Adventure Weekend

***I'm not sure why the spacing in the middle of this is all messed up, but I can't seem to fix it - so we'll just go with it!****

We had a fantastic weekend with Olivia. We picked her up right after school on Friday and got on the road for our 3 hour drive to the campground.

Saturday morning, we had a special reading of The Ca.t in the H.at so she could show off her new found reading skills!























Then it was time to get ready for the Fan.cy Nan.cy Luncheon! Olivia was in her glory getting all dressed up for the festivities!
















Here we are all dressed up and ready to go!

















Mrs. Claus came in and read a Fa.ncy Nan.cy story to the girls and she also told them stories of the goings on at the North Pole.
















It was a fun way to have lunch!

We then headed to the Eric Ca.rle Museu.m of Pictu.re Book Art.  We had fun doing a scavenger hunt in the gallery and taking pictures with the Hun.gry Cater.pillar.

Then we headed into the art room to create collages

The finished product.

For the rest of the afternoon we went back to the campground and went swimming.  Then we hung out by the fire and roasted hot dogs for dinner.

It was a fantastic weekend!

Camping and Wine

We left MN on Thursday and drove to IN for the night. The next day we drove to NY and set up camp for two nights. We had a cute little spot right next to the pond and the weather was gorgeous! We brought MJ's mom home with us and she was AWESOME camping!

Beautiful sunset viewed from our site!

MJ and her mom making s'mo.res.

On Saturday we visited the Sen.eca Lake Win.e T.rail. We went to six wineries and one brewery. We had an awesome time sampling the different wines at all of the different places. We bought a few bottles to bring home - one was even named "Carrie"! We had to buy that one!

So many different wines to try....

Be sure to cleanse the palate between wines.....

Enough said!

We just HAD to go to this winery because of the name!

So many wineries, so little time!

We stopped for lunch at a brewery and had some great sandwiches and beer!

It was a perfect vacation! MJ's mom is here with us until next Thursday and we are keeping her busy helping us with projects around our house!

TTC update coming tomorrow!

The De.lls Part Two...

On the second half of our day in the De.lls, we went on a Duc.k To.ur. These are really fun - they are old WWII boats that go both on land and in the water. We went all through the woods and went in both the Wiscon.sin Riv.er and Lak.e Del.ton.

The boat in the water.

Hawk's Bill - look closely, you can make it out!

Piano Rock.

After the Du.ck Tour, we went back to the campground to hang out for a bit and then in the evening, we went to the Tom.my Ba.rtlett Water S.how - this is a "must see" when you are in the D.ells. It was a fun show of water skiing for the first half and then they had a juggler, horn musician, and pyrotechnics show during the second half. It was lots of fun!

The next day it was time to head to MN to visit MJ's mom - we made it with no problem and had lots of fun during the time we were there. We went out to eat a few times, MJ and her mom got manicures and pedicures, we completed her mom's "honey do" list, went shopping, and just relaxed. One day we went down to Iowa and visited with MJ's cousins and their families. I'll leave today's post with a pic of the crew!

The Del.ls Part One....

We got to the Wis.consin D.ells early on Saturday as we only had to drive 300 miles. We set up camp and had a nice fire before we went out for the evening. We didn't find any more stowaways in the van or the grill, so I think we left all of the mice in NY!

In the evening, we decided to go to a magic show. It was actually lots of fun and I am always amazed at the way they use light and mirrors, etc to create the illusions.

On Sunday morning, we did an Upp.er De.lls Boat Tour. It was a beautiful sunny day and just perfect to be out on a boat. We saw some beautiful rock formations while we were on the river and we made two stops where we were able to get off the boat and walk around for a bit.

The first stop was at Witch.es G.ulch. It was a winding path with little water falls and rock formations. There were also a few places where the rock was just barely wide enough for the walkway.

Stop number 2 was at Stan.d R.ock. It was really tall!

We also saw V.isor R.ock on this stop as well.

Here we are at the end of the second stop.

The D.ells part two will be up tomorrow- Duck tour and Water show.....

More of the Same

We'll start of with the big surprise of the day - IT'S RAINING AGAIN!!!! Seriously, it has been raining here forever and now it is supposed to rain through Thursday. We had to cancel our camping trip for next week - boo hoo! It is just miserable to camp in the rain, so we decided to just cancel the reservation.

However, we decided that since we aren't going camping, we need to still have something fun to do. So, we bought tickets to see The Co.lor Pu.rple in Bos.ton next weekend. We are going to go with my mom and it should be tons of fun!

Let's see, what else? Willy is MUCH better finally! We have to take him for one more blood check on Thursday and that will hopefully be the last one. The most exciting news around here is the fact that we have 1/2 day of school left tomorrow and then we are on SUMMER VACATION! Good times!

That's all from here.....

Another Great Women's Week!

We had a fabulous weekend on the Cape! We go every year with Laura, Sue, and Olivia for Women's Week in Provincetown. We camped at Nickerson State Park, which is the same place we went camping in June. It is such a gem of a little place. This time our campsite was 3 1/2 miles from the entrance to the park. This place is HUGE! We had another great site, and we scoped out some sites that we would want for next summer as we will definitely go back again.

