Monday, June 6, 2022

Mondays sure feel different now and this is officially my first Monday of summer! How is it already June 6th, by the way?

I am linking up with Holly and Sarah!

Friday morning I headed to my hometown which is an hour away. I stopped at a cute boutique on the way called the Pink Julep. I will definitely go back. They have some really cute gift ideas. I wore my black Walmart cut offs, my raffia wedges, my white linen Old Navy blouse, and my brown cross body. I brought flat shoes to change into, as I usually do! Gotta take advantage of a full length mirror when you can!

First stop was a restaurant on the river. These are my sister Molly’s kids.

Gosh, these girls are getting tall! I should have worn my flat shoes for this photo to really see!

Fun fact: I spent one or two college summers waitressing in this exact location but it was a different boat/restaurant called The Bonnie Belle. It was a really big restaurant that boats could pull up to (they still can with this one) and it had another barge attached that was a cocktail lounge where they did karaoke on the weekends. I made a lot of money in tips and heard a lot of bad singing.

I tried a mango White Claw. I approve.

We shared some really good pretzel bites.

I had a really good salad with warm bacon dressing.

Sister picture:

We went up to the little downtown area where there are a lot of cute little shops.

Yup – I found some Topo Chico earrings that came home with me, and…

a little pouch to hold my credit card and license when I use my clear purse.

Now I am very bothered by how close the two L’s are. Why?

Photo of me using it on Saturday night:

My mom, brother in law, and the kids went to get ice cream and the sisters went to a winery!

After the winery, our Dad’s military service flag is really close by so we thought we would go take a photo and say “hi”.

So, then we kept driving down by the river and I asked them if they had seen the new hotel on the river. They hadn’t so I suggested we park and go check it out.

As we were walking up the path to the hotel, we spotted my Dad’s favorite mints just lying there. He kept these in a bowl next to his t.v. watching area. My kids dubbed them “Grandpa mints” and would come home with their pockets stuffed full of them on many occasions. There were only two mints so I hunted and hunted for a third, but my sister Kate said that our Dad would know she doesn’t believe in signs like this. I was sure to check the lobby to see if they had a bowl and they did not which made it so much more cool to me. Do you believe in signs like this? I really think this made Kate a believer. What are the chances that these exact mints would be somewhere right after we took a selfie with our Dad?

The view from the hotel:

We are in Indiana in this photo and across the bridge is Kentucky.

The day could not have been any more beautiful. Look at that sky!

So, we toasted my Dad with a bit more wine because we found the mints.

It was a really good day. I feel so blessed to have sisters. I don’t feel like we are competitive at all and we laugh and laugh when we are together.

I finished this, as you may know from a previous blog post, and now I have requested a few other of her books!

I started this and it’s deeper than you might think at first glance. I think I have given up on The Roughest Draft, by the way.

I ran to Target and the library Saturday morning, but I spent most of the day just piddling and reading on my porch. If I know I have evening plans, I take it pretty easy during the day. Are you like that? It’s like I can only do ONE thing a day! Ha!

We drove about an hour to hear Tom’s former co-worker play with his band at a Mexican restaurant. I was so pleasantly surprised that they had them set up on their lovely patio.

Their skinny margarita was pretty good. Mine is still better, but they came close!

If you’re gonna drink a marg, you gotta wear the tequila earrings, no?

Queso por supuesto!

We shared some fajitas. I love when they include grilled pineapple!

We didn’t tell Tom’s former co-worker we were coming and he and his wife were so touched, I think. It reminded me of Gretchen Rubin’s Happiness Project principle of “just showing up”. At least, I think that is where I heard this. It’s basically that all you have to do sometimes for people is “show up”. I used to dread going to funeral visitations because I never knew what to say, but I realized that you don’t really have to say anything. Just “showing up” to the little and big things for people is all you need to do.

Wow – I sure went off on a tangent. And, I am not that great at showing up.Tom is better than I am at this, but he has helped me. I’m not trying to preach and say that I am that great about it. Remember the one event in a day thing? Also, I think it’s important to be able to say no when you need to.

Sunday I woke up and did my reading on the patio. Ahhhhh, summer. It was chilly but nothing a sweatshirt can’t solve.

I piddled around a little and did some meal prep for dinner and then around 11, we went down to the boat.

We had lunch in the cove and I had a kale salad with chicken and Tom…

shared his tuna and crackers with Ernie.

Ernie got tuckered out from swimming!

We stayed in the cove for a few hours and then we decided to check out Captain’s Quarters and we were hungry because we ate such a light lunch.

My high school friend happened to be parked right in front of us! Hi, Jenny!

We ordered a smoken salmon flatbread. It was really good!

We headed home and spent some time on the patio.

We had dinner with Jack but Mason was at work. Jack is working a fair amount, but Mason is working so much, or it feels like it because of the hours, I guess. And, they kind of have opposite schedules so we aren’t getting to see both of them at the same time very often. We are still adjusting to this summer schedule, too, of course. I wish Mason was working a little bit less, but this is a cool opportunity. He leaves at 4:45 p.m. and gets home around 11:00 p.m. It’s hard for me to go to sleep before I know all are safe and sound in the house, too! It is five days a week right now and then it will be six days a week in July and he can’t ask off on a weekend. The internship is with Kentucky Shakespeare and it takes 70 people to run the summer performances in our Central Park.

So…anyway, how was your weekend? Our weather was truly gorgeous for the entire weekend and it really felt like summer.

Thanks for reading,

Amy