Okoboji=good times!

We are enjoying Lake Okoboji.  Mark and I are house/dog sitting for friends who have a  gorgeous home on the lake.What a wonderful place to be in Iowa in the summer!  Nothing like it.  It all started over a week ago.  I drove to Peoria, IL on Wednesday, the 17th,  to pick up Drew and Kayley as their daycare was going to be closed that Thursday and Friday.  I spent the night in Peoria and we took off the next day for the farm.  Andy and Megan arrived very late Friday night and the next morning we took off for the lake.  Matt joined us at Okoboji and we had a wonderful time until they all left on Tuesday.

Drew and Kayley had SO much fun at Okoboji!!!  We did the lake, Arnolds Park, wave runner, big, BIG boat ride, Sugar Shack, etc.  I think they would be happy to come every summer to Lake Okoboji.  :-)  I know I would!

Mark and Matt took Jim's boat out for some fishing and had an excellent time and even caught some fish!  I went one afternoon with them and just lazed around while they were reeling in northerns and bass.  Such fun!


We were a bit lonesome on Tuesday when Megan's family and Matt left but we soon recovered.  Ha! Our very dear friends, Nancy and Jim, live right next door and we just love seeing them on a daily basis.  I even got to see an old school pal from the 70's and toured her and her husband's lovely home, too.  It has been an awesome 8 days.  Last night the owners of our "good fortune" returned from their Canadian fishing trip and we are staying an extra night to take everyone out for a steak dinner in Minnesota.  It has been a fantastic way to wind down the summer here in Iowa.  Thank you, Rick and Nadine!!!

Pics and videos from our week:

Matt with a small northern

Mark and his northern.  After hearing the tales from the Canadian fishing trip, these look a bit puny!

Kayley and Andy in Peoria

I bought these buckets for the beach but they found other uses!

Greeting grandpa when they arrived at the farm

Kayley pulling leaves from branches...why do I even buy toys?  :-)

The very first ride at Arnolds Park

We LOVE Okoboji

The first of about 20+ roller coaster rides!

First time on the log ride

Looking over Matt's catch from the dock

Family reunion

Mark and I hosted a family reunion at the farm.  Its unofficial designation was the "sweetcorn" reunion.  The summer heat wave pushed our corn to the limit and it was getting very done but everyone seemed to enjoy it anyway!

It all started on Wednesday, August 3rd.  Jan and her granddaughters Hayley, Olivia and Carley arrived first.  We grilled hot dogs and had, of course, sweetcorn for dinner.  Megan, Andy, Drew and Kayley arrived next....late that night after leaving Peoria when their work day ended. 

Thursday morning Jan, Andy, Megan and I attempted to play golf at Honey Creek near Boone.  Beautiful course but we only managed 6.5 holes as it started to POUR rain.  It didn't appear that it was going to subside anytime soon so we had an expensive 7 holes of golf!  We really needed rain desperately so I wasn't all that sad but then as we drove home and arrived at the Pilot Mound stop sign it became apparent that our farm received zero rain.  That is when I became sad!!!

Thursday late afternoon Marla, Kallie and Liam arrived safely from Minneapolis. Friend Cyndy from Ankeny also arrived around that time.  We invited good friends Jan and Clayton for Mark's grilled chicken and.....sweet corn!  It was a fun evening.

Friday saw more golf.  Marla and I stayed on the farm with all the little ones and everyone else went to the Dayton Golf Course.  Britt drove down from Alexandria that day and met them at the course.  After golf Mark grilled chops (and sweet corn) for a big crowd.  Larry and Jody came from Rockwell City and Kevin and Julie, Dan and Katie, John and Amanda and Sarah also came.  Another delicious dinner and a fun evening with the family.

Saturday morning Larry drove back to the farm and Lane and Angie, Jake and Jesse came in the afternoon.  We grilled burgers for dinner....with sweet corn!  Saturday consisted of a water fight and a tractor ride from Grandpa Mark for the little ones.

A constant sight on the farm for four days were vehicles going non-stop.  The golf  cart and lawnmower never seemed to sit still.  They had a great time driving between the two farms for hours on end!  It was fun watching them go, go go!

