Adventures with Dunja & Fam: Flying
I’m so glad we were able to take Dunja and fam flying! We had previously planned to fly out to the river “together” (half of us on the way there, and half on the way back), but that didn’t work out, and Steven and I were a bit bummed. But then we were like, wait, flying is cool no matter what you’re doing, even if it’s just flying around the airport for 30 mins! And that’s what we did.
Thursday, August 21st
All week the weather looked great for Thursday, so we booked for Thursday morning. Then Wednesday night there was a chance of fog Thursday morning. Ha, typical.
There was no fog, thankfully. We had some low clouds but it was still MVFR (marginal visual flight rules), so we were good to go!
The day before we flew Dunja asked me what the flying process was like and if Steven would feel up to walking them through some of it. I explained the many checklists and how long it takes to get the plane ready, and that it would entirely depend on the headspace Steven was in if he wanted to take questions and talk during it.
Of course, per usual, Dunja was completely understanding about everything!
And as you can tell from the photo above, Steven did walk Nicholas through the plane inspection! I told Nicholas to get in the front seat for the first interior checklist so he could experience that too.
Flying requires knowing a lot of shit. Steven’s so good at it! I’m proud of him.
The boys went up first!
It was fun to watch them drive off the ramp, do run-up, taxi, and takeoff. I’ve never watched Steven take off before!
Dunja, Clarissa, and I sat outside and could hear the radio, so I knew when they were about to take off. Then we pulled up all the tracking apps so we could watch them. I’m pretty impressed with myself for being able to figure out what maneuvers they were doing based on the pattern and elevation I was seeing (they were doing a circle at the same elevation so I guessed they were doing steep turns, then they started to descend so I figured they were coming out of a cloud, and I was right! I explained to Dunja that it’s important to be able to do steep turns in a circle and not lose much altitude, and how it’s part of your checkride.).
(Super niche) When they landed they did a long base rather than enter midfield downwind so I prompted Dunja to ask Steven why. I was like “he’ll be so impressed you know what base and downwind are!” She’s such a good sport and asked him. Steven explained since ATC (Air Traffic Control) didn’t tell him how to enter the pattern he just did it most expeditiously.
The boys had so much fun!
Then it was our turn! We had to split up for payload reasons. Oops I forgot to lose 50 lbs this year. Maybe next year.
We flew out toward the practice area then found a big cloud opening to fly through.
We don’t do this very often (flying through cloud openings) so it feels special and fun. The plane is at a steeper angle and lower speed. You feel like Maverick. Ha ha.
We made it up and it was gorgeous to see the clouds from that perspective. It’s different from blasting through them on a commercial plane because you can level out and hang out by them (staying 2000′ away horizontally and 1000’ above).
We eventually spiraled down in another opening, which is really fun!
Then headed back!
Dunja and Clarissa clapped when we landed. It was adorable. I did my typical thing and rated the landing—9/10.
And that was that! It was so much fun to take them up and share that experience and view with them. There’s nothing like it!!! I hope we get another opportunity to take them flying in the future!
Adventures with Dunja & Fam: In Chicago
Time to recap our touristy day in the city. I can’t remember the last time I played tourist in Chicago! It’s been YEARS.
I was undecided about going with Dunja and fam to the city until late the night before. Going to the city daily for work feels like a punishment and part of my brain is like “why would I do that on purpose?” But thankfully, the other part of my brain was like “duh, you’re having such a wonderful time with them, and you will in the city, too!” And I did!
I especially appreciate the grace Dunja and Christian gave me in taking time to decide. And it made me feel really good when they said they were glad I came. Aww. I was too We had a lot of fun!
Okay, moving on!
Wednesday, August 20th
As I mentioned in my previous post, we decided to match. I love matching! We got a few comments on our outfits during the day.
I even wore my hair curly like Clarissa (and had matching glasses for us and wore similar shoes and jewelry)! She was pretty excited when she noticed in the morning (and pulled it half back later on in the day to match even more—love it!).
