The Lake 2014

Tomorrow is Friday, the dreaded last day at the Lake. It's been a good year, relatively small group compared to most other years, decent weather, and changes on the horizon.

I was really looking forward to being up here this year. Since I had such a short time up here last year, I was excited to spend quality time on the beach and with family. Of course this is the first year without Grandpa here so I also wondered how everyone would feel about his absence and figured there would be some sadness.

Rob and I drove up Saturday afternoon, leaving Lakeville around 2pm. When we plugged the resort address into our GPS, we were directed to take Hwy 65 north, a route we had never considered in the past. I'd say we made pretty good time -- just over 4 hours from Lakeville to the resort with a quick stop in McGregor for a snack.

Remember several years ago when I hit the bird with my rental car and it was stuck in my fog light?? It happened again!! Rob and I hit a bird on the way up to the cabin and it got lodged in the grill of my car. Poor little bird.

                                                  

Highlights so far (in no particular order):

several beautiful sunsets

family golf scramble (Eddie's Eagles tied for 2nd place)

                              

beach time

           

baggo tournament (Jarisa reunited and made it to the 2nd round, losing to Maddy and Ken who won the tournament)

                     

a few morning jogs
time with Ava

                               

morning coffee in the cabin
time with Rob

                                                

grandma

                                 

yahtzee
time to read (not really that different than at home this summer)

Tonight the Nelson cabin is hosting game night, so I'll make my way down there in a little bit. I've heard we're supposed to get some rain tomorrow, but I'm hopeful the weather is beautiful.

Hard to believe another year at the Lake is over.
Jill

38 years ago today.....

Every year, a few days before my birthday, my mom starts telling me the story of my birth. Where she was, what she was doing, how she was feeling, etc. You would think that after so many years I could retell the story myself, but I'm not sure I could do it! Thankfully, I have her to tell the story.

Even though I'm not particularly excited to be 38, it's been a great birthday so far. I guess it started last Friday with a birthday dinner hosted by Sara and Wade. It had been a long time since the 4 of us had hung out, and even longer since I'd seen their kids, so I really enjoyed our time together. Wednesday night I met Sheila, Kelly and Julie at the Chart House, where they have a beautiful setting, terrible service and delicious sweet potato fries. :) Honestly, their service is so terrible, I can't believe we keep going back. (Except that their patio is PERFECT in the summer and there aren't many other options in the area -- I'm the one that keeps suggesting it, so apparently I'm a glutton for punishment.) Last night we golfed and I let Anita treat me to a pre-birthday beer.

This morning started with a beautiful flowering gerber daisy plant from Rob (which was preceded earlier in the week by fresh cut lilies!).

                       

Dad and Monica treated me to breakfast at the Tavern -- we shared a tasty caramel roll!

I did some running around in preparation for our week at the Lake, stopped by Caribou to cash in on my free birthday drink,

                                             

packed for the Lake and went for a run. Tonight we're meeting Andy and Malinda at Chianti Grill for birthday dinner and then meeting up with several of my high school classmates for our 20 year reunion festivities at the Doublewide. Should be an interesting end to a great birthday!

As Rob and Andy will tell you, my birthday never ends, so I'm sure I'll celebrate with Mom up at the Lake and maybe with Rob's family next weekend.

Blessed,
Jill

Fawns

Last weekend, Dad delivered some lilies to our place, which were nestled between two large tires on the north side of our house when we returned from Frontenac. After watching/helping Rob plant the hostas a couple weekends ago, I now understand it's not a quick-and-easy task. So, this week, we kept putting off the planting of our newest bushes. Yesterday, after a nice run around the neighborhood, I decided to give planting a try. It's not really a difficult task, it's a matter of having the motivation to get it done and for me it's also the confidence to know that I can actually accomplish said task.

Thursday's accomplishment: planting lilies.

                                         

Bonus: two fawns coming up behind me as I was planting. One of them got so close, I think s/he wanted to eat from my hands!

                                                   

It had been awhile since I'd seen Alix, so I stopped by Andy's on my way to golf. She was wearing the aloha sundress we brought back from our honeymoon! Adorable.

                              

It was finally an unquestionably beautiful night, which has not been the case most of our golf nights. Mom and I golfed alone as Anita was out of town and Sue joined an earlier group. I did fairly well again last night -- same score as last time, which was my best score so far!

Jill

Enjoying Nature

As we turned onto our street on our return from Frontenac, Rob looked at the house, then at me, then back at the house. He clearly noticed something that I didn't right away. Once I looked again, I sat straight up and exclaimed, "We have 2 rows of growth!!" Our garden is growing! When we left Friday afternoon, the only green we could see in the garden was the green from the tomato and pepper plants we put in the ground. In two short days, the beans had grown about an inch!! In addition, the sunflowers were poking through the ground as were the cucumbers. So exciting!

                            

By Monday, I could see teeny tiny grasslike growth in the rows of carrots.

I'm sure the novelty of growing a garden will wear off by the time we do this again next year. For now, I'm loving it. Honestly, I'm a little bit in awe that we are responsible for the start of a successful garden. Who knows what next week will bring, but I'm enjoying watching the progress. Truthfully, I walk down there more than once throughout the day. Just to check on them. Is that so wrong?

