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Moving Westward

Moving Westward

by | Aug 12, 2024 | Blog

I was hoping that I would have time this week to update you on all the goings on, but this little post will have to do as we have been pretty busy!

We decided to take a little extra time as we headed west and so we stopped for a night and a concert (Joe Bonamassa at Red Rocks) in Denver. Then we spent a few days in Keystone and Breckenridge hiking and kayaking and enjoying the beautiful mountains and pine air. We took the scenic route out of the mountains through Leadville and Aspen and that was nice.

Utah has been good. Since we were only here for a few days at the end of June, we have planned to see friends and family for meals and outings more this time. I was able to have lunch with my family on Saturday. It’s been a few years since the siblings were together and we had a lot of fun. We had dinner with a former business partner of Nathan’s and his wife. We have been able to have several visits with Nathan’s dad, including today when Nathan played Bach for him. Church and meals and games and visiting with the family is great!

The only sad thing to report this week is that we are still on baby watch. Our poor daughter-in-law Hanna is now overdue and that baby seems to be taking his sweet time. We are anxious to meet him!

Hopefully next week will be a bit quieter and I can tell you about our exploits a little more. Have a marvelous week!

From the Big Easy to Music City

From the Big Easy to Music City

by | Feb 9, 2025 |

Hi! This is just a quick check in from the road. We spent the week on the move. We started in New Orleans, then we drove up through the Mississippi Delta on the Blues Highway. We stopped at lots of smaller places along the way to visit museums and check out the history of the blues and our country. Then we cut across to Alabama to visit Muscle Shoals to tour the recording studio and to see the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. Then from there it was north to Nashville, Tennessee. We are here to visit a friend (Adam Overacker) and to enjoy some more music. See you next week from an old classic, Marietta, Ohio. Hopefully I’ll have time this next week to fill in the details from a very eventful road trip! Enjoy your week!

Hello from…

Hello from…

by | Feb 2, 2025 |

…warm and sunny New Orleans, LA! We are here for a long weekend to enjoy the delicious food and lots of great jazz and blues. We will check in again next weekend from another city stop on our way back to the grandkids. Have a great week!

San Antonio and Padre Island

San Antonio and Padre Island

by | Jan 26, 2025 |

This week has been pretty quiet, so I thought I would give you the details on our mini trip to San Antonio from last weekend as well as answering some questions from you!

A Quick One

A Quick One

by | Aug 5, 2024 | Blog

Just a little note since we are on the road this weekend. We had a great week playing with Teddy and Peter and their parents, but we’re all still eagerly awaiting the arrival of the baby brother. Nathan and I spent three nights in Kansas City and now we are making our way westward with a stop in Denver.  I’ll fill you in on the details next week. Have a good one and stay cool!

From the Big Easy to Music City

From the Big Easy to Music City

by | Feb 9, 2025 |

Hi! This is just a quick check in from the road. We spent the week on the move. We started in New Orleans, then we drove up through the Mississippi Delta on the Blues Highway. We stopped at lots of smaller places along the way to visit museums and check out the history of the blues and our country. Then we cut across to Alabama to visit Muscle Shoals to tour the recording studio and to see the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. Then from there it was north to Nashville, Tennessee. We are here to visit a friend (Adam Overacker) and to enjoy some more music. See you next week from an old classic, Marietta, Ohio. Hopefully I’ll have time this next week to fill in the details from a very eventful road trip! Enjoy your week!

Hello from…

Hello from…

by | Feb 2, 2025 |

…warm and sunny New Orleans, LA! We are here for a long weekend to enjoy the delicious food and lots of great jazz and blues. We will check in again next weekend from another city stop on our way back to the grandkids. Have a great week!

San Antonio and Padre Island

San Antonio and Padre Island

by | Jan 26, 2025 |

This week has been pretty quiet, so I thought I would give you the details on our mini trip to San Antonio from last weekend as well as answering some questions from you!

Some History and Lots of Time with the Kiddos

Some History and Lots of Time with the Kiddos

by | Jul 29, 2024 | Blog

Just a quick post this week from Missouri. It’s rare for us to have a week when we can snuggle all the grandkids in a 7-day span, but this week it happened! We also visited the historic Blennerhasset Island in the middle of the Ohio River.

Harman Blennerhasset was an Irish noble who immigrated to the Ohio with his wife at the end of the 18th century. They built a mansion on an island where they hosted lots of big wigs from the colonial era, which was pretty impressive for living on the frontier. The whole thing got really dramatic when they welcomed Aaron Burr after the whole “vice president killed Hamilton in a duel” thing. Burr convinced Blennerhasset to participate in his plan to create a separate nation in Texas with him as King. Burr was arrested for treason, along with Blennerhasset and others. They were never convicted of the conspiracy, but the debacle ruined Blennerhasset and he and his family never returned to their fabulous mansion, which burned to the ground in 1811. The state of West Virginia rebuilt it and you can ride a sternwheeler out to the island for a tour. It was worth the visit.

We also got to do some outings with Huck and Piper this week. We took them to the mall to ride the little train and to have lunch. We also went to the children’s museum in Parkersburg, which is always a good time. Baby Hugh is getting chunky and starting to smile and coo and just generally turn on the charm.