No morning is complete without Ned cuddles!
We took the 8:30 train to the city, with a stop at Starbucks on the way.
It was their first time riding on a commuter train like this.
Then got to experience someone clipping their nails on the train (ew) and… a bird? For real, it sounded like someone brought their bird on the train. So… interesting.
I realized on the way to the train station that I forgot to eat breakfast so our first stop in the city was Do-Rite Donuts in the Sears Tower for a vegan donut. At first I didn’t see the flavor I usually get (chocolate) and was going to pick a different one, then they bought out a fresh batch! We got a few. So good!
Our plan was to meander downtown a bit and see some major sites, before our boat tour at 2:00.
They were very excited to see the L train go by in the loop. It was cute! I’m generally annoyed by how loud and alarming the L is and try to avoid walking by it, but seeing them awed by it made it feel charming. In that moment. (I’m not a city girlie.)
I know enough about Chicago architecture to point out what is significant but then I have to check stats. Like, the Rookery. It’s considered the oldest standing high-rise in Chicago. I had to look that up but when I did I saw you could go into the lobby, which was renovated by Frank Lloyd Wright.
And it’s on LaSalle St, near the Board of Trade Building. I was telling them how that streetscape is well known in Chicago and featured in lots of movies. Then we saw someone was taking their wedding photos there, so that kind of cemented my point LOL. Not that anyone didn’t believe me. But you know. I know some stuff.
We toured my office,
which has amazing city views.
We talked to a lot of my coworkers. They all kept saying how it was a great day to be in the city because the weather was so pleasant. It was. It wasn’t miserable at all. We were able to walk around all day and not be drenched in sweat or extremely uncomfortable. Amazing, truly, for late August!
So when we were in Iowa, and I was teaching Dunja and fam about “never trust a fart,” I asked my snis and family what other phrases we should see if they know. And my snis asked if they’ve heard how people sarcastically say “living the dream” when someone asks how you’re doing, like at work.
I kid you not, that was the first thing we heard someone say at my office! We walked by someone’s desk as they were just getting on a call and they told the other person they were “living the [insert company name] dream.” Ha. Dunja and fam heard it several times, along with “this is where the magic happens.” I found this particularly funny. And when I went back to work this week Dunja said something to me about making the magic happen ha ha ha ha ha. This week wasn’t particularly magical. Except for the nice weather continuing. Maybe next week will be.
We walked by more touristy things after! The Art Institute,
Crown Fountain,
the “Bean.”
We walked over the BP Pedestrian Bridge (that’s where we are in the matching pic at the top), and a bit into Millennium Park, then we started to get hangry (ha, Steven taught them that word Saturday) and got lunch at Jimmy John’s in the Aon Center.
My goodness. I almost forgot to mention A FEW THINGS. (Mostly insider joke stuff I want to document and you can skip to the photo below if you don’t want to read how silly we are.)
The previous day, I had shown them the quaso reel by princesshoneybelle, and we could not stop saying “quaso” in that funny voice, over and over. It really escalated on our walk out of the park to lunch.
The night before we’d also talked about how some pilots meow on the 121.5 frequency, which they had read about on my blog. At dinner that night we started meowing “What Was I Made For?’ and one of the kids asked why people meow on 121.5 and the other kid said “because meow” then Clarissa was laughing so hard she was crying (I love that they have this sibling connection. This is how I get with my snis and it’s so much fun.)… getting really in the weeds here, just to tell you we were still meowing that the next day. (Nicholas really wanted to tune into 121.5 when we flew to listen for meowing but it didn’t make sense to change frequencies. Next time. Meow!)
And while in Iowa, we’d starting saying “Nein heißt Nein” (no means no), so we kept saying THAT on repeat. And the occasional Ja heißt Ja.
AND, also, while in Iowa, I had told them about this time Steven said my mani was “interesting” then laughed, so now anytime someone said “interesting,” someone else would almost always go “ha ha.”
