Sorry to disappoint!

No pix of the Zone visit yet, so you'll have to make due with a quick blurb about the last day.

Last night we had the "Ladies Bible Study Summer End BBQ" here at the house. This is a community Bible study lead by one of the ladies from church, Karen Hinz. It was a lot of fun. There were 20 or so kids and 16 - 18 adults. We hung out outside most of the time ... kids playing on the Dragon's Lair and in the bounce house, adults sitting around and chatting or playing Cornhole*. It was a blast. The crowd were going by about 9p, so it was late to bed for the kids, who were showing the effects of that late night this morning. Oh well.

*We'd played Cornhole with Jim and Laurie when we visited out there. As a thank you gift for hosting them they gave us the 8 needed bean (really corn ... hence the name) bags and a gift certificate to Home Depot to get the rest of the materials. I built the stuff Sunday and finished up the last coat of paint yesterday morning!

Posting pickup

Well, I notice it's been a while since I've posted, so to start things off again*, something different ...

Liverpool drew their away tie (that's game to you non-soccerites) at Standard Liege last week. It was a disappointing result, but they still should pull out a victory on the return leg at home and advance to the group stages of the Champions League. On the weekend they won they Premier League debut for the 2008-2009 season 1-0 with a nice strike from Fernando Torres. It was a satisfying start to the season, even more so when considering the opening tie for Manchester United and loss at home for cross town rivals Everton.

*Okay, I have a bunch of pictures to post from when Jim and Laurie were here. I'm working on that, so hold tight! That will be the real return to more regular posting!

Finally, the season starts!

Okay, try to contain yourselves. I know you have all been chomping at the bit for Liverpool FC's season so start, but your wait is over. Liverpool opens it season in the Champion's League playing away to Standard Liege, a team from Belgium.

I know you are all ready to hear the results, so I will post them when the game is over!

Short Stuff

This is a midday short post, but I thought I ought to get something out there before all my loyal readers bugged out!

The time with Jim and Laurie was great. The kids were, for the most part, very good. There were, of course, the spats and ups and downs, but I'd say for the amount of sleep that they got (which usually ended up being an hour or so less a night than they were used to), they, all four, did great.

The trip ended in fine fashion. Sunday we went to church and then the church potluck at the camp. We lucked into getting a pontoon boat ride, which the kids loved ... especially when we hit waves and water came up on the boat. We had such a good time we went twice! The big action on Monday/Tuesday was staying at the Timberridge Lodge and going on both days to the water park there. The kids were all over it. Caitlyn wasn't quite as into it, but she made do. Anyway, there were short slides and long ones, jacuzzis, fountains, etc, etc.

So it was a fun time, now we just need to convince Jim and Laurie that they want to live here so we can rinse and repeat more often!

An off day ...

We (Jim/Laurie and Cyndie and I) had a great time last night on our date! We ate at the Blue Cow restaurant ... it wasn't as good as the last time we went there, I'm not sure we'll be back for a while. After that we went for a walk starting over by the Cove/Gilbert's and walked East/South. It was a section of the lake that Cyndie and I had never walked before. We saw several really nice houses and had a good time chitchatting. I'd say that by the time we got home, however, we were all pretty tired. The kids had a good time with the babysitter. It was a new one, Miss Hannah, whose mother will be Tim's pre-school teacher this fall. It was Maddi and Caitlyn's first "real" babysitter (not a family member or friend of the family).

Today we all kind of got up a little later and had a slow breakfast. Then headed to downtown for the "Art in the Park" fair and library book sale. We browsed around for a bit, then each family bought a box of kids books for $3. We probably got 10 or 15 books, so that was a great deal. Afterwards we played at the big elementary school's playground for a bit and then headed home.
This afternoon, the Zones borrowed the car and are exploring the local towns while Cyndie is sleeping and the kids watching a movie. It's a nice little break for the kids.

Emma has had several traumatic events recently. On Wednesday evening while we were out on a walk, she and Maddison were running next to eachother and got their feet tangled. Ems bit it on the asphalt and ended up with a really good skinned knee. She was pretty distraught for a while, but is doing better now. The other was when Lee was here she had a wasp attack her by the condo pool. Then there was another wasp out by the Dragon's Lair a couple days later. Anyway, the "bug" events are probably worse in that now she doesn't want to go out to the Dragon's Lair anymore. She just now asked me if there are wasps in winter ... implying that she doesn't want to go outside until then! I think we'll get her past this, but it's a little frusterating right now.

The big upcoming event will be when we stay the night out at the Grand Geneva on Monday night. The big thing about that is that we're going to the waterpark there before and after on both Monday and Tuesday. I think the kids will have a really good time with that!

Friday

Well, we're having a great time with the Zones. Yesterday morning was spent with me working and everyone else exploring downtown, especially finding all the different painted horse statues that the different businesses have (part of a fund raiser going on). In the afternoon we went over to the pool and hung out for a while. Emma even got to the point where she was attempting to dive! I'm sure a lot of that had to do with the competition factor of Maddi and Caitlyn. Anyway, she had a really good time with that. Timmy is doing a really good job too. The only ting missing for him is the willingness to put his face in the water! In the evening we had a bonfire and cooked s'mores.

Today the kids had swim lessons at the lake, so we all went there to the beach and hung out in the morning. We were supposed to go sailing with Jack this afternoon, but his wife Joan is having some problems with her gall bladder, so that is off. Instead we'll take it easy this afternoon and then a babysitter is coming over to watch all four kids while the adults go out for dinner and a little adult time!

Zone in the House

The Zones are quite literally in the house. We got them at 5:30 last night. We stopped in Muwanago (half way home) for Culvers. The kids were pretty hyper, but having a good time. Maddison ended up taking a nap on one of the flights, so she was pretty wired and didn't end up going to bed until about 10:30 (which was really when her bedtime in CA is anyway, so I guess that's to be expected).

I'm taking today off and we're going to head to the lake to swim.