A Visit to the Zoo

Since we had time before class on Monday we headed downtown to see some sites...this time to the north of the downtown area.  Lincoln Park Zoo is a free zoo with $17 parking.....so much for FREE.

The entryway to the main park.

Our favorite animal on this visit....the polar bear.  He just swam around and around and around.

No fond of the reptiles, but the building in the zoo were very interesting.

The view of the city at the far end of the park.

The park is along the shores of Lake Michigan but has a busy street between it and the lakeshore.

After our visit to the zoo we headed to Windy City Scrapbooks to check out their store and see what finds we could come across.

Heading to CHA!

A little site seeing along the way on our trip down to Chicago....and we are hungry and tired.  We picked up Lindsay and took her with us to lunch/supper.

Can you say YUM??

Giordanos Pizza is a Chicago must have!!  Deep dish and delish!

Finally, our room at the Double Tree Inn Chicago O'Hare.

Before photos

We are getting a new roof put on the house....the one we put on 15 years ago didn't last as long as it should have, so we are going with a steel roof this time!

We are also fixing the roof on the garage, which is over 25 years old....and the shingles are still great looking!

While the roof is torn apart we are getting a small gable end porch put on above the door for a small sitting area for the grill to be under.  That will be so nice when it rains!!

The guys are supposed to arrive while I am away for the big Scrapbooking trade show in Chicago....we shall see what happens!

Good times

After work cocktails?

Why not!Our favorite placePaula and LEann....they do not cooperate with my photo taking!!!

This is Mittens

or "Mitzer"

or "Schmitty"

or "the Mitt"

This is the last remaining kitten that "Dot" had out of three. Poor little guy. He is an outcast in the Kitty Community, but "Snickers" seems to like having him around (only when we are not looking).

Sunset on the farm

The cloud formations were just the coolest, so I had to run into the house to get my camera, I know, "why weren't you wearing it?"....I was out doing some chores.....

Give a kid a camera....

...and this is what you get back

...one decent shot...

...and then....

really?....

...nice.....

I sent the old digital camera up north with the "crew" and this is 5 of the 85 photos taken....you can guess by the majority of these that the remaining 80 are about as nice....and relevent as these are. Rather funny to look at I guess, as an objective observer, but seriously.....do they do any hunting up there?

EXPO weekend

We were in WAUSAU for the weekend for s Stamp & Scrap EXPO. After work on Friday we packed up the Torrent with supplies for the Make & Takes, stuff to sell and things to display them with...and took off. We had just enough room to each have a seat!
After unloading the works, setting them up and beautifying it all we headed for the hotel. Since we had some time to kill before bed and needed a little snack, we headed to the Hudson Grill...after crossing the 4 lane highway twice (that's another story)....to find a cool car themed restaurant/bar. It looked like a scene out of "CARS" the cartoon movie, but with real cars and road signs. They served "Lug Nuts" (deep fried cheese curds) and "Piston Rings" (onion rings)...as well as $1.99 margaritas, all day, all the time! We were in margarita heaven.

Retreat weekend

We were housed in the "REFRESH" room

Two of the jacuzzi tubs in the 4 season room

Room for 16 in the scrapbook room

Our quarters for the weekend....4 single beds, one full bath and a sink/mirror outside so we could all dress for the day without getting in each others way. Oh, and the beds were SUPER COMFY!!

Living room to dining area. Through those windows in the background is the store I work for....just steps away from scrapbook heaven!!

What an awesome weekend that went WAY TOO FAST. I got to meet a lot of great people and reconnect with some friends too. COPIC markers ROCK too.

Thank you SALLY LYNN for the awesome classes.

Flower pounding video!!

After spending HOURS uploading this....here it is!!