Saturday, July 19, 2025

Day 200, Saturday, July 19, 2025

 

Peyton sent me this picture of Blitz.  He said he was just sitting on the floor beside him.  I asked Peyton if he was getting ready to bite someone!

Day 199, Friday, July 18, 2025

 

We went for a drive to the sunflower field near Jubilee State Park.  Coco went with us and he loves to sniff everything he can get to.  After we left the sunflower field, we went to Dick Blick in Galesburg.  What a great little trip!

Day 198, Thursday, July 17, 2025

 

At night, Coco always goes in his kennel, by way of Jim saying, "Ready, Go!", and he runs so fast he almost hurts himself!  Why, because he knows he is going to get a carrot.  Then he waits for me to come and tell him good night, that he is the best boy and I picked the best puppy!  Lately, he has been turning one front paw under himself and the other front paw with the bottom of the kennel.

Day 197, Wednesday, July 16, 2025

 

Well the Cousin's Lobster Food Truck was in the Lowe's parking lot in Peoria, today. So we did some errands and had some lunch!  Yummy!!

Day 196, Tuesday, July 15, 2025

 

There was one lonely bloom on this bush along the path to Parkside this morning.

Day 195, Monday, July 14, 2025

 

Stacie fell down her steps about 6 weeks ago.  She was still having some pain, so she went to the Midwest Ortho walk in clinic.  She has a fracture and will have to wear a boot for 4 more weeks.  She will need to get an MRI, too!

Day 194, Sunday, July 13, 2025

 

Rob was cooking this weekend.  He smoked some bologna.  Who knew you could do that!?

Day 193, Saturday, July 12, 2025

We brought our 3 cars full of boxes twice to Stacie's new house.  Peyton helped us load and unload.  He brought all the boxes up from the basement.  He carried up the boxes to the storage area at the new house, too!

 

Day 192, Friday, July 11, 2025

 

Blitz looks like he is the best little kitty on the face of the earth.  He can be, but he also can flip the switch and be a butt head, too!

Day 191, Thursday, July 10, 2025

 

I honestly have thought about doing this in the last two weeks.  It is so humid in Central Illinois during July!

Day 190, Wednesday, July 9, 2025

 

We did a bunch of errands in Peoria, today.  We stopped for lunch at 5 Guys.  The flower beds along the drive by 5 Guys were blooming with these flowers!  So pretty!

Day 189, Tuesday, July 8, 2025

This is my plan and most of the time, I scrapbook every day.  Not all day, but that would be prime time!

 

Day 188, Monday, July 7, 2025

 

He really likes his new bed.  Lots of snoring coming from this guy!

Day 187, Sunday, July 6, 2025

 

Peyton came to mow this morning.  I spent some time weeding the flower beds.  This flower was so beautiful!

Day 186, Saturday, July 5, 2025

 

We had our fireworks display by Stacie and Evan, tonight!

Day 185, Friday, July 4, 2025

 

We got our donations from Parkside for the Johnny Mac Golf Palooza and Totes for Ta-Ta's.  Thanks for always supporting our events.

Friday, July 18, 2025

Day 184, Thursday, July 3, 2025

 

This is our second trip to Cousins Maine Lobster food truck!  I can smell the ocean when I'm eating this Connecticut Style Lobster roll!

Day 183, Wednesday, July 2, 2025

 

Elizabeth and I have been working on a project in the back room at Take Two.  Ashley is going to have a sale on August 2 on Kid's clothing!  Oh boy!

Day 182, Tuesday, July 1, 2025

 

Since Coco loved taking a nap with me on our bed and he has been sleeping on the couch, we decided to get him a puppy bed with a memory foam mattress.  I think he is pretty comfortable!  Any since this picture was taken, he has NOT jumped up on the couch!

Day 181, Monday, June 30, 2025

 

Hello Luke and Lily!  I am always so grateful to get pictures.  They live in Iowa, so we don't get to see them often!

Day 180, Sunday, June 29, 2025

 

Cindy and I got home about 4:30 this afternoon.  Jim ordered pizza from Monical's and Stacie picked it up for us for dinner.  The sunset was beautiful, tonight.  This picture doesn't do it justice!

Day 179, Saturday, June 28, 2025

 

Cindy and I went to the Scrapbook crop at Mt. Zion.  We are just staying one night this time.  We are hoping to get a lot of crafting done, but no matter, we will have a great time together!

Day 178, Friday, June 27, 2025

 

Stacie signed the papers today to make 1909 Dane-Kelsey hers!

