Fun

A Lazy day at the Park

Posted on August 15, 2014 by theowenscrew

Today we found the library here in Neenah, got a library card and checked out some books then we headed to a park Chad found online that had unique play equipment.

We had a picnic lunch and the kids played for close to 5 hours.

In the mean time Chad and I read, wrote letters, and did some drawing. The perfect day of rest before I head into three presumably busy shifts over the weekend.
As I was getting ready to write this post I noticed that an article I wrote for The Gypsy Nurse was linked to our website, it is about preparing your family for travel and I thought you may enjoy reading it so I am going to try to put in a link to the article. Preparing Your Family for Traveling

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Wisconsin Capitol Building in Madison

Posted on August 14, 2014 by theowenscrew

We quickly worked to get ready for the day and on our way to Madison.

The directions from Neenah were nearly a strait line, and as you can see, even once in Madison there were no turns necessary. Only drive straight, straight to the Capitol.

There were two other Oregonian cars in the visitor parking structure. We appreciated this guy’s plates.

Our now-tradition of the Capitol building family selfie.

The building was fabulously beautiful, and seemed short after the Illinois Capitol building. I liked its all granite exterior. The inside had marble from several different states and six countries. A lot of which have since been quarried to extinction making them completely priceless.

The park or Capitol grounds were filled with people at lunch time eating their lunches in small groups and office people out on walks for exercise. It made the Capitol feel more accessible and an actual part of the daily lives of Wisconsin’s people.

The Capitol is nearly surrounded by water as there are lakes on either side with a fairly skinny land bridge between on which the Capitol has been built.

The resources of Wisconsin painting from before it was the dairy state.

Our guide.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will be in session while we are here and the public may attend the cases.

We got to sit in the senator’s seats and Caleb, by chance, sat in the seat of the head senator (I forgot the actual title for this position).

I love the skylights.

The senator’s parlor.

Down on the floor of the House of Representatives.

I’m ready to vote.
Here is a picture of Old Abe a Wisconsin Civil War mascot

It is actually a Jr. The original one burned in the Capitol fire in 1904. But this one has been sitting on this perch since abound 1908 and is an actual taxidermied bald eagle that a farmer found dead in a field and brought in to the Capitol as a reminder of the real hero of The Civil War.

There were beautiful views of the city from the fourth floor observation deck.

Also another surprise was a hidden away museum up in the Capitol not too far below the dome.

We found a park by which we could enjoy the water and let the kids get out some energy.

This little guy kept walking circles around my bracelet over and over again.

We sat under a chestnut tree which made us think about Aunt Vicki and Uncle John.

Myra and I went for a walk after dinner. The scenery is so different here than in New Mexico both beautiful. I enjoyed Myra’s quiet companionship and the time by myself to process the day, life, goals, my Jesus and the big picture.

Out of our reading from “Pilgrims Progress” today. I know this is true and may I take it to heart and remember it when I am making little decisions all day, big decisions, when I am going through hard places, and when I am tempted to take the easy way out.

-Goodnight-

Categories: Family Time, Fun, kids, Road Trip, Travel, wisconsin | Leave a comment

Zoo, fun playground, and Lake Winnebago

Posted on August 12, 2014 by theowenscrew

We got a tip about a free zoo in Oshkosh, so we checked it out today.

Aren’t these guys so cute!

The kids one by one seeing how far they can jump. Caleb…

<img src=”https://owensendeavors.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/20140811-194706-71226494.jpg”

Hannah…

Last and funniest Eve…

This tree gives me flashbacks to my childhood, swinging on the branches of the big weeping willow tree in Jerry and Carol Jager’s yard.

Reminiscent of the Gilbert House, was the playground adjacent to the zoo.

Hannah is such a crack up, this picture was 100% her idea.

The kids played while Chad and I sat at the shore of lake Winnebago and talked.

It was beautiful and that lapping sound of the water is always so soothing. The surf however does not at all look appealing to swim or even wade in because it is pea soup green.

There was a group of people at the park wearing green shirts that said Oregon. Chad started talking to them and discovered that they are from Salem and are here for a Pathfinder conference.

