Summer is slipping away.  I get up and it is dark yet and the sun sets before 8 pm now.   We have had some cool nights but this weekend should hit back near 90 degrees again.  So we still get to enjoy good weather,  we are just being warned the season will be changing too soon!  We had a successful SOB picnic here last week. Around 50 people, everyone had fun, too much to eat and drink – hold it is there such a thing as too much to eat and drink?   Well they had fun.  Thanks for the board for helping out and the Enders for being here to help and Captain Noel for taking groups out for pontoon rides.

Then we had a Thursday to relax, and on Friday after work headed to Milwaukee.   Irish Fest weekend, and Chris circles it on our calendar.  We love the music and just being there.  More to eat and drink!   And saw lot’s of old friends.   We had a full Friday night, and thanks to the Ender’s hospitality we had a place to stay for the weekend.  Saturday we saw Mom, and got to spend about 10 hours  at Irishfest.    And on Sunday as usual we made it to Mass at Irish Fest.   The 2nd largest annual mass in North America.  It is always a wonderfully done Mass.  And afterward Irish Fest started up again!   Chris and I were going to get an early start back to Oshkosh, we went to get some lunch before leaving and as we got to order our food the skies let loose.   There is only a couple of feet overhang on the festival buildings and luckily Chris and I were under one.   And the open ground cleared quickly so no one else was heading our way!  So we ordered our food and ate with the other people huddled under the overhang.  It probably rained for an hour!   After which we headed for our car and the ride home!  A memorable end to the weekend.    My work is very busy, so I have no problem finding enough to do and putting some extra hours in,so that is taking most of my days.   We are still cleaning up from the picnic and have projects to catch up on, so little by little we chip away at them.

I do have some more pictures posted on the Album page.  Second week in Switzerland with the Cousins.  The pictures are great, so it must have been awe inspiring in person.  And obviously  they had fun!   Charles, Walter and family thanks again for taking such good care of the girls.  Remember On the Album page you will see this latest album at the top.   It shows you the thumbnails for the page. PicLens doesn’t work for me for some reason, but you can give it a try.   If  it does not work  you click on the first picture it will open up,  then you can use the arrows at the bottom of the picture to go through the pictures.   When done click on the picture.   Then remember to click on page 2,  or 3 4 or 5 below the pictures to see the next 20 pictures.

And sad news to end on.  We went to New Glarus a couple of weeks ago to see and old friend of Marie and spend a couple of days there.  We had a great time with Karl and Kay Gmur.  They gave up a lot of their time to spend with us and it was wonderful.   Karl passed away this last weekend.  Our sympathies to Kay and family,  he was a great guy.

Hiking the mountain!

A quick note!  Cloudy and comfortable here today.   Supposed to be rain tonight and tomorrow,  but this weather worked out OK.  A good day to be working outside.  My homebrew club picnic is at our house on Wednesday night,   so it has been a weekend of cleaning and organizing.  So we made lot’s of progress.  Now just hoping that Wednesday night is a nice night, without rain!   But the garage will have to do if rain happens,  it would not be the first time!   Our weeks go by quickly and this week was no different.   It was Marie’s last week here.   So we went out to eat for her last visits around Oshkosh!   Thursday Chris drove her to the airport in Milwaukee.   Her flight was a little delayed but she made it home to Albuquerque OK.    Chris stopped to see my Mom, then spent the night at the Enders.  Early Friday morning she went to her work office, and they had a bus go to the home office in Illinois for their Horton Olympics.   Sounds like it was a fun day.

So the real reason for a note,  with Craig’s help I have posted some pictures.   If you click on the Album header and go to the Album page you can see some of Marie’s pictures from their first week in Switzerland.  The girls spent the first week with Marie’s friend Kathy.   And Kathy kept them busy!  So pictures from that week and some train trips, and a trip into Germany.  Everything looks beautiful and they were enjoying themselves!   On the Album page you will see this latest album at the top.   It shows you the thumbnails for the page.  If you click on the first picture it will open up,  then you can use the arrows at the bottom of the picture to go through the pictures.   When done click on the picture.   Then you can choose the page 2,  or 3, and do the same thing.

So  the days are getting shorter, we are half way through August already.   Next weekend Irish fest in Milwaukee.

I am way behind in updates,  if you care!   It has been a very busy summer.   Marie Chris and Mary Jane are home from Switzerland.   They had a wonderful time with wonderful friends and family.   I am working on getting pictures downloaded and will try and load them to an album.

My homebrew club had a successful outing at the Oshkosh Brews and Blues.   We have been eating and drinking way too much (is there such a thing?).   We prepared for Door County and July 14th to 28th we spent in Penninsula State Park.  Well except Marie who stayed at Julie’s Cafe and Motel at the edge of the park.  It was her first time ever to Door County,  and I think she had a very good time.   It was great to see old friends, and how the many families have grown.   We started going there 30+ years ago at the end of July and have every year since.  Funny we were youngster’s then, now our children are older than we were.  As usual our 2 weeks went by far too quickly.  I worked 4 hours most days, a benefit of my job that as long as I got an internet connection I was able to accomplish some work.   Although I will still be trying to catch up this week.  It has been a busy time at work.  And over the last few weeks my reporting structure has changed, I now report to Corporate.   So I need to work on this first impression!

And I started that by trying to catch up this last week and then taking off Friday!   Thursday we drove to New Glarus and spent Friday, coming home today.   We went to see New Glarus,  since the girls had seen Glarus in Switzerland.   We actually went to see old friends of Marie, Karl and Kay Gmur.   Karl played many years with the Roger Bright Band in New Glarus and around Wisconsin.   They treated us wonderfully, and spent a lot of their time with us.   And we thoroughly enjoyed it.  Oh, and we did get in a tour and tasting at the New Glarus Brewery and around town.   New Glarus has always been a special place for Chris and Marie because of their Swiss Grandmother.  The time went much too quickly there also!   And we had more than enough to eat and drink, as is our custom!  And this morning headed to Wautoma, so we could make it to the celebration of Andy and Ann Dekeyser’s marriage.   There were married in Oregon a couple of weeks ago and it was an honor to be invited to the celebration.  Andy is our god child and they are a wonderful couple.

The disturbing part of our drive this weekend was seeing so many dry corn fields.   Much of the state we drove through the corn is stunted and drying out.   Many many fields will not produce this year because of the dryness and the heat.   Lot’s of hours spent preparing and planting will be lost.

So as I said I will try to share pictures soon.  Switzerland looks beautiful.  We hope all of you are well and enjoying your summer.    And the Olympic’s.

Somewhere in Switzerland

Family hike