Voss Vaca 2020 - Day 3 - Fun, Quiet, Tennessee Day Cont.

Wow.  My app is struggling a lot.  I kept trying to add pictures top that last blog, but finally gave up and just published what I had so I didn't lose it all again.  Here's the rest of what we did on Sunday.  😊❤

Aunt Shanna got the sprinkler out for the kids on Sunday also!  They had a blast!  After spending a lot of the day inside, relaxing, it was good for the to go out and run around and wear off some of that energy.  😊  It was a great way to spend a hot summer day!

Sunday evening, Shanna's son, Michael's cousin, Sam arrived with his girlfriend and their 9 month old baby boy, Rowan.  The rest of the evening we hung out with them and just enjoyed each other's company.  They live in Cedar Rapids, IA, so they took 2 days, stopping in St. Louis to make the drive down to Tennessee.  As Rowan had never been in the car longer than it takes to go to the store or to daycare, it was an exceptionally long and stressful trip for him and, therefore, his parents.  As a result, they weren't anxious to get back in the car for another 2 hour drive on Monday.  So instead of all 9 of us coming to the Dairy Farm on Monday, it just ended up being the 4 of us.  I'll put together another blog about yesterday (Day 4) in a little bit.  😊  But now you know how our first three days went!  It's been a great trip so far, and we're looking forward to much more fun!!

Voss Vaca 2020 - Day 3 - Relaxing at The Gardens

Second attempt...  Trying to blog and drive at the same time and the blogging app is crashing and taking the gps with it, which is no bueno...  So instead of trying to recover the blog I was working I'll just start over again.

Yesterday we hung out at Chuck and Shanna's house all day.  After a long 11 hours of driving the day before, we just needed a day to relax.  And we built just that into our schedule.  I think a day of just being still and doing nothing was really soothing to Michael's and Connor's souls.  We sat around and chatted and drank coffee and rested.  Connor watched TV and played on his tablet.  Avery struggled more with a whole day of rest, but she got some fun in too.  Here's what we did with our day...

Connor, Michael, and I played some cornhole!  Avery played for a little bit too, but by the time I got out with my camera, she was over it.  We all had a good time though!  Michael and I really need to get a K-State set of these!  Chuck and Shanna's boards were nice and smooth and the clear coat made them really slick, which I loved!  I won against Michael and Connor.  😉🎉😁

Everyone who knows Avery knows that she loves science, slime, experiments, making things, creating, getting messy, and trying new things.  She has been talking about making edible slime for months!  Well, she finally talked someone into doing it with her!  Avery and Aunt Shanna made edible slime by melting Starbursts, then adding cornstarch to it while it cooled.  She had a great time playing with it and eating it.  😳🤢  I'm glad she finally got to make it.  I'm glad she's happy.  I'm glad I didn't have to make it!  😂😂  It reminds me of when we went to visit Nate and Kaydee in Minneapolis and she talked Nate into making "Dead Man's Hand" with her (red jello inside a latex glove, then cut the glove off once it sets).  I love that silly girl!  ❤

(Started this blog while we were driving to Kentucky, but the app kept crashing...  Today is now Tuesday, so I really need to get this finished, because I'm getting behind!)

Voss Vaca 2020 - Day 3 - The Gardens on Marian Lane

So I guess Michael and I need to name our home...  When we went to visit Chuck and Shanna in Texas their home was called Ranchero de Serenidad.  Glenn and Linda have named their home, The Twin Cedars Lodge.  Now, Chuck and Shanna's new home in Tennessee is called, The Gardens on Marian Lane.  It's also fancy!  I guess on facebook I call our house La Casa de Voss...  But it doesn't sound quite as fancy as the other three...  Anyway...

