Friday, July 3, 2009
Charlie Francis' 50th Bday party
Enough said? Everyone in attendance had a great time!
Even Maya, who was home and sick at the time, got in on the celebration - check out the "outfit" she got Charlie for his birthday! And for some reason, I don't think Karen has donned the coconut bra yet...I wonder why!!! :)
Miss Delaney
Just a few pics of Miss Delaney McMullen...she might be a "gin and tonic girl" after all is said and done! heehee :)
3rd AND 4th of July treats by Maya Buss
Wanna know what happens after a day of watching DVR'd Ace of Cakes, Amazing Wedding Cakes, and Cake Boss???....
Maya got all inspired and made some flag masterpieces to be consumed at Auntie Barb and Uncle Kenny's 3rd of July pyro festivities...Y'all enjoy now, ya here! :)
Thursday, July 2, 2009
THE TRIP HOME from Lake Geneva
We hadn't had a chance to connect with Kim and Neal Moss yet on our trek to Wisconsin. It would've been a sorry event if we didn't see another side of the family who were only 15 minutes (or so they said) away.
My cousin, Ushwin, met Stephanie online a few years ago...that's the way people meet each other these days, apparently...who knew that she was a girl from Wisconsin who would marry an Indian Brit and move to London! Anyway, Kim and Neal are Steph's parents who we got to spend lots of fun times with on our stay in WI a couple of years ago for a wedding reception for Ush and Steph - those were good times.
So...on our way out of Lake Geneva, we took a little detour (including getting lost and having Neal coach us on the phone all the way into the driveway)and visited Kim "on the farm"...so not only horseback riding the day before, but chickens, kid goats, and our favorite fat-boy, drive-by licky, hornery dog, Jack. :)
After hugs and kisses for everyone, while backing out of the long driveway, Angie and the girls mentioned that they weren't quite sure about making this stop, especially after getting lost, but that they were really glad to have met Kim and all the animals! Yeah for family all around!
Leaving at 11am got us to Omaha around 8pm to dropoff Ang and the girls. Apparently, the girls still hadn't had enough of each other and didn't want to let go, but we pryed them apart and started the last little bit of the trek home.
Maizy sure was glad to see us. And we were just glad to be sleeping in our own beds again.
My cousin, Ushwin, met Stephanie online a few years ago...that's the way people meet each other these days, apparently...who knew that she was a girl from Wisconsin who would marry an Indian Brit and move to London! Anyway, Kim and Neal are Steph's parents who we got to spend lots of fun times with on our stay in WI a couple of years ago for a wedding reception for Ush and Steph - those were good times.
So...on our way out of Lake Geneva, we took a little detour (including getting lost and having Neal coach us on the phone all the way into the driveway)and visited Kim "on the farm"...so not only horseback riding the day before, but chickens, kid goats, and our favorite fat-boy, drive-by licky, hornery dog, Jack. :)
After hugs and kisses for everyone, while backing out of the long driveway, Angie and the girls mentioned that they weren't quite sure about making this stop, especially after getting lost, but that they were really glad to have met Kim and all the animals! Yeah for family all around!
Leaving at 11am got us to Omaha around 8pm to dropoff Ang and the girls. Apparently, the girls still hadn't had enough of each other and didn't want to let go, but we pryed them apart and started the last little bit of the trek home.
Maizy sure was glad to see us. And we were just glad to be sleeping in our own beds again.
LAST DAY @ Lake Geneva
Sorry for the delay...a couple of loooooooong days...
Tuesday in Lake Geneva involved window shopping (I don't think a single dollar was spent by these Buss'! Woohoo!). Downtown Lake Geneva's Main Street has lots of shops and interesting things (and people) to see.
Cousin Nancy asked me in front of a cashier, "Do you want to be my friend? I like to give my friends lots of little gifts from all the places I've been." And I said, "No thanks, I'll just stay family." :) We took off for another store and out of the 12 or so items she had pulled aside to purchase, I think she only walked out having bought 3...so much for the friends who must've "fallen off the list". :)
Then, almost the whole Symmonds clan (last name of the Matriarch of the family) lined up for the boat tour of the Lake. We know now that we could never make a good marching band...pitiful lines, I must say - not to mention I have no idea who would be able to play what instrument.
3yrs to 12, 13-17, 18-64, and 65 and older. Why some people couldn't decide which group to line up with, I'll never know, but when someone says "SENIOR DISCOUNT", you'd LOL at how many people WANT desperately to be in that top group!