Our friends, Sarah and Ryan, were in town from Colorado for a Minnesota wedding this weekend. Thankfully they were able to fit us into their busy weekend plans for dinner on Sunday evening. We had dinner at the Chart House where we enjoyed the lovely weather (maybe a little humid), beautiful setting and excellent company!

                                                

Monday was a quiet day around the house. I went for a humid mid-morning run around the neighborhood, did some laundry, baked banana bread, and cleaned out the camper. There was a quick and severe thunderstorm that passed through in the evening, producing a double rainbow out the east side of the house. Breathtaking.

                                                 

As we were sitting on the front step enjoying the beautiful sight, our little toad-friend hopped from my chair onto the ground. Scared the crap out of me. Him too, probably. Over the course of the last couple weeks, he's made his way from the front step to the pillar of the house, to the pillow of the adirondack chair, and when I came home today, I found him on the side of the house. Odd (and busy) little guy.

                                                  

The thought has crossed my mind that I need more to do with my time. :) I'm certainly enjoying the peaceful summer, so the thought doesn't stay long.

Jill

Fire(works) in Frontenac

We spent the 4th of July weekend 4 wheeling in Frontenac with the Fritz and Lindahl families.

                    

                                                 

We had done most of the camper cleaning and prep on Thursday night, so we were able to leave home in the early afternoon on Friday. Which also meant we were able to fit in one trail ride before dinner. I think this was a bonus for Rob. :) Since it was the 4th of July, and I love fireworks, we drove over to Lake City where we watched fireworks over Lake Pepin. This was a bonus for me.

The most excitement happened on Saturday when we were on one of the trails -- Little Johnson. We hit a particularly challenging spot with large boulders causing the exhaust system and muffler to rub against the undercarriage. Once we got to the top of the trail, it was clear something was wrong with the jeep. While Rob and Jeremy tried to figure out what was wrong, Karly said, "It looks like there's smoke coming out of your jeep!" I agreed but figured it was just dust from the trail. Several minutes later, Rob calmly asked if I had a bottle of water. Turns out the floor in the backseat was on fire! Thankfully the damage was minimal -- as you can see the jeep has seen better days. The hole in the carpet just adds to her character.

                                               

As it turned out, we didn't end up trail riding much throughout the weekend because Jeremy and Matt's trucks weren't running very well. We still had a good time hanging out with friends in a peaceful setting. I continue to be grateful for our hillbilly camper set up. Even though it's not the fanciest or newest, the bathroom ceiling falls apart a little more every time we drive it and the fridge needs propane instead of electricity, it's our little home away from home!

                                                 

Your favorite 4 wheeling hillbillies,
Jill and Rob

Iowa Road Trip

Even though I have summers off, my boss has encouraged me to visit colleges whenever possible in order to expand my knowledge of the opportunities available to students. Since Meg and I are both new at this, we decided to take a road trip to Iowa to visit 4 colleges over 2 1/2 days.

We started with Iowa State. The campus looked really beautiful, although it was hard to see anything through the torrential rain that was coming down during the majority of our visit! We had a driving tour of campus because of the threat of rain during our tour time. As a result of the rain, I didn't take any pictures, but in addition to the tour of campus, we had an extensive tour of the engineering department (including the wind tunnel simulator!) and we met with an admissions person to talk about the application process. Overall, I was impressed with the university.

From there we drove through dark grey clouds and a heavy downpour to Des Moines where we enjoyed dinner at Mezzodi's and an uneventful night at the Hampton Inn.

The next morning we went to Drake University where we met with two admissions reps and had a tour of their campus.

                         

They are the Drake Bulldogs so scattered all over campus were bulldog statues painted with different colors and themes.

                     

                                     

After that we drove to Grinnell where Brad treated us to lunch at Relish. We met with Rachel in admissions, heard all about their individual curriculum and self governed student body and went on tour with Sarah from New Jersey.

                   

After checking out the campus bookstore, Meg and I walked downtown for some frozen yogurt from The Fix, a new yogurt place downtown Grinnell. We were lucky enough to stay with Brad and Mary that night -- they just moved into their new place a few weeks ago so we were one of their first guests. We had dinner at the Prairie Canary and then headed back to their house to visit. The next morning, Mary and I got up early and went for a run -- just like old times. :) It was really great to spend time with the two of them and their three adorable little girls.

                                           

Wednesday morning we drove farther east to Iowa City and the University of Iowa. We met up with Sabrina, their admissions person who works with Minnesota students (we were on the MACAC board together, so it was fun to see her again!), attended an admissions presentation, went on tour of campus with Liz from Illinois and enjoyed lunch with Sabrina in one of their dining halls. They continually stressed how "walkable" the campus is. It does seem like many of the academic departments are in the center part of campus, but it's still a large university so hard to tell if it's pretty compact or if they're stressing a smaller size in order to not seem too huge. Either way, I was also impressed with the University. The grounds were beautiful, facilities seemed well kept and they certainly have great academic programs.

                                                

They, too, have statues of their mascot, Herky the Hawkeye, all over campus, painted to represent different things: Shakespeare, Big Foot, Jackson Pollhawk, Student, Graduate, etc.

                      

                                      

That concluded our campus visits, so we headed home. Overall, we had a great time! I enjoy spending time with Meg and it was good to learn more about some great Iowa colleges.