some more pics from Florida

 Richard Petty's car at the Daytona 500.   The track is  2  1/2  miles around with 31 degree banks on the ends.  It is so steep one can not walk up.   The cars run the curve in excess of 200 mph.

 Nathan in front of out seventh floor room at the Hilton in Daytona.  He was excited because it is an "ocean front" room.

 Nathan"s dog "Jackson"  or Jax.  He is and awesome dog, the best tempered dog I have ever seen.  He loves to play with the green bone and red ring in front of him, having you try to tack it away from him.   Even a massive dog hater Klopfenstein like Ada loves to play with him!!

Two visitors to the Kennedy Space Center.  It was very hot and humid....if you do not like to bump up against wet sweaty....smell  BO would not have been a good day to go.  Even the guides, from Florida were complaining about the heat.

Very interesting and informative place to visit if you are in central Florida.

Some pics from Florida 2015

This is Bruce Klopfenstein, son of Jay and Ruth with his aunt Ada.  Bruce is 61 and Ada is oopps

This is the view out window of the Gulf of Mexico in Panama City Florida.

Our trip continues !!!

We are still on our southern track.  We spent the night with the Bruce Klop and family in Tallahassee, Fl.  It was interesting to reminisce with Bruce about the old "Christmases at Grandma K's" house.  The visit was wonderful, never a lack of conservation.  Bruce and Carol have a beautiful home and a wonderful family.  Their children are wonderful to visit with and are becoming young adults rapidly.

From Bruce's we made our way to Panama City, Fl for a little time to our selves and a wonderful dinner.  The restaurant found out that it was our fifth wedding anniversary  and gave us a great desert to share!

On to Jax, we arrived here on Friday evening.   It is really great to spend  time with Angela, Jerry, and Nathan.  They have a beautiful home and a pool!   It would be real easy for me to float in the pool for hours.  On Saturday night, we went out to dinner with them and Kelsie, who had a friend from U-High visiting her.  We took Nathan on a three day venture south of Jax.  We stayed at the Hilton on the beach in Daytona, Fl.  On Tuessday of this week, we spent the day touring the Daytona Race Track and area.  It is really an interesting place and billed as the most outstanding race venue in the world (eat your heart out Indy 500 people).  On  Wednesday, we went to the Kennedy Space Center.  It is an enormous place with tons of interesting things to see from the US days in space.

Now we are back in Jax and thinking of our return to the Land of  Lincoln.  Nathan starts school on Monday so our duty here is complete.  He is a very bright precious little boy and was a joy to be with.  We will get to take him to the school, Chet Creek Elem school on Friday to meet his teacher.  The on Saturday, we will head north.  I have some pics that I will attempt to load, hope you are not too bored.

Ok...Pics will follow in next post!

Klop Alley

This is actually a post from Dad - I'm just uploading it for him.  It's from a genealogy contact and says:  "Lynn, my son sent me this picture from Salem, Massachusetts.  Interesting.  Hope you're having a good summer.  Bob Klop."

DQ

Judy's earlier post that included taking five grandchildren to DQ reminded me of the days when we would travel to Illinois. Six of us would be packed into a station wagon and then later a Suburban. We learned that when travelling and Dad would point to the right and say "Look over there" that we should look to the left because there would be a Dairy Queen!

On to Florida !!

Ok..so you wanted  to follow us as we mindlessly get lost all over Fl.  We left Madison, Al after an outstanding breakfast with Joey and Mary!  That Mary is one outstanding cook>   We were headed for either Destin or Gulf Shores,   Well after many U-turns and a whole bunch of "bickering" we registered at Beachside Resort in Panama City, Fl.  (don't ask)   The picture, I hope I can post is from our fourth floor room over looking the Gulf of Mexico.   Tonight we are going out to a late--  five star restaurant for steak and wine to celebrate our 50th alone!   Tomorrow we will head to Tallahassee, Fl and Bruce Klop family home.    Then on Friday on to Jax  to be with Jerry, Angela, and Nathan.

I told a guy on the elevator that the thermostat in our car said it was 100 degrees outside, remind me again why we are doing this!!   Hope the pic works....here it goes...