What a nice relaxing (for the most part) day. We tried out a new Sandwich shop on the way home that had Udis hogie rolls for GF sandwiches. It was fabulous although within an hour I was having some major stomach symptoms so the jury is still out on whether those two things are at all related. Now, early as it is, we are all tucked into bed because work comes early in the morning. It will be the first day by myself and I will surely be repeating these words (or song as it may more likely be) all day, “Not by my might nor by my power but by the spirit of The Lord.”

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Friendship walk in Menasha

Posted on August 11, 2014 by theowenscrew

Just a few miles from our house is a cute little park with a greenbelt of sorts called the friendship walk. We had fun checking it out. I think we walked 5 miles round trip.

That’s my guy with a pull-up in his back pocket. He is such a good daddy.

There was some stagnant water that was quite gross looking and Eve insisted it was all bird poop because of the smell, but we did enjoy the wild life swimming around in it.

the houses in down town Menasha….someday I want a house like the one in the movie “Up.”

Here is a little turtle that Hannah found on our walk back.

Our first muskrat sighting. We also saw a duck family with a lot of little babies, a squirrel hiding something yummy in the gravel and lots of dragonflies. It was a fun afternoon.

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Gearing up for the work week and early mornings

Posted on August 6, 2014 by theowenscrew

I so slept in this morning. Way way in. I figured it may make up for the sleep I’m going to miss the next few mornings when the wake up call comes at 4:15 am. I was awakened by kids bouncing on me and on the air mattress which in turn bounced me some more. Then came a facetime call from Suzanne, what a lovely surprise that was. We got to see Hadassah’s zebra hair, and Elijah’s amazingly blue eyes and kissable cheeks. We talked for a good long time and the kids gave her a FaceTime tour of our apartment. Around 11:30 (please forgive me for staying in bed so late) I climbed out of bed and made myself useful by getting the dishes done and doing some more cleaning and organizing around the house. Chad came home from the store with a fold up card table and camp chairs, yay for having our dining room all set up. We sat around our new table and enjoyed lunch together. The kids cleaned their room and brought out their math books, as requested to start warming up for the school year again. I feel like we may have to do more remedial work on math this year than last, as we have taken a longer break and it doesn’t seem to be either one of the big kids’ strong suit. Math and more cleaning. Everything is set out for the early morning shift. My lunch bag is all packed and I got in a phone call to my mom. A yummy dinner of tacos was prepared by Chad, and a quiet walk around the neighborhood with Myra ended the evening. Chad and I discussed the next two weeks plan over a glass of ice tea and headed to bed. I’m hoping the melatonin will kick in soon. Good night you all. Prayers for things to go smoothly at work in the morning would be much appreciated.
-Here’s to another great assignment with lots of things learned.

Nemo movie kind of night. My pot from Valerie is just what the kitchen needed.

And, sweet potatoes all prepared for lunches this week

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Neenah Wisconsin

Posted on August 3, 2014 by theowenscrew

Wow! Has all this stuff really happened in one day? We woke up this morning in Madison WI at the KOA and had somehow (a good tent perhaps) managed to stay dry through all the rain during the night. It was quite a nice campground, and I was sad we didn’t spend any time there.

We packed up, got breakfast, and picked up Myra from the Kennel. She was happy as always, and returned with a good report card. Seriously, they gave us a report sheet of how she did throughout her stay, and she passed with flying colors. We had a two hour drive to Neenah and our new apartment. We arrived to meet our new landlord at the pre appointed 12:00pm. We all piled out of the car. Unloading the car was the easy part, and we worked steadily at putting things away. For this assignment we chose a new kind of adventure, unfurnished housing. It was going to be around $2,000, a tad more, to rent furniture for three months. Probably not a bad price for what we were going to get, but we have to get a bigger place having 5 people than I would get if it were just one, and pet fees as well to consider (way lower here than in NM). Also, we needed to work on rebuilding our savings a bit. We decided to take on the challenge of furnishing our provided housing. When we had our car unloaded and half the things put away, we headed back out to dig up the furniture and accessories we would need to get by for the next three months. Air mattresses, sheets and pillows, dishes and silverware, groceries, measuring cups, hand soap and a broom. Our car was filled to the brim after three stores, Goodwill, the dollar store and Walmart, so we headed home to put things away. Chad set up the beds. Caleb has a cot he found at goodwill that he is completely attached to, and the girls were digging the new sheet sets in their favorite colors. After everything was set up, we still need to get a couch of some kind and a table and chairs and we will be completely set. The upstairs, all things considered, actually looks pretty homy. We ate dinner on a picnic table in the back yard. The kids played in the freshly mowed grass clippings. They are glad to be “home”.
Goodnight from Neenah!
P.S.
Here is my new hospital. The nerves aren’t as bad as last time, but still a little nervous.

