Family Picnic and new La Z Boy Loveseat in the motorhome

On Monday night, our son and daughterinlaw (Dan and Heather) came over with the grandtots for a little family cookout.  It was so good to see little Mason and Allegra again.  She is such a clown, and goofing off for attention from her grandparents. Mason is such a happy little baby and is learning to sit up and topple over, squiggle on the blanket on the ground and grin foolishly when we talk baby-babble to him!   Here he is intently watching his big sister, to figure out this crawling thing.

We grilled out some burgers and hot dogs, enjoying the sunshine and much cooler temps this week in Wisconsin.  I also was able to cook during the day and not roast myself outta the motorhome.  Simmered up some taters for tater salad and a slow cooked a pot of calico beans.  Temps are finally in the "normal" range around here.  (mid 70's days and 50-60 at night)    While the others ate, I hung around with Mason on the blanket.  First I fed him a bottle, then I was having fun feeding him green beans!  Wow... 4 months old and now working on veggies.  What a little man.

The other reason the kids came to visit was that Steve and Dan loaded up our recliners into the back of Dan's pickup truck.  They will match in the kid's livingroom and we are glad they can use them.  The loveseat gets delivered today, so we needed to get the recliners out last night.

After dinner, little Allegra and I walked back down by the water to see the fishies, and the sparkles on the water from the setting sun, and we picked up some acorns from the ground.  Seeing the world through a 2 year old's eyes is FUN!    She posed as a model for us and we plopped little Mason down for a shot.  He was not happy about it.  Guess he wanted the camera for himself?

It is sooo nice to have this cottage to park at for a week.  Located in a quiet location along the shoreline of the Green Bay.  Thanks again to Ernie and MaryEllen for letting us park here to enjoy your wonderful vacation abode.

I am waiting this morning for the loveseat to be delivered by McMahons of Luxemburg... they will carry it right in the motorhome and assemble the backs on it (they come off for transportation) ...

This noon, I am meeting up with daughter Erin and little grandson Clayton.  They have his 4 month old checkup today and then we are going out for lunch.   After that, Erin has a dentist appointment, so I am going to watch little Clayton for a while.  Looking forward to more time with the wee grandtots.  This weekend we will be babysitting both Mason and Allegra on Friday night in the motorhome.  Thank goodness for portacribs!   Allegra is going to sleep on our loveseat --- but I am sure she will end up bouncing around in our big bed too!


I took some of my flowering baskets from the house before we left.  One is a big begonia and the other is a climbing rose vine.  While here at the cottage I have them setting out on this cute wishing well.  Otherwise they can hang from the awning when it is extended.  I also have a windowbox of coleus that is growing well too.  

So I guess when we get to the campground next week, we will start looking like full-timers when we put out flowering garden plants around our rig, eh?

(this portion added now after 9 a.m.) 

The furniture store found us, and delivered our new loveseat! 

Backed in their delivery truck right up in front of the motorhome. 

Quick as a wink, they hauled in the seat base bottom piece

through our narrow 24" motorhome door. 

(we measured in advance)

 They adjusted the bottom screws for the padded carpeting on the feet.

While they went to the truck for the back rests, I snapped a pic of the seat base

They snapped the clips on the backrest sections and pushed it into place! 

There.. no more hitting the wall when we recline!   The seat portions actually scoot forward when you want to recline, and it does not hit the wall behind.  Thus-- called a "Wall-hugger" design by La Z Boy.   We have a lot more room now in front of the loveseat.   With our recliners we need about 12-14" space behind the chairs to recline.  This loveseat is more practical.

The little bench type coffee table with the woven mat in the foreground also doubles as a stand for my table loom.  It can roll up to the seat for me to weave, or roll away on the casters to the other side wall when not in use.  

I am sitting on it right now as I type this.  Pretty comfy, I must say!




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Wonderful Weekend

As we are settling into this full time living thing in the RV, we are making a few changes as we still unpack and sort and arrange things.

One thing we noticed is that the recliners we bought last year are not very practical.  They need to be pulled out sooo far into the room if you want to recline on them.  They waste about 12-14 inches behind each chair.  And if you don't pull them out far enough, they catch on the edge of the window frame when putting them back upright.   Time to make a change....

Sooooo we went shopping for the "wall hugger" style recliners.  We looked at all the big stores in the city.  Ewwww pretty high prices on the La Z Boy brand, but they seemed to have the nicest "wall hugger" design.  We discovered that we liked the loveseat idea instead of 2 separate chairs (like our blogger friends Janna and Mike had in their motorhome)  There is a small mom and pop style furniture store not too far from where we are parked, so we headed over there.  Not only did they have what we wanted, in a nice color, in stock...but on SALE!   For a LOT cheaper than what the big stores in Green Bay had!   They will deliver it for FREE on Tuesday right into the motorhome!   Plus, I feel better supporting a small town store (McMahons of Luxemburg)  and Steve also knew one of the salesmen who had kids the ages of our sons and played ball together.

Our son Dan and Heather will come and take these recliners off our hands, and they match their couch already in their house.  Although they were good recliners for the year we had them in our motorhome, and we bought them at a good price, but we would like the extra space in front of the chairs instead.


Another little helpful thing I learned this week ---  I had seen another RVer with these thin velour hangers at the laundry area in Holtwood campground last weekend.  They are thinner in profile than regular plastic hangers.

 BEFORE                                      HANGERS                                           AFTER            

one white plastic hanger on the right

is as thick as 2 or 3 of the black velour ones

You can get a lot more thin type clothing compacted better in lesser space in the closet.   She said the ones at Walgreens are better and stronger than the ones at Walmart, and they were on sale right now!  Sure nuff---   2 packs for $10 of ten packs of hangers.   I snatched up 40 of them to try them out.   I think I will still keep some plastic hangers for heavier things and hanging jeans on.  What is also an added benefit is they are velour covered, so your things do not slip off.  In a moving motorhome, that is a real plus!

Big storms blew through on Saturday afternoon and evening.  We mostly stayed inside and hunkered down.

Sunday morning, we slept in a bit --- trying out this full timing retirement attitude.  LOL  Then Steveio got up on the roof and removed the shrouds on our AC units to clean the inside coils.  He did a good job on the cleaning by blowing out with his compressed air tool.   He has his big tank air compressor on board to run all of his air tools.  A happy man has his happy tools along.

In the afternoon, our friends Sharon and Fred came for a visit.  They brought along their yellow lab, Brandie, who HAD to hop in the water right away.  Of course.  Would you expect less of a lab?  

Steve tossed some steaks on the grill, and Sharon brought plenty of treats to go with the meal.  We sat and gabbed and marveled at the great day.  Temps in the 70's, low humidity, nice breeze off the bay.  Wow... what a choice for a picnic with good friends. 

 Sharon made a very good dessert with strawberries, kiwi, angelfood pieces and a whipped base of sugarfree vanilla pudding mix and whipped cream.  Yummmmm

The guys wandered on down by the water, and checked out the lift device for the pontoon boat. Steve is going to help Ernie (the cottage owner) to add a different unit to lower and raise the boat easier.  The lowering water levels of Green Bay and Lake Michigan are causing a lot of problems with the owners of docks and boat lifts I guess. 

We gabbed till the sun went down... and wow.. what a great sunset it was!  

 Good friends, good food and good weather.  

What a Wonderful Weekend! 

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