Friday, May 14, 2010

Summer Calendar: These Days are Just Packed

Looking at the calendar I realize that this summer is set to be full of travel and fun little adventures! So many places to go, people to see, and things to do!

I suppose all this traveling started two weekends ago when I went to River Falls to see Jennie and go to the 100 Mile Yard Sale. And it continues tomorrow (already!) when I go up to Oshkosh for the graduation celebration of Molly, my roommate from sophomore year. She's darling and I can't wait to see her! I plan to leave early so I can spend some time bumming around Oshkosh, maybe hit up a thrift store or two and visit my ladies at Atomic Katz.

Next week its off to North Carolina for my cousin Beaty's wedding. It will be a great chance to see my grandmother, my aunts and uncles, and some of my cousins. I certainly hope Anna will make it to Beaty's wedding as she has another wedding to be at the night before in Charleston, and I miss her so!

In June I'll be heading by train to New York for a mini family reunion which promises to be full of Italians on buses. I don't leave until 3 pm on a Sunday so I plan to spend my last morning partaking in the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market which is just blocks from the train station. I especially enjoy traveling by train, it's leisurely and often feels like I get an extra day (or two) at the beginning and end of my trips.

There will be more traveling, and even more little local adventures, but I will leave the rest of my wanderlusting for another time.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

It's Spring and the babies are here!

These three little baby bunnies were nestled in the front yard of a family I sit for. At the time they were just about big enough to hop away from the nest for good and they're all gone now. But aren't they just adorable?


The little girl was so excited to show them to me, and was very insistent on how far back we had to stay from the nest.


Now if only the ducks would return to the pond behind my parents' house to nest I'll have some ducklings to watch!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Birthdays: 24 times!

Yesterday was my birthday, and I certainly had a grand old time! My parents took Richard and I out to dinner at the local steakhouse where we indulged in a bit of wine and all shared a piece of turtle cheesecake for dessert.

It was a wonderful day, and I had a really great time just being with my family. My parents and Richard gifted me with some really awesome presents as well! (I will readily admit that saying that makes me feel ten years old!)

My father picked out a new bicycle for me that I am rather anxious to ride - we're supposed to be going on the interurban trail from Brown Deer on Saturday and I just hope the weather complies. My mom put together a s'mores kit complete with giant marshmallows the size of your fist! They also ordered the film/slide scanner I wanted - but I think they may have ulterior motives :) as there have been a lot of my mom and grandmother's old slides about the house lately! I really can't wait for the scanner to get here because I'm really anxious to start scanning my mother's family memories so that we can more readily share them with everyone. It will also come in handy when I start experimenting with 120 film in my Kodak Duaflex, which Richard is enabling with the dark bag that he gave me.

Two weeks ago today my great-grandmother Jean passed away. I want to write something for her, because I love her so and am so proud to have been named after her, but I'm still finding it a bit difficult. So I'll leave with that.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

All 100 Miles

This past weekend I took some time to myself to journey across the state of Wisconsin to visit some friends in River Falls. My friend Jennie had heard of this wonderful little thing called the 100 Mile Garage Sale, which was a string of garage sales all up and down 100 miles of the Mississippi river.

We spent ALL DAY out and exploring. We didn't have any miraculous finds, but it was a fabulous time! Starting at 8 o'clock Saturday morning we were on the road and hitting the sales, we took a lunch break around 3 on a beach and spent another half an hour combing for beach glass (I came home with a whole pocket full!) before hitting a few more sales and heading home around 5.

I, for one, have decided that this year was merely reconnaissance for next year. It was super exciting, and a whole lot of fun, especially getting a whole day with Jennie.