Coast to Coast

School was back in session for two whole days and then it was time to go coast to coast in just under four hours.  There is just no good way to make the slogging cross state drive at an average speed above 45 mph.  That didn't get us down and we had a blast once we pulled into the LaX abode and found a IA5 representative too!  The cousins had all aged a little but everyone including the adults fell into the natural conversational catch-up rhythm  of great families and great people.  The campfire kept the mosquitoes away and Muncle Arky started smoking a slab of meat for the morrow while B-rad started on a pot of beans.  Good meals required 24 hour prep times and the meal didn't disappoint.  In between backyard games and shooting at squirrels we headed out in the late morning to take in the tristate view from atop of Granddad's bluff.  The park is newly renovated, minus one of the access roads, and even at those heights one still feels safe behind the large steel tubed fencing.  Then we headed to the lower elevations for ice cream and burgers around Pearl Street and even a short stroll along the Mighty river.  We headed out in time to spend the Holiday of the holiday weekend at home and the kids awoke in the back yard.  They had added sleeping under the stars to their summer to do list and it still seemed like we all had a summer attitude so Sunday night was an under the stars night.  Ella slept long after the others were back in the house and ready for the day...but at least she was up before I had to mow around her!

That's a Wrap....almost!

 

After a back to school day and meet your teacher time we sneaked out on the first school night of the new school year for some ice cream before practices started.  But we did manage it spend the last weekend before the new school at High Cliff state park for a rainy but very enjoyable camping trip.  We headed down Friday afternoon and set with plenty of time for brats and playground time.  Grace even worked on her guitar skills a little bit and there was plenty of ax practice as well.  By the end of the weekend the younger two were able to cut the kindling for the fire.  The park has a rich history as a lime area from all the dolomite rocks that make up the high point and this geology creates great trails for hiking around.  We managed to find and eat sumac, choke cherries, apples, grapes and plenty of shag bark hickory nuts.  The nuts made it back to camp and got cracked open with the available stones around camp.  They are a tasty treat reward for the effort.  The rain didn't hamper the weekend too much.  We kept a nice fire going and snacked and lounged our way through Saturday.  Sunday we packed up and headed to the mall for a full day of school clothes shopping and food court lunches.

Little Work, Lotta Play

It is getting harder to deny the approach of another school year but we are doing our best. We headed down to TR to help Amy set up her room and the kids did help quite a bit but also found some time to ripstik through the hallways. Amy had to keep working but the rest of us embraced what was left of the summer and headed out for some fishing on the Fox.  It was plenty windy but with gobs of nightcrawlers and plenty of weight to keep them on the bottom we fished our little hearts content.  We did catch a couple of round gobies, an invasive species for our area, while we awaited river pigs to suck down our hooks.  Plenty of laughs even though we didn't get any of the sluggish carp that roam the waters.  A brief lunch break and then it was time to catch some of the Packers training camp, it was great to see Nelson and Rodgers playing catch again and with both of them a mere 60 feet away we could hear them joking with each other and the crowd.  Training camp never disappoints. We did hit the mall on the way home and the older girls ran around the mall like teenagers at a mall.  By the end of the day we headed a little south to take in a water ski show.  It was a great show with over 65 skiers and even a four-tiered pyramid and a somersaulting jumper during the hour long show.  We pack a lot of summer into a vacation but it doesn't appear that the school year is going to slow our adventures down too much either!

Hanging on to Summer

It started off as an good idea and ended up becoming an awesome idea and an wonderful day.  We dropped Grammie off at the Airport and said our good buys and then hit the big meat market to grab monster smoked turkey legs and sausage sticks.  Ella had put the Zoo on her summer bucket list and with time running we disregarded a rainy forecast and headed for the animals.  The temps were cool and the crowds were eerily nonexistent.  It was the foreshadowing suspense of the early pages of a Stephen King novel and being in the middle of it we too barely noticed.  Ella and Grace were able to feed and pet the Giraffe and as the searched for moose and watched the primates groom each other I thought maybe they had forgotten about the 1000 foot zip-line that ended at the front entrance of the zoo.  They had not, and with the zoo stroll done and our bellies still filled with meat snacks and polish pastries from Maplewood we hoofed it up the hill to check out the details for the Zip-line.  Grace was immediately excited "We have to sign wafers, that is how you know it is going to be fun!"  We did indeed need to sign waivers and regardless of her phonics training it was going to be no easy cookie!  Unfortunately somebody needed to watch the backpack and car keys and Amy took one for the team and didn't go on the Zip-line.  It starts on a rebuilt 50 foot fire tower and then heads a 1000 feet out over a pond and reaching speeds of about 30 mph.  As a value hunter, Amy noticed it was a better deal if we bought the package that included the Zip-line and the Ropes challenge course.  The highest level on the ropes course is about 40 feet in the air and the only way out is a mandatory 8 foot free fall before being slowed by a bungee harness.  The kids are also in charge of hooking themselves in with their carabiners while standing 40 feet in the air on 18 inch platforms and they disconnect from one safety cable and then reconnect to the next safety cable on the other side of the poles.  It is totally safe, but also totally nerve wracking for the parents on the ground.  The girls spent over an hour and maybe and hour and half clipping in and moving through the obstacles of spider nets, tarzan ropes and suspension platforms.  We as parents spent that same amount of time pacing, hollering "be careful' and generally sweating and shaking our heads at each other.  With the girls back on the ground it was time to hit the local pizza place before rounding out the night with a backyard fire.

