Lightbulb!

Last night, I totally had a lightbulb moment. I know on here I talk about Crandon, a lot, and I was sitting there thinking how much I wish you guys could see what I see when I'm up there. Then I totally remembered, I shot a few videos of Crandon last summer.

So here I am, sharing the few videos I have with you all! The first video is when I was on Little Rice Lake with my family. We were out fishing and then we seen this gorgeous Bald Eagle soaring right above our heads. So I decided to shoot a video of it! I love eagles so so so much! They are one of my favorite animals of all time. I get so exhilarated when I see one when I'm up north. I've seen them so many times now, it shouldn't be a shock, but it always is. Can't help it I suppose ;)



This next video is of me shooting a Red Winged Black Bird and a little bit of the lake. There's a slightly funny (but not really) story behind this one...I seen this Red Winged Black Bird. I thought this bird was something special, especially because I never seen one before (that I know of anyway). So I was so stoked, I had to video it. Until my Uncle tells me later that they are all over the city and are nothing special. I was bummed at this, but I still think they are awesome birds! I wish I would have filmed this one better. I kinda swooshed past the lake pretty quickly in this one. I promise that I'll take a better one this summer!! Oh, and totally ignore me cawing at the bird, I'm a dork...



And then there is this last video...It's of a thunderstorm that's moving across the lake. I especially love this video because you can hear what Crandon sounds like...it's so beautiful!! All you hear is birds chirping and crickets and the lake swooshing back and forth. I love it. When I miss Crandon a lot, I play this video. The original is much longer, but I wanted you guys to get a taste!

This summer, I think I'm going to do a camping series. We have no internet up there, but I'd love to show you guys some things we do up there! Ahh, June can't come quick enough!!!!

xo.

ps. I finally have a Youtube channel... autumnbalmbotanicals ...which means, time for Vlogs!!! I think the first will be that regional dialect video that's been going around for awhile now!

My Chicago Adventure!

I was so very fortunate to head down to Chicago last weekend with my cousin Luke and our family friend Mary. We took the Amtrak down there for the day. We had a lot of fun stuff to do, we were very much excited...

First stop was the Willis (Sears) Tower. This has always been one of those things I've always wanted to do, go straight to the top! I finally got to cross it off my bucket list! 

At first I was going to go to the top by myself...but I decided to drag my cousin with me (I hate doing things alone). He did this years back and disliked it, but he enjoyed it a lot this time around! 

We were fortunate for a beautiful clear fall day! 

I had no clue that the Willis tower was the largest tower in the world for quite some time! 

One side of the building had a ledge that was a clear box. You could stand on the box and see right down below you into the city. I did it and boy, was it exhilarating! 

This is the view of the city right below me! It was crazy! 

Next on our agenda was to go on a carriage ride! That I have to say was a first for me. 

We were waiting in a really beautiful area, right next to an old water tower! Last weekend was the peak time for leaves changing in Chicago, and you really could tell! 

This almost reminded me of Home Alone 2, when Kevin was lost in NYC! And he would go through the beautiful Central Park! Man, now I want to watch that movie... :)

We also stopped into the Hershey's store! I wanted every piece of chocolate in there...but I decided not to get anything. 

After waiting a half an hour, we were finally on our carriage ride!

I'm a complete dork and had to take a picture of this. We don't have places like this in Milwaukee (at least that I know of) so I thought this was pretty neat!

I just LOVE the architecture in Chicago, so detailed.

I wanted to go in there so badly, but seeing we were on our ride, we couldn't :(

I'd love to live there, especially in an orange copper building!

I told my cousin that if I ever strike it rich, Chanel is the FIRST place I'm going shopping at...drool! :)

I loved the color of their trees. It was refreshing to see parts of fall in the middle of the city. 

Look at how neat this building is! 

And we return!

Such a cute guy, his name was Rave. I got to feed him a carrot, too! 

A large statue of Marilyn Monroe? Yes please! I was so excited to see her, although, I wasn't sure why she was in the middle of the city...can anyone fill me in? :)

And that's all I have. I had such a wonderful time. I always love going down to Chicago. I've never done the same thing twice when I've been there. I love that it's so close to home, too. 

Have any of you been to Chicago? What's your favorite thing to do?

xo.

Weekend Adventures and 10 Facts Tuesday!

Happy Tuesday everyone! Now, if any of you have caught on, I'm starting to (slowly) dedicate a certain post for each day of the week. I was formulating some ideas at work yesterday. And Here is a sneak peak of what I came up with...As we all know, Monday is my 52 weeks post. And now Tuesday I have decided to do a 10 facts about me....and whatever else that is fun and exciting to share. :) 

So this weekend was a busy one, if I must say so myself. Saturday I had woken up at the butt crack of dawn to drive to Edgerton, WI to watch my nephew play football for his school. I was so excited, and very very tired. I had some fun stuff planned for us for the day, and I was so excited to share the news with him. Right when I got to the game, he waved at me. It was sooo cute. His mom told me that he was really excited that I was coming. I love that kid as if he was my own :)

He is player 1. I loved how cute all the kiddos looked in their uniform. All the kids that were playing were in 3rd and 4th grade. 

