California trip--August and September

We flew out to California on the 27th of August in order to help out with the kids when Cheryl had her final chemo treatment. We arrived on Saturday evening and enjoyed Chick-fil-a for dinner on the way home from the airport.  Sunday was church in the morning and Panera for lunch.  It's always good to stick with the favorites for meals!  :)

We had a few days to kind of learn the routines for school, lunches, homework, etc. before Cheryl went into the hospital for her treatment.  I went with her to her oncology appointment on Tuesday, the 30th, and right after her appointment she was admitted to the hospital. After school the kids and Matt had soccer practice, and we had a quick dinner and then went to visit Cheryl in the hospital.

Bedtime stories with Mom

As we were leaving the hospital that evening, one of the gift shops had all their stuffed animals on a table outside of the shop and they were all on sale. Of course the kids wanted to take a look at them. And when I saw that Matt was softening on the idea of adding 2 more animals to their collection, I went into Grandma mode and we came home with a whale and a dolphin. 

Who could resist those faces?

Things went very well with the kids while we were on our own with them. I had worried needlessly about having to do Josie's hair in the mornings--she does it herself now!  We had one night when Matt was gone on a middle school retreat, so we were completely on our own for that night. Grandma was a softie once again, and let Josie sleep on the couch when she was feeling sad and missing her Mom and Dad. Everyone was happy when the family was back together again on Friday. 

I did some shopping with a good Kohl's coupon and got some things for the kids. I was surprised that Evan gets just as excited about new clothes as Josie does. So cute!

Modeling their new duds to show Cheryl

Matt and Cheryl had put together surprise bags for the kids to open when they were gone.  One of the fun things inside was---mustaches!

I could only get one to pose with the mustache. :)

Josie ready for "Game Day"  at school

Two very silly kids!!

The second Sunday of my visit, we branched out from the usual Panera lunch and went to Taco Shack.  It was a good choice!!

Silly family

A group of their friends organized a Sunday evening pizza party in the park to celebrate Cheryl being finished with her chemo treatments.

Lots of kids in this group of friends!

Cheryl and the kids baked cookies one day. They were yummy!

The kids both have soccer practice at the same time, and Matt coaches Josie's team. One day Josie was sick and couldn't go, so I went along to be with Evan for his praictice. It's so much fun to watch him--he's quite the little athlete!

One evening we went out for ice cream.

This was a blast from the past!

On Friday evening we went to the high school football game. Josie's class could run through the banner before the team came out.

I was really happy that I could get to both the kids' soccer games before I had to leave on Saturday, Sept. 10.  It was really hot that day---it was nice that the games were early.

Josie ready for the game to start

It was pretty hot the whole time we were there, and sometimes the heat got to Amos, too.

I found him lying like this several times.

(This trip started out as a joint trip, but Bob went home after one week, and I stayed for two weeks.)

August

After the fun time with the family in July, August seemed a bit of a letdown. I spent quite a bit of time working in the BCS library, as I also had done in June. The library was moved into a brand new, much larger room.  And also the entire cataloging system was changed, which involved lots of work on the computer and also lots and lots of time putting new labels on books and arranging them on the shelves. I really enjoyed this volunteer work--maybe should have been a librarian instead of a teacher.

JoAnne was still recuperating from her shoulder surgery, which she had on July 21. Part of her recuperation/therapy involved sitting in this chair:

This was to work on her range of motion---the arm would be raised and lowered with no effort on her part, starting with very small movements and gradually working up to full range of motion. She had to do this for several hours every day, over the course of a few weeks.

We had our usual visits from the neighborhood deer, including some very cute little fawns.  It's hard to catch a picture of the fawns, though.

We took a few nice long walks on the lakefront--it is usually a bit cooler there when it is hot in Brookfield.

We also had a Wiers outing in August, on the 21st.  We started out at Roger and Sheryl's house and then went to the Pullman area for a tour, conducted by none other than Roger!!  This is one of his retirement activities--serving as a docent at the visitor center there. It was very interesting, and we would highly recommend the tour--especially if Roger is the tour guide.  After our tour we went to visit with Aunt Grace and then took her out for a late lunch/early dinner at Maggiano's. It was a very nice day!

On the 27th we left for California--and that will be a new post!

July, Part 4--Week-end in Clinton

We left the lake house on Friday, the 22nd, and Matt and Cheryl were not expected back in Michigan until Sunday.  So Matt's family and Bob and I drove to Clinton from the lake house and spent those extra days with the Wissinks. It was fun for the cousins to have a little more time to spend together, and Jeremiah was excited to have Josie and Evan at his house this time, since he had been at their house at Christmas time. And it was fun for all of us to get acquainted with their new community. Matt and Cheryl and the kids stayed with Adam and Rachel, and Bob and I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express.

Saturday morning we went to check out Eagle Point Park in Clinton. We spent some time at a playground.

Whee!  Hope likes slides!

Barefoot on the monkey bars!

There was a "castle" that we could climb all the way to the top!

Silly me! I thought this might be an opportunity to get a picture of all four kids together.  So here are the results of that idea--Rachel had to get in the picture in order to keep Hope there. And no one seemed very happy about posing for a picture!!  Well, it was very hot and very humid. Probably was a bad idea. 

Evan is totally against the whole

picture idea!

So we moved across the road to the look-out station, where they could look through binocular-type things.  I assume it is possible to spot eagles here, because of the name of the park. But there were no sightings of eagles that day.  It is a nice spot to look out over the Mississippi River and there are often boats and barges to watch. 

By this time everyone was hot, hungry and thirsty, so we looked for a place to have lunch.  I'm not sure what people did before they could do all these searches on their phones, but we found a cute little coffee/sandwich place in downtown Clinton. And it had the cutest window seat with book shelves loaded with kids' books. So that kept the kids entertained while we waited for our food.

After Hope's nap we went on another little outing to check out the town of Fulton, IL, which is right across the river from Clinton. One interesting spot is the lock and dam, where you can often see barges and boats going through the lock. We also checked out the Dutch Windmill in downtown Fulton. No picture of that, though, but I did meet someone from Hull in the Visitor's Center.

The Fulton Lock and Dam

We couldn't be in Clinton without having a meal at Pizza Ranch, so that is where we had dinner that evening. We managed to get in during a time when there was no line---that is a VERY busy place!!  And the food was great, as usual!  

 The kids loved the dessert pizzas!

And we got to see this awesome rainbow

that evening!

The next day was Sunday, so that means pancakes for breakfast.  We even skipped the free breakfast at the hotel so that Grandpa could be on pancake duty. 

Then we went over to our hotel so that the kids could spend some time in the pool before we checked out.  If I ever figure out how to put a video on this blog, I will add a video of Evan swimming across the pool. 

Josie wasn't feeling 100% that day, so she

swam a little and then kept Grandpa company. 

Then it was time to pack up and head to the Chicago area where we were going to meet up with Cheryl's sister, who would take their family to Michigan. But first we all had lunch together.  The first restaurant we tried  in Fulton was too busy for our large group,  so we drove on to Morrison.  With the help of those wonderful phone searches, we found a place called "Isle of Rhodes."  And we were the only people in there!! The food was great, and very plentiful! (Take note of Matt's sandwich!!!)

And then there was one last opportunity for pictures, and I think this was probably the most successful attempt!

 3 of the 4

And "Miss Personality" joins the group!

And then  it was time to say good-bye---always sad.