Some videos of our time together:

Finally some time for golf

Mark and I have not golfed once since last summer but now have gone twice in four days.  That is a record for us, I believe!  Friday we went to Dayton for their special, all day golf with a cart for $20.00  Too hot and too old to "golf all day" so we did 18 holes instead.  Yesterday we decided to try Honey Creek near the Ledges in Boone.  I had golfed there a few times but Mark had never been to this course.  He loved it and his game showed it.  It was the best I have ever seen him golf!  Had he not goofed up with some 3 and 4 putt holes he easily would have broken 90.  I didn't do so well, though.  :-)  I am having my clubs re-gripped today so I KNOW my game is going to improve immensely.  Ha!  The grips are all torn and a mess so it might help my swing a little.  I can hope anyway!  After golfing at Honey Creek it is going to be hard to go back to Dayton.  The fairways and greens are just a lot nicer there and the scenery is breathtaking in the hills and valleys.  You definitely want a cart with great brakes as some of the holes are really steep.

We are having a family reunion at our farm next Thursday-Sunday.  We are praying the temps and humidity go down to a more normal level while everyone is here.  Sounds like sister Jan and most of her kids and grandchildren are coming,  Larry and Lane's family, Megan and her family.  Not sure about Matt but I am hoping he can make it, too.  They are all excited about eating sweet corn so Mark has been watering it faithfully since we are getting way too little rain.  The lawn looks quite sad right now!  I haven't mowed in over two weeks, very unusual for me!  The bluegrass is brown but of course the crab grass is green, tall and unsightly.  A little drought doesn't hurt that grass. :-(

Mark teeing off at Honey Creek

24 hours at Okoboji

I made a quick but wonderful trip to Lake Okoboji on Sunday to visit my old friends Jim and Nancy Houchins and their extended families.  Such fun!  Their daughter Laura and her family were still visiting from Texas so it was an extra special treat!  They truly live the good life in their retirement....winters in southern Texas and summers along the shore of West Okoboji.  Doesn't get any better than that! 

Two pictures from their dock

I left Monday at noon and it about killed me off to leave but Mark and I have plans to return two more times this summer.  Cannot wait.

Tuesday I drove to Des Moines to have lunch with another old friend, Jacqui and her sweet daughter Katie.  Had a marvelous time spending the afternoon with them and I think I will become Katie's adopted grandma!

Looking at our long range forecast it seems we are in for a tremendous heat wave.  Very little rain before or during this so the crops, flower beds and lawns are really going to be stressed.  We may have to water our sweet corn!  Here's hoping they are wrong about the rains...

Here's a short video of some still pics I took during our Peoria stay.  Enjoy the rest of summer everyone!

Our holiday week-end

Mark and I left for Peoria last Thursday.  We stayed through Tuesday noon and had a wonderful time with Megan and family and Matt.  Matt didn't come until Sunday, though and stayed with the Thiel's until Wednesday morning when he left to golf with buddies in Chicago.

Thursday night we went to Drew's favorite restaurant, Mickie's Pizzeria in the tiny town of Dunlap.  He says he LOVES the pepperoni pizza there but I think he LOVES the candy grab game that is in the hallway.  Grandma made sure she brought lots of quarters so he and Kayley could grab "1 cent candy" with each try!  :-)  Andy was at training all week in Chicago and did not make it home until Friday night. 

Friday Megan went to work and Grandpa and Grandma watched Drew and Kayley.  We went to the park for lunch and play but it was pretty hot and humid so didn't stay too long. 

Saturday night we met Andy and Megan's friends at Lake Camelot to watch fireworks that their HOA puts on each year.  We arrived early and waded in the lake, played on the playground and rolled around the hillside while we waited for darkness.  The fireworks were remarkably good considering it was just a local neighborhood presentation!


Sunday we just stayed around Megan's place.  Andy blew up the kid's new pool and they had a grand time swimming.  We had fun watching!  That evening we grilled raspberry chipolte pork loins and they were delicious!  The kids got to do sparklers that night and Andy blew up a few small fireworks for them. 

Monday Megan took us down to the riverfront and we walked around the area.  Very nice.  People were already setting up lawn chairs before noon to save their spot for the evening fireworks.  I cannot imagine sitting all day waiting for fireworks!  We left around 7:00 for the riverfront that evening and had no trouble securing a great spot for our chairs and blankets.  There were a ton of people but the area is huge.  They filled the time waiting for darkness with a splendid stunt plane show.  My neck was stiff from looking upward for so long!  Finally it was time for the "show".  Let me tell you, it WAS a show!  The most spectacular fireworks display I have ever seen in my 60 years!  Mark heard on the news the next morning that the cost was $100,000 and I believe it.  It was such fun!  We did have trouble getting out of the Cat parking ramp, spending more time there than at the fireworks I think.  Ha!  As I said, there were a ton of people there and it takes time to move them all out!