Best peach pie since Grandma K  !!!    Headed to Gulf Shores and Thurs night stay all night at Bruce Klop.   This is really a test to see if I still have pw and such to post!!!

This n That

A couple of weeks ago I flew to Houston to visit Gloria. I had a great time with her and Jamie and her family. Gloria is doing well and likes her new place. You can see why!

 

She has made some good friends. In fact, everyone was very friendly and they all seem to enjoy Gloria.

 

I was just sad that I didn't get a good picture of Gloria and myself. So I tried to get a selfie of us...but as you can see, she did not cooperate and backed out of the picture!

 



 

You may have seen some pictures on FB of Perry, Carol, Perry II and me on a fun boat ride on the Vermillion River. Bo worked really hard getting us and the boat in and out of the river, treated us to a relaxing ride, and a fun little island stop with a fire and a meal of chili and sweet corn. He did a fantastic job of showing us a good time.



I have found a fun place to train for hiking in East Peoria at the Forest Park Nature Center. It is a beautiful place and just challenging enough to make me work hard while enjoying the beautiful scenery.

And lastly, I had these 5 kids with me one evening. We went to the Dairy Queen, very successfully! We got all ordered easily, they ate all their food, had an ice cream treat, and we all enjoyed ourselves. They are: Carter (Jake and Malissa's), goofing off on the left; Joe (Sam and Shelley's), Phoebe (Jake and Malissa's); and Nate and Thad (Sam and Shelley's).

 

 

WHAT'S NEW WITH YOU??

Wisconsin Vacation Again

Sarah took this picture, and I just had to post it.  The first night at the resort, she set up her camera with a timer and ran and got in the picture.  It worked! ---Carol

50th Anniversary Open House Photos

I received these pictures from Jerry and Ada's 50th anniversary open house and thought they ought to be put on here.  Great photos - looks like it was a lovely party!

Cleve's back to the family "cabin" for 11 days

 

 

Many of you are familiar with the "cabin" we owned for 35 years and sold 2 years ago -- and where Crystal, Aaron, and the 3 grand-boys grew up having so much fun.  Some heavy negotiating resulted in the seller (us!) getting "up to 2 weeks each summer, for 3 years" at the cabin ourselves....they move out, we move in!  So this, our 2nd year, all 8 of us just finished spending 11 fun days at the cabin, 14 miles north of Peoria.  The boys & their parents, along with Aunt Crystal had a ton of fun fishing, scooter-ing, lots of swimming, catching turtles, crawdads, frogs, etc., etc.  The new owners have lots of toys -- a paddle boat, 4 kayaks, 3 paddle-boards, a fishing boat, etc. etc. so there was no idle time. 
We were so happy to enjoy a KLOP EXTENDED FAMILY DAY there 2 years ago on July 4th, just before the sale and were glad that over 40 of you were able to join us!

 The 3 grandboys (Caleb, Carter, and Cooper) jumping and diving off the community "tree-stump-turned-into-diving board". 

          Caleb and Carter with their freshly caught crawdads -- later to be used as fishbait!  Don't look at Kathleen in the background!  (she went to town on day #4 to water her flowers and stepped in a 4" hole in the yard and BROKE her fibula bone near her ankle -- now nursing her leg in a heavy boot cast.)  That might be worthy of a future Blog post all by itself !

         An evening convertible ride down Santa Fe Road to the 1906 concrete railroad overpass.
        The road and beautiful scenery makes you think you are in Kentucky or Arkansas!

         We celebrated 3 birthdays....Caleb, 13   Carter, 11   and Kathleen,  ___.

    They all love to fish and are good at it!  Here's Cooper, age 7, with 2 bass he caught by himself.

               The ever-popular "stump".  All the boys' diving form get better and better each year!

               Carter is an expert frog-catcher.  Could that possibly be a profession someday???? 
           

                                                  Aunt Crystal swimming with the boys.

Paddle-board fun......

Home from China

Look who we found by the side of the road last night!!  (Just so you know, it was a pre-arranged meeting when he turned in his rental car.)  :-)

Wisconsin Vacation

David and Jonas

Supper time at the Resort

Sarah, Preston, Kyla, Ashton, Brandon, Matthew, Glenn

Our WET Hamburger Grillers

Charity, Sarah, Laura, Kyla, Anna (Maria took the picture.)

