queen to 1

The sun is out, the birds are singing, and I've already had a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast.

Now we're sitting in the "sun room" relaxing and figuring out our plan of attack on this glorious day. The grandparents are headed into Winona for some light shopping (Menard's, Fleet Farm, Farmers Market, etc.) while Jeff and I take Frankie for a long river walk. I can't wait to start taking pictures of this wonderful day.

The "parents" will be gone for about two hours, which gives us plenty of time to get ready, take our walk, and maybe run into the small (and I mean small! two aisles) grocery store for our stock pile of snacks for later on the dock where we will watch the sunset.

I love my life!

I can hardly wait! We're headed out of town early Friday afternoon and I am so very excited!

We'll spend the weekend in what I think is the most beautiful part of the Midwest...Bluff Country. The drive to our cabin is so spectacular. We wind south along the Great Mississippi from Prescott to Buffalo City WI. The hills are a glorious green and when the sun is shining on the river, it's absolutely magnificent.

Once there, we'll spend three days relaxing and lallygagging away the time. We'll probably leave Frankie with Grandma and Grandpa while we go golfing. We'll take a long walk with our little girl. Maybe take the pontoon out to our favorite sandbar and sip cold beers while the water lazily rocks the boat. I'm also hoping we do a little fishing. You never know what you're going to catch in the river.

I'm bringing two books, three bags of sunflower seeds, and my new cowboy hat. Ahhhh...it will be perfect.

The Family

Kelli + Alyssa +Chelsea + Katy = a world of trouble!

GIRLZ WEEKEND 2008!!

Alas! Our adventure will begin on June 5th. We will load my car with our luggage and a very large cooler! We will all bring more clothing than we will possibly need. We will be loaded up with music and that “let’s hit the ROAD” attitude! I envision all four of us tearing out of the driveway, cowboy hats on, hootin and hollarin, cranking the Tanya Tucker, and making our way for the highway. In reality, we’ll probably be bright eyed, a little sleepy, and wondering…where are we stopping for breakfast???

I can’t really even begin to explain how excited I am for this trip. I think every girl has that wonderful fantasy of packing up the car and hitting the road with her best friends, but rarely do we get to experience this….yet here we are…just a few short weeks away…and it’s really happening!!

When Katy brought the idea to us several months back, we all got very excited. We all said “yep, I’m in!” When we learned we would be going to Nashville the same weekend as the CMA musical festival the excitement level went up about 150 notches! However…I think there was still this little piece of me, and maybe all of us that thought…yeah, we probably won’t go. But, I was not willing to give up the dream. I started looking for hotels. That was a challenge. So many were already booked. Finally, I did find one. And it was a very nice one. Very modern and maybe even a little “posh”. Ok…so this might actually happen. Then I found out you had to pay for the whole stay up front. So I emailed all the girls the info and price. At this point there were five girls going. We were very clear……this was the moment of truth…you’re either IN or OUT. 100% Commitment was required to proceed. And that’s what we got….100% commitment…or so we thought. Shortly after we booked our room, one of us was potentially out for the count….in a very good way….Sheila tells us she’s having a baby!! She was still on the fence, but leaning towards staying home. A few weeks ago, she confirmed…she won’t be joining us on the trip. Ok. Down to 4. Then, at about the same time….we lost another travel companion…for a not so “valid” reason (but that’s a WHOLE OTHER STORY) so….we’re down to three. Some road trip! Thankfully, Katy has a friend/neighbor that is up for just about anything. We invited Chelsea along, and we’re back to four! This turns out to work well, because now we get to drive the smaller, more economical vehicle, and we all get to sleep in a nice comfy bed. Prior to these changes, it was “Kid Mobile 3000 and someone’s sleepin on the floor!”


I believe our trip will suffer if we don’t have a “plan of attack” for the nightlife. Since we’re cabbin it both nights in Nashville, we should have an idea of where we want the driver to take us. Thankfully, Nashville has a fantastic nightlife scene and several areas are nice little pockets of bars within walking/crawling distance of each other. I was very excited to discover Ms. Kelli’s! It’s a karaoke bar in Printer’s Alley. We have to go there, and I HAVE to have a ton of pictures of the place….I mean come on! It’s got my NAME!!

So...NASHVILLE.....here we come! Ready or NOT!!

(not the ACTUAL tick)