Okay now that I think about it, it was mostly Nicholas, Clarissa, and me saying these things over and over, and the parents not so much. I bet they felt like they were in the city with three children. Well, they basically were. I like to have fun.
After Jimmy John’s we stopped at Crumbl Cookies, then lined up for our boat tour.
The Chicago Architecture Center boat tour is top notch. I always recommend it to people going to the city, and have done it three times and found it super interesting (ha ha) each time.
It’s an hour and a half long and the docents do such a great job of keeping it engaging. I hadn’t done it since the late aughts and some of the buildings are new since then so I heard some new facts.
We all really enjoyed it and had fun talking about our favorite buildings and the favorite facts we learned.
After the tour we decided to nix going to Navy Pier, and I randomly remembered the Starbucks Chicago Roastery exists. I haven’t been there before, and we decided to go!
We had fun checking out all the floors. We all got drinks and snacks and had them on the rooftop patio. I tried this ube coconut drink that was really good!
At the end of our time at Starbucks, Clarissa was starting to think about going home in a few days and feeling sad. I totally get that! I find myself doing that during trips too, thinking “we only have x amount of time left then when will I see them?” It’s hard not to do.
The only cure is to plan something else to look forward to, which we are hoping to do and see them next summer!
And to get it out of your mind so it doesn’t consume you and affect the time you have left too much. To try to be in the moment. Easier said than done.
All that said, the women were having some feelings (LOL) so we did a group hug, and I reminded Clarissa it’s okay to have big feelings and express them!
We stopped in this funny shop on the way back toward the train, where there were Labubus and Labubu-adjacent toys. Dunja kept saying “I don’t get it!” And I kept saying “it’s not for us to get.” Ha ha. Every generation has their thing!
We had a few other things we wanted to do before we rode the train back home! Christian wanted to see the Chicago theater,
and they wanted to ride the L!
Have you ever seen anyone so excited to ride the L? Adorable.
I told my coworkers we took them on the L and they asked me which line. When I said purple they were like “that’s not the L.” Ha. No, it’s not. But I am not taking my guests on a shady L line! And they wanted to ride it where it’s elevated.
The L dropped us at a Arby’s! Coincidence?! I think not! And! We got fresh fries!
They liked them!
After that we hung out at the train station then got on the 7:32 train home.
We decided to play games and were so freaking rowdy. It was a riot. We were shouting and laughing and crying. I bet the other guests in the car LOVED us. Especially the shouting in German. Ha ha ha.
We were so slap happy by the time we got to the car! So much that I told Christian the wrong road to take home and we all could not stop laughing. It was so fun.
When we got home everyone had to pee so bad but… we had to stop for Ned cuddles first!!!!
Then we caught Steven up a bit on our day and he told us about his. He had worked all day then gone to an appointment then come home and realized some bats took up residence on our attic vent. So he spent a lot of the evening trying to get them to leave with no success (they were gone by Saturday and we put mesh over the vent).
My goodness. We had a lot of house issues while they were there. On Tuesday the garage door stopped closing. On Wednesday the bats showed up. On Thursday a bunch of ants showed up, and a light went out. Sigh. I appreciate Steven taking care of all these things.
All that said, we hung out for a bit cause we had all missed Steven (especially Nicholas!), and we were happy we all got to spend the next day together!
Random Thoughts Thursday 510
- August 14th was my two year anniversary of going to WWM! I celebrated by posing with the “WWM Two Year Anniversary” sign a few days late, when Dunja and Clarissa were there with me. They got to pose with the “First WWM Class” sign!
- I really behaved myself with minimal swearing and no lewd jokes around Dunja’s kids last week. And believe me, there were MANY setups for inappropriate jokes. Like, did you know Germans call their cell phones their “handy”?! I won’t even mention the setup one of the flight instructors handed me at the airport last Thursday. But it was a good one!
