First Day of Fall

First wood stove fire to start off the fall season :)

To have a fire like this you have to have fire wood.  On Tuesday we got a call from the city that there was some firewood available for pick-up, so we headed over to Birch Street after Wayne came home from work.  As we were loading these huge chunks of the trunks :) and 5 foot long, 12 inches in diameter branches, one tipped over and the other end came up hard and hit me in the jaw.  It was quite painful and I saw stars and was dizzy.  But I had one of those create on the spot cold packs, so put that to it right away.  Took some ibuprofen when I got home and all is o.k. except for the abrasions and the black and blue.  Wayne thought I should put on some beige make-up, but I thought maybe I should just use a black permanent marker and turn it into a black goatee :)

Wayne went out in our woods on Friday and picked up all kinds of kindling wood to start the fires, and today he is cutting those up.

Over Labor Day weekend we went camping up north of Minocqua in the Northern State Forest.  Ben and Brenna and Ben's parents, Joyce and Brian came over for supper on Sunday night and then Ben and Brenna stayed in the trailer with us for the night.  The following pictures are from that camping trip.

The bottom part of this sign was a spiritual inspiration for my testimony that Sunday.

Where we went for our Friday night Fish Fry.

Our campsite.

Me prepping for the meal on Sunday night - Bratwursts and
Potato, Onion and Carrot packs.

Brenna grilling her marshmallows for S'mores!

Joyce and Wayne

Wayne and Brian relaxing

On Wayne's birthday, Kristi flew into Milwaukee, and we took her up to Shane and Nikelle's in Berlin.  They surprised us with other guests to celebrate our birthdays and Kristi's arrival.

Delicious meal by Nikelle and Shane and enjoyed by Randy and Cathy ...

Wayne, Kristi, Jaime and Meredith

Birthday cake with the candles in a W for Wayne and turn the cake around and it was a  M for Marilyn :)
Those kids are pretty clever!!

Betty, Blake and Madeline using the nursery in the our trailer during convention :)

She is so cute!!

Wayne's steam wound from one of the cooking vats in the kitchen at convention

Here are some pictures from Sarah and Garrett's Milwaukee wedding reception in May.  We had it at Holler Park on 6th Street just north of the airport.  It is a park that we used to take the kids to for swimming in the pool.  We made all the food, so these first pictures are of the preparations :)

Wayne and Garrett grilling the Polish Sausage and Marinated Chuck Roast

Angie, Devon, and Cammy cutting up strawberries

Garrett and Sarah entertaining the guests
with wedding pictures showing in the background

Devon also is entertaining, as usual :)  He is telling about Garrett and Sarah's
first date and their courtship.

The two month old newlyweds!

The cake was "homemade" from Sam's

Travis, Andrew and Garrett worked together a lot on building projects.
Summer is a new addition to Travis' life.

Three of the Enge siblings - Joyce, Ron, and I

with our spouses - Anders, Jan, and Wayne

Another similarity picture.  So often Garrett reminds me a lot of my brother, Ron

At our house after the reception - Garrett, Sarah, Angie and Devon

Sunday morning family pictures - Garrett and Sarah Lepak and Tami and Dave
and Elisabeth and Hannah.  Michael couldn't come.

The Lepaks

Another Busy Week!

Another Busy Week!

Monday was busy working around the house and trying to get caught up.  Tuesday morning I took the scenic route up to Sheboygan to meet up with Lois Remmers.  She was taking some classes for her work as a teacher at a prison, and she was staying at the Super 8 for Tuesday and Wednesday night.  So we went to the beach, which was beautiful and walked along it and sat down on one of the cement piers and visited.  The weather was sunny and warm, but just put our toes in Lake Michigan because it was cold.  Went out to eat at the Wood Grill and when we were out on the deck by the River, I had goosebumps!  The sun was down and it was pretty breezy.  Stayed overnight with her and then on Wednesday went over to Mom Lepak's in Plymouth.  We went grocery shopping and then out to eat at Antoinette's.  

Lois on Lake Michigan

Me on the pier

Lunch with Mom at Antoinette's

On Thursday morning early, Adele Pitt came and picked me up and we drove down to Chicago for a Chicago River Architectural Kayak Tour!!  It was a lot of fun:)  First, instructions from Todd, our tour guide on how to paddle the kayak, turn, brake, etc.  There were about 30 of us and Todd and two ladies who went along side and behind to keep us moving together on the river.  Adele and I shared a tandem kayak.  The tour was over three hours and very interesting.  The only problem was soon after we got into out boats, it started to rain.  It was gentle at first, but it got quite intense later, but stopped when we were on the last part of our return up the river.  We were absolutely saturated!!  But I would love to do it again!

Adele waiting for tour to begin

Going south on the river, we first went through the industrial
area by Goose Island, and then got to the residential area.

We would pull alongside the right side of the river and "raft".
This means we would all stop paddling and we would hang on
to each others rafts when the tour guide wanted to talk to us
about the buildings that we were seeing.  The one in the background
is the Montgomery Ward building.  He told us the whole
history of that.

Adele is busy paddling while I'm taking pictures :)
But she took some pictures breaks, too!

Becky and Nathan's Wedding

Well,  I had good intentions of keeping up my blog to share pictures, etc., but what I say is that as I get older, time goes faster, I go slower, and I never can catch up :)  So, lots of things have happened since I last posted the weather pictures in February: Garrett and Sarah's wedding in March on Hilton Head Island, another wedding reception in Ohio in May hosted by her parents, and then a week later, a wedding reception in Milwaukee, hosted by us and then right after that our trip to Washington to see Kale and where he moved to and works in Seattle, and then to Chelan to spend time with Jason and Sarah and the grandsons, and Chelan convention.  After we got home from there we had company two weekends in a row.  This past weekend Kale and Jaspar just stayed with us on Friday night after Becky and Nathan's wedding, and Cammy was here from Thursday afternoon until Sunday afternoon when we took her back to Madison to fly to O'Hare and then to Charlotte, NC.  She requested some pictures from that weekend, so I'm going to start out with them, and then maybe later I'll post some from the past.  

Becky and Nathan, the bride and groom!

Grandma Lepak with the bride and groom

Jaspar and Kale at the beautiful reception.

Tom and Mary visiting

Jackie and Cammy happy to see each other.

Travis, Sam and Summer - so cute!

Handsome Clayton, brother of the bride

Do you see a similarity in the 3 cousins?
Jody, Jaime, and Cammy

I decided to revive my blog spot for family and friends, so it would be easier to share pictures with you! We have a family wedding coming up in two and a half weeks, so I will have some great family pictures.

We still live in Wisconsin, so we blink and the weather changes :) In the middle of the night there was rain, lightning, and thunder. Kristi is here at our house and she is flying back to California today. So this morning we went in the hot tub with our coffee and it was very cloudy and misty. Now at 11 a.m., the sun is shining and it is 53 degrees outside! Time to go for the scenic drive and a walk by the Lake. Last week Thursday, we got 6 inches of snow, but it is all gone now.