And What a Three day Weekend it was!

We are finally back at home after a action packed, fun filled three day weekend.

We started out with our road trip to Iron Mountain, Michigan.

We had never been to that area of Wisconsin or Michigan before and it is such pretty country.

John had an interview with a company up there and that company put us up in a beautiful motel and paid us generous mileage.

The interview was early on Friday AM.  By all accounts, it went well.  We should hear something early this week.  We are cautiously optimistic.

 

At 11:00, we left Iron Mountain for Manitowoc all dressed for Nicole and Josh's wedding.

We had to be at the church by 1:30.

For a bit, I was afraid we weren't going to make it, but we pulled into the church parking lot with ten minutes to spare.

The wedding was beautiful, very elegant. Nicole was beautiful.

After the ceremony, we had three hours before the reception so we had a late lunch with Ruth and Larry at a cute little candy story that looks like it belongs in the 1950's.

The food was delicious and cheap.  We even ended our lunch with a turtle sundae, YUM!

It was so nice to spend time with the Parkers, such nice, good people.

 

The reception was at Fox Hills.

It was just my kind of food, fried chicken, ham, mashed potatoes, corn, and coleslaw, does it get any better than that?  Not for me.

We stayed till about nine and then drove to Oshkosh to stay at the Van Auken B and B.

We arrived up there by 10:00, had a few beers and visited with Courtney and Paul. 

 

On Saturday we left bright and early for the Milwaukee Zoo on our annual trip.

Vikki and Kev gave us an annual family pass to the zoo so we were able to get in for free.

It was a perfect day, overcast and not too hot.

We always start our zoo day with a trip on the train and this trip was no different.

There were lots of people at the zoo, but we were able to walk right on the train, no waiting.

Soli was so excited for our train ride.

As we always planned long before a second grandchild was in the picture, Tiz and I always sit together on the train ride.  Bumpa gets to sit with Soli.

After the train, it was the merry go round.  Soli loves her merry go round, too.

We had an overpriced zoo lunch and then finally saw some animals.

Isn't it funny, there is so much more to do at a zoo, it is hard to even take time to see the animals.

Soli was enjoying the monkeys.

We paid to see the Sea Lion show and it was well worth it.

Tiz especially enjoyed leaning about sea lions and watching them do tricks.

Every year, we pose by the snake sign.  Mostly because we do not like snakes.

This year, Tiz was fascinated by the timber rattlers. 

We called her the little snake charmer since the snake would follow her finger.

She may be leaving my "hate snakes club" and becoming a fan of them.

Both girls crawled in the stroller when we had to make a long walk to another part of the zoo.

Lots of laughs from both of them.

It was then popsicle time.

Soli loves her popsicles.

She loves lots of things, doesn't she?

John and I had bought one ice cream sandwich to share and Soli wanted that, too.

Two fisted, very messy little lady.

Back in the stroller.

This is our tour guide, Pete the Peacock.



We followed him for a long time.

Then it was up close and personal with the giraffe.

We saw some really wonderful things at the zoo.

We made some great new memories and look forward to our next zoo trip.

Soli fell asleep as soon as she was in her carseat.

Tiz asked if we could eat at Glass Nickel Pizza where she loves the Nickel Nuggets, so we agreed.

What a great decision.

We loved the pizza and the best part is the owner who remembers the girls from past visits.

He brought each of them a huge Mr. Freeze for finishing all the food on their plates.

Such a family friendly place.



When we got back to Courtney and Paul's we opened the gifts that we had brought for Soli's first Soliversary

The soliversary is when we celebrate the first day we met our sweet little lady.

Just one year ago and I cannot imagine life without that precious little girl.

I gave her some of her own tic tacs and you would have thought I gave her the moon.

Just another one of her loves.

We celebrated with cookies and milk.

Here we are with our two blessings after a busy, busy day.

 

Today, Sunday, Courtney went to a zumba training class.

Paul, John, the girls and I went to church.

We wanted to take them to Cherry Berry Yogurt, but we did not have car seats, so we could not drive there.

After some discussions, we decided we would bike there

Tiz would ride the tag a long on the back of Paul's bike which John would ride.  Confused, yet?

Soli would travel in the trailer on the back of Courtney's bike which I would ride.

Paul would drive there to meet us and join us for the yogurt treat.

It all worked out beautifully

On the way home, Paul rode his bike with Tizita and I had Soli, John drove the car home.

Wonder what people thought when they saw a 40 year old man, a 60 year old woman, and two small kids.  I know I would have been wondering about such a situation.

Funny stuff.

I was just happy that I could keep up with Paul on the ride home.

After our ride and treat, John and I left for home.

Paul and the girls were in the middle of a big squirt gun fight

 

It was a great weekend.