- Clarissa noticed I have Snapchat on my phone and we connected and now have an 9 day streak going! I’d heard of Snapchat streaks but have never been part of one. I only have the app on my phone because it’s what my friend Emily in Australia uses for texting. So I now have two connections!
- I started German on DuoLingo after our guests left. Was I considering doing it before? Yeah, but I couldn’t wrap my brain around it then.
- Remember when I said Christina and I were rolling the dice by flying Frontier to San Diego? They canceled our flights yesterday. LOLOLOL.
- Last weekend I was looking at this huge bottle of fertilizer and thought “that would really hurt if it fell on your foot.” Then guess what happened the next day. Ouch. It immediately bruised.
- I really struggle being around a lot of people on the train and on the walk to and from work. It’s not so much being scared by a crowd or that I am being pushed around, I just don’t feel like I have space. It real affects the way my body feels, and of course, my mind as well.
- One of the customers I recently picked up at work is the National Weather Service and it’s been really interesting to learn about them!
Adventures with Dunja & Fam: At Home I
After we returned from the river we still had 3.5 days together! It felt good to still have so much time.
On the drive home Monday night, the boys and girls car each made a list of ideas of things to do with our remaining time. It included items as simple as “try Arby’s curly fries” and as in involved as “go on an airplane ride.” There were several “American” inspired things we couldn’t make happen due to timing—like go to a drive-in theater or demolition derby (both would have been fun!).
I had a long intro written explaining how reluctant I am to plan out set itineraries now and how I’m more of a “have some ideas and go by vibes” or follow someone else’s itinerary girlie, but you’ve all read that. All I will say is I am grateful Dunja and fam didn’t mind that I didn’t have their trip planned out to a T. We were all joking about it, and everyone was careful not to use the “p” word (plan) around me. Ha ha ha.
Tuesday, August 19th
All that said, we did have one thing “planned” for Tuesday—we were signed up for the 7:00 am HIIT class at WWM! Dunja and Clarissa really wanted to check out my gym and I was ecstatic to share it with them!
Even on HIIT day, which is killer.
I love taking friends to WWM. It’s a wonderful gym and the people who teach and go there are welcoming, kind, and also, a riot. I always leave with a smile on my face (and usually drenched in sweat).
They both did amazing! Clarissa specifically mentioned the night before she’d like to try flipping a tire, and one was outside for another activity, so she and Dunja got to flip it after class. So fun!
When we got back home Steven had already left for work, and Christian and Nicholas were getting ready to go to the Volo Auto Museum.
We had a chill morning, and took our time getting ready,
then went to Lake Michigan!
Dunja said the beach wasn’t what she was expecting, and I said it wasn’t what I was either—due to erosion, it’s different every time I go there! Most of the beach was washed away and the waves were quite high!
On the way back to the house I told Dunja and Clarissa about some of the projects we worked on before they came, like painting the gas lines, and how Steven jokingly said “if we don’t paint them, it will be the first thing they notice!” So I told Dunja she should mention them. She asked for a tour when we got home and said how nice they looked and Steven was totally on to us. Ha ha ha.
Steven had texted us that morning that he needed help with a special “work project” of trying a bunch of vegan spreads and chocolate samples he received. Dunja and Clarissa were happy to assist (and Christian when he got home)!
That afternoon, the boys came back on a high from how much they loved the Volo Museum. It made me happy seeing them so happy! Christian linked his phone to our TV and showed us some photos.
Then we hung out and painted,
and Steven and Nicholas put together their matching bush plane Lego sets. Funny story—Dunja and fam brought this bush plane Lego set for Steven as a gift and gave it to him Friday night. I had bought it for Nicholas as a gift and set it on his pillow in the guest bedroom. We all laughed a lot when they went to their room and we saw we got each other the exact same set! They were excited to build it together.
In the early evening the girls went to the outlet mall. At the river Dunja mentioned she’d never seen soap with scents like “prosecco” and shared they don’t have many soap options in Germany. I was all “Oh, I MUST take you to Bath & Body Works!”
