Touring with Tawni and Alex

This afternoon we took Tawni and Alex sightseeing. We first drove by Travis' fields and looked at the corn and beans. All we saw looked pretty good! Of course, we stayed on the main road, and didn't go down Danford either.
Then we went to the National Cemetery and Keokuk's Veteran's Memorial.

We also took in the scenic view from Bluff Park where the Mississippi and Des Moines Rivers meet.Bluff Park also provides a great view of Roquette, so I told what little I know of Roquette and the products they make. Tawni actually liked the smell! I love that girl! Our family has always thought the smell of the plant was a pleasant aroma, but most people don't agree!
We took a quick look at Lock and Dam #19 and then went to Nauvoo. We stopped by the Browning house. Jonathon Browning was apparently a Mormon. They've restored and maintained his house and gunsmith shop in Nauvoo and have a Browning gun museum there. We saw lots of tourists riding in a covered wagon drawn by a mule team. We stopped for picture taking near the temple.

Rainy Days Don't Get ME Down!

Yee-Haw!!!! We've got another six tenths in the rain gauge! It may be too late for the corn, but will surely help the beans! Kathy and Tawni have gone to Hobby Lobby in Quincy, so Zach and Wyatt are here. We've been having a great day. At this moment, Wyatt is sleeping soundly, and Zach is out riding his motorcycle. He's no doubt looking for any water he can find to ride through. Yesterday, I rode with him around the fields. He's a pretty good rider, but considerably over confident. He did crash though, so it slowed him down just a bit for a little while at least. Fortunately he wasn't hurt bad. Just a few bruises and some impressive scratches on his helmet. He hit the rocks, and I showed him the helmet and asked what it might have done had he not been wearing protection. Dennis rode with him later in the evening and took him out in the pasture where he could go up and down some hills. It's a sure thing that the crash he had early yesterday morning won't be the last, but rather just the first of many. I just hope none of them hurt him too bad! When I rode with him, he wanted to race, but I told him I would not race with him. That's all we need to do is make it a competition...he'll get hurt for sure, because he can't stand getting passed!
The races that had been scheduled for tonight at Donnellson have been postponed until August 30 due to the rain. That means we have a free evening! I wonder what we'll do? I wonder how many boys we'll have staying the night? LOL! We have a movie that we haven't watched yet, so perhaps this evening we'll do that and have some good ice cream! Maybe I better run to town to get the ice cream this afternoon. I'm still longing for some Pistachio Almond ice cream!
I am going to take advantage of the little time left of Wyatt's nap to make a page in my scrap book. If he sleeps longer, maybe I'll get two finished!
Enjoy this cool and rainy day. When the sun breaks through, we'll get hot again and more humid than ever!

Sunday Update.

Well, here's the Schulte clan, or at least those who made it to the family reunion. It was not a large group. Actually, there were many more present, but this is just Aunt Helen and Phyllis and all the first cousins. We had a great meal. Fried fish, chicken, potatoes and onion rings plus all the carry in items. After eating, we had a "Redneck Washers" tournament. Dennis and Jim Flockhart were the overall champions, defeating all who challenged them. It was really a nice time, and we stayed until after 7 P.M. We were the last to leave.
Today, we came out of church to find that Zach (7) and Wyatt (4) were joy riding in our van. Dennis had left the keys in the ignition, as we usually do, so the boys were in the car and decided to start it up and move closer to the door so the rest of us wouldn't have to walk so far. Actually, I don't know what they were thinking. Tyler thinks they were NOT thinking! Boy, does that bring back memories...ha ha ha! Anyway, today was to have been the day that Zach and Tyler were going to come over and ride motorcycles on our trails, but Zach is going to have to go at least one more day without riding the motorcycle. Sure hope he learns something from it! From now on, we'll be taking the keys with us, if we can remember! We're so in the habit of just leaving them, it will be hard to remember to take them out. I greatly doubt that Zach will repeat that anyway, but just to be safe, we're removing the access to the keys!
Tomorrow, I'll be driving to Iowa City to pick up a friend. She and her son, Alex, flew into Cedar Rapids today, and will have an appointment at the U of I Hospital tomorrow morning. After that, she'll come here for a brief visit before returning to New York on Thursday. We're looking forward to seeing them again.
It's such a gorgeous afternoon, I think I'll go outside and enjoy the cool (cooler than last week) air and the low (66%) humidity! I'm sure it's going to be going up...so I'm going to enjoy today!