We are now settled in at Alex’s place and will be here for a few more days, playing hard with Teddy and Peter, and impatiently awaiting the arrival of grandkid #6. Any day now! We are trying to help them to have some extra rest in anticipation of their new addition.

 Next week we will be on the road and moving slowly westward, so catch you then! Have a great week.

From the Big Easy to Music City

From the Big Easy to Music City

by | Feb 9, 2025 |

Hi! This is just a quick check in from the road. We spent the week on the move. We started in New Orleans, then we drove up through the Mississippi Delta on the Blues Highway. We stopped at lots of smaller places along the way to visit museums and check out the history of the blues and our country. Then we cut across to Alabama to visit Muscle Shoals to tour the recording studio and to see the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. Then from there it was north to Nashville, Tennessee. We are here to visit a friend (Adam Overacker) and to enjoy some more music. See you next week from an old classic, Marietta, Ohio. Hopefully I’ll have time this next week to fill in the details from a very eventful road trip! Enjoy your week!

Hello from…

Hello from…

by | Feb 2, 2025 |

…warm and sunny New Orleans, LA! We are here for a long weekend to enjoy the delicious food and lots of great jazz and blues. We will check in again next weekend from another city stop on our way back to the grandkids. Have a great week!

San Antonio and Padre Island

San Antonio and Padre Island

by | Jan 26, 2025 |

This week has been pretty quiet, so I thought I would give you the details on our mini trip to San Antonio from last weekend as well as answering some questions from you!

A Few Answers

A Few Answers

by | Jul 21, 2024 | Blog

Hello, all! It’s been a quiet summer week. We have done some planning for travels in August and spent time with the grandkiddos jumping on the trampoline, playing legos, and riding bikes. We also visited the excellet Campus Martius museum here in Marietta and learned even more about the history of this place. It was fascinating. They literally built the museum around one of the original buildings of the settlement. It’s pretty cool! There was also a day of music around town on Saturday, so we enjoyed that for a little bit.

I didn’t get any questions from you lot this week, so I had to improvise. My sister sent me a fun deck of cards for my birthday with little “get to know you” questions, so I’ll answer some of those.

What have you watched recently that you can’t stop recommending?
Jill:

That’s a tough one, as we haven’t watched many things lately that have bowled me over. However, Taskmaster is always entertaining and we have watched a bit of that in the last couple of months. It’s a British competition show where five comedians compete in ridiculous challenges to earn points. It’s very fun.

Nathan:

We watched some good comedy on YouTube on DryBar Comedy. The comedians are Dustin Nickerson and Zoltan Kaszas.

What smell brings back some good memories for you?
Jill:

Brewing coffee. It reminds me of snuggling down into my covers on cold mornings while my mom was out in the kitchen getting my dad off to work. Cozy.

Nathan:

Chocolate or cheese.

What’s your favorite animal and why do you like them?
Jill:

Giraffes, because they are just so crazily tall and I love their spots.

Nathan:

Piggies, because they taste so good.

What’s the best surprise you’ve ever planned for someone else?
Jill:

I’m not sure if it is memorable for him, but I planned a surprise party for Nathan’s birthday one year. I got him out of the house by getting one of his friends to play chamber music with him. Then I sent him to a neighbor’s house on a phony errand so that they could call and let us know that he was on his way. It worked a little too well, because Nathan was there visiting for much longer than we anticipated, while all of us partiers were waiting to surprise him in our garage…in December…in the cold. But we did surprise him!

Nathan:

I arranged for Lauren and Huck to fly in from Ohio for Jill’s birthday and she had no idea that they were coming. It was great.

That’s it for this week! We’ll catch up with you next week from Missouri!

From the Big Easy to Music City

From the Big Easy to Music City

by | Feb 9, 2025 |

Hi! This is just a quick check in from the road. We spent the week on the move. We started in New Orleans, then we drove up through the Mississippi Delta on the Blues Highway. We stopped at lots of smaller places along the way to visit museums and check out the history of the blues and our country. Then we cut across to Alabama to visit Muscle Shoals to tour the recording studio and to see the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. Then from there it was north to Nashville, Tennessee. We are here to visit a friend (Adam Overacker) and to enjoy some more music. See you next week from an old classic, Marietta, Ohio. Hopefully I’ll have time this next week to fill in the details from a very eventful road trip! Enjoy your week!

Hello from…

Hello from…

by | Feb 2, 2025 |

…warm and sunny New Orleans, LA! We are here for a long weekend to enjoy the delicious food and lots of great jazz and blues. We will check in again next weekend from another city stop on our way back to the grandkids. Have a great week!

San Antonio and Padre Island

San Antonio and Padre Island

by | Jan 26, 2025 |

This week has been pretty quiet, so I thought I would give you the details on our mini trip to San Antonio from last weekend as well as answering some questions from you!

An Update

An Update

by | Jul 14, 2024 | Blog

One year ago, we locked our house and drove away. We’ve been living a semi-nomadic existence ever since. It’s been quite the adventure!