The lake tour was magnificent - hearing the history of the area and all the famous family names of the people who had their "summer homes", or as we like to call them..."GINORMOUS MANSIONS"...The Maytags, the Wrigleys, and the xxx's - all of these well-to-do Chicago families in the late 1800's bought acres and acres of land around this lake and slowly but surely built up the area into a rich people's mecca. Just in case anyone's interested, there are 17 acres of undeveloped land still for sale on the West side of the lake for a measley $6.6 million (and you'll still have to work it out with your neighbors to get to that land through THEIR properties). All in all, who knew that people still had this kind of money in these hard times, and...it could've been any one of us building a summer home there...ideas for inventions come from anywhere, right? Who knows...
We headed back to our hotel room to eat leftover sgetti and garlic bread (unheated or baked isn't 1/2 bad after all), and then horse-back riding...
We missed the 4:00 trail ride, so hung out and met all the animals in the petting zoo:
the horses, the burrows, the goats of all sizes, the llamas and the peacock and peahen. A little cuddly cat named Timber came by and wanted all kinds of loving and snuggling. There were a few "farm dogs" named Anna and Roxy around the place too...what a great life for a dog. The peacock let us know he was there occasionally with a very loud scream...and even greeted us as we were coming back from our trail ride.
We hadn't realized, but McKenzie and Ireland hadn't ridden horses before..."Just around in a circle a few times," Kenzie said. There was a little fear in their eyes, but that grew to excitement as they were assisted up on the horses...
Maya lead the pack on Sweetie, Ireland next on Sierra, Kenzie on Duke, Deepa on Danny, and Drew on Rocky. Something had to be mentioned as to which # each horse halted the line of horses for...uno, #1 or #2..."Everybody poops". :)
We said our goodbyes to the trail horses and all the animals at the petting zoo...I'm still surprised that Timber didn't end up getting shoved in a bag by one of girls to sneak back to Lincoln!
We had just enough time to get in our luau garb and eat a big buffet dinner with the whole fam again. A huge thanks to Cousin Shelley for all her work with the silly hotel and organizing things to make sure we all had a fabulous time at Lake Geneva.
Tuesday in Lake Geneva involved window shopping (I don't think a single dollar was spent by these Buss'! Woohoo!). Downtown Lake Geneva's Main Street has lots of shops and interesting things (and people) to see.
Cousin Nancy asked me in front of a cashier, "Do you want to be my friend? I like to give my friends lots of little gifts from all the places I've been." And I said, "No thanks, I'll just stay family." :) We took off for another store and out of the 12 or so items she had pulled aside to purchase, I think she only walked out having bought 3...so much for the friends who must've "fallen off the list". :)
Then, almost the whole Symmonds clan (last name of the Matriarch of the family) lined up for the boat tour of the Lake. We know now that we could never make a good marching band...pitiful lines, I must say - not to mention I have no idea who would be able to play what instrument.
3yrs to 12, 13-17, 18-64, and 65 and older. Why some people couldn't decide which group to line up with, I'll never know, but when someone says "SENIOR DISCOUNT", you'd LOL at how many people WANT desperately to be in that top group!
The lake tour was magnificent - hearing the history of the area and all the famous family names of the people who had their "summer homes", or as we like to call them..."GINORMOUS MANSIONS"...The Maytags, the Wrigleys, and the xxx's - all of these well-to-do Chicago families in the late 1800's bought acres and acres of land around this lake and slowly but surely built up the area into a rich people's mecca. Just in case anyone's interested, there are 17 acres of undeveloped land still for sale on the West side of the lake for a measley $6.6 million (and you'll still have to work it out with your neighbors to get to that land through THEIR properties). All in all, who knew that people still had this kind of money in these hard times, and...it could've been any one of us building a summer home there...ideas for inventions come from anywhere, right? Who knows...
We headed back to our hotel room to eat leftover sgetti and garlic bread (unheated or baked isn't 1/2 bad after all), and then horse-back riding...
We missed the 4:00 trail ride, so hung out and met all the animals in the petting zoo:
the horses, the burrows, the goats of all sizes, the llamas and the peacock and peahen. A little cuddly cat named Timber came by and wanted all kinds of loving and snuggling. There were a few "farm dogs" named Anna and Roxy around the place too...what a great life for a dog. The peacock let us know he was there occasionally with a very loud scream...and even greeted us as we were coming back from our trail ride.
We hadn't realized, but McKenzie and Ireland hadn't ridden horses before..."Just around in a circle a few times," Kenzie said. There was a little fear in their eyes, but that grew to excitement as they were assisted up on the horses...