On Saturday we met Laura and Sue in Provincetown to spend some time together and do some shopping. We took some pictures near the ocean when we first got there. It was just a spectacular day weather wise! Olivia did a nice job taking a picture of all four of us as well - not bad for a five year old!




On Sunday, we met Laura, Sue, and Olivia at our favorite breakfast buffet restaurant - Michael Shay's. A trip to the Cape wouldn't be complete if we didn't go there for breakfast! After that, we went to Cuffy's - a great t-shirt shop, and then we headed back to the campsite. We played some dice and card games for a while and then we went for a bike ride. They have a great paved bike trail right at the campground.



After our bike ride, Laura, Sue, and Olivia came to our campsite and we roasted hot dogs over the fire. Then we made banana boats, pudgy pies, and smores around the fire. All in all it was a perfect weekend!

Special People in this World. . .

Ok, so I just have to tell you about a few of the special people we came across on our camping adventure.

We'll start with our campsite neighbors. They arrived at 10:30 Friday night - who arrives at 10:30 at night to camp???!!! After almost an hour of their headlights shining into our site and the clinking of their tent poles, the ranger had to come and help them set up their tent as they had absolutely no idea how to do it. Fast forward to Saturday night when he tried for about 2 hours to get a campfire started by just throwing various things into the fire ring. He certainly made some good smoke! Later that evening came the best part of all - they decided to play cards by candlelight due to the fact that they did not have a flashlight or lantern. They were going to play UNO - and they had to read the directions! More than once, mind you! Now who in this world as an adult needs to read directions for UNO - come on people.

OK, special person number 2 has to do with a wonderful mullet. This was one of the best mullets I have ever seen. The whole short do in the front and the hair in the back - was long enough to hang past her backside - the best part was it was in a pretty braid. I wish I had my camera.

Special person #3 involves a scooter. Now with the rise of gas prices, I am all for purchasing a scooter to try and offset the cost of going places, but not when you are VERY large and wearing a muu-muu! Now, I am a big girl myself, and the woman on this scooter (yes, wearing a muu - muu) had probably a good 100 pounds on me - it was a sight, let me tell you!

So, that is the story of some of the special people we came in contact with.

In other news, we got a call from the doctor today and my progesterone blood work came back well - indicating ovulation!!! Yeah, I finally ovulated - now if our timing was right, we may just be pregnant! We'll know more by the end of the week when we can take a HPT (that stands for Home Pregnancy Test, Jim :) !)

Tomorrow's update - our new hobby of cake decorating! Stay tuned!

I Love Camping!

We had such a great time camping this past weekend. I love to go to the Cape, and I love to go camping, so the mix of the two is just awesome. We had a great site tucked back in the woods which was just heaven! It was kind of funny because when we got there and found our site, we looked down the hill and saw this:

Now, you have to understand that this was a steep hill down to a very root filled, washed out, rocky area. We thought this was our site and we were quite disappointed. So, I got out of the car to kind of direct MJ down this hill and upon further inspection I discovered that this was just the entrance to our site and we would acutally be located to the right in a wonderful wooded area.

Which, when we were all set up looked like this:

So, for the quick rundown of what we did:

Thursday night - we got all set up and were just sitting down to enjoy a nice campfire when it started to rain. So, we went to bed a bit early, only to be aroused at 12:15 AM to the two lovely raccoons in our screenhouse. They were knocking the rubbermaid containers open and trying to steal the food that was in them. So, I cowered in the tent like a scared baby while MJ scared them off. Then, only when I was assured about 1,000 times that they were all gone did I come out and help move things into the van. Lesson learned: Even if you think things are safe in sealed containers - the raccoons are smarter than the containers and they can get into them!

Friday - we decided to go to the Cape Cod Chips Factory which was lots of fun to see where they are made and you get free samples too! Then we drove Route 28 through the Cape and stopped at a bunch of shops and stuff. That was lots of fun as we have not explored this area before. Lots to see along here.

Here we are at the Cape Cod Chips tour:

Saturday - we spent the day in Provincetown. This is one of our favorite places! We wandered the streets for a few hours and had a wonderful lunch (lobster and crabmeat rolls) at the Lobster Pot. No pictures from here as we didn't bring the camera. We got back to the campsite and played card games for a couple of hours!

Sunday - We played mini golf and went to get ice cream. It was really hot out! We decided that we would go back and go to the beach at the campground for a couple of hours. Well, we got to the beach, just got into the water floating peacefully on our floats and wouldn't you know - the thunder started. So, out of the water we came and back to the campsite we headed. We then decided to pack up everything besides the tents as there was a large threat of rain all night long, and there is nothing worse than packing up in the rain. So, we got all of that done and enjoyed another night at the fire. We did have some great rain over night, so good thing we did!