Day 177, Thursday, June 26, 2025

 

These are the beautiful lilies in one of the flower beds on our way into Parkside.  They are so pretty against the green foliage and brick wall behind.

Day 176, Wednesday, June 25, 2025

 

Oh, Blitz!  You are sure a pretty little guy.  You would be better if you didn't hiss, bite and scratch everyone!

Day 175, Tuesday, June 24, 2025

 

I ran to the Dollar Tree to pick up a couple of things and LOOK, they have the TGIF Friday's potato skins!  Scott and Stacie were shocked!

Day 174, Monday, June 23, 2025

 

We have been watering our flowers and plants everyday for the past few weeks.  The temperature has been so high during the day.  The water in the saucers is either evaporating or being absorbed by the roots. 

Day 173, Sunday, June 22, 2025

 

I always say, "I just want to be happy".  So when I saw this quote, I knew it would be my picture of the day.  And then when I realized it was water colored in the ROYGBIV pattern, it just made me smile!

Day 172, Saturday, June 21, 2025

 

Happy Birthday, Evan!  We had Monical's pizza for dinner at Brad and Lynn's.  Cake and presents (mostly cash) were enjoyed by Evan!  Happy 15th and many more!

Day 171, Friday, June 20, 2025

 

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the JAWS movie. (I can hear the sound track in my head!)  We watched the movie, tonight.  Still freaks me out! Jim and I went to see the movie at the Fox theater on Friday night, 50 years ago.  We sat in the 3rd row, because the place was packed.  In fact, they asked everyone to move over a seat if there was an open seat next to them. The next morning at 3:00 a.m., I left for California on vacation with my parents and siblings, I was 16 at the time.  Needless to say, I did not get anything above my ankles in the Pacific Ocean!

Day 170, Thursday, June 19, 2025

 

Stacie went to the Pekin Chamber of Commerce meeting to support Ashley for receiving the Sunshine Award for her business.  Take Two Resale Boutique is selling our purses for Totes for Ta-ta's!  Congratulations to Ashley and thank you so much for all of your support!

Day 169, Wednesday, June 18, 2025

 

This is so very true for me.  I can enjoying just sitting in a beach chair and watching the waves roll in...it's so relaxing to me!

Day 168, Tuesday, June 17, 2025

 

I guess he has claimed the love seat as his personal nap time!

Day 167, Monday, June 16, 2025

 

I finally got through all of our pictures from Alaska.  I printed about 950 4x6 prints.  I like to store our trips in 12x12 albums with page protectors.  As I find paper and embellishments, I put them in a page protector until I have everything I think I need.

Day 166, Sunday, June 15, 2025


 Happy Father's Day!  Stacie came over for our usual Sunday evening dinner.  She gave him $40 and told him he could buy anything he wanted from Costco!

Day 165, Saturday, June 14, 2025

 

Peyton came to mow, so I did some weeding around the flower beds.  The Tiger Lilies are blooming slowing and the Day Lilies are doing beautifully!

Day 164, Friday, June 13, 2025

 

Coco never gets up on the couch since we removed the rug in April of 2022.  This pic is from the Furbo.  We went to get some dinner and checked on him and there he was on the couch!

Day 163 Thursday, June 12, 2025

 

We unpacked our suitcases and put everything away this morning.  Boy were we tired from our trip!  I don't take naps, but today was an exception.  Coco DOES take a lot of naps, but today he got to snuggle up with me.  We didn't move for about 2 hours!

Day 162 Wednesday, June 11, 2025

 

The shuttle took us to the airport.  Our flight left on time.  The ride was quite a big rougher going home.  We landed in Chicago, found our gate, gate was changed, ate dinner, found our gate again, waited to board, flight was delayed, finally boarded about an hour late, waited in line on the runway for about 45 minutes, took off, landed in Peoria about 10:30 and got home to Coco!

Day 161, Tuesday, June 10, 2025

 

We went to Pike's Market Place this morning on the free shuttle to the downtown area.  We walked around the Market for a couple of hours.  There wasn't as many vendors today, but it was still fun and we saw things we missed last week.  I found the "Purple" store on one of the side streets.  We walked down to the pier and ate lunch at The crab Pot.  We rode the shuttle back to our hotel.  Jim took and nap, I did some laundry and we packed for tomorrow!

Day 160, Monday, June 9, 2025

 

Today is disembarking day!  Oh what a wonderful week and trip to Alaska!  We woke up in the Seattle Port.  We ate breakfast at the Windjammer for the last time.  It was very sad to be leaving our home away from home.  We shuttled back to the Holiday Inn Express to stay until Wednesday morning when our flight leaves.  