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The Last Day of July 2014

Posted on August 1, 2014 by theowenscrew

Over the last week, we have stayed our last night in New Mexico, two nights in Colorado, a night in Kansas, one night in Missouri, one night in Illinois, and now for our first night in Wisconsin. It’s kind of surreal, and the scenery so far is quite similar to that of Missouri and Illinois. So green, with beautiful trees, amazing cornfields, and picturesque farms. We have listened to Ramona Quimby and The Last Battle, and the Capitol buildings have been so fun to see. In some ways, they have been so similar, and other ways so different. With each tour we have learned more things about each state. I’m so glad that we have done it. Today we toured the Illinois Capitol building, the tallest Dome Capitol at 405 feet from ground level, and grandest of all state capitols. The Capitol building in DC is 297 feet tall.
The stained glass window in the dome is quite impressive.

We entered the Capitol through an underground tunnel that connected it to the nearby government buildings.

The doors to the ground floor opened up to beautiful ornate halls and staircases as well as a welcoming statue that made you feel like you just might be in Europe.

This tour was focused on the purpose of the building, not the workmanship, art and materials that went into making it what it is today. Built in the late 1800’s, it cost 4.3 million dollars to build, in comparison to the Missouri Capitol building built 50 years later, which cost nearly 1 million less to build. I do have to admit, there is no comparison visually when describing the inside of each.

The wall paper in the state Supreme Court is awesome!

The street view of the Capitol is less impressive, and we found the silver dome rather intriguing. Who do you think would be the statue out in front of the Illinois state capital main entrance? We are in the land of Lincoln, coined on each license plate. Well Stephen Douglas of course!

We enjoyed the monument to the states firefighters and the one to the states police force.

We left the Capitol and made our way to the nearest Krekels, which had been recommended by our favorite Illinois couple Pastor Tim and Cindy.

As we are in corn country, so more ethanol is added to the gas, lowering the gas prices.

We found some fun signs that reminded us of our family back home.

We have made it to Wisconsin at last!!!

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B-Day in Transit. St. Luis Gateway Arch

Posted on July 31, 2014 by theowenscrew

Staying with friends last night made for a fun change in pace, although we were up early as usual. Travis and Kim had appointments early, so we said our good byes and made it to Jefferson City and the Missouri Capitol building in time for the 9:00am tour. The Capitol was built in Jefferson City when only a few families lived there. It was chosen because it is towards the center of the state and right on the Missouri River which was the main source of transportation at the time. It is made up almost entirely with Missouri native limestone and is very dark inside at least on the first two stories. There are solid granite pillars in the House and Senate that were brought in from New Hampshire. The painted murals were interesting but also older and dark looking except on one room (and for the life of me I can’t remember the room.)

The white spine-looking thing is a coral fossil in the limestone.

They had a hall of famous Missourians, where the kids found several people they recognized.

Sacagawea (must have come back to and lived in Missouri after the expedition)

Laura Ingles Wilder

I know those are out of order and I did get a picture of Samuel Clemens on Chad’s phone there was also Bob Barker and a whole lot of others as well as Lewis and Clark. It was fun to read about them.

Thomas Jefferson is such a huge and honored figure in Missouri, because of his purchase of the Louisiana territory, allowing the westward expansion past the Missouri River and the settling of the land now known as the state of Missouri.
That leads us to the next stop, a famous land mark in the city of St. Luis, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, also know as the gateway arch. The gateway to the west.

