M - Summertime + Family = Yardwork!

We have now experienced a "Cousins Reunion" Wisconsin style. It was really fun, and a family of 10 children sure can produce a large third generation. The reunion was at Josh's Uncle Paul and his wife Kay's house. They have a very beautiful house, and with all the preparations they were making we offered to come over the day before and help tidy up the outside. Paul was still reassembling the upstairs bathroom he has been re-doing, so Josh was his assistant and forehead wiper, while Mary, Aunty Sue and Josh's cousin Joey got stuck in outside. After we swept the leaves off the patio it was so hot Mary jumped in the pool to cool down, and I even enticed Josh downstairs for a dip.

People traveled from all over Wisconsin and furthur to attend the reunion, and Joe and Sally, Josh's grandparents, came over from their apartment. Sally has parkinson's, so this was quite a big outing for her. Joe is the youngest of his 9 siblings, all of whom have passed away. Great Aunt Marie died at 99, and lived in the family home in Fort Atkinson until her death earlier this year. It was decided therefore that on the 4th of July holiday, the cousins would meet to attempt to clean out the house.

Somehow I found myself getting out of bed at 6am (There's a 6am???!) to go to Fort Atkinson. It was fun for the first 6 or 7 hours, but what a huge job. The next morning we were up at 6am, and off to Sullivan with Uncle Matt to have an annual inspection of his hot air baloon. I was so tired I fell asleep on the goods lift on the back of his truck!

This all paid off when on Thursday evening the weather came right and Josh and I went for a ride in the balloon. Matt had planned it so that we would fly right over Monroe, but when he sent up a test balloon the wind had changed and we were going to go the other direction. So we flew over farmland and saw all kinds of wildlife. Landing is quite exciting as you never know quite where you will end up. The ground crew follows by road, and when Matt spies a good place to land they have to go and find the landowner and get permission. We then spent the evening convincing Mary she really wanted a flight, so then we were up again at 6am to set up the balloon. It was planned that the other passenger would be Joey, but he was unable to make it out of bed! Josh took his place for his sencond turn. I rode along in the Chase Commander with Teresa as Cheif Ground Crew.

The weather was holding, so Josh and I turned out as crew that evening, and Matt took Paul and Kay up. I would have still been good in the morning again, but everyone voted to sleep in! A big thanks to everyone who came out to help crew so that we could fly.

Since then we have taken a tour of the local brewery, which was interesting and included free samples, and as today is Teresa's birthday I made a cake to celebrate. Happy 18th Teresa!

The final Uncle, Peter is arriving tonight, and John has driven down from Hudson again to see him, so tomorrow Mary and all her siblings will be together.