I love love love this shot of him. He reminds me of a pro football player. So confident that he was going to win...sadly, they lost. But it's all in fun, right?

So after the football game, I told him that we were going to find a few cemetery's to take photos at and go to the apple and pumpkin farm to pick some goodies. On the way to pick him up, I noted three cemetery's we could stop at. The first one flew right by me (I couldn't exactly remember where it was). The second, they were cutting the grass...so we decided to leave because it was so small to begin with, and it felt awkward to take photos when they were trying to work. So we found the third cemetery. It was thee perfect size! It even had train tracks right behind it.

We had spotted these all over the ground that fell from the trees. I have no idea what this is. Miles thought it was a turd...oh boys. I decided to break it open to see what was inside...

A nut of some sort! I really wish I knew what this was. Do you??

It was very interesting to see the shape of it. I love finding neat things to break open. 

I was so proud of Miles that day. I was talking to his mom at the football game telling her how glad I am that he is as sweet as he is. Most kids these days are very selfish and mean. Not my nephew. I think that was his first time at a cemetery. I was explaining to him how old some of these people were when they passed. He was sad, as was I. He started to brush off the dirt on their stones and pick flowers to place on them. I almost started bawling my eyes out. It literally broke my heart, but in a good way. And the funny thing was, I was doing the exact same thing, too. He was asking lots of questions about my dad that day as well. He was 6 when my dad died, and knew him, but not that well. He was asking me if my dad was buried at that cemetery and I told him no. But I also told him that he was with us, and he will always be. So he was asking silly questions about what my dad was doing. I told him everything he ever wanted to do. We had some Jolly Ranchers and he put two aside in the back seat for my dad to eat. Again, my heart broke. 

We seen a Bluejay right when we pulled in, I've never seen one before! I was SO SO SO excited. I didn't whip my camera out fast enough, because it flew away :( We seen a hawk that day, too. I love wildlife.

Miles had wanted to try out my camera. I'm so impressed by his photos. Who knew an 8 year old boy would rock some pretty sweet pics. The one above was one of his. And check out these others...

I love the angle on this one.

Then we went to the Elegant Farmer to pick some apples and pumpkins. He loves apples. Hehe.

They even allowed us to climb the trees!

Then, we drove back home and I visited with him and his sister (isn't she beautiful) for a little while. My niece Brooklynn is so advanced for only being 8 months old. She is the happiest baby I've ever met.

And she looks so so much like Miles at that age. They are very much related <3 Now onto 10 Facts Tuesday!

\\ 10 Facts About Yours Truly //

I am one of those people who really hate it when people talk on the phone while driving. I find it just as dangerous as drunk driving.

Speaking of phone, I'm not a huge fan of talking on the phone. My mouth/throat gets dry, and I don't hold much interest in the conversation after awhile. When I was in a long distance relationship, sometimes we'd talk on the phone for a good couple hours, and I'd be the only one talking. I haaaated that (I wasn't a fan of holding a conversation with myself). 

I was born a blonde. When I hit about 8 or 9, my hair started to turn to a light golden brown. Sometimes I joke around with my family and friends that the blonde in me never left :p

I was a witch for Halloween the majority of my childhood. I was also Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, a Princess, and an Angel.

I've never been able to do a cartwheel ever in my life. I've always been too scared. And I failed the tumbling class back in grade school. Oops.

I've been using computers since I was 5 years old (18 years!)....my parent's always told me to go to school for computers because "I'll make a lot of money" and that "I'm really good at using computers." I've never been interested, and I can really care less about the amount of money I can make. I find technical stuff about computers to be really boring.

I originally went to college to become a Registered Nurse. I went all throughout high school clueless of what I wanted to do with my life. Someone mentioned nursing (it's a HUGE job in my town), so I took some health classes in high school and fell in love...but I didn't love it enough to follow through with it (mainly because I had to drop out to take care of my dad, and after he passed, the last thing I wanted to be surrounded by was sick people). I'm two classes away from getting into the Nursing program.

Speaking of college, I'm one of those people who think that you do not need an education to be somebody. I see so many people who are successful and happy just by finding a job that makes them happy. Some start their own business, some are into management. No matter what their job is, being happy is the only important thing, not a piece of paper...but to each their own, right? 

I really really really want to stretch out my ear lobes. I've been going back and forth with myself for a long time whether or not to bite the bullet and do it. I'm scared of the scary things you hear about...blowouts, they'll never close, infections...But I've been researching it a lot and am almost ready to take the step. I just wish I had someone to ask questions about it, seeing as though I know nobody who has them :(

I'm an avid and loyal customer of Apple, Inc. I own almost everything they make. I know a lot of people don't like Apple because it's a 'Style' thing. But I buy things from them because they work, flawlessly. I've never had a problem with them and will continue to be a lifetime customer of them. I've owned an iMac since 2007 and am still waiting to get my first virus. I couldn't say that when I owned a Windows computer!  :)

Stay tuned tomorrow for the release of the Weekly Wednesday post <3