With our pass we got a discounted rate for the tram to the top, which made it surreal to how high we had climbed. Something about having to take each step physically that make you appreciate the grandness and scale, but as that wasn’t exactly an option, the tram would have to do. We enjoyed the view through the tiny little windows. The views were incredible, however it was hot, stuffy and very crowded, so we didn’t stay at the top for very long.

We got one family picture by a highschooler in a group as I get a little older I find these highschooler groups some of the most interesting people to watch. I can hardly remember being that age, even though it was not that long ago.

We also enjoyed the museum attached to the arch. We are all getting a little tired of the car, so we decided to stop at the first La Quinta in Illinois and spend the rest of the day by the pool.

Swimming and pizza by the pool.

A load of laundry got done, giving us enough travel clothes to make it to Neenah… Life is good. Other bonuses of the day were taking the back roads between Jefferson City and St. Luis and lunch in a little town called Owensville.

Thank you all for the birthday wishes!

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Topeka Kansas to Columbia Missouri

Posted on July 30, 2014 by theowenscrew

It has been a long time since I have stayed at a KOA, it was clean and a lot like a camping hotel. Not a destination camp ground, but a place to stay on the way somewhere. Beautiful green grass and ponds that we enjoyed this morning as we packed up and ate breakfast.

Our first stop today was the Kansas Statehouse (Capitol building) the second tallest dome Capitol building in The USA behind Illinois at 306 feet tall. It is 17 feet taller than the US Capitol building. We arrived at 9:00am just in time for a tour to start. The guide was filled with tons of great information about Kansas and it’s Capitol Building. Unlike Colorado, all of the marble in the Kansas Capital building is imported from all over the world, and they have marble from just about everywhere.

the Limestone in the basement (now the ground floor) however is from instate.

Kansas is the 34th state and our 34th president Dwight D. Eisenhower is from Kansas.

Also Emilia Earhart was from Kansas. We enjoyed the murals too.

We got to climb up to the top.

We then made our way to Kansas City for BBQ at a place that came highly recommended by credible BBQ fans, Nathan and Megan Colburn, called Oklahoma Joe’s. On our way there, we experienced our first toll road on I-70.

the line was out the door and down the side of the building. That was a good sign.

it was fabulous! There was smiles all around.

We crossed into Missouri and headed towards Columbia to meet up with a high school friend.

Missouri, like Kansas, is quite beautiful and covered with the most green luscious fields.
We pulled into Columbia around 4:30 and found the right apartment. It was good to see Travis again and meet Kim. The kids felt immediately at home. Caleb thoroughly enjoyed Travis’ collection of Star Trek cards and books, and the girls made themselves busy about decorating a box with stickers Kim had given them.

Both girls are under the box playing.
About 6:30 we decided it would probably be good to get dinner before too much longer. We don’t have Cracker Barrels in Oregon, so it seemed like a natural choice and we sure did enjoy it.

After dinner we headed to Mizzou for a tour of the school where Travis is working on his PHD.

Yep Hannah and Thomas Jefferson go way back. Or maybe just Thomas Jefferson goes way back ;0).

Kim and Travis are the kids new BFFs.

It was quite late and quite dark, so the red eye is bad, but this is a sculpture of Beetle Bailey as the comic strip author is an alumni of Mizzou.
It has been fun to catch up with friends, thank you Travis and Kim for being such fun and kid friendly hosts. The kids think they have died and gone to heaven with all the fun books, stickers and a box to decorate with them. Thank you again.

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Denver to Topeka

Posted on July 29, 2014 by theowenscrew

Tour of Capitols. We enjoyed getting to see the Colorado Capitol building. We learned a few things too. It is the only place in the world where you can see true natural red onix. The walls are lined with it. It was quarried in Colorado and was used in its entirety in the Capitol building.

You can sometimes see pictures in it.
Colorado is the centennial state. It became a state in 1876 100 years after the birth of our nation.
The Capitol building is the original Capitol, and still uses the same gas lights, although they have been converted to electric and the building has no AC. We definitely noticed that right away. They used to be able to open doors in the basement and lift the roof, which allowed air circulation, but since 9/11 they are no longer allowed to do that.