A little old and a little new

Hello again! I hope this post finds everyone reading it happy and healthy!

It's almost been a month since my eye surgery and everything has been going great. My eyes are a little dry in the morning when I first wake up, but beyond that, no complaints. I have my one month check up next week and hopefully they tell me everything is perfect! Fingers crossed - I'd really hate to hace to do the eye surgery thing again so soon!

I was so excited to tell you all about my eyes, that I never told you about my trip to the Renaissance Faire! There are designated Ren Faire grounds in southern WI and it's open every weekend in the summer. I'd never been before and wanted to check it out before it closed for the season and I must say I enjoyed it more than I thought I would! Here are some pictures! One of the best games to play is "employee or enthusiastic guest?" Some people are real nuts about dressing up! Even if you're not into the shows and food available, the people watching is so worth the admission cost.

I thought these acrobats were amazing! Not to mention the girl had abs to die for! Yeah - I was jealous...no that does not mean I'm gong to be doing more crunches. I still have my priorities (ie pizza)

Who knew 'professional whip cracker' was a career choice? I missed that one in the GVSU book of majors... He was really good and funny too!

Me and my giant turkey leg! (See, I told you I had my priorities!)

Watching some jousting

The Queen!

The shows were all very funny and there was so much to see I can see why some people would buy season passes. There was shopping left and right, pub crawls, and more shows than we got to see. But I can imagine that if you frequented this often, you'd be broke on your ass! They definitely know how to get your money from you!

I also had gone to Discovery World right here in downtown Milwaukee with my friend Adam. It may have seemed a little more geared towards kids, but let's be honest here, I pretty much and a 10 year old in a 24 years olds body. It's a museum with a lot of hand-on engineering stuff (playing with gears, machines, blah blah blah etc etc etc). I thought it was a hoot and a half!!!

Using pulleys to hoist myself up to the mast!

I ran in this giant hamster wheel to make a lightbulb go. It was tough (both the running and the muscling out small children to get my turn). I believe the general population of WI would be much slimmer though if this was the only means to watch the Packers.

Laying on the bed of nails!

Adam trying to recreate sounds from Star Trek with this funny little noise do-hickey (He'll be annoyed I don't remember it's name...)

Getting a kick out of the fact that Adam doesn't fit well through the boat quarters.

There was also an aquarium portion, too, but I don't have any pictures from that cause I was too busy sticking my hand in the tank to touch the creatures (something Adam had no desire to participate it - lame!)

Ok! Notice all those pictures were with my glasses!? Let's move on to something a little more current! This past weekend was full of hiking and roller coasters!

Saturday, prompted by my work colleagues, I visited Lapham Peak. A really close portion of the WI State Forest. It was a gorgeous weekend where it looked like fall but felt like summer so it was a great day for a hike. It was the first time Jim has ever been on an official hike, but I still made him pull 6.5miles. The colors were gorgeous! And since we did a longer route, we hardly ran into anyone. At the parking lot there were a ton of families, but we quickly ditched the small children.

The park had a tower you could climb to overlook the county. It was a pretty view.

Me at the highest point in Waukesha County. A whopping 1233ft!!! Eat your heart out Rocky Mountains!

Jim around mile 4 smiling despite his legs hurting (a fact he complained about all the next day too! What a weenie :P)

Taking a rest mid trail.

Sunday we went to Six Flags for their October Fright Fest celebration! Again, it was a beautiful faux-summer day, but man was it crowded! I didn't remember it being that bad last time I went, but the last time the water park was open, too, so the crowd was dispersed in there. Good news about the waterpark being closed: I don't have to stare at 300 lb men who appear to be wearing sweaters despite t-shirts being removed or 16 year old girls who need to eat a sandwich. Glass half full? The rides we did get a chance to go on were fun though and we even wrapped up the day watching a hypnotist show which was funny. I don't know if I believe it, but it was curious! The major bummer of the trip: I bought a souvenir cup for $15 cause I was DYING of thirst and if you bought it, you got free refills all day long! Figuring I'd use it and then some, I splurged. Unfortunaly, people are not very honest and my cup was stolen while I was riding the Batman coaster :( I was majorly bummed out. Stupid people. At least I had already gotten 3 refills before that point, so it wasn't a total loss, but still!

King Kong!
Waiting in line. And waiting, and waiting, and waiting.....

That's all for now! About one month until New Zealand! Are you excited? I sure am!!! Oh and a big THANKS MOM for making Echo some lovely kitten mittens! Even he he doesn't love them, I sure do! Haha!

Ignore my tired eyes- this was right as I was post op! Echo has no excuse though.