Day 1961 | Home Maintenance

It’s only taken us five months of basically staying home all the time to make a dent in some of our home maintenance to-dos. We’ve done everything from tree removal and bush trimming to organizing and painting. My personal favorite has been sanding/cleaning/priming/painting some of the exterior trim on our house (including the base of the columns pictured above). I’m not kidding. I actually really have been enjoying this task. It’s pretty quick. Immediate gratification. And man, what a difference it makes.

Oh-and don’t worry-we’ve still got quite a list to get through. Ah, the joys of home ownership.

Day 1960 | Devil’s Punchbowl

We decided to be crazy and make an afternoon trip 30 minutes down the road to this hidden gem today: the Devil’s Punchbowl. We explored in the water (well, two of us did) and then we walked around the UW-Stout campus (where our niece will be attending in the fall) and downtown Menomonie. It was a really lovely way to spend part of the day. And can you handle how pretty it is?

Day 1959 | Summer Adventures

Another day, another bike ride adventure. This time we expanded our biking radius and stopped over to Rod and Gun Park. Pretty streams, no bugs, and lots of ducks. What more could you ask for?

Day 1958 | Legends of Zelda

Today’s virtual summer school hike included a game called “try to find something that looks like legends of Zelda.” It’s nice when real life and video games collide, isn’t it? The treasure pictured above is some sort of spear. I wasn’t really listening.

Day 1957 | Playground Time

We’ve been to one playground since Covid struck. Today we went back. The boys had a blast just doing their thing (even with no other kids around). And I read a book. It was really lovely. I miss playgrounds.

Day 1956 | Summer Days

This is a shot from Saturday night. You know you’re really living your best summer life when you’re enjoying a campfire dinner while the wet clothes from a river rafting trip dry in the background. A good book doesn’t hurt either.

Day 1955 | Blueberry Picking

It was a beautiful morning for blueberry picking. No bugs and the weather even cooperated. Blueberry Ridge is just such gorgeous setting. As if a blueberry harvest isn’t enough, we stopped and picked some local sweet corn after that. Wisconsin is kind of the best.

Day 1954 | Drive-In Recital

Another late night in Chippewa Falls supporting our nieces/cousins. This time it was a drive-in dance recital. The social distancing worked well and we enjoyed a chance to see all their hard work on the big screen.

Day 1953 | 4-H Showcase

The 4-H fair looked a bit different this year. So different, in fact, they gave it a new name: the 4-H Showcase. The boys still did projects and presented them in front of a judge (following health and safety guidelines), but we couldn’t meander the exhibit hall looking at other entries, we couldn’t visit the animals, there were no malts at the food stand.

To be honest, initially I wasn’t thrilled the Showcase was happening. I didn’t want to go through the hassle of projects knowing the experience would be so different. Now, though, I’m so glad we had something to focus on for the last month. We had fun doing the projects and it motivated us to try some new activities with the kids (sewing with grandma, whittling with dad, leaf collecting with mom). I really like 4-H. Have I said that before? :)

Day 1952 | Covid Farmer’s Market

Eau Claire is still hosting the downtown farmer’s market so we popped in on our way home from our morning bike ride. Wearing masks is still very strange and somewhat scary to come to terms with but we’re doing it and will happily continue wearing them as long as we need to. #wearthemasks

Day 1951 | The First Tooth

Robbe lost his first tooth last night. Sniffle sniffle. It’s a tangible right of passage from babyhood to real kid territory. You can see your little guy slipping away one tooth at a time.

A bit melodramatic? Yes. But I think it’s true. We’ve said goodbye to most of the “baby stuff” long ago and now it’s time to move on and grow some real chompers, too. He’s beyond thrilled. I’m getting used to the new grin. And soon enough he’ll have a mouthful of awkward adult teeth trying to fit into that adorable little head. Growing up is weird, isn’t it?

Special thanks to my parents for handling the first tooth loss during last night’s sleep over. Talk about timing. Luckily, the tooth fairy was able to find him in the new location. I’m sure you were worried.

Day 1950 | State Street Hill

For those of you who are local readers, you’ll understand how much of an accomplishment it is that the boys have successfully biked up State Street Hill. It’s a steep one! And the boys couldn’t be more excited about it. All of a sudden going to piano lessons became a lot more fun (which just happens to be located at the top of the hill).

Side note: The fridge seems to be working again. Fingers crossed we made it through!

Day 1949 | Refrigerator

This is an image you never want to see. There’s no good reason to have an empty + open refrigerator staring back at you. Apparently we have a fan problem. We needed to defrost it for eight-ten hours. Tomorrow morning will reveal whether the defrost was enough or if there are more serious problems. Think happy thoughts for us, will you?

Day 1948 | Tubing

We’ve been talking about tubing down the river by our house since we moved here four (4!) years ago. Today, that dream came true. And we got to bring some of favorite people along for the adventure. We learned some good tidbits for our next trip down while having lots of fun on this too-hot-to-do-anything-else type of day.

Day 1947 | Newsies

Covid can’t keep the Children’s Theater down. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier to attend a musical. Also, two of my nieces were in it. Also, it was Newsies (remember how much I love Newsies?!?).

It was a perfect summer evening. The organizers did a remarkable job of helping keep the performers safe and distancing the crowds without taking away from the magic of the evening. As I was sitting under the stars with Robbe on my lap, I almost forgot about all the stress and uncertainty of life right now. It was a good lesson in appreciating all of the really wonderful things still going on during such a crazy time.

Day 1946 | Wagon Full of Books

We enjoyed another personal shopping session at the library today. It was just as exciting as the first time around. We learned our lesson from last time, though, and brought our wagon for all the books this time. Robbe managed to wheel it almost the entire way home.

Day 1945 | Vote

Just a friendly little reminder.

Day 1944 | A Bookshelf

I have had buying a bookshelf for the boys’ room on my to do list since we split their bunk beds back in January. Why does everything take so long? I’m happy to report that a bookshelf has been purchased and is now happily hosting our library.

Day 1943 | Beating the Heat

Today was uncomfortable. Just super hot and gross. I convinced the boys to take a morning bike ride to beat the heat. We had a lovely bike ride but we did not beat the heat. It sure was nice to get out, though!

Day 1942 | Owen Park

On our morning bike ride, we discovered no one was at our neighborhood playground. Robbe took full advantage and honed his monkey bar skills—until a few other kids showed up and it was time to go. It was fun while it lasted, though! It turns out that ten minutes of monkey-barring is pretty intense.