Signs of summer and upcoming internship

I love this time of year. The weather is perfect. I absolutely love our backyard! Although we live in town, our house is on the edge of a bluff that overlooks Dells Pond. It is very quiet and peaceful. We have a lot of birds and wildlife in our backyard. Nothing better than to wake up in the morning to birds chattering! Skott built a neat birdhouse out of a dried gourd last summer. It is hanging on the trellis for our grape vine. It is right outside our living room window (you can't tell from the picture, but it has some really neat carvings on it).

We also have bunnies living in the neighborhood. I happened to look out the upstairs window and see them running around in the backyard. One of them used to sleep under my car in the winter. Every morning when I would back out, it would just be sitting there. I call them my "Rori bunnies" since that was the nickname of my first frenchie who ran and hopped like a bunny. They live under our deck sometimes but are probably reconsidering that location since Izzy LOVES to chase and almost caught one a few weeks ago.

This is our fire pit that Skott built. He spent days hiking all over the bluff last summer finding these really old, huge bricks (80+ bricks actually). Thanks for all your hard work babe! (As you can see, we need to burn some stuff!).

Now that summer is here, you can find Fucie like this:

sunning on the deck all day. He is very content to just lay there for hours.

This is our insanely large bleeding heart. It must be the dog pee or something because it is HUGE! I love it. This photo was taken a couple weeks ago and it is even bigger now.

Well, I really should get back to packing. I leave tomorrow for my internship at Cedar Creek in Minnesota. I am excited! I will be living in a tent (with access to bathroom, kitchen, showers, etc) and collecting plant research data all summer. I am really grateful that I will be able to come home most weekends. I will try and post lots of pics next weekend. Until then, hopefully the thought of me living in a tent will bring a smile to your face :)

Aunties from Idaho visit!

I survived finals week with only one minor meltdown. It gets a little better each time :) I am very proud of my "report card" this semester: 3 A's and 1 B. Yeah!

Last Saturday Skott's two aunts from Glenns Ferry, ID came to visit for a week. We picked them up at the airport in Minneapolis and shopped at the Mall of America the rest of the afternoon. The following morning we got up early and went north to Door County. It was a beautiful weekend.... a little windy, but not too bad! We stayed at a great motel in Bailey's Harbor with an amazing view! One of the things we love about Door County is that north of Sturgeon Bay, there are no "chains" -no chain restaurants, motels, etc so everything is local, mom and pop owned. The people at The Beachfront Inn were SO NICE! This view was right out our room:

We had lunch (including sweet potato fries and cheese curds) at Julie's in Fish Creek and had to get pics in the big giant purple chair outside:

(Aunt Lyd and Aunt Joyce in chair)

We also went to the Cana Island Lighthouse. It was very windy that day! Aunt Joyce and I climbed all the way to the top.

A view from the top:



Aunt Lyd, Aunt Joyce, and Skott at lighthouse

The week was filled with lots of fun: breakfast at Al Johnson's where the goats eat on the restaurant grass roof, wing ding in Chetek, visiting antique school house in Hixton, going to the Amish store, and lots of laughs and catching up. It was a great week! We are so glad they visited.

Family fun

Amy has been visiting this week. We had family dinner at Carrie's house.
Amy sitting on Dad's lap:


Carrie holding Marley:


Amy eating Aundray's doughnut:


Amy eating Max's doughnut:

(note the death grip on their arms.... they LOVE their Aunt Amy!)

Mini mol

My dear sweet husband (after working 73 hours that week and being up for over 24 hours) came with me to the University's chemistry banquet at Stella Blues. It was a fun evening. I enjoyed introducing him to all my old profs. We ended up at a table with the Chancellor, who was very nice, and his wife, who was... ?not. She was just odd I guess. Although he was sitting right next to her, she always referred to him as "the chancellor". Seemed strange, like those people that refer to themselves in the third person all the time. Anyways.... Interesting conversations, to say the least.
After the dinner they had awards and prizes. Skott won some Chemistry sudoku greeting cards. Hilarious. I won a "mini mol" complete with a lab coat and goggles, suitable for ages three and up. Haha



Can't wait for the Bio BBQ tomorrow night. Those are my people!

Wasn't Easter just last week?

How embarrassing. I didn't upload any April pictures from the camera until today. Where did the month go?
Here are a few from Easter Sunday. We went out to Dad and Sherry's in Bloomer. Two of Sherry's kids were there also. We had a delicious dinner. Afterwards we played a really fun game and took a walk. I love it out there. It is so peaceful and relaxing.

My Dad and Skott

Brooke and Sherry

SherDen Farm