They had a lot of fun smelling all the scents and deciding what to get! And I had two free items in my app and 20% off so win win!
While we were doing that, Nicholas was learning how to drive the skid steer loader!
They also got to experience Five Below for the first time,
and we made a few other stops.
Then we picked up Chicago style tavern pizza and some pasta for dinner. It’s funny, when I talked to locals and told them we had tavern style instead of deep dish, they were all like, “yeah, that’s the way to do it!” Deep dish=😒
Clarissa wanted to do face masks, and we’d picked out some special ones for everyone!
We were dying from all the silly faces we were making, and just seeing everyone wearing them.
While we wore our masks we loosely, yes, planned our next day in Chicago. At least which train to take, and Christian got us all tickets for the Architectural Boat Tour (thank you!). And we decided to match the next day! More to come!
Reading Update (2025 #70–72)
[70] Out of the Woods (Out #2) by Hannah Bonam-Young
Fiction / Romance / New Adult, second in series, Audio
Synopsis: High school sweethearts Sarah and Caleb Linwood have weathered seventeen years together, but Sarah is beginning to question who she is outside their marriage. Determined to prove her independence, she throws herself into organizing a gala in honor of her late mother—only to watch it flop and have Caleb swoop in to fix it. The fallout dredges up years of unspoken frustrations, prompting them to join a rugged couples’ hiking retreat despite their mutual dislike of the outdoors.
Review: This is really a deep-dive into how Sarah is still grieving the loss of her mother, and how much it’s affected her marriage and life choices. Her mother passed when she was eighteen, and some (not all!) of Sarah’s maturity level seems stuck at that level, understandably. In that regard, it’s an interesting look on the effects of grief and how you always carry it. All that said, I really liked Sarah as a side character in the first book, but didn’t care for her as much as the main character. So she kind of annoyed me for a lot of the book. Oops! And I forgot to mention this when I reviewed the first book, but the author writes “I couldn’t help but wonder” a lot and hearing that over and over took me out of both books (and made me think of Sex and the City).
Recommend? Take it or leave it!
[71] Cat’s People by Tanya Guerrero
Fiction / Women, heard about from snis, Kindle
Synopsis: This story follows Cat, a lovable 11-year-old black stray in Brooklyn, and the eclectic group of people he encounters: Nuria, who feeds him daily; Collin, the neighbor whose alley he lives in; Omar, the cheerful mailman; Bong, the grieving bodega owner; and Lily, a new transplant from Georgia looking for her sister. Through Cat, their lives unexpectedly intertwine.
Review: Okay, this sounds hella cheesy, but it was so cute and touching—something mostly light-hearted to make you feel good about community, found family, and kindness. I adored it. The ending brought me to tears (on the train on the way into work, sigh) and made me bump it up from a 4 to 5-star read.
Recommend? Yes
[72] Master of Me: The Secret to Controlling Your Narrative by Keke Palmer
Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts, for WWM bookclub, Audio
Synopsis: Keke Palmer shares thoughts from her journey through career shifts, motherhood, and personal growth. With reflections and guided questions, she invites readers to set boundaries, trust their voice, and turn challenges into growth.
Review: What a strange book. It felt like it was too long, in that it meandered and talked about nothing, but also, that it was too short, in that it didn’t get too deep on anything. The gist is be true to yourself, figure out your passion and work for it, and your work is not your life. Which is a message I agree with. But the way the examples were given, nothing stuck with me and listening to it felt like an uninteresting waste of my time. I guess I did want more?
Recommend? No
Adventures with Dunja & Fam: At the River
If you’ve followed this blog for any amount of time you know we adore sharing Guttenberg, Iowa with our loved ones! It’s such a special place to us. Time feels like it slows down when you’re there, creating more opportunity for connection and fun. And it helps that our family has property right on the Mississippi River and fun toys (boats and jet skis!).
