Volvo Ocean Race!

A couple weekends ago, the Volvo Ocean Race teams arrived in Newport, RI!  We went to the village one day, and took our boat out on 2 days to watch them race.  Very cool!!

 

 It's a year long race - and covers over 38,000 nautical miles - holy cow!!  Serious sailing!

 A guy from our yacht club is skippering one of the boats - he's the youngest captain and has the youngest team!

 The 6 boats lined up (there were 7, but one went hit a shoal 200 miles off the coast of Africa a few months ago - our team helped rescue them!)  Not so many boats - only costs around $15 Million to do the race - ouch!

 The 65 foot sailboats up close

 Race on Saturday - was just around the Newport Harbor

 A cool Saturday - here the boats are coming back into the harbor - we were sailing around and sightseeing :)

 The race on Sunday was a little longer - and then they headed out to sea - on a  10 day sail to Lisbon, Portugal.  Sunday was sunny & warm!

 It was a nice day for us to sail as well!

 The race boats are so beautiful!

 This picture was taken from the Team's page - showing the race boats heading out to sea.  They had so many spectator boats following them, it was crazy!

Darn catepillars!

Notice the difference between the two trees?  Gypsy Moths and other lovable (not) catepillars are back in force this summer!  I'm told they come every 7-10 years.  But when they come, they destory a lot of our trees and plants.

One positive - not as many leaves to rake this fall...

 

 Here's one of the squirrley fellows - they come down from the trees, so you are always walking into them.  So nice - ha!

My nephew's high school graduation!

I headed back to IL again for another graduation :) It's that time of year!

I attended one of my nephew's last baseball games.

 

 He only played a couple innings late in the game (he is usually a starter), but a couple days prior, he dove for a ball and dislocated his shoulder.  I didn't think I would see him play, so happy to see him out there!

 We also had time for a yummy breakfast!!

 THen a couple days later, it was time for the big event!

 My brother won a sky box from an auction, so we had awesome seats! (There were only 2 boxes!)

 Such good seats that the principal & superintendent had to come up and see the view :)

 My niece & brother

 Lots of graduates - almost 1,000!

 We also had yummy refreshments - bagels; coffee cake; fruit...

 Couldn't get an up close photo from our sky box - but we did get a good one from the private TV in our box :)

 Mom & Son

 Nick at the baseball stadium :)

 AFter the ceremony, we met a large group for lunch!
Nick with my sister, her husband, and daughter.

 Nick will be attending the University of Illinois this fall!  My alma mater - as well as his parents!
It's extremely difficult to get accepted into this school these days - but he is such a smarty!  He graduated magna cum laude!

 When he was little :) - with his sister.  Time flies!

College graduation for my nephew!

My nephew graduated from Illinois State University!  Now he's going to grad school; planning on being a teacher.

We didn't go to the formal graduation (thank goodness, it was 4 hours long...)

So, we had a nice dinner instead.

 

 Took a nice picture with my mom and sister :)

 Then we had some yummy cake!!  I love cake!

Fun trip with Mom

I met my mom in Fl for a nice vacation.  We relaxed by the pool,

 

 I rode my bike on the trainer (a lot!)

 We had dinner with friends

 We took nice walks

 and enjoyed yummy breakfasts

 and walked on the beach

 We met up with family! (haven't seen my cousins in years - was so fun to reconnect!)

 I ran up this hill (a lot!)

 We had lunch with more family!!!

 And lunch with friends again :)

 and dinner with family - whew!  We also managed to squeeze in a little shopping too :)

 Then we drove north

 and stayed with my aunt (and saw some more cousins that I haven't seen in years!)

 So many nice views on the drive to IL

What a vacation!  so many friends and family - it was great!

Summer projects

I've been traveling so haven't had much time to update!  I am so happy that summer is here though!  Love sunshine & warm weather.  So it's time to do some projects!

We've been busy updating the sailboat - getting the toe rail wood and seat wood cleaned up and looking good! 

 We also decided to put the 'dodger' on - and see how we like it.  We don't love the color - too garrish.  But we think we really like this - will keep the wind off us on cold days, and help protect us from some sun.

 We also got some mulch delivered!

 Looks so good - once it's all spread!