It’s been a few weeks since I wrote a proper post, so I thought I would give you an update on some of our adventures since returning to the U.S. Next week, I’ll be answering questions, so send me your burning queries.

Time in Ohio and West Virginia

We are staying in an AirBnB in historic Harmar Village, across the Muskingum River from Marietta, Ohio. We are totally loving spending time with Lauren, Bo, Huck, Piper, and Hugh at their place in West Virginia. It’s about a 25-minute drive across the Ohio River and through the green hills to get to them. We took Huck on an outing to see “Inside Out 2” a couple of weeks ago. It was his first visit to a movie theater, so that was a lot of fun. He loved munching on popcorn and candy. He also loved the movie. We took Piper on an outing this week to a playground and to Chik-fil-A for lunch. She loved having Grandma and Grandpa to herself. She alerted us to all the American Flags that she saw during our drive and loved her kiddie meal of chicken nuggets and fries. It’s a lot of fun for us to be close by so that we can help out with babysitting, etc. Since we were gone for so long, we really missed that.

A Trip to Utah

We were planning to visit Utah this summer, but when Nathan’s dad broke his arm a few weeks ago, we decided to add an extra trip to see him. He’s had a rough go of it. At 92 and with some memory issues, his healing journey had been difficult at times. He is in a care center and, although it is a comfort that he has round-the-clock care, it isn’t fun for him or the family that it has come to that. However, it was good to see him again. It’s so hard to get a good grip on what’s really going on from so far away.

We also enjoyed very much spending time with our other family members and getting caught up. We loved spending time with Nathan’s siblings (we missed seeing Shelley, but hopefully we will be able to connect soon). I also got to do some happy dancing with my sister when she came to pick us up from the airport. We even had the luck to be able to go to our niece Emery’s concert. She plays saxophone in the Little Big Band (she’s 10) and they played at the Gallivan Center. It was so good!

We also had some pressing business to take care of while we were visiting. We spent one full day seeking out used cars and test driving them. Then we ended up buying a brand new Kia Sportage instead. Whenever we have had a car in the last 6 months, Nathan has had to be my chauffeur, so it felt good to get my driver license renewed so I can finally be a bit more independent and also help him do some of the driving. We also managed to squeeze in a meal at our favorite Mexican restaurant (Del Barrio in Midvale). After a four-day whirlwind, it was time to drive eastward.

A Weekend in Missouri

We wanted to head back to Ohio to resume our visit with the Bausermans, but not without a stop in High Ridge, Missouri to visit Alex, Hanna, Teddy, and Peter. It was a delight to hug more grandkids! We spent a long weekend playing lego, eating yummy food, and reading lots of stories. We got to take everybody to the very fun National Transportation Museum to see crazy old cars, climb up into train engines and tank cars, and ride the miniature train around the property. We also shot off some fireworks, even though Teddy did not love how loud they were. Hanna will deliver our newest grandson in just a few weeks and she is handling it like a champ. We are excited to meet him and to return to visit in a couple of weeks.

Some extras

I got to help out our niece, Sarah, one day by making a batch of icing and starting on the decorations for a fabulous Hogwarts birthday cake for her son, Rye. They finished off the decorating and it turned out so cute!

It’s been a delight to go swimming with Huck and Piper a couple of times and see them grow in their confidence in the water. Huck is getting braver all the time!

Nathan was able to take Max’s violin to the care center and play some music for him. Max seemed happier that day and it was good to see him smile and enjoy the familiar tunes.

We stopped in Kansas City (again) for lunch at our favorite BBQ place, Q39, on July 4th. It was fantastic, as usual, and it felt very patriotic 😀. We are going west again in August and we’ll be back in the Kansas City area for a few days this time.

All the grandkids (except Hugh) are loving their bikes. Piper and Peter are both using Strider bikes. Teddy and Huck are both great at riding their regular little pedal bikes. It’s so fun!

For next week’s post, please comment below (or just send me a dm) with any questions you have for us! Talk to you soon!

From the Big Easy to Music City

From the Big Easy to Music City

by | Feb 9, 2025 |

Hi! This is just a quick check in from the road. We spent the week on the move. We started in New Orleans, then we drove up through the Mississippi Delta on the Blues Highway. We stopped at lots of smaller places along the way to visit museums and check out the history of the blues and our country. Then we cut across to Alabama to visit Muscle Shoals to tour the recording studio and to see the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville. Then from there it was north to Nashville, Tennessee. We are here to visit a friend (Adam Overacker) and to enjoy some more music. See you next week from an old classic, Marietta, Ohio. Hopefully I’ll have time this next week to fill in the details from a very eventful road trip! Enjoy your week!

Hello from…

Hello from…

by | Feb 2, 2025 |

…warm and sunny New Orleans, LA! We are here for a long weekend to enjoy the delicious food and lots of great jazz and blues. We will check in again next weekend from another city stop on our way back to the grandkids. Have a great week!

San Antonio and Padre Island

San Antonio and Padre Island

by | Jan 26, 2025 |

This week has been pretty quiet, so I thought I would give you the details on our mini trip to San Antonio from last weekend as well as answering some questions from you!