It is the 5th of July and because I'm the newbie here at the Melrose Institute, I get to be here at 6:30 on this beautiful day! I can't complain, I suppose.. But, it's going to be a quiet and dragging type of day.. watching the minutes pass. Luckily, this gives me the opportunity to catch up here a little bit!
My fourth was very nice! It basically looked like this:
Can you spot me?
We ate too much, drank too much, got far too much sun, and simply had a great day. Then we walked into Exclesior for the fireworks. Unfortunately, Chase had to leave yesterday for the races, so we weren't able to spend it together. But, we did go see fireworks on Wednesday, and I'll be up to watch him race on Saturday morning, so it's all good! I love fireworks.. Something about them just makes me feel like a kid again!
Otherwise, my summer has just been crazy busy! Two week ago, we went out of town for a little family weekend with Chase's dad, stepmom, and kids. We cruised out to this small town called Alma, Wisconsin which is tucked into the river valley in southern Wisconsin. It was really beautiful!
We stayed in this adorable little cottage:
Straight out of a fairy tale!
But with 9 people in this tiny house, and kids running all around, Chase and I had to get away. So we cruised up the bluffs and spent some time admiring the view. Then we went to the local winery and had a free tasting! It was beautiful up there. If I could redo my wedding, I would for sure do it at a winery!
Gotta love the man-bag.. (it's binoculars)
We spent the evening with the family putting pennies on the train tracks, then we would run up on the bridge when a train was coming,and it felt like it was going to take us right out! We watched the sunset and went to sleep.
It was a very nice time with the family! But after 24 hours, I was definitely ready to go home.. haha!
Prior to that, I had a birthday party for Chase and a graduation party for my younger brother in one weekend. That was exhausting! But it was such a great weekend. It was storming for the birthday party, so we brought the party inside.. but that was ok! Ian's grad party was also a success! I saw many faces I hadn't seen in ages, including my mom's old best friend who actually delivered me! I heard a lot of "I haven't seen you since you were 'this big!'"
Everyone was celebrating!
I've also been going to watch Chase and my brother race, which has been tons of fun! Friends and family come up to watch.. The boys are in about four races a day, so we go into the infield to watch, then afterwards go back to the pits to hear/recap about how everything went. After the races, we grab dinner, then there's a short church service, which is nice! Once that is over, there's a huge bonfire that everyone hangs out at! I'm leaving again on Saturday, and they'll have fireworks and a whole celebration in the evening. It should be a good time!
In between all of this, it seems I've been on the lake, either boating or paddle boarding, working overtime or at the restaurant, or cleaning my house.. it's been hard to keep up!
Girls day at the beach!
So, I apologize (to myself, mainly) that I haven't been finding time to share any new ideas, recipes, crafts, etc.. That'll come. Summertime just seems to get so busy! But, that's why we love it.
