A weekend getaway and CJ's first communion...

Last weekend Matt and Kate hit the road for Wisconsin for yet another weekend of basketball. It also just so happened that the only soccer game on the calendar for the weekend was rescheduled. So I booked a hotel room for the younger girls and me at Grand Harbor in Dubuque. We swam and threw ourselves down slides and giant buckets of water dumped on our heads....this last through Friday night and all of Saturday morning. I didn't get any pictures of us at the water park because we were too busy having fun to break out the phone.



Afterwards we grabbed lunch and bought tickets to the Dubuque Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. I've wanted to go to this place for years and I finally got my chance. We saw all sorts of marine life including catfish three times the size of me, sting ray, snakes, alligators, and so much more. The museum had super fun places for kids to play and explore with water and sand. We read up on environmental changes due to the development of locks and dams. We learned why water quality is important for animals and people alike. It was a fun and educational afternoon.

CJ wanted to buy this stuffed turtle at the gift shop but it'd require a second mortgage. We settled for cool rocks instead.

Speaking of turtles; here's Maddie posing inside a giant tortoise shell.

Captain of the ship.

We got home in time to pass out in our own beds and wake up for CJ's first communion. The CDC lifted the mask requirement for vaccinated people the day before which meant no more masks for everyone, I guess. Anyway, the lifting of restrictions was perfect timing for a celebratory day at church. How fun to have our second daughter old enough to receive communion now. Everyone is growing!!



Three cheers for a fantastic weekend! And we are set for another great weekend ahead. Looking at these pictures and past blog posts reminds me how blessed I am to have a hard working, loving husband who cares for all of us. I'm so blessed to have four smart, talented, strong daughters, and caring parents and in-laws. And of course I cannot forget Nacho - our pet cat. Life is pretty great!

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

October things...

Image
It has not been the easiest October on record. Kate had a couple of hospital visits to Rochester but she is somewhat better at the moment. She continues with chemotherapy and has not been back to school for quite some time but she is doing her best to set aside time for online school work between naps, loving on cats, and hanging out with her family. I was able to get the girls to visit their great grandma in western Iowa a few weeks back. Here's Claudia shortly after arriving at great grandma's house. She is very into jewelry and lots of it. Grandma had several questions for her about the number of bracelets and thankfully Claudia loves talking about them. Many she has made, some were gifted to her...it's a lovely hodgepodge of middle school girl goodies. Clearly the girls and I were blessed with height genes from relatives not named great grandma. We spent time relaxing, taking four wheeler rides, eating candy and we also received a visit from my aunt and uncle. Aunt Deb ...
Read more

March Madness 2024...

Let's talk brackets. I love a good competition. I love to win. But when I don't win I can typically move on quite quickly from a loss (unless we are specifically talking about Big Six Swim Offs, but I digress.) We have a family group on ESPN for the men's NCAA basketball tournament and it's "high stakes" with no entry fee, a chocolate rabbit for the winner and most importantly bragging rights. While I've never won, nor have I ever been close to winning, I thought I'd share my rationale for my picks through the first round of play. You should not follow this advice but if you so choose to, don't blame me when you too lose out to a cat with it's own bracket. East Region UConn 1 v Stetson 16: This is a silly way to start because it's a 16 v a 1 seed and clearly we know the very likely outcome of this game. But if I could, I'd choose Stetson cologne over a Huskie dog because Huskies kind of scare me a little. Regardless I am going with the ...
Read more

The dark day of June 27th...

 June 12, 2023 We typically don't share a lot of updates about Kate's health, primarily because she wants to remain "a normal teenager." However, we still get asked how Kate is doing and I started thinking maybe it's okay to share updates now and again. Most people care about her and our family, some others could maybe be labeled as "tragedy junkies," but I'm going to operate under the assumption that most people have the best of intentions.  Today is June 12th and we are quickly approaching the dreaded dark day of June 27th. Have you watched, "Gilmore Girls?" It's a witty, comforting television show from the early 2000's. In it one of the main characters has what is dubbed, "a dark day." This is a day the character dreads each year and in response he goes into hiding from the world with no communication. Well for Kate, and the rest of us to some degree, the dark day of the year is June 27th and that date is closing in on ...
Read more