Maya lead the pack on Sweetie, Ireland next on Sierra, Kenzie on Duke, Deepa on Danny, and Drew on Rocky. Something had to be mentioned as to which # each horse halted the line of horses for...uno, #1 or #2..."Everybody poops". :)
We said our goodbyes to the trail horses and all the animals at the petting zoo...I'm still surprised that Timber didn't end up getting shoved in a bag by one of girls to sneak back to Lincoln!
We had just enough time to get in our luau garb and eat a big buffet dinner with the whole fam again. A huge thanks to Cousin Shelley for all her work with the silly hotel and organizing things to make sure we all had a fabulous time at Lake Geneva.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Lake Geneva - Day 2
So...lots of people at this reunion know about the blog now, so I have to be careful. :)
Anyway, we walked around aimlessly for a while this morning, and then found out we could rent bicycles...12 of us on rented bicycles - yeah, and no helmets - I was a little worried, but didn't say anything so that it didn't make a big deal for the kiddos. Unfortunately, Lake Geneva is still trying to figure out where their bike trails are going to go and have dead-ended them in quite a few places. Our 1/2 day rentals ended up being a 2-hr rental - at least they gave us a break on the rental price. The rock wall was an add-on too - the kids AND Uncle Kenny all tried it...Way to go for Josh and Kenny who rang the bell at the top - the rest of them might try to convince us to go back tomorrow to try again...Oh yeah...I promised that I'd tell everyone that it was at "Aerial Adventures" - google em some time! :)
Angie and I took a stroll downtown and did some serious...window shopping. We came back and made dinner in our room's kitchen - sgetti, but sadly, no oven - forgot about that when we bought the garlic bread - and no salad...thanks to cousin Shelley who had a TON of leftovers hoarded in her room. Oh well...maybe we'll get some soggy 2-day old salad mush tomorrow to eat with our leftovers. heehee :)
Spent the rest of the night in the "gab room" doing the following:
- trying to get a "compromising picture" of Cousin Shelley over, and over, and over, and over, and over :);
- having everyone in the room mention that "Deepa's laugh is soooooo LOUD!" :);
- calling Maya "Little Deepa";
- carefully placing Kaleigh's binky in it's rightful place in Shelley's shirt;
- hearing all the generations' funny stories;
- finding out that more of us have T9 on our cell phones than we thought (Thanks, Curtis!!); and
- eating too much ice cream and drinking way too many beverages!
So...It's late and I think we're going to try to get to bed tonight. Come check out the blog again tomorrow to see what Lake Geneva provided for festivities and all the new pics.
Fam - if I forgot anything, be sure to let me know!! I can always add it tomorrow! :)
Nitey-nite! :)
Anyway, we walked around aimlessly for a while this morning, and then found out we could rent bicycles...12 of us on rented bicycles - yeah, and no helmets - I was a little worried, but didn't say anything so that it didn't make a big deal for the kiddos. Unfortunately, Lake Geneva is still trying to figure out where their bike trails are going to go and have dead-ended them in quite a few places. Our 1/2 day rentals ended up being a 2-hr rental - at least they gave us a break on the rental price. The rock wall was an add-on too - the kids AND Uncle Kenny all tried it...Way to go for Josh and Kenny who rang the bell at the top - the rest of them might try to convince us to go back tomorrow to try again...Oh yeah...I promised that I'd tell everyone that it was at "Aerial Adventures" - google em some time! :)
Angie and I took a stroll downtown and did some serious...window shopping. We came back and made dinner in our room's kitchen - sgetti, but sadly, no oven - forgot about that when we bought the garlic bread - and no salad...thanks to cousin Shelley who had a TON of leftovers hoarded in her room. Oh well...maybe we'll get some soggy 2-day old salad mush tomorrow to eat with our leftovers. heehee :)
Spent the rest of the night in the "gab room" doing the following:
- trying to get a "compromising picture" of Cousin Shelley over, and over, and over, and over, and over :);
- having everyone in the room mention that "Deepa's laugh is soooooo LOUD!" :);
- calling Maya "Little Deepa";
- carefully placing Kaleigh's binky in it's rightful place in Shelley's shirt;
- hearing all the generations' funny stories;
- finding out that more of us have T9 on our cell phones than we thought (Thanks, Curtis!!); and
- eating too much ice cream and drinking way too many beverages!
So...It's late and I think we're going to try to get to bed tonight. Come check out the blog again tomorrow to see what Lake Geneva provided for festivities and all the new pics.
Fam - if I forgot anything, be sure to let me know!! I can always add it tomorrow! :)
Nitey-nite! :)
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Lake Geneva - Day 1
So, it's been a while...Hi. How are you? Glad to hear it... :)
A trip to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin for another family reunion has given me another excuse to write up funny family quips and post a few hundred pictures to a blog. You can't wait, can you??
