are ready to embrace it.

The temperatures really dropped today but warmed back up. This time without the humidity.


Tuesday June 9- Today we have big rain coming in today. We managed to get our cleaning done before it arrived. Went in to pick up Hailey. We made breakfast when we got back. We had a project for today, good thing cause it rained all day. After eating breakfast we got started on our cake pops.























I have made these things once before. This time I had a great helper and they turned out great.


This cake pop project took more time than we thought. Since it was raining most of the day we found activities inside to keep us busy. Then after supper the rain stopped. When the rain stopped the hummingbirds came out in full force. I went to fill the window feeder and they couldn't even wait for me to put it up. I got the hand feeders out and they were very interested. Then Hailey saw me feeding them and she wanted to do it. She would hold it up and every time they would come close she would talk. I told her she has to be still and quiet.























Well she finally got used to them buzzing around her. She was so excited when it finally happened. That's one thing good about rainy weather....the hummingbirds go crazy. I bet there was about 30 hummingbirds out there this evening. I love them.

Wednesday June 10- Today after cleaning Hailey gathered up her stuff and we went in to Cedar Rapids. It's cleaning day. I got that finished and came back to the park. With this rainy weather the birds are crazy again. I have been filling that window feeder 3 times a day. They seem to prefer the window feeder as to the other 2 I have hanging out there. When I arrived home the feeder was empty so I went to fill it up. Those birds are in attack mode. I am definitely not scaring them. So I grabbed my feeders to feed them.























My arms got tired so I pulled up a chair and put the feeders on my knees and watched them show up.




I could literally watch these birds all day long. They are crazy to watch. So amazing.

Thursday June 11- It's a beauty of a day. When we went to the shower houses they were even clean. Did some cleaning up around here. Then sat outside and enjoyed the day. Had a neighbor come over for a visit. Then later in the afternoon we went over to pick up Justin. Then we all went to North Liberty. They have a gig tonight outside at The Tin Roost. They played here last year and it is a wonderful venue. They play outside and the food is great too. We invited Seth and family to come join us. We had a wonderful meal and the company was awesome too. Did I mention the weather was perfect?.....it was. This was Wellstrung's first live show in quite a while.























Good bye Tin Roost, see ya next time.

Friday June 12- This morning when we went to clean our shower house Jeff came and got me to come see. The one raccoon was climbing up the wall by the men's side.



After cleaning Jeff went in to pick up Maddyn. She will be spending the day with us, her daycare is closed today. When he picked her up she had a bit of melt down, she didn't want to come. That didn't last long. We fixed her breakfast and the fun began. She is not a big fan of birds but when she saw the hummingbirds while eating she told me she wanted to touch them. She wanted to go to see the water. So we walked down by the lake.






















We came back and stayed outside playing with toys. She really had a fun time playing. We almost missed lunch cause she was so busy.







Even Miss Ruby had a fun time outside. We went in for lunch, Maddyn ate good and then I went to lay down with her in our bed. She needed a nap. I found out she likes to  talk about stuff. That's exactly what she told me....Let's talk about it Scrappy. She wanted to know what we would do after her nap. She took over a 2 hour nap. When she got up I got out the cake pop we had talked about earlier. She really enjoyed that. Then we got the ipad out, it has a book, Monster at the End of The Book. You get to listen to Grover read it to you and you also get to turn the pages etc. She loved listening to it.

lunch
after nap snack


story time with Papa
The rest of the day went by pretty quick. Justin and Molly came out to pick her up after supper. The funny thing, she didn't want to leave. It was a great day.


Saturday June 13- After our cleaning duties we cleaned up and left for Keokuk. Today is my brother in laws memorial. Still feeling a bit weird about being around all those people but we will just have to do the social distancing the best we can. We arrived it was a nice day so you could be outside. First they had a visiting time followed by a service. Then they had food. This was a big concern for us. We had planned on skipping it. I went to get a plate for my sister and I was like the first person to get food. So I grabbed a piece of chicken. They had a really nice turn out even with this virus. The service was really nice too. Jay was a wonderful husband, father, grandfather and person. He did for everyone and will be missed. We stayed around until about 3 before heading back. It was a long day in the car but well worth it.