Ladies Shopping Day

Jonas and Grandpa

Anna and Laura 

New Matching Sweaters

Can you tell they are both horse lovers?

Children singing before afternoon church at Mauston, WI

I hope you don't mind so many pictures!  Monday evening, grilled hamburgers were on the menu so the crew went out to make them.  While they were at the grill site, a heavy downpour drenched them.  But thanks to several umbrellas, the meat was saved and tasted great! ---- Carol

Little Boys

David, Jonas and Anderson

Milan, Anderson, and David

Our family (28 of us) just returned today from several days in Wisconsin Dells.  This is the fourth time we've been there at Christmas Mountain resort, and the accommodations are as close to ideal as we are going to get ---I think.  I didn't take many pictures but we enjoyed a canoe trip, sand volley ball, swimming and minature golfing.  Best of all was the singing when we would all gather in one of the townhouses for our meals.  9 year old Timon led the last song (coached by his 16 year old cousin, Ashton.)  It was, "God be With You Till We Meet Again."
Tuesday morning, Brandon and I watched 4 little boys at a playground while the women folk went shopping at an outlet mall. (Bruce and Glenn supervised the others.) I couldn't get all four together for a picture so I took a few.  Grandma's purse was a big hit!  They are so busy and so cute and just  . . . little boys!  ---Carol

Memorabilia!

It's summertime, and Ann is going through files, drawers, and memorabilia.  So who knows what you might see in the days to come!  This pic is small, and not the greatest quality, but doesn't it bring back a lot of memories!!!

Summer Fun at Grandma's (and Grandpa's)

Carter, Andrew, Ellie, Heidi, Julia

Anderson

Caleb, Laura, Anderson, Sarah, Ashton

We had 6 out of 7 Endress children here for two nights. We loved having them, and the weather broke in our favor.  I met Liz to pick them up in the rain and met Bruce to take them back in the rain.  But yesterday the weather was great, and we were out in it for hours.  I delight in how much fun the cousins have with each other! A high point was the text from Ashton on his birthday, Wednesday.  He got his driver's license, (which I think is the official beginning of adulthood.)  I regret that I didn't get pictures of (almost 17 month old) David.  ---Carol

And....We're Home

This is probably of no surprise to any of you if you were following our Appalachian Trail journey. We made it 2 1/2 days. They were hard and hot days, and Dave had had enough. He was adamant about quitting and rented a car...and we were home. You can all imagine what kind of a ride home that was!

So I returned all of Dave's hiking gear and I am in search of new hiking partners. I don't know when it will work out to go back and give it another whirl...but any company would be welcome...from a few days to as long as you are willing to hike.

Drake and Owen...maybe it will work out next time!

Sioux Falls

Perry and I spend the weekend in Sioux Falls with Preston and Kyla.  The weather was pleasant and we enjoyed ourselves.  I am always enthralled with the pink rock out there.  I took pictures of Preston and Kyla on her camera but didn't get any good ones on mine. ---- Carol

Aunt Minerva Saying

Yesterday may have been Father's Day, but I had the perfect opportunity to use Aunt Minerva's saying that I love. I was texting with Mark who shared that they were grilling steaks for dinner. As I closed the conversation I texted him, "Share my love with everyone but save some for yourself."

Any other Aunt Minerva stories to share?

Here We Go!

 

We are packed up and ready to head out tomorrow. We are driving to Olney and our grandson Christian is driving us to Hot Springs, NC. We will stay the night in that little town and then head out early the next morning.

I have started up the journal again at www.trailjournals.com/knobbies/.

No pressure...but you can follow us through that site and, along with your laughs and shaking of the head, and tsk, tsk...we would take all the prayers we can get! You can sign our guestbook on the left side of the page. We would love to hear from you!

PRECIOUS TIME WITH KELSIE

Kelsie came to Illinois to meet her precious little niece, Jett. She is spending some time with us also and we are enjoying that. She spent quite a bit of time working on "fixing" my EJK Blog problem. Hopefully, you will all be able to see this post and I will be able to begin communicating with you again.