Stay-cation!

So we've had my niece here, from Kansas, for 10 days.  She's almost 13 and so mature and smart for her age!  We are really enjoying her visit.

And she's been the inspiration for an impromptu "stay-cation"!  Since she's been here, we've been to the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Bristol Renaissance Faire, and gone into Chicago for Peter Pan 360. We've been letting the discounts set our agenda; it was free day at the art museum last Thursday, kids were free for the opening weekend of RenFaire, and Peter Pan was offering a 20% discount (code WENDY on all evening performances before July 24).  Only six more weeks and the show moves on to another city!  It was really good, if you're in the area--a joy for kids and adults alike.  It's the straight play, not the musical, and it has an iMax theater kind of feel because they project the "backdrop" onto the round ceiling and during flying scenes it changes so you feel like you are flying too.  The crocodile was really cool, and the pirates were a lot of fun.

We've also had a church picnic, a stop by the Jelly Belly factory gift shop, a visit with friends who have chickens and a new puppy, two trips to the beach...and swimming lessons every day.  But Cuz has been a good sport about that--she comes along and reads, or one time she stayed home and watched Phantom of the Opera, which we own and she was eager to see again.  We've also introduced her to another Andrew Lloyd Weber show, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which C8, B6 and I are rehearsing for currently.  We've been listening to the soundtrack in my car, because I'm still trying to learn all the harmonies in the second soprano line.  It turns out my niece has perfect pitch, so she's been a great help!  Blondechick and I are jealous, though. :)

Blondechick and a girlfriend took my niece to the drive-in one night, too--the Keno Drive-In is the oldest one in the state of WI--and they had a great time talking girl talk, eating candy and watching Zookeeper. And a friend of mine, who has swimming lessons with us and got to know Cuz there, invited her and Chicklet to a picnic on a night that B12 was invited to a birthday party.  So we've kept her busy!  She's been a lot of fun.

My brother arrives tonight and will stay a day before they head back; then I am flying to Texas for a family reunion of sorts, on my mother's side.  Will be back next week, just in time to leave again to go pick up B16 from camp.  They let him make a phone call home after the 8-day wilderness trip, and he sounded great--he's just lovin' it. Says he loves his counselors!  I am so thankful.  Thanks to all who prayed!

In other news, our area was hit by another quick storm and we lost power again--fortunately only for a few hours.  (We just decided to take Cuz bowling that morning.)  The worst damage was south of us in Illinois--power out for days and more trees down.

We also got to see the David Crowder Band in concert at Willow Creek Community Church in Illlinois--it was so worshipful and inspiring.  Wish B16 had been with us--he'd have loved it.

No job yet for B20...but we think we have a wedding venue picked out for Blondechick and her young man--a golf club in Lake Geneva where we can do the wedding outside on a covered terrace, rain or shine, then have the reception indoors, then have the dancing back outdoors on the terrace, where the noise won't make conversation impossible.  Seems perfect!  Almost ready to put the money down and announce the date, I think.  Almost.

Well, must go think about meals and a grocery trip before my brother arrives tonight, also laundry and packing for my Texas trip.  It may be a week or more before I'm back.

Hope you all are having a great summer!  Leave me a comment and tell me what kinds of vacationing or stay-cationing you are doing this summer!