At the end of our visit on Monday (getting ahead of myself!), Mom told Dunja she’d love to see them again. Dunja replied something like, “we’ll be back in the US,” and I jumped in to clarify, “she means here specifically—she wants you to come back here!” We all do; we had such a great time together! (But of course, I’d happily settle for seeing them anywhere, ha ha.)
Saturday, August 16th
Okay, picking up where we left off, after visiting the tailend of the fly-in, we got back to the house and got ready to head out to the beach.
The kids, especially Nicholas, were very excited about trying out the jet skis.
We spent a lot of time riding around!
Then we came back to the beach to hangout and play in the water!
Edited to add; we saw multiple bald eagles while at the beach! This happens often here, but it was especially cool cause ‘Merica.
We honestly only went back to the house because we saw some storm clouds and thought, okay, we better clean up, head back, and make dinner.
Those clouds rewarded us with a rainbow!
There was an intense storm that night that we went out to watch from a distance. Then after we went to bed it blew over the patio table and shattered it. Oops. Back to earlier in the evening though.
I came up with a super midwesterner menu for the weekend, that of course, included corn on the cob! So everyone helped husk it and experienced getting the little silks stuck all over their fingers. Fun times.
We had burgers and corn for dinner and played Wits & Wagers and joked around trying to pronounce German words (something about a Ultraschallreinigungsmaschine). It was a fun night!
Sunday, August 17th
Sunday started with rock painting.
Nicholas painted Steven!
Then we went downtown to show them town.
Obviously starting with caffeine drinks!
Guttenberg has a bunch of German street names and some street art so I enjoyed having them pronounce it for me, and take tons of photos!
We got to see Lock & Dam #10 in action!
And it was a zillion degrees and muggy again (we had told them about dew point so we kept guessing and checking the dew point throughout the trip) so we headed back to the house to eat, then go out on the water.
On the beach we had very important discussions, such as on the 7 hills I’d die on (it’s since been upgraded to 8), and what “never trust a fart” means. Ha. We also saw a baby turtle!
We had delish bulgogi tacos for dinner that were a huge hit, then played First to Worst. Dunja’s family liked it so much we ordered a copy for them to take back to Germany.
This game is so fun. As the judge, you get 5 random items you secretly rate 1 (best) to 5 (worst) then the group tries to guess how you rated them, together. It (surprising?) gets kind of heated. Dad jumped in for a round and everyone was arguing about his order. Then Clarissa did a round and Steven said her parents had it all wrong, and changed it. My snis took a photo of how they’d ordered it (seen above) and they had it 100% right! Everytime we get all 5 right we did a group high-five, but Steven was left out of that one, jokingly. Ha ha ha.
Monday, August 18th
The weather was overcast and meh when we got up Monday. Wah!
So we got to painting again. This time, Steven painted Nicholas:
Nicholas and I helped Dad put his jet boat away.
When we got back, Snis, Christian, and I went out for donuts and a bit of shopping.
Then after breakfast we went out on the golf carts to tour the island a bit! Add a golf cart as thing #3 Nicholas got to drive for the first time on this trip.
After our ride we decided it would be a great idea to blow up this float and float down the river.
We played a few games of telephone while floating,
and also jumped out a bit to swim.
The littlest kids got pretty bored, so Dad picked them up on the jet ski. Then we got way too far out so Clarissa and Christian and I swam us in. We were still too far away so Dad tried to help with the jet ski. LOL. It was a mess, and so fun. We finally got to shore a few houses down.
We had a super late lunch, then packed up the car. Christian rode with Dad in the coupe (Dad brought it up special for Nicholas—he rode in it the day before!),
then we took that family photo at the top of the post, and headed out!
We stopped in Balltown at the scenic overlook:
Then in Monroe for dinner. It delighted me so much they had a holiday tree with USA stuff on it. Ha ha ha.
When did two meals at Burger King become $27 though? Yikes.