"Home" Again for awhle

 
We are Home again for awhile between traveling adventures.  The garden is in full bloom and the house is starting to collect school supplies as football season starts up as well as a fall soccer league for Sophia.  But being home seldom means that we are actually home much longer than it takes to weed some flower beds and check on the garden for a dinner salad.  Merrick was named Captain of his football team and gets to lead the team in stretches as well as about a fourth of the teams through drills.  His games will start next week.  Grace had an audition with a guitar teacher and we are waiting to hear back about her acceptance to his program.  She is looking to get back into the routine and the house has had a couple of haunting scales from the clarinet as Ella gets her fingers loosened up for the jazz band tryouts in the early weeks of summer.  Grammie came for a week visit and all the kids were very excited to see her come.  She did take and unfortunate spill on a bike and broke her wrist in several places, this put an obvious damper on the visit, but she didn't let it slow her down too much.  We still hit the pool for an afternoon for some high dive fun and splashing around and then also checked off the first trip to Bay Beach for the summer.  The kids hit all of the big rides including the two trips on the Zippin Pippin and after more than four hours we figured we needed a trip to Twigs to refuel with the summer nectar of Pirates Bounty, Daily Grind, Mackinac Island Fudge Swirl and other life sustaining ice cream flavors.

Like a Bonus Day!

 

Grandprize and Grandma were in the Door and invited us our for a lunch date!!  Silly grandparents, lunch isn't a summer thing....ice cream is a summer thing...so we meet them in Sturgeon Bay at the Frozen Spoon.  The ice cream was great and the weather was perfect as we chatted about their vacation and ours.  We walked down to the water's edge to dip our toes in and marvel at the giant yachts that were moored in the harbor.  The visit was way too short so we extended it by heading north to the Fun Park for some water balloon battles and some Go-kart racing.  Ella quickly pointed out that there wasn't any way to win the Water wars, but I think they will all remember that they won the Go kart race.  With some hugs in the parking lot we finally headed different directions that both lead to vacation.  I am not sure about theirs but ours meant a stop for cherry picking. With a couple of buckets of tart cherries....Merrick's face indicates that some were more tart than others...we made our final leg home.

Back to the Boot!

We delayed our early start to wait out the pending rain but we were all hooked up with the new 3-bunked mobile cabin and eager to get going.  It was time to get back to the Nicolet and spend some quality family time and continue the traditions of Boot Lake.   Wednesday night was a little rainy, but that gave us some time for checkers matches and quality time inside the new ride.  Sophia even found enough room to pace around until she hit 10000 steps on her pedometer.  A big breakfast was postponed skipped by Amy and I as we decided to pack up and move a couple of sites down the road to a much nicer campsite.  The move was only an hour and gave us a great campsite with enough room for Kubb.  After the move it was decided that the ever anticipated trip to the candy store was already overdue.  The kids loaded up all things sweet and a couple packs of candy cigarettes as well.  A quick run across the street to the bait shop also rewarded us with a box of worms for a little bobber fishing.  The older girls had already done plenty of planning and a day of shopping for this years theme night.  They had organized several games, like bago, ball toss and badminton bounce and rounded the prize winning games off with a big beach ball pinata.  There was plenty of sugar for everyone.  Campfires and smores round out the evenings and days were spent in the water.  The kids were fortunate enough for more than a hour of tubbing in which Amy and Ella were the only ones to get dumped.  We also made our way over to Fanny lake for a short hike and some snorkeling.  Grace snorkels like a duck.  With their life jackets on for bouancy it was hard to free dive deeper.  Grace had her ducktail high in the air as she pushed her goggled face deeper into the glacial lake.  A hike to the far side of the Fanny to check out a remote campsite and plan for the future rounded out a great way to take in some sunshine.  The kids spent multiple hours constructing fairy houses from materials scavenged in from the woods.  I am not completely sure but apparently it was inspired by cupcake wars or maybe cakeboss or iron kitchen...whatever the inspiration they seemed to have plenty of fun doing it.  Grace was rudely awaken followed by the rest of us as Sophia got sick in the bunk.  It was dark and we were wholely unprepared for such an occurrence.  It was decided to load up all the sleeping bags, bunk mattress and head back to town for a night of laundry.  We made it back in time for breakfast the next morning.   There was plenty of time for slingshooting rocks at beer cans, whittling and firestarting.  Sophia and Ella gave dutch oven cooking a try and made a great struessel to accompany some bacon and eggs all made over the open fire.  Just a great place and we hated to leave it.