Day 159, Sunday, June 8, 2025

 

We didn't arrive in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada until about 5 p.m.  We walked around the ship as the sea was not so rough and the sun was shining off and on.  Jim took his nap in the afternoon, of course. We booked a sightseeing bus tour around the city and along the coast. We stopped at Cattle Point Urban Star Park to walk around a bit.  We had dinner late in the dining room, tonight.  Our last evening with Morrice, Pande and Pande 2.  Back to our cabin to pack and get our luggage in the hallway for pick-up by 9 p.m.



Thursday, July 17, 2025

Day 158, Saturday, June 7, 2025

 

Today was a sea day and again it was very rough.  I have been hiding ducks on the ship, it's a thing some people like to do!  Tonight was Lobster and Baked Alaska night!  Jim got Lobster and a steak.  My baked alaska was gluten/sugarfree, just for me!

Day 157, Friday, June 6, 2025

 

This morning we woke up to the glacier viewing!  It was so cold outside.  I had a couple of chairs for us in the warm solarium.  The ship does a turn about so everyone can see the glacier from different locations on the ship.  We continued to Juneau, where we got a close up look at Mendenhall Glacier.  We took a bus from the dock to visit the dock where we left for our whale watching tour.  We saw a couple of whales and one had a baby calf.  The baby breached out of the water, twice!  That is so very amazing to see!  We got back to the ship in time for dinner and tonight we got 2 shrimp cocktails and the assistant waiter Pande II, made me an origami bird!  Such a great day in Juneau!

Day 156, Thursday, June 5, 2025

 

Today we are in Skagway.  This city is well know for the gold rush and Klondike happenings.  We chose to ride the White Pass Railway, which follows the way the gold diggers paved the way to the mountain.  We rode the train to about 8,000 feet above sea level.  The narrator was very knowledgeable about the happenings in during the gold rush.  There were many beautiful site along the way. Waterfalls were everywhere.  It was very cold outside before we boarded the train.  I went to the Windjammer to get some tea before dinner.  There were a whole bunch of fruit sculptures on the buffet this afternoon.

Day 155, Wednesday, June 4, 2025

Our port was Sitka.  We went on an excursion that took us to the Raptor Center where they re-habituate bald eagles and other raptors.  If the birds can no longer fly, they become residents of the center.  We were able to see many eagles.  We also went the the National Historical Park where there are many Totem poles.  We learned the meaning of the carvings used in the history of the pole.  At the end of the road trip, we saw a native Alaskan Tlingit Storytelling and Traditional Dance.  It was interesting to watch!  We ate in the dining room, where our waiters were so very aware of my gluten sensitivity.  I order my dinner for the next night, before I leave the table each night.

 

Day 154, Tuesday, June 3, 2025

 

Today was a "sea day" aboard the ship.  The sea was rocking and rolling.  We were thankful for our sea sickness patches behind our ears!  We had to fill out a declaration card for the Canadian Border.  We spent most of our time in the solarium, Jim had his afternoon nap, we ate dinner in the dining room as it was a "formal" night.

Day 153, Monday, June 2, 2025

 

Jim wasn't feeling the best this morning, so I did most of the packing.  We rode the shuttle to the port terminal to board the Quantum of the Seas, bound for Sitka, Skagway, Juneau, Alaska and Victoria, B.C.  The process was pretty easy.  We had all of our paperwork in order, going through security was a breeze and then we were on board the ship!  Our room wasn't ready until 1:00 p.m., so we went to the Windjammer buffet for lunch.  We walked around the ship, dropped off our carry-on at 1:00 in our cabin.  We went to the sail-away party.  We ate dinner at the buffet tonight and went to the front of the ship to the solarium to watch the sunset.

Day 152, Sunday, June 1, 2025

 

We saw some flyers for the Museum of Pop Culture, but we didn't really know what it was.  It was so fun and different than anything we had ever seen before.  This building was really "built" different on the outside.  It is located in the same block at the Space Needle, too.  The monorail train station is built inside the structure.  We walked back to our hotel. I did laundry and began packing for our departure to the Ship in the morning.  

Day 151, Saturday, May 31, 2025

 

We rode the Hop On Hop Off to the pier area.  We walked around and after Jim realized the Ferris wheel was enclosed, he said we could go on it!  I found several "penny crushers" along the pier.  We went back to the hotel so Jim could take his afternoon nap.  We walked to Belltown to eat dinner at 5 Point Cafe.  We stopped at Walgreens on the way back to the hotel to buy some snacks for later.