Everyone is still asleep, so I'm taking this time to enjoy my coffee out in the back yard.  I'm listening to the birds and enjoying the cool, overcast weather.  I'm admiring all of Shanna's beautiful plants and getting excited because she said I could bring pieces of several of them home!  I think I'm just too excited about being on vacation to sleep, lol!  I woke up at 6am this morning!  🤦🏼‍♀️  Who does that after a day of 11 hours in the car?!  Oye with the poodles already!  🤦🏼‍♀️  Oh well, it's all good.  I'm enjoying the quiet and calm.  I think the forecast is calling for rain for about our entire trip, but for now, it's just overcast and cool, which I love!  Even though my phone says it's 75 out right now, there's a cool breeze blowing through and it feels like a morning with my coffee out on the deck.  Perfect.  ❤☕  I want to take pictures of all of Chuck and Shanna's beautiful yard, but I'm going to keep relaxing with my coffee for now, so check these few previews out and I'll get more later during our trip.  😊❤🌱🌼🌳🌿

Voss Vaca 2020 - Days 1 & 2

Good morning, friends and family!  The kids, Michael, and I are officially on vacation!  It's only just begun, but we're excited to be here and we're looking forward to a great week! 

Friday, after Michael got off work, we drove to Topeka to stay the night with Glenn and Linda.  This took a good 2 hours off of the drive we did yesterday.  It wad nice to see them again, but it was a very quick trip.  All in all, I would say we were there for only 12 hours, 7pm Friday night to 7am Saturday morning.  But we got a good night's sleep and were ready to hit the road yesterday for our big, long driving day of our trip.

Off we go! 

Our suite at the Twin Cedars Lodge!  😉😂❤  I love this dark, cool, quiet basement bedroom!  We sleep so well there!  And it stormed Friday night, which made the sleeping even better! 

Saturday morning my alarm went off at 6am.  I woke up st 4 and watched the lightning from the storm, but Michael told me to go back to sleep and that I couldn't get up yet.  😂  We got up and around and left Glenn and Linda's house by 7am.  

On the road again!  ❤

Google maps said our drive would take 10 hours, 665 miles.  We had 3 stops planned, in Columbia, just passed St. Louis, and in Nashville.  I intended to drive the first half of the day or more, so Michael could slowly wake up, but with the rain still coming down, even though it wasn't very hard, I was having flashbacks to our vacation last summer when we were driving through a giant red cell in the middle of the night, and I didn't want to drive through the rain, so Michael drove through our first two stops.  

We took I-70 from Topeka, passed Columbia, to St. Louis, so were drove right through all of this! 

I took over in St. Louis,  when we pulled off to drive through Mc Donald's to get the kids some lunch, and drove the rest of the way through Nashville.  However, big city driving makes me very nervous, and as soon as we stopped for gas in Nashville I was done and had Michael take over again.  Like I said, Google Maps said our trip would take 10 hours, the longest single day of driving we've done yet.  With a little time added four bathroom breaks at our various stops, we ended up making it to Murfreesboro in 11 hours, by 6pm.  It was a long day, but we made it!  ❤  

It was a REALLY long drive...  🙃🤪😳

We got to Chuck and Shanna's house and moved in with all of our stuff.  The kids watched a movie and had some popcorn and snacks, the adults had a drink and talked send relaxed.  We're planning to do a whole lot of nothing today but relaxing and maybe trying a few great local restaurants.  😁  Michael's cousin, Sam, Shanna's son, and his girlfriend Alyssa, and their son, Rowan, are arriving today, mid-day.  There'll go with us to Kentucky, to the dairy farm, tomorrow and to the caves with us on Tuesday.  So it will be nice to see them and meet Alyssa and Rowan for the first time.  I think it's probably been 5 years since we've seen Sam.  Lots of family time and relaxing planned for today.  😊❤

Well, since I've been up for 40 minutes now, I might as well get up and go get some coffee and start my day.  😊  Have a wonderful day, everyone, and I'll try to be back on later to update you on our daily activities.  ❤  Love you! 

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 103 - Michael went back to work

