Life on the Runn...

On Saturday, while the men in our lives were otherwise engaged, the ladies gathered for some weekend fun, wine tasting! And who knew that we'd only have to drive to my hometown, Mukwonago, to get a full-on winery experience!   The chilly and somewhat dreary day became bright and happy when our party of six settled in for ten rounds of wine tasting and then a bottle all to ourselves.  Luckily we are a group of planners, so we had plenty of snacks to cleanse our pallets between tastings and to keep our energy levels up.   It's hard work coordinating samples and deciding which wine was the best of the best.  I think we all walked away from Pieper Porch Winery with a few new favorites and with items to fill our wine racks.  six thirsty ladies  What a great day with some of the wonderful ladies in my life.  I do believe we'll be making another visit to the local winery before it closes for the season -- at least I sure hope we will!  ...

For several years, fall weekends meant making time for both climbing trips and visits to Camp Randall.  We absolutely loved having season tickets (well, I certainly did), but it soon came to mean that our time was rather imbalanced; not having them meant lots more time to do lots of other things, but it also meant fewer visits to one of my most favorite places. This past weekend, on Homecoming Weekend, I got to remedy that.  I joined my mom, Auntie Lynn, cousin Jenna, and our great friends, Deb and Sarah, on an all-ladies pilgrimage to the land of Bucky Badger.  We planned to get to Madison rather early to ensure we found parking and got to our pre-game party spot, Jordan's Big 10, while there was still room for our group of six.  We departed around 6:45 am.  There was more than a little bit of yawning going on, but it was totally worth it!  Despite the chilly start to the day as we were loading up the van, the sun was shining and it was warming up nicely...

Fall is most certainly my favorite time of the year, and this past fall weekend with me even better thanks to time with friends and family!   It was certainly a quick trip to the north woods of Wisconsin but we made the most of that time. Upon arriving in La du Flamebau, we settled in and warned up the house with a toasty fire!  Saturday morning began with a drive to Minocqua for provisions.  The colors are in full force already, so despite picking up a breakfast that was all too guilt - inducing, the trip into town wasn't an entire waste!  And since we were in the area and, as Brian said, it was the 'northwoods' neighborly thing to do, we swung by for a visit with Uncle Jeff and Auntie Jo. We chatted about our plans for our upcoming trip to Ecuador and discussed the upcoming Runnells family summer outing, we checked out the water temperature, and took in the views of the lake before making our way back to the house.   Then we were off to...