Summer on the Lake

Dave is way too good to me! I think he would rather not boat than buy a pontoon boat, but he knows I love boating on a pontoon. We bought a used boat and some friends had told us about a lady who rents out some of her land for a dock near our home, on Lac LaBelle. Today Dave picked up the boat and we tried her out, oh, I was in heaven!!!! Thank you Dave!
See, he is even smiling as he tells me how slow this boat is...
This is the lake lot where we are keeping the boat. The owner feeds the ducks so there are alot of them all over the yard. Luckily we are parked over on the side of the yard so we don't have to disturb them.....
We needed to install some pipes to tie the boat up too. Al came and gave us a hand. Thanks, Al.

Happy 76th Birthday Mom

Happy Birthday Mom! She loves blue so Dave found some beautiful blue flowers in a vase, her other favorite thing, flowers!
Missy, Gina, Roxie and Mom eating lasagna. It was fun to sit and visit.
Al and Jessica.
Time for birthday cake and candles. We had a wonderful chocolate cake and fruit triffle from Roxie! She always outdoes herself.
Great Grandma got lots of help blowing out the candles!
Can you tell who is mother and who is Daughter??? Here is Gina dressing up her favorite dog Zeus. He doesn't look too happy with the pink boa!! Gina stayed over night, for the last time for awhile as her and Ben are moving to Indiana (boo for us...), but happy for them of course. While we were eating breakfast we had a nice surprise, Clint called.

HA! Dave got caught sneaking food to Zeus..

Tattoo Shop

For years Dave has talked about getting a tattoo. In the beginning it was going to be a small shark on his leg. Now it has turned into a bat, on his arm. Anyway, he, Gina and Rox have talked about doing this together. They knew of a good shop in Madison so we made our stop to talk to the artists. If you know me, you know this was my first stop in a tattoo shop, and most likely my last.
Here is Dave and Gina talking with Dave about what my Dave wants on his body.... And making an appointment for next week. Sorry Dave, didn't mean to embarrass you.

Madison Art Fair with Gina and Roxie

Since Gina and Ben will be moving soon to Terra Haut, Indiana, we planned a play day with her. We wanted to go to the Farmer's Market in Madison, but this week was the Art Fair. Since Gina really wanted her Madison fix, we went up and walked the square and looked at all the expensive art.
This is Dave (and Rox) waiting for Gina. She had driven up from Chicago.
What is a visit without eating! We walked and enjoyed a beautiful morning. But we had another stop to make....

Eagle River

Dave promised to take me up to the northwoods this summer. I thought it would be fun to make it enjoyable for both of us and suggested we drive the motorcycle. We left about 8:30 Saturday morning. We had a wonderful drive...stopping twice. The bed and breakfast was as beautiful as promised. We enjoyed a short time of beautiful fresh clean air and blue sky..... It was short lived and before long the sky opened up and we could hardly see the lake!
Dave missed his Gunner and Zeus but there was this nice big wolf to keep him company.
Here is the lake side of the bed and breakfast (on the left) and the new house they are renting out on the right.
Here is the front side. Saturday morning after a delicious breakfast (although we have had better) the sky was blue as could be so we decided to head out on our ride. We drove to Minocqua and shoppped. Up to Sayner, Conover and up to Land O' Lakes and the upper peninsula of Michigan.
We had a delicious lunch at a little cafe in Land O Lakes. As we drove south back to Eagle River the sky was really dark! Somehow we lucked out and never got wet! After we arrived back in our room, again it rained! But that also was short lived and after a dinner ride to Three Lakes we came back and had a bon fire.

Ahh, I love the northwoods. Thanks Dave!

Mom

Geraldine Louise.



I love her middle name, Louise. I would enjoy when my Dad would teasingly call her Louise. Mom and Dad were married on Sept 9. She told me that she wore her sister Jeanette's wedding dress. They were married in the pastoral home of St. Rita's Church in West Allis as my Dad was Lutheran and she was Catholic. When Mom was old enough to work, she quit school and went to work at AT &T, or whatever it was called back then. She was a telephone operator, back in the days you pulled wires to connect phone calls! She grew up in the Depression. Her parents had 5 kids and very little money. We were a family of 7, Mom, Dad, two boys and three girls. Here is a photo of mom and Missy up at the trailer home on Rost Lake. It sure wasn't much to look at, but we had a lot of fun up there and it was some part of my Dad's dream of having a place up north.
Mom and Aunt Marge at a family Christmas party.





This is one of the last nice photos of my mom and dad. It was taken in Hawaii December, 1987. There was a set of drawers in mom's kitchen that the kids knew everything in the 3rd drawer was for them to play with. There was a set of animals in there that Al just loved. When they weren't playing in the drawers, Mom "locked" the drawers with a yard stick that run through all the handles! And of course one with Missy and Al and my mom.

This photo is of Mom and Dave on his wedding day. Dad had died 6 months previous.



Happy Easter. We all loved to play rummy 500.

Lucky for mom, she found Jerry!

Summer Storm

After hitting a subdivision of rummage sales with Missy and the kids, I went home to some real work with Dave! We had the other half of our landscaping to top off with bark mulch. Yeah. Anyway, it went in great. But we kept watching the black storm clouds looming in the distance getting closer and closer. The last wheelbarrow load was dumped just as the rain started. It was perfect timing. This was a pretty good storm, but the worst of it was the hail. Here is Dave's work car out in it... We will have to check it for damage.