We got home late! Near 10:00? Not too late to cuddle on Ned though. Aww. Or too late to go to a WWM class in the morning. More on that in the next post!
Adventures with Dunja & Fam: Arrival
We just spent a WHOLE WEEK with Dunja and her family and had an amazing time. We went to the river, hung out at the house, went to the city, went flying… and yes—you will get posts on all of these! Hurray! (I will try to make them mostly pictures and fewer words, but no promises.)
Backstory: Dunja and I met through our art accounts on Instagram. She is gaimersheimstein and lives in Germany (and I am kimhidestherocks… and live in the USA, ha ha). We connected early on in 2021 in DMs, then when Steven and I were in Europe in 2024, we spent the weekend together with Dunja in Belgium and really hit it off. So much that when Dunja and fam booked their 2025 summer holiday to the states they included a week with us! They arrived in Canada on August 2nd, then spent two weeks touring parts of Canada and the states and arrived at our house on Friday the 15th.
Their visit was a big deal to us and we used it as an excuse to fix up/touch up a LOT of things around the house we’d been putting off—patching, painting, bleaching and restaining the decks, painting the gas lines, getting the carpets deep cleaned, etc. We’ve been steadily working on all that since the spring and the house was in tiptop shape (ha, then we had a few incidents like the garage door stopped closing, some bats made residence in the attic, etc.—never a dull moment here).
What I didn’t do was plan much out for activities or meals. But I knew we’d figure that out. And we did!
Okay, let’s go!
Friday, August 15th
We met at El Famous (naturally) for dinner and I got the biggest hug from Dunja! And really, everyone!
Dunja had mentioned the kids might be shy at first then feel more comfortable after a few days (which totally makes sense—this was our first time meeting them and Dunja’s husband in person!) but it didn’t seem like they were at all! We all jumped right in, sharing stories, teasing, laughing about differences between the US and Germany, etc.
After dinner we did a tour of Steven’s warehouse since it’s so close by, and thus began a recurring adventure of “what new thing can Nicholas (Dunja’s son) drive?” Steven taught him how to drive the forklift and even had him bring down a pallet!
After that we got back to the house and they started giving the cats SO MUCH LOVE! Ned was being especially friendly—more confident and outgoing like he was when he first moved in. Dunja and her daughter Clarissa fell in love with Ned immediately! Nicholas was cautious around the cats at first but that definitely changed by the end of their visit.
Clarissa has been a big Khali fan from afar/my social media posts of her, but Khali is a bit shy when guests first show up, so we bribed Khali with a treat. Ha. I knew Khali would warm up more as the week went on.
Saturday, August 16th
On Saturday we ate breakfast, loved on the cats,
then drove to Guttenberg, Iowa! I know, they arrived and weren’t even at our house 24 hours before we left, but I really wanted them to experience Guttenberg, ideally, on the weekend.
Originally, we had the plane booked to fly half of us out there while the other half drove, but we ran into a few issues—weight, weather, and the reservation changing. So we caravanned in two cars (a girls car and a boys car, naturally) and had a lot of fun!
We made a few stops, the most important one being at a weird gas station in Wisconsin that has a huge cheese selection. Have you really been to Wisconsin if you haven’t bought cheese curds from a gas station?!
Or posed by… this guy?
I think not. Ha.
We were actually trying to get to Guttenberg between 1:00-2:00 to catch the Abel Island Fly-In (which was from 12-3 but past experience has taught us that people arrive by 12:00 and are mostly gone by 3:00). We thought it would be neat for them to see so many planes and watch them leave.
So we got to the river house, ate a quick lunch (hot dogs—I did actually plan out the river food with a bunch of basic Midwesterner dishes), then rode over to the fly-in and nearly all the planes were gone by 2:15. LOL. Okay. We did get to see a few up close, and a few take off.
It was a zillion degrees and perfect weather for being on the water, which is what we did next! And what I will get to in my next post because I need to stop writing this and go to the post office before it closes!