We started the trip by leaving our white lab, Maizy, in the very capable hands of our pet sitter, Collette. She even came a few hours early to pick Maizy up and take her to her very first doggie bday party at the kennels...apparently, Maizy was the star attraction jumping in and out of the pool (her first water experience) and catching all kinds of doggie meatball and bday cake treats (I don't even want to know the status of our new Master bedroom carpet after last night!)
After we said our goodbyes to Maizy and the kitties, Indy and Poly, we headed an hour east to Omaha to catch up with Cousin Angie and her 2 girls, McKenzie (12) and Ireland (9). We got some groceries, watched a DVD and tried to get the giddy girls to sleep before we left on our road trip.
5 girls and Drew. He called it the Estrogen-mobile. We all survived the 8 hour road trip in my Honda Pilot, Sylvia, with only a couple of potty breaks and one slight detour about 8 miles in the wrong direction. That Drew...he's a quick one. :)
We're here now getting settled in, only to get up and go to back to some local grocery store to stock up our kitchen cabinets and frig with food for the week.
It's nice NOT to be sitting in car on the "sun side" trying to stay cool with the A/C down really low freezing the people on the other side right out.
And be sure to ask the girls what they named all the fishies in the hotel lobby's tank: Flo, Bulgie, Peek-a-Boo, Dead or Alive, Finder, Ronald, Sparkles, Flubber, Chip, Speckles, Midget, Airhead, Barracuda and Shiny - which one is which, the rest of us may never know.
Pics and a summary of the 2nd half of the day yet to come. :)
Lots and lots of family and lots and lots of "Now how are we related exactly? And who do you belong to? And how you've grown since we last saw you!" It was cute...and it was LOUD! And it was fun...lots of cousins pics. Ireland says "Loudness runs in our family." And I would have to agree. The indoor pool was cool...the outdoor pool closed early...and according to the kids, the hot tub was scalding hot...but they still sat in it, of course! Tomorrow look like rain in the afternoon, but there's still talk of walking around "downtown" Lake Geneva and renting a boat - the "older crowd" is thinking pontoon, and the kids want a speed boat for tubing! We'll see what happens then.
Click here to see pics from today
Later!
A trip to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin for another family reunion has given me another excuse to write up funny family quips and post a few hundred pictures to a blog. You can't wait, can you??
We started the trip by leaving our white lab, Maizy, in the very capable hands of our pet sitter, Collette. She even came a few hours early to pick Maizy up and take her to her very first doggie bday party at the kennels...apparently, Maizy was the star attraction jumping in and out of the pool (her first water experience) and catching all kinds of doggie meatball and bday cake treats (I don't even want to know the status of our new Master bedroom carpet after last night!)
After we said our goodbyes to Maizy and the kitties, Indy and Poly, we headed an hour east to Omaha to catch up with Cousin Angie and her 2 girls, McKenzie (12) and Ireland (9). We got some groceries, watched a DVD and tried to get the giddy girls to sleep before we left on our road trip.
5 girls and Drew. He called it the Estrogen-mobile. We all survived the 8 hour road trip in my Honda Pilot, Sylvia, with only a couple of potty breaks and one slight detour about 8 miles in the wrong direction. That Drew...he's a quick one. :)
We're here now getting settled in, only to get up and go to back to some local grocery store to stock up our kitchen cabinets and frig with food for the week.
It's nice NOT to be sitting in car on the "sun side" trying to stay cool with the A/C down really low freezing the people on the other side right out.
And be sure to ask the girls what they named all the fishies in the hotel lobby's tank: Flo, Bulgie, Peek-a-Boo, Dead or Alive, Finder, Ronald, Sparkles, Flubber, Chip, Speckles, Midget, Airhead, Barracuda and Shiny - which one is which, the rest of us may never know.
Pics and a summary of the 2nd half of the day yet to come. :)
Lots and lots of family and lots and lots of "Now how are we related exactly? And who do you belong to? And how you've grown since we last saw you!" It was cute...and it was LOUD! And it was fun...lots of cousins pics. Ireland says "Loudness runs in our family." And I would have to agree. The indoor pool was cool...the outdoor pool closed early...and according to the kids, the hot tub was scalding hot...but they still sat in it, of course! Tomorrow look like rain in the afternoon, but there's still talk of walking around "downtown" Lake Geneva and renting a boat - the "older crowd" is thinking pontoon, and the kids want a speed boat for tubing! We'll see what happens then.
Click here to see pics from today
Later!
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