The start of summer

It's been pretty quiet here lately here in good ol' Wisconsin.

Last week, I went to State College, PA for work. It's a really beautiful place, especially for visiting a factory. Those two things rarely exist together. For once in my life I didn't take any pictures, and probably because I was too smitten with the rolling hills and countryside. It reminded me of parts of the east coast and made me incredibly homesick for my home away from home. I guess I was too busy day dreaming for most of the drive. Guess that means we'll just have to go back to Rhode Island this year... twist my arm.

We spent Saturday hiking around in Willow River state park, which is a couple miles away from our house. It's a great place to camp (which we'll have to do at some point), hike, see some waterfalls, and get a little work out.

Sunday was spent working on the yard - mulch, flower beds, weeds, weeds, and more weeds. Here are some before and after shots. It's slowly getting there, but it looks so much better than it did. This whole side of the yard didn't have grass before, or a flower bed.

We also built a doggy gate for the front porch. We've been using a wooden baby gate, but the baby gate wasn't quite long enough, so we had to fold up towels and place them in between the baby gate and the porch... it was getting a little too hillbilly-ish and kept falling down, so we figured out a better solution. It'll be painted to match the house, once we eventually get around to painting the house. 

We ran 12 miles last night... followed by ice cream. And a beer. You better believe I thought of both of those during our entire run. We've both been training for our first half marathon, which is next weekend. I should rephrase that. It's our first NORMAL half marathon (not a Tough Mudder). I will not miss jumping into a pool of ice water, being shocked, or crawling under barbed wire. Jerrod, on the other hand, willingly signed himself for another 13 miles of torture and will be running the Tough Mudder with his co-workers in July. He's insane. I'm sure I'll go to cheer him on, but no, one Tough Mudder is enough for me.

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend and thank you to everyone who has fought for our country.