Today (Monday) - The rain held off long enough for us to pack up the tent and we were on the road! We made the obligatory stop at the Christmas Tree Shop on the way off the Cape. We then had the joy of making another stop about 2 1/2 hours into our journey as we had a flat tire. Now, mind you, it was not just any flat tire, but the rim is bent too! And it always happens that you have a FULL car when you need to get at the things like jacks to help you change the tire. The best part was that a State Trooper changed it for us! Must have been a slow day or something! So, now we have the lovely expense of a new tire and rim for the van.

I'll leave you with a few more pics of our trip and I'll charm you with some wonderful tales of the people we came in contact with in a later blog. Let's just say they were some real gems!

A wonderful fire!

Enjoying the fire together!

An one last one of one of our awesome breakfasts! We cooked every morning!

All Systems Go!

Things are looking really good around here! My back is feeling SO MUCH BETTER - it is amazing. I guess the bedrest did wonders for it! I went to the chiro again today and she said that I am definitely much better. I have actually been up ALL day today with the exception of a 1 hour rest. So, camping is on, just with modified activities - we are not going to bring the bikes and kayaks as planned, but we will still have a great time. We can walk in the woods, go to the ocean, spend a day in Provincetown (one of our favorite destinations), go to a drive-in movie (I've never been) and much, much more.

Everything went very well with the insemination today, too! Reggie looked great under the microscope and I looked great under the speculum! To top it all off, we had the doctor that we both really like to do the procedure today. That makes all the difference in the world. She said everything really does look great and due to the cramping I had this morning, the timing looks great as well. Now all we have to do is wait for two weeks and I promise that I am not going to look into any symptoms - I am just going to let be this time. HA HA!! It is so hard, but at least we have camping to take our minds off of it all.

Oh, and to top it all off, we didn't have to get up for work this morning because it is SUMMER VACATION! I love a good day!

An update for my faithful readers

Ok, so when I started this blog, I figured it would be a great way to keep people informed of what was going on in our lives. Now I seem to have this following who demand updates, more pictures, and so on! Who would have thought?!

Anyways, there isn't a whole lot going on around here. The biggest excitement is that this is finally the last week of school! I thought we would never make it, but here it is - only five more get ups. We can do it - the best part is that on Friday the PTA does a wonderful lunch for us and then we have a great retirement party/newly adopted baby shower/end of the year party to go to. That will be LOTS of fun - always is.

We are getting ready to go camping the week after school gets out and Laura, Sue, and Olivia will be joining us for 2 of the nights. It will be lots of fun - if you are interested - we are going here: http://www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/southeast/nick.htm Nickerson State Park is a wonderful place to camp with lots of ponds, close proximity to the ocean and wonderful bike trails. So, in addition to bringing all of the camping gear, we will be bringing the bikes and the kayaks along as well. I can't wait.

Nothing exciting on the TTC front - upped my dose of follistim to 150 and I go for another ultrasound and bloodwork on Tuesday. We are hoping for insemination on Monday the 23rd. If it is the end of this week, that will make life very crazy with it being the end of school. I am having a bit of an issue with my meds as Caremark only shipped me enough for 2 days. The doctor prescribed enough for 10 - so, I will have to fight with them on Monday. I really hate dealing with them - supposedly we had this problem fixed before it shipped, but apparently not!

Nothing really exiting this weekend - we went shopping yesterday and had a fire last night - Smores, YUM! It is rainy and 58 here today, so just hanging out. That's about it folks!

HOT, HOT, HOT

Ok, so the heat is here! Today's high was 92 and tomorrow and Tuesday are to be much of the same! The poor dogs are just dying - panting like crazy. Of course the heat has to come in for the end of the school year - let's make the last 2 weeks as miserable as we can. To top it all off, I am the "coach" of the school's track team and we have the city track meet tomorrow night, when it will be a glorious 90+ degrees. Fun, fun. Now, let me explain this a bit - I am the coach and all that means is that I am the sucker who said, "Sure, I would love to go hang out with a bunch of kids who did well at field day and cheer them on while they compete against the other elementary schools in the city!" Actually it is lots of fun and the kids really enjoy it.

We had a great weekend - went to see Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian on Friday night. Then, last night, we went to a NH Fisher Cats baseball game - they are the AA team for Toronto. It was great fun and they had a fireworks show after the game. Plus we went to dinner and to the LLbean outlet on the way over!

So, today we sat down and made our dining reservations for when we go to Disney. We'll be taking in a couple of character breakfasts - Donald's Safari @ Animal Kingdom and Chef Mickey's, the german restaurant at Epcot - Biergarten, and the Hoop Dee Do Musical Revue dinner show. I can't wait!!! Lots and Lots of fun to be had. Disney will now also make custom maps for your vacation of all of the theme parks, so we went through and marked all of our "favorites" in each park and they will send us these maps. Only Disney would think of things like this.

On the TTC front- I started my cycle today, so it is off for bloodwork bright and early tomorrow morning. That means we should be inseminating either very late next week, or the very begninning ot the week after, or possibly the weekend of the 21st. We'll have to wait and see how it all pans out.

only 10 more get ups (school day get- ups, that is)!