Visit to Sycamore

As promised earlier this week. Here's a flickr collection of the next stop on our summer vacation. We spent a night in Sycamore IL and visited with my Aunt Mary and Uncle Ollie (my grandfathers brother) as well as my Aunt Carole (my father's brothers wife). We also stopped in the cemetary to visit some other Carpenters.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72157594262304166/show/

Ok, one more shot of Sam jammin to Hangin Around. I think we may actually have a rock star here..... 

Loud Bang in the Night

Most of the old Wilson Bridge was blown up last night at 12:30 am and woke both Nicole and I up. It kind of sounded like someone was dragging furniture across the deck out side our bedroom, just really loudly. We live a good three miles from the bridge and I was kind of surprised how loud the explosion was to tell you the truth. I noticed on Mike Lee's blog, that he stayed up to watch it on TV. He got some still shots of the big event here. http://hiptop.bedope.com/index.php?FILTER=zyrr@gznvy.pbz&gimme_entry=19132

Here's a picture from Kumie's flickr account that shows Dylan (in the black shirt) jammin with Dan. I think they believed they were really playing. Got to have twin equity on this blog. They get offended if one of them makes it and not the other one.

One of Kathy B's friends took this picture at the concert last night. It shows Sam on a monitor like Uncle Adam jammin out. He didn't get a real good shot of Dylan but I may post it anyway.

Perparing to Rock



The boys couldn't wait to get up on stage last night and play their guitars. In fact, they were a little annoying about it. Here they are warming up for the gig before the doors to Nissan Pavilion opened and Immy's mandolin storage case where we decided to such high powered instruments should be stored. The concert was really fun and Sam and Dylan really hammed it up for the crowd. Sam almost stage dived, running toward the crowd a couple times and did things like put one foot up on the monitor at one point and jumped up on top of monitor at another. Dylan looked like he was really concentrating on playing the guitar and they both waved to the crowd when the song was over. Oh yeah, Adam ran into one of them and they both fell at one point but it was alright, they made it look planned.

They were exhausted by the end and pretty much fell asleep after that.

Flickr Sets - Chicago

I started creating sets of pictures from the two week trek accross middle America. I already posted the Mad River RR Museum and this is our next next stop, Chicago's Navy Pier, Hancock Building and Science and Industry Museum. http://www.flickr.com/photos/homerclees/sets/72157594252354126/

I'll continue with sets from Dekalb, Green Bay, Door County and Lake Geneva soon. We are off to the Crows concert now and I'll probably have shots of Kumie rockin out in a little while.

Home, yes home. We did the final 270 miles this morning and got home to a yard that hasn't seen rain in 14 days. I started watering immediately. The final leg of our tour went pretty well and I think the boys were actually getting used to long drives. Today's was only 4 and a half hours but they didn't have any melt downs. I did make them listen to the 70's channel on XM Satelite Radio for an hour or so. What was cool about that, was that it was the same music I used to listen to in the 70's when I was traveling cross country with my parents and siblings. The Crows are in town tomorrow so we will be heading out to the show at Nissan Pavilion in the afternoon. The boys are bringing their little guitars with them to play during Hangin Around. Should be cute if they are able to stay up till 11. Linda got this shot in Lake Geneva. I think Nicole liked the lake the most.  

Sponge bob racing

Sponge bob racing
Originally uploaded by homerclees.

Here's sam driving the sponge bob race car. He could definitely beat kumie and that ghetto car of hers. We made the the 525 mile trip in about 10 hours and are back in cranberry township pa.

Dylan was wondered why I didn't have any pictures of him on the blog in the last couple days or at least why the last two were Sam. Here he is checking out some lake creature. It's been raining all night with lot of lightning and thunder. This is going to be a long drive if this keeps up.  

We all slept in a little late today, maybe because we know we have a long drive tomorrow. We ended up going into town to the beach for a couple hours where Sam pretended to be a monster fish. We tried going to Big Foot State Park but that beach was really bad. It was more like a ribbon of sand next to a road. It's been a nice vacation but it's coming to an end soon. Back to DC tomorow.  

Here's a boy, (I'm not telling which one) jumping from the boat we rented into Lake Geneva. We went out on a speed boat this morning for about 2 hours to tour the lake and do a little swimming. The boys each got to drive the boat and loved the cool, refreshing lake water. I think this was the first time on a speed boat and I think they liked it more than Go-Karts.  

On the way down to Lake Geneva, we stopped at the Brown County Fair in Green Bay. Not a real big fair but it has a bunch of kiddie rides to tire the boys out for the rest of the trip south. We arrived in LG around 5:30 and went out to dinner with Linda and Gil. It just so happened to be the last day of Venetian Fest here in LG and we were treated to fireworks after dinner. We got a good nights sleep and now we are off to find Go Karts or some sort of car racing for the boys. The place here at the Geneva National Golf Club is nice. The golf courses look fantastic and make me wish I would have brought the clubs. The Door County courses looked pretty good too but no time for golf.  

We had a very nice dinner at the Alpine Lodge last night. It was on the water in Egg Harbor and very German. Build in 1922, it really hasn't changed much. They had a nice little four piece band that played songs from the 50 and 60's in a nice dinner music kind of way and boys were on their best behaviour. I think the combination of white table clothes and a dinner band made them realize they couldn't throw things at cousin Finn. Everybody is gone now and we are off to the Brown County fair for a quick stop then heading down to Lake Geneva. Not too much driving today.  

Cousins bahaving badly. It's impossible to get four toddlers to all smile at once but getting them to make funny faces doesn't seem to be a problem. 

A peaceful sunset on Green Bay. Brandt cracked his head open in the pool yesterday and had to have seven stitches but we all had a nice dinner in town and then went down to the marina to play on the jungle gym. When I get a chance, I'll post the pictures from the Farm we went to yesterday as well. Good times... 

Yes, we forced the children to risk life and limb for a picture. Not really, this is the floor of the Science and Industry Museum in Chicago. We got to Egg Harbor yesterd and are all ready for a few days out of the car. Very nice up here, the air is crisp and clean and the nights are quiet. We had dinner in Grandma and Grandpa condo and walked into town for some icecream. The boys chased Finn around around and Mae chased them. They were really tired when they went to bed but woke up asking for Finn again. Don't know what we are doing today but I'm sure I'll have pictures. I did take a bunch at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay yesterday that I'll have to upload sometime in the next couple days. More soon... 

This is Sam telling Curly Lambeau that the Vikings are going to kick some butt this year. We are off to the National Railroad Museum today and then to Egg Harbor. Not much driving.  

Oh yeah, I forgot we went to Burger King today. Who's the king that can do anything? 

Green Bay Packers

We made the trip from Dekalb to Green Bay in about 4 hours and got her around 1pm. The Tundra Lodge is about a half mile from Lambeau Field and has an incredible water park attached to it. All indoors with giants slides, lazy rivers and water guns. We played in that for about two hours and then went over to Lambeau for a a tour and to watch the damn Packers ride kids bikes to the practice field. It was entertaining but the Vikings will still kick their butts this season. I have a suspect internet connection right now so I'm not sure I will get any pictures up but I thought I would try a text post anyway.

Tomorrow, Fish Harbor.