Two things
We have to be completely flexible with our schedules when we fly, primarily because of weather, but also due to other factors.
Steven and I have gotten used to this unknown. We don’t know if we’re going to fly until we’re in the air. And that’s okay when it’s just us.
But when we’re coordinating an arrival with other people, or bringing passengers with us, I feel bad pulling them into this unknown they aren’t used to.
For example, here’s a text I sent my mom and snis last night:
Plan is either fly there tomorrow night or Saturday then come home Sunday night or drive there sometime and leave whenever. More to come 😂 I’ll know more tomorrow afternoon
How annoying am I? Ha. I appreciate their patience and understanding.
How bad did I have to look on my run this morning for MULTIPLE people INCLUDING A VETERAN WALKING WITH A WALKER to applaud me and tell me to “keep it up” or “keep going”?
Ha ha ha. I am slow AF.
Maybe people are just nice out here.
Random Thoughts Thursday 509
- We have a very FAFO approach to our garden. We plant it, kind of take care of it, and see what happens. We had some delicious green beans and tomatoes this year then these little f*ckers showed up. Oh well!
- Displaying my rocks at work has had the unwanted side effect of people asking me for commissions. I don’t do commissions anymore (my last one was in 2022). They stress me TF out! However. Someone asked me if I could paint simple phrases on three rocks. I explained I typically don’t do commissions, and have limited free time, however, lettering doesn’t take much time and if I could use some rocks I already had ready to go, I would consider it. They were enthusiastically on board, extremely flexible, and let me do whatever I wanted for lettering. It worked out well and they were very happy with how they turned out. I am NOT doing commissions though. Ha.
- Ha, also related to rock painting, a different coworker was commenting on how they see my Instagram posts so early every day (right before 5:00 am) and can’t believe I am up posting that early! Ha! I told them I schedule my rock posts out for weeks at a time and have no idea what will post each day. I am up that early but I don’t post manually anymore.
- I have some fun travel coming up! San Diego in October with Snis, Tiff, and Val, Denver in November with Snis and her oldest to see Val, and maybe a flying trip to Tennessee at some point.
- Snis and I are rolling the dice with Frontier for our trips. We booked them last week and have already had the times on ALL of them change. On all 6 flights. Ha.
- Did you know you can figure out the approximate base height of a cumulus cloud (in certain conditions) by calculating the spread between surface temperature and dew point and doing some simple math? I didn’t know until I saw this reel last week. Weather is so interesting.
- I also blew my own mind this week by finally grasping the concept of why altimeters read higher than true altitude in cold weather and lower than true altitude in hot weather. Go me.
Not a teacher
On the ride home yesterday the train conductor asked “are you a school teacher?”
I was wondering why she asked and said “No, I work downtown for the federal government. Am I giving school teacher vibes?”
Then she told me because of my bright and colorful earrings, nail polish, and dress, she thought maybe I worked with small children.
Me. Working with children 😆 Ha!
She meant it as a compliment, and I told her how much I love vibrant color and how it makes me feel, and she told me she does too then showed me her glow in the dark nail polish. It was a fun convo.
I still lean heavily into the “I’m a designer and can wear funky stuff at work” mentality even though I haven’t been in a design role since 2021. If I’m going into the office every day you better believe I’m going to make good use of my earring collection.
And perfect timing—when I got home my Blossom & Cat delivery was there!!!
More fun earrings! I’m wearing some moths today.
And finally, to complete the randomness of this post, my snis cracks me the hell up:
Hi! I’m Kim, a 40-something-year-old living in northeastern Illinois with my husband Steven, and our cats, Khaleesi, Apollo, Starbuck, and Eddard aka Ned. My current main hobbies are running, painting rocks, flying, reading, and eating. I follow a vegan lifestyle and work in an account management role. I write about a variety of topics and consider this a “life” blog – a place I can share anything that’s on my mind. Please visit the “About” page to get a better idea of who I am! 🙂