On Tuesday grandma put the kids to nap after lunch and then we took off for the farm.  That left Uncle Matt to babysit, a first for him I believe.  :-)  He had fun with them when they woke up and they played in the pool and had snacks, etc.  It was just a wonderful 4th of July for all of us!

Some images and video from our week-end....some are repeats of Megan's post on her blog "Kayley's story" which is on the right side if you would like to see her thoughts on the week-end.
The first video is of Kayley trying to "dive" into the pool.  It was hilarious, to us anyway!  The second one is Drew and his pool tricks:

A brief taste of the stunt show:

Killing time before the fireworks start:

A small taste of the great fireworks we saw:

A very windy night!

Monday morning we woke up to a massive clean-up day on the farm!  Very high winds during the night brought down two huge trees, one falling in to the other.  They were not tiny trees.  We really had no clue where to start so we began on one end of the farm and worked our way across, picking up seemingly a zillion sticks strewn every which way.  We had the little stuff picked up by noon and could barely stand straight after all the hours of bending over!  After lunch we started on the two big trees.  I was a bit overwhelmed and then our good friend and neighbor Craig came over with two forks to put on Mark's tractor and the two of them sawed and hauled some massive wood to our now huge burn pile.  I kept busy cleaning up the little stuff under all that big stuff.  What a tiring day, but with Craig's help we had the majority of it tackled!  All that is left is the huge log which we are still contemplating on how to remove from our lawn!  I hope that is the end of storms and wind for Iowa.  Enough already....

Now, what to do with huge "log" on the right?  Maybe we will just make seating for our bonfire area!

Two more videos

I found a couple more videos that I took from Drew and Kayley's stay at the farm!

A week on the farm!

Thursday, June 9th Drew and Kayley arrived with their parents.  Matt also arrived that evening.  This was the official birthday for Kayley who turned 3 on the 9th. 

Friday night we drove to Fort Dodge to visit Grandpa Butch who had a room at a hotel with a pool.  The kids enjoyed swimming and we all ate dinner at the hotel's restaurant, The Cellar. 

Saturday Megan, Kayley and I went to a shower for Brooke Swanson at Barb Peterson's home.  It was a lot of fun seeing everyone and Kayley was very good at the shower!  Following that we had Kayley's actual birthday party with gift opening and a delicious "princess" cake.  Grandpa Butch came to the farm for the celebration and spent the night with us.

Sunday Megan, Andy and Matt all headed home and Drew and Kayley stayed at the farm.  I was a bit concerned that they would get homesick for an entire week but they were little troopers and did just fine with grandpa and grandma.  We had a fantastic time!  The big hit for them was swimming in a little pool I bought for their visit.  When we weren't swimming we were driving the golf cart all over the farms, spraying water from the hose, picking up sticks, cleaning grandma's car from splattered bugs and playing pool in the basement.

This past Sunday we loaded up my car and I returned them to their parents in Peoria.  That is a five hour drive and they did great on that, too!  Drew got pretty excited when he started recognizing landmarks for Peoria and he said he was excited to see mommy and daddy!  I stayed that night in Peoria and left Monday morning for the return trip to the farm.  It is VERY quiet at our house now...too quiet for my taste!  :-)

Some videos and pics of our very fun week:

 

This video is pretty hilarious at the end!

Misty day at the zoo

Mark and I met Megan, Drew and Kayley at the Omaha zoo yesterday.  Their aunts Kim and Jenny were also there along with cousins Macie, Noah and J. D.  The weather was far from perfect but they had a good time.  Kayley enjoyed the animals immensely but I think Drew was having more fun pushing the stroller and trying to keep us all away from getting too close to the windows of the apes and tigers!  (He is still a bit of a worry wort but that is his caring nature!) 

After the zoo the ladies all took their children home for a nap.  Mark and I drove to Kim's house around 4 P.M.  and took Drew and Kayley back to Matt's house to spend the night.  We took them to dinner at Dave and Buster's and of course had to play some skee-ball.  Drew loved that!  Had enough tickets to buy a tiny little car...total cost was $10.00.  :-)  Why was I never smart enough to open a place like that or smart enough to make a zillion Thomas the Train engines for a tidy profit?!?!?!? 