Sunday June 14- Today was going to be the first time we have attended church in quite awhile. The service was shortened and there was plenty of precautions made. It was nice to be there in person instead of watching online. This morning when I was feeding the hummingbirds one actually landed on my finger to eat.





















Didn't get a picture of that but I decided to put the feeders back on my knees and try to get a video.



Then for supper we went to Seth and Katie's. They called and invited us over. Jeff brought his guitar so he and Seth could play together. After we ate Justin and Molly showed up on there bikes. It was a really nice evening. The weather has been unbelievable.....so nice.





















Monday June 15- Another grand day out there. Jeff's brother Fritz and his wife Shawn are coming up for the day. We had planned to make lunch. So after our cleaning stuff I got started on that. Then I just kept it warm in the instant pot. I think they arrived around 10 a.m. We went for a nice walk then came back and sat outside to visit. The wind was just enough to keep the bugs away. It was a perfect day out there. Our lunch was good and we sat outside after eating to talk some more. Seth, Hailey and there dogs came out to visit as well. It was a nice relaxing day catching up.



Tuesday June 16- This weather is awesome. Today I went on a road trip to Iowa City to go to Trader Joe's. We haven't been there since February. I had a long list of things to get. Lots of road construction going on in that area. The store wasn't all that busy, so that was nice. The shelves were all stocked which was nice too. When I got home I did my laundry. Then after supper Jeff went in to Palo to jam with his musician friends. While he was gone I had someone come to the door. She had a question.....she didn't want to be rude of offensive....she wanted to know when we would be leaving our site. She liked this site because it has full hook up. I guess she didn't notice the big brown camp host sign posted outside........


Wednesday June 17- Today was cleaning day at Seth's. I made a trip to Walmart before heading over. I did my cleaning and brought Hailey home with me to spend the night. She wanted to ride my bike, so papa adjusted the seat and he went with her. We had taco's for supper. Jeff took her down to fish for a bit. Then we settled in for the evening.

Thursday June 18- We had a full day planned.  After breakfast Hailey wanted to go to the playground. I wanted to go before it got to hot. So Hailey and I walked over. She played around on the equipment. She wanted me to take pictures. She used to get mad at me for taking pictures...not now.























We came back and had lunch. Then Hailey wanted to help give the dogs there baths. She did most of Ruby's, Jeff did Belle's. She thought it was funny that Ruby looked so different when wet.























Seth and Katie came out to pick up Sis. We had went to get pizzas for supper. When they arrived we had supper and then they took Hailey back with them.

Friday June 19- After our cleaning we went in to watch Maddyn. Justin and Molly are going to look at cars. The weather wasn't to nice. We stayed in and watched TV and read books. We had lunch and put her down for a nap. We just watched a movie until they got home. Then we got back and just stayed in. Park is full for Fathers Day. With the rainy weather at least the beach won't be so packed, maybe the DNR will get a break.

Saturday June 20- The weekend weather wise isn't suppose to be that good, so maybe all the campers won't show up. When we went to clean I see 3 places are no shows. I planned on getting some things done today. I had a list. I needed to do an update on the Florida Parks page. I also haven't kept up on this blog so I had lots of catching up to do. Then I wanted to cut the fabric for binding on my quilt. I also got it pressed, pinned and sewed on with the machine. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening hand stitching it down. It looks finished but I still want to do a bit more quilting on the border part.


Sunday June 21- It's Father's Day....the boys called up and wished there Dad a  happy day. They had already gave him there gifts. We went to church again...it just seems so different with all the restrictions. After leaving there we drove to a furniture store to start our looking. When we went full time we sold everything. We are starting to look and purchase the must haves. We found some things that we think will be perfect. We got all the measurements so tomorrow we will go and see if it will fit. It is kind of overwhelming, we are trying to go slow and enjoy the process. Well in the afternoon we had some major rain roll in. Justin, Molly and Maddyn came out for a visit but had to wait in the truck because it was pouring. They made it in and it poured some more. Then just to make things interesting we got some hail. Well that's all for now....