Weekend (Aug. 8-10, 2008)

On Friday Aug. 8, Ron took the day off so we could head south to see my brother and sister-in-law. We decided to take the whole day to get there. A drive that should take somewhere close to 5 hours took us 10. It was a beautiful day and Hope did great. Dad and Ron rode their motorcycles while Mom, Hope, and I followed in the car.

Here is where I should tell you about the scheming. Originally Mark and I had planned for sort of a sibling weekend. We were going to get together and do some hiking, geocaching, and some fun stuff with Hope. Then, the email messages started. Mark started talking about inviting Mom and Dad to join us for the weekend. Sure! Great! Funny though, he all of a sudden needed help with some deck planning, and maybe some landscaping suggestions. Among other things, he had plans for us to go geocaching, take Hope to a local hobby farm/market, and amazingly he got his motorcycle running so the guys could ride. Hmmm....what's up?!

So, we all went. We packed our picnic and snacks for our day on the road and got going at 8:00 that morning. I'd like to call this day our western Wisconsin tour of city parks. :) Like I said earlier, Hope did great! It was just a long day to be in the car...especially for a 2 yr. old. She napped for quite a long time in the morning which helped a lot.

Here are a couple of photos from one of our a.m. stops. Dad led us south along the Mississippi River. We made a quick stop here at the Mindoro Cut which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. It is a favorite stop among motorcyclists.


By this time Hope was awake. The goal was to give her a snack and keep her awake, but not to spoil her appetite for lunch. Dad had a park picked out in West Salem for our lunch stop.

We made it! We were ready to get out of the car and Hope was ready for a good play.


Notice that there is no hairbow in the above photos. When we left home that morning, Hope had a cute pink one in her hair. When we arrived at the park though, she made a couple of deposits in the pit toilets there...one that was wonderful and appropriate, and one that wasn't either. :)

After a great picnic we were back on the road for the next short leg of our trip.

Here are a couple shots of the riders leading the way.



This is Hope playing at our next stop. We had a DQ treat in Boscobel and then found another great park to stretch our legs.


We had a good day of travel. There were a few more intermittent gas stops and also a quick dinner, but nothing super blogworthy. :)

Final stop, Uncle Mark and Aunt Andria's house!!! Hope was so excited to spend the weekend with them. We all were! We pulled up in front of their house about 6:00 or so and waited just a few minutes for them to bet home from work. I was anxious because I wanted to see the Olympic opening ceremony. Luckily Mom and Dad had set the DVR to record it because we had too much other excitement going on to focus on the the TV. Here is where the scheming I spoke of comes in to play.

Hope got a present! We all did. :) Here is Hope modeling her gift. I'll let you figure out the rest.




CONGRATULATIONS MARK AND ANDRIA!!! To say we're all very excited is a complete understatement! We love you guys!

BTW - Hope is still saying she's going to have a boy cousin named Hope. :)