Memorial Day Weekend – Coronavirus edition

This Memorial Day Weekend we found ourselves back at the lake. Last year we skipped out on the lake and went to KC house shopping, but this year, what is there to do? 

We bought a camper earlier this year and had big plans for it. So far, the best it has done was to house my husband’s office when schools closed.

Finally, it got to move… And guess what, it didn’t crunch the cab of the truck! Yey!

And while we had plans to SCUBA dive this weekend, we had more fun on our boat. What? Yup, we got a boat. It’s not new… in fact, I’d call it vintage or classic… do they refer to boats like that? It’s a 1976 Baja. It was my grandpas. He passed away in 2010… The boat had maintenance done to it just before that. We pulled it out of the barn a few weeks ago, hubby changed the gas and she fired up. She has a few issues. 

In fact, the drive cable broke. Simple fix and really one of the easiest things to go wrong. I wound up towing the boat back to shore on a kayak. (more…)

It’s Wedding Season

I don’t know if you know it or not, but summer has officially sprung! Here in the midwest we went from Winter to Summer. Spring, what’s that? I’m pretty sure last fall we didn’t know what Fall was. We just fell from Summer into Winter. Crazy Midwest weather.

But, that being said, It’s coming on big time wedding season. They say that people in the olden days got married in June because they took their yearly shower in June so they’d smell good. But for good measure they carried a bouquet of flowers to hid that musty smell. haha. I sure hope that was a joke! In this instance, I just hope I’m gullible because if that’s true, pew.

Last weekend, I went to a wedding. Yup, that’s where I was headed with all of that. The weather was gorgeous! We drove out to Big Hill Lake near Cherryvale, Kansas. I have a bunch of friends that live in that area. I was apparently only 3 miles from one of them. I’m not sure about the other… but on one of their farm websites they mention Big Hill Lake in their description on where they’re located.

When I got there, wedding preparations were already underway. As you can see, I got in on some good pictures of them making lemonade. We also had taste testers in this endeavor. It was fun. (more…)

Memorial Day Weekend 2017

Memorial Day Weekend was spent at Beaver Lake. The night before we left to go down there, Deb and Grady said they were having difficulty getting all the trailers down so we volunteered to pull the dive trailer down for them. When we got to the lake, I had to giggle at the “big” truck pulling the little trailer. It’s a bathroom cleaner thing for campers but that sight just made me giggle so hard.

These 3 are back together again. Wow, did they make quite the team… they are the next round of shenanigan makers!

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Underwater Pumpkin Carving

I typically get sick twice a year… this year I think I’m at 3 times. Blech! I’m so over this! Anyway… A couple weekends ago we had our annual Underwater pumpkin carving. Yes, I said underwater, because who doesn’t want to carve a pumpkin underwater? Don’t answer that.

The surface temperature topped out around 78˚. The water temperature wasn’t bad at all either. I heard the thermocline was down around 30 feet. I couldn’t get past 3 feet because of whatever this is. My ears were jacking with me so I carved my pumpkin basically laying right under the surface of the water.

I’ve been bugging hubby for family photos all summer long so finally we found a weekend when we had Tbug and it just so happened to be this weekend. We got up early (although not as early as I would have hoped, my fault) and went to the lake to do photos. Not quite where I wanted to take them, but sometimes you have to roll with the punches and I was happy with how they turned out so it’s all good.

That morning it was a big chilly. Abug got cold so Tbug zipped her up in her jacket with her. I turned around and this is what I saw.

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Christmas in August (at least for Karen and me!)

What is this you might ask? Well let me tell you. Back in June during the Safari Hunt, I really didn’t have any plans of diving. What? Well, Tbug had a dive buddy (he’s a good one too! Thanks Doug!!) and truthfully, I didn’t want to get my hair wet. Strange as that sounds, it is the truth. Because if you didn’t know, Diving isn’t a dry sport. I didn’t have any plans of diving in the actual safari hunt, so I wasn’t all that interested in getting my hair wet. Now I must say, I’m GLAD I did! And here’s why…

Our SCUBAPRO rep was actually in this part of the country that weekend and told Deb and Grady he’d just come down to the lake. Earlier in the spring Deb showed me a flier for the new Hydros BC and tried to tease/taunt me with it, especially because it comes in purple, my favorite color. I didn’t really care so much… I had a nice BC that worked so whatever. I was content.

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Birthday Party Take 2, But 1

Is that title confusing to anyone else? Okay, I’ll explain. If there is one thing I can tell you about my baby girl it is that she is loved. She is loved by a lot of people. We got involved with our diving group in 2013 when we got certified and they are a second family! Or really, they are family. That’s the best way to describe it. And baby girl got herself one heck of a family! So her birthday was on Sunday, but that Saturday we were at the lake for the Safari Hunt. That evening, we had a small birthday party for her at the lake for those who couldn’t make her birthday party on Sunday. So this kid had 2 birthday parties, this was the first and her actual birthday date was the second. Therefore, Birthday party 1, but post 2. Did you follow all of that? If not, just know my baby girl has one heck of an awesome family both blood and personally added!

We’re a lively bunch, I tell ya! Watch out for us!

So during the Safari Hunt, she played hard. Eventually she took a nap. We got her back up to Deb and Grady’s camper without waking her up and I got her on their couch so she took about a 2 hour nap. When she woke up, I’m not sure she was ready, so she cried and cried. The only person who could console her was daddy!

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Memorial Weekend 2016

I’ll apologize now. This will be photo heavy but I’m just going to do Memorial Weekend in one post and get it done. So Be Warned! 🙂

Our Memorial Weekend really started Thursday night. Tbug had a softball game… yes, she’s playing softball now. So we went over to her game and then she just came home with us because we planned on going to the lake. I have no idea if they won or lost or even kept score… But I can tell you that Tbug went around all the bases and made it home as if they were scoring a point. She even slid in to home instead of doing a summersault like she did earlier in the season. I guess you can take the girl out of cheer but you can’t take cheer out of the girl.

After the game we went to Jared and Karen’s house to borrow Karen’s truck (again, she needs that jalopy) and their camper. There was a tire that was starting to go bad so the guys decided to change it. We made it about 5-10 miles from their house and the tire blew. So I called Jared and asked him to come rescue us. I might also mention this was close to 10 or 11 at night.

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New Year’s Day

New Year’s Day the last couple years has been spent diving. I have yet to dive on New Years but that’s besides the point! I seriously debated it this year, but in the end, I didn’t. I’m a chicken I guess or maybe I’m smart… you decide.

I’m not the best passenger in a vehicle. I sat near the middle of the bus and decided sleeping was best for me. Deb has been sick and Rachele I guess was tired? I didn’t ask :).

Pete decided he wasn’t staying home. They tried to get him off the bus, but he wasn’t having it. This was really the maiden voyage of the bus since it’s been in our possession (except the trip to the gas station…) and Pete wasn’t about to miss out on the opportunity to ride on the bus and go to the lake.

When we stopped for breakfast, he curled up in the drivers seat. He was just keeping it warm for Jared.

After the December flooding, this is what the lake looked like. Hubs said it had about 2-3 foot visibility if that.

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