Omaha and Aerosmith

As mentioned yesterday, after the wedding shower in Rockford, we continued driving to Omaha, NE to visit with Jo's oldest sister and her family.  We arrived just around midnight after an uneventful drive, with very light traffic, in which we got to see the beautiful, corn fields of the Midwest.  We then spent the week reconnecting with family.  All told in the Omaha area, besides Jo's sister and husband, is our nephew Brendan, our nephew Jimmy and his wife Becky (I think she is a niece-in-law, or maybe just niece - I've never been sure how that works) along with their two kids, Reese and JP (short for James Patrick) which would be our great niece and great nephew (although I think this would seem to elevate them above our standard nieces and nephews as they are by default, "great" - not sure that is entirely fair).  Anyway, all the family titles aside, it was fun seeing how much the kids have grown and their amazing ability to learn.  Sure wish I could learn that quickly again.  It was a great visit and the three sisters all had a lot of time to chat while I found lots of time to catch up on some reading since Jo had her sisters to entertain her.  The only downside was the incredible heat and humidity which blasted most of the Midwest last week and which made running a real challenge.  Fortunately, Mary and Mike have a pool out back which was nice to cool off in late in the day.  All too soon it was time to pack up the car and face the 9 hour drive back to Milwaukee via Madison.

We came back to the end of the heat wave and spent our Friday tidying up around the house.  Then Saturday we had visit from John and Linda and their daughter Alyssa.  After lunch at the house we found a reason to be near the Copps custard shop to enjoy some tasty ice cream specials since we have a tradition with John and Linda of always finding desserts that aren't really good for you (but are good for the soul, as Jo likes to say).  Just to help buffer it some, we did have fruit salad at lunch.  They then headed back to Lake Geneva while we went to Summerfest.  We had tickets to see Aerosmith but went early to see some of the bands on the other stages.  We quickly discovered that there is a reason not all bands become famous, as some of them really need to find a lead singer who can sing while others should learn than just playing random chords on the guitar really loud doesn't constitute music - at least in my opinion.  We worked our way to the Marcus Amphitheater to hear Aerosmith who had Cheap Trick as their opening band.  Cheap Trick did a great job and really got the crowd into the music.  Aerosmith was absolutely phenomenal, especially when you consider how long they have been playing.  Steven Tyler bounced around like a 20 year old and while his voice isn't as strong as when he was younger, he still can belt out a tune.  Great show.

Sunday we put up our feet and rested to be ready for having to go back to work - well at least Jo had to do that.  Jo went for a long bike ride and made it all the way to Cedarburg on the various local bike trails.  She was gone about four hours - I on the other hand did a much more conservative run and had the morning to enjoy reading the Sunday paper while a cool breeze blew through the house.  I also got to enjoy my 1 minute of fame (or two if you read slow) as our new laundry space was in the local paper along with a photo of yours truly.  Fortunately, the online edition of the paper doesn't display the article, so unless you got the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel yesterday you can't see me - thank goodness.