Movie from the zoo and Dave and Buster's"

Windy.....every single day!

I am getting a bit tired of the wind out here on the prairie!  I mow and I am covered with dirt and grass.  I try to water and the water blows every which way but on the plant that needs it.  But, it is still better than the killer tornadoes that seem to be popping up everywhere lately.  Very scary weather pattern right now!

Mark finished the beans this past week so all is good in cropland.  We received a little over an inch of rain so now everything has moisture.  Next on the list will be spraying the corn and beans.

We are going to spend the coming week-end with Matt in Omaha.  We are looking forward to seeing him.  Megan and family will also be in Omaha that week-end and we get to babysit Friday night so they can go out with Andy's brothers for the evening.  Friday afternoon we are going to the zoo.  They have the BEST zoo and we look forward to going with Drew and Kayley!

We had a very "close to dead" tree go partially down in the wind.  I have been wanting it down for several years so mother nature decided to help me out with that project.  Part did NOT go down so Mark took care of the rest of it.  Now, what to do with the huge trunk still there?!?!

A video of part of the tree coming down.  This is for Drew as he likes stuff like this.  :-)  Also, some stolen pictures of Kayley from Megan's Facebook page.

90's to 40's

Only in Iowa can you get that type of fluctuation of temps in less than a week!  The cool weather did bring some rain with it so it wasn't a total waste.  Our corn is "popping up in rows" and he should be able to plant the beans as soon as it dries a bit.  Mark held off on the beans because it was so dry.  He said the sweet corn should be ready August 1st.  Cannot wait!

I planted a bigger garden this year since I am home now to take care of it.  Lots of tomatoes and some green pepper, cabbage, eggplant, green beans, onion, zucchini and cucumbers.  I haven't planted that many items since I was in my 40's but with food prices getting higher I thought it a good time to do so!  Plus, I love fresh vegetables. 

I also put in several knock-out rose bushes in various spots and transplanted other perennials.  I also planted my usual bed of zinnias and canna bulbs by the driveway.  I keep threatening to do something different there but I just love the color that those produce.

This morning I stopped by to visit Jan and Clayton and ended up staying almost 3 hours!  Guess we had lots to catch up on after a half year apart!  It was so great to see them looking so happy and healthy!

Well, that catches me up on our routine of the past two weeks.  Andy did send me a video of Kayley "reading" to her baby which I thought was very cute.  Drew gets into the act, too, and I am not sure what language they are talking in but thought it worth sharing!  :-)

2200 miles

That is the total I have driven this past week.  Needless to say,  I am tired of sitting in a car and tired of buying very expensive gas!  I left Phoenix last Monday and spent the night in Dalhart, TX.  Tuesday I drove to Matt's home in Omaha to spend the night.  He took me out for a birthday dinner at the Texas Roadhouse and then we went for a drive looking at beautiful lake homes in the area.  We then watched the movie Hangover before calling it a night.  That movie was quite hilarious. 

Wednesday morning we went out for breakfast before I took off for the farm.  It was good to get back to the farm and Mark but the weather was really cold!  Matt said I came home a month too soon and I have to agree with him.  Hopefully it will begin a warming trend soon!

I was home Thursday and then Friday I decided it was time to hit the road again and I drove the 320 miles to Peoria, IL to see Drew and Kayley.  Megan had signed up for a March of Dimes walk in honor of Kayley so I couldn't miss that!  I had a fun week-end with my grandchildren and hated to leave them come Monday morning. 

Now I am back at the farm and waiting for it to become warm enough so I can start working in my gardens.  I am anxious to finally plant a big garden after a 4 year layoff!  I just need the weather to cooperate.  There were frost warnings last night so it isn't time to do so quite yet.

Some pictures and a short video of my Peoria week-end.

Andy "said" he was digging a garden plot but with his mother-in-law visiting I wondered exactly what he was digging!

Ah, thankfully it WAS a garden plot!  :-)

Having a snack at the park

Kayley thought it was fun up there!

Drew is old enough to know that this can't be safe!

March of Dimes walk on Sunday afternoon in Peoria

Mark's cactus

The cactus last night

How it looked this morning!  Beautiful

This cacti bloomed the day after Mark left so he never got to see it.  I had no idea they would bloom twice but last night I noticed buds all over the place on it and this morning it was just beautiful, with more blooms than a month ago!  Cool.  Good job Mark on your specimen selection!