Well, we're over 100 days now.  I suppose you could make the case that the "quarantine" is over, as businesses and states are opening back up again.  You could especially say that the Quarantine is over, as Michael had to go back to work this morning.  😥😥😥  Friday at 430 his boss sent an email gently prodding the 3 remaining engineers to come back on Monday.  Michael was done working Friday by 4, so he didn't see the email until yesterday morning.  When he emailed his boss about it, Chuck said what started as gentle prodding turned into the CEO deciding that Monday was the day he wanted everyone back.  Michael could have got all his stuff rounded up to be in the office for the afternoon yesterday, but his boss said he could just wait until today.  However, since we're going out of town next week, when we get home from vacation, he'll have to Quarantine for 2 weeks before he can go back to work anyway.  So basically, he's back in the office for 4 days, then he'll be back home until mid-July.  Doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but the CEO does work in airports and on the road and such and feels it's not a huge deal for the engineers to go back and forth from home to the office.  And, if there jobs were to call people and tell them what to do or call and acquire companies or new business, it might not be as big of deal.  But as they have various parts that need modeled, paperwork that needs done, and measurements that need taken, they have a lot of supplies that will have to go back and forth.  So Michael took all of that in today and will have to bring it all back home on Friday before we leave.  🤦🏼‍♀️  And because he'll have to quarantine after our vacation instead of going back to work, I still consider us all under quarantine.  I don't think you can say that as long as people are still wearing masks and practicing social distancing, that we're still in quarantine, because that may be our new normal from now on.  At least, the new normal for some people.  As others have refused to wear masks or distance themselves from others, for the sake of the health of their fellow man, some will not concede to this new normal unless they're required to.  And even if they are, they'll do it kicking and screaming.  So yeah, I still consider us under quarantine, although we've lossened up our rules a lot.  I know the US is still doing a pretty pitiful job to stop the spread of COVID-19, so about the time I decide life is back to normal, it may all get shut down again.  🤷🏼‍♀️  Time will tell...

COVID-19 Quarantine Day 97

Hey guys, I have some pictures from the last couple days that I wanted to share.  😊  Looking forward to a weekend at the farm!  I'm prepping ingredients for the mac and cheese bar now, and to keep from stirring the caramelized onions too often, I thought I'd add a little something to the blog.  😉

First off, garden pictures, of course!  I was pleased to see that my borage was working and bringing pollinators in!  This is the first bee I've EVER seen in my garden in the 5+ years that I've had one!  I'm so excited!  I only saw one, but I hope more will come.  Speaking of which, I defoliated my squash plants today in an effort to get the pollinators to the blossoms better.  It looks a little hacked up at the moment, but the internet assures me this will help!  🤞

All of my tomatoes are looking awesome!!  The Romas and Celebrities are determinate and semi-determinate, so they are putting on A TON of blossoms and tomatoes right now.  I'll have to have Sis or Mama go out and check on the garden while we're gone.  I'm not sure when they'll be ready to pick.  I'm hoping they aren't all ready while we're gone.  At least the other 4 plants should be producing all summer!  🤷🏼‍♀️🤞

Also, check out this awesome gypsy pepper!!  My gypsy pepper plant was my best one last summer.  Having them in front of the of the tomatoes this year has really helped them to do well.  If they grow this well every year, they may end up needing cages!  😳  I really need to get over to Grandma and Grandpa Heorman's house to see Grandpa's garden, and to visit them, because I really miss them.  Maybe the kids and I will go tomorrow.  😊❤  I have 2 more small peppers on this plant.  I'm thinking about cutting this one and maybe the other two up on Friday for our mac and cheese bar.  😊  At least this one.  Hopefully it tastes good!  Online says that the flavor is pretty sweet, so hopefully people would be willing to try it.  🤞

Sis and I went out to my pool on her birthday!  ❤  We had snacks and drinks, we listened to music and enjoyed the sunshine and the cool water!  It was great!  We did better this time about applying sunscreen, but still ended up a little burnt.  🤷🏼‍♀️  We had lots of fun!  Hope she had a great birthday!  Love ya, Sista Friend!

I got magnetic eyelashes...  😳  Not sure how I feel about them, but Sis and Mama said nice things so I'll keep working on them.  😉  At the end of the day I put on the "party" lashes...  Oh boy!  I don't know what event I'd wear them to, but I'll figure something out!  They're wild!  Sis said I look like a Snapchat filter.  😂

For those who aren't on snapchat, here's a pic of me today, with no makeup, through a filter...

So yeah, we'll see how the lashes go...  😉  Could be fun!  🤷🏼‍♀️😊

Yesterday Mama, the kids, and I went to Reverie to see the Waffle Food Truck that was there.  They were different, but super yummy and VERY filling!  Will have to follow them on facebook and try one of their savory waffles sometime!  Yum!

Alright, I have more pictures and things to share, but it's going to have to be it's own post.  Probably won't get it till tomorrow, but you'll see it eventually!   Love you!  More later!  ❤