A visit to Green Bay

We have lived in Wisconsin nearly three years now and have yet to have made a family trip up to Green Bay to visit Andy’s brother Mark. So we decided to plan out a little piece of time to go up and spend some quality time with Mark.

Andy’s parents were nice enough to watch the dog for us for the weekend while we drove up for the visit, which was so nice to not have to worry about bringing her along or figuring out what to do with her. We started our visit at Green bay Botanical Gardens which is where Mark works. he is practically a celebrity in Green Bay and you can see he deserves it just by the way the garden looks. it has really become an amazing place. The newest addition is the Hobbit house, which is actually a bathroom facility. How cool is that!

You can see jack on top of the Hobbit house. The back is actually a hill that is climbable. They have a very cute children's garden that has a huge tree house with a slide as well as a stream with big Koi fish in it.

There are a ton of places to climb and discover and watch the local wildlife. We also got a special VIP tour of some of the undeveloped areas.

The next day we spent at Bay Beach riding all the rides and generally having a good time. My favorite was the big slide.

You can just make out Mark and Andy in the second to the last car riding Elvis’s favorite roller coaster The Zippin’ Pippin’.

After wards we had some ice cream and took a short walk down by the Fox river. All in all a great trip, but I am sure Mark was more than ready to see us go.

Summer Vacation 2012

This summer we were lucky enough to be able to take  advantage of the generosity of Andy’s Godmother, Sigrid, who allowed us to stay at her family’s cottage on Lake Redstone. We had such a good time and the kids had more fun than they knew what to do with. Andy’s mom, Ann, and his brother, Mark were able to join us for the week and we did all things boating, fishing, swimming, and family related.

There were a few hiccups that we could have done without. The first being when the dog was attacked by bees and her face swelled to three times its normal size. After a few Benadryl and a good nights rest this was rectified with a renew fear of the water. The second was when little Alex took a tumble of about six feet down the steep slope that leads to the lake and fell in. He was lucky enough to get away with only a few scratches on his face and a fat lip. The third was when me and the kids were riding on the hot dog behind the boat and we hit the wake and took a fast hard plunge into the middle of the lake. It wasn’t that bad, but for the kids it hurt a lot more than they expected and they were none too happy with their Daddy for ‘making’ them fall off. Other than those incidents all went pretty well.

Echo after she got stung by bees. You can see around her eyes how puffy and swollen they are. Her nose is pretty swollen in this picture too.

We saw the Big Cat Rescue Center.

Almost everyone caught a fish. Alex didn’t have the patience, but they were all too small to keep except the last one I caught.

This was the first time I had been fishing and my very first fish.

Mark caught a baby catfish.

Jack caught a baby Blue gill.

This is where Echo could be found after her bee incident.

The boys built a shelter of sorts.

Alex after we cleaned him up from his tumble.

Of course something as little as almost killing himself isn’t going to stop Alex from having fun.

Jumping from the rocks across from the boat dock.

Alex zip lining.

Love this old basement wall from the church Ann is helping to restore.

We eventually got Echo back down to the water with some gentle persuasion. She looks happy, right?

Felt like a 150 steps to get up and down to the water, but I think it was more like 50.

The kids had so much fun swimming.

So did the adults.

Beautiful foggy morning after a hard rain during the night. We were lucky that it rained only at night and then right when we were packing up to leave.

Did a little rappelling.

And some zip lining.

The kids really liked Daddy’s impromptu zip line.

They both went twice.

Andy was hot-dogging on the hot dog.

The brothers Konlock tried their best to knock each other off the hot dog.

Mark’s hot-dogging around led to me and Alex falling in the water. Alex was not happy.

Mark was doing tricks too. Look ma no hands.

Jack doing tricks on the hot dog.

Pulling into port. Jack is eager to get back in the water to swim. I had to convince him to not try to swim back from the middle of the lake.

Swimming in from the ride on the hot dog.

Spending time with family (well, practically family)

My best friend Josie, her kids and her mom (who is like a second mom to me I spent so much time with them) all came to visit for a few days. After a little hiccup in the actual getting here part, fun then ensued.

We started off with a little trip to Country Springs Indoor Water Park which, according to Hector, was “paradise”.

I think that I am surprised each time we come here that my kids are so independent that they will run and try all the rides over and over again with no help from an adult. They are fearless.

We also took  a drive out to the 7 Mile Fair which was kind of a disappointment, but we left there to go to Lake Michigan, got lost along the way, wound up in some kind of foundry, and finally made our way to downtown where we had lunch at the Public Market.

From there it was down to the River walk where we…

hung children from bridges…

and their parents,

did a little sightseeing,

made some friends,

and climbed some walls.

We also did a little experiment (yes, that is actually on his head even though it looks like I photo shopped a cloud onto him). It’s amazing what a microwave and a bar of Ivory soap will do when they get together.

All in all we had a really good time and we were all so sad to see them go. Alex developed a crush on Alena and was constantly worried that she didn’t like him. He also developed a slight rivalry with Baby Jojo and made sure everyone knew how he felt about “that baby”. Jack and Hector bonded over a video game of which I am still completely in  the dark about what you actually do in it. Of course the adults bonded over food and conversation (most of which was very witty and somewhat nonsensical).

I may have gained just a couple of pounds from all the food we ate, but it was completely worth being with my best friend and her family!