Plan B

Tent camping is the ultimate cheap vacation. It is not easy to fill up a few days of family time at the same cost, particularly when the local parks and bodies of water are closed. We cobbled together a few fun activities, but had to spend money we didn't have to spend. We really didn't want Luciana to feel that she lost out on fun because we had to alter our plans.

Jasper came home Wednesday evening. After we got him settled and made sure he was still able to pee, we were able to leave for a bit. We took Luciana to see Kung Fu Panda at the drive-in in Monroe. We have been wanting to take her to a drive in for years, but whenever we were able to go, we had no interest in the movie playing. We had a great time! We took lots of pillows and the three of us were able to get pretty cozy and enjoy the movie. It was close to an hour to get back home, though, which isn't the greatest drive at 11:00 pm. The second feature was the new Indiana Jones movie, but none of us had any interest in watching it, so we came home after the first movie.
With Jasper still doing well and Dej home to watch him, we left Thursday afternoon for our next activity. We had asked Luciana what she would like to do, besides camping. She wanted to go to the Domes in Milwaukee, so that's where we went. We arrived to find an almost empty parking lot, which was really not a good sign. Upon checking the door, Mark found that they are closed for rennovations until September! Who'd have thought?! So we quickly changed plans to go to Boerner Botanic. L. was intent on searching for frogs and turtles. We enjoyed walking through the gardens, but it was a very HOT, sunny day. We survived the mosquito attacks as we searched through the boggy areas for turtles and frogs. She was giddy to find one of the small pools there filled with hundreds of toad tadpoles. They were very cute! M. spent lots of time photographing plants (he's always working), while L. and I watched the tadpoles play. They were very cute, and it really looked as though they were playing. She caught and immediately released several. They were very fun to watch. There was also a little frog that lived in the pond.

I love their roses there, and found many stunning ones to photograph. I know, the last shot here is a clematis, not a rose, but I love everything about this clematis!



We left there and headed to the hotel/waterpark where we had reservations. This was a surprise to L. It was quite a nice hotel. She had hours to play in the waterpark, and then when it closed, we all piled into one of the beds with the laptop and watched the Nancy Drew movie that we had rented and brought with us.

We were all awakened a little after 8 am, when housekeeping knocked at our door. I had forgotten to put up the "do not disturb" sign. UGH! We most definitely did not want her to come in and 'fluff pillows'. L. was ready to get back to the water, where she played until we had to come back to the room and clean up and get out in time for checkout.

We stopped at Lake Geneva on the way back to town, as M. had received a gift certificate for Northwind Perennial Farm. It's a very nice place, but we couldn't afford to shop there normally. We got lots of good stuff--many gorgeous perennials (which I now have to plant), and some antique iron scrollwork to decorate the back fence--and we only had to spend $8, thanks to the generous certificate! Because it's a working farm, they had cats, kittens, chickens, and goats there, and of course we spent a lot of time with them. She was also able to find several frogs and turtles around there pond, so she was a very happy girl! It just so happened that they were having an antique fair on the grounds that day, and that was very hard for me. I LOVE antiques, and they had so many things there I would have loved to have. Since our gift certificate wouldn't work for the antique vendors and we do not have money to buy things just because I love them, I was a very good girl and browsed only. I did a lot of drooling and dreaming, but no spending!

We were all very happy to be back home with the rest of our family yesterday afternoon! We miss the animals so much while we are gone! We spent the remainder of Friday loving our babies and making up for the time we lost with them. It was nice to have the little bit of time away to enjoy each other, but it always sucks that we can never take our whole family with us on trips/vacations. I also can't wait to go camping next month! I really miss camping. I am so ready to get away for a while and live a simple, basic existence. It has been WAY too long since we've gone camping! I'm desperately hoping everyone stays healthy so we are able to make our scheduled July camping trip.