Grandpa's taking us to the zoo tomorrow, we can stay all day

The weather was absolutely gorgeous for our trip to the zoo today. Both John and I had really been looking forward to this day at the zoo with Tiz. It is always magical to see the zoo through the eyes of a child and when that child is our sweet Tiz, it is even more magical. We started our day with a tour of the family farm. After the farm, we headed to the Merry go round and the train. Tiz wanted to ride the merry go round all by herself, so after one trial run where I held onto the zebra's tail only, I figured she could do it alone without falling off or freaking out. She did great, I guess she won't need me standing beside her on the merry go round anymore.

We made pennies into medals everytime we spotted one of these machines. Tiz had the machine mastered after the first time and she enjoyed playing with all her little "pennies" on our way home.

Just like last year, we had to have our picture taken by the snakes sign because we both love snakes so much, not! And just look what Tiz did next...

She rode a real pony! What a change from last year when she wouldn't have gone anywhere near a live animal let alone ride on one! She was so proud and so were we! Best $4.00 we ever spent.

After the pony ride Tiz enjoyed a Sponge Bob popsicle with gum ball eyes.

We ended our day in the goat yard where again Tiz loved touching the goats. She actually wanted to take this little guy home with her.

After our day at the zoo, we headed over to Alissa and Nathan's for dinner. John and I relaxed after our long day while Lis and Cheddah entertained Tiz. Here is the cute outfit that Alissa threw together for her. She wore it home and thinks it would be a nice Christmas outfit!

John and I had so much fun and we cannot wait until our zoo trip next year. We already decided we would take a camel ride.

John and Sherri quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

Well, let me answer that question for you. Our garden is growing very, very well. Our radishes have all been harvested and we are on the second crop of those. The lettuce has taken over and we have more than we can eat. The carrots are just about ready, I had the first onion on a salad and... the peas are finally popping out. These pea plants are huge and they are loaded with pods. We have sampled quite a few and they are so yummy. Why is it that everything tastes so much better right from the garden?

Now we are anxiously waiting for our tomatoes to ripen. You can see the plants below. They have so many little green tomatoes. The farmers tell us we need some dry weather now to help the tomatoes. We have had lots of rain during the month of June and I think that is why our crops have done so well so far. We also have cucumbers which are flowering so we are just waiting for that first salad with all of our home grown ingredients! mmmmmm!

We also have a new flower garden. John spent much of one day digging our a new garden for us which connected two flower beds that we had.

We went out to Ebert's with our coupons and were able to buy eight new perenniels for a very good price.

I finally got a black eyed Susan. I have been wanting one of those for quite sometime.

I am a daisy lover and have many, many regular daisies, but when I spotted these crazy daisies I could not resist buying a plant.

We have many lillies all around our yard and they always bloom so well for us. These are our yellow ones that are in our shade garden which is now part of the new, bigger garden. The label on lillies clearly says "plant in full sun" but we have had great luck with the ones in the shade, too. They bloom a little later than the ones in the sun, but they also seem to last longer.

And finally, here is the pretty bouquet I picked yesterday. There is nothing better than having fresh flowers in the house. Oops, accidentally deleted the arrangement and I cannot figure out how to get it back on here in the right place so it is up on the top now.

Father's Day Bike Ride

Father's Day 2010 and what a better way to celebrate than with a bike ride. John and I decided to ride the Glacier Drumlin Trail from Dousman to Waukesha. The weather was perfect for biking, light winds and partly cloudy skies which later turned to full sun. This portion of the trail goes uphill to Wales and then downhill to Waukesha hitting its highest point in Wales. Here we are at the rest area in Dousman just ready to set out on our adventure.
It was just a few minutes after 10:00 as we headed out.
As we rounded the curve in Dousman that heads along side Highway 18, we noticed a squad car with flashing lights on the Highway with a police officer stopping traffic. We were on the trail so we figured it wouldn't bother our travels, whatever the problem was. There were some cones set out on the trail, but the officer didn't say anything to us about turning around. We did notice that he sent five bicyclists off the highway on to the trail at his check point. A bicyclist coming our way told us we might want to turn around since he had just witnessed a bike/car fatality and we probably would not want to go that way and have to see the body. Another cyclist behind us said he was going ahead and we really wanted to get to our destination so on we went. The trail runs right along the Highway where the accident occured but I did not look. I just kept my eyes on the trail because I did not want to see any part of that accident. (but alas, I did sneak a quick peak) I was able to see the helmet lying there and a very mangled up bike, but that was all I glanced at. John said the body was covered up already. We met another couple about our age waiting at the other cones set up at the other end of the site. They had not been allowed to ride on the trail from that end, but when we got through they took off and were allowed through the opposite way. I am guessing they had just covered up the body and after that they were letting bikers ride past. We then ran into a family with a young child in a trailer, I told them I would think twice about taking the child past the site, not sure what they decided.
As we traveled up the hill and away from the highway, we turned around and snapped a picture just to document what we had just seen. You can't really see much here but we know exactly what was happening. (When I heard the news report, the accident happened at 10:00 and as you can see by the post we had begun at 10:00.) It was bad enough to come upon it after happening, but a few minutes earlier and we might have been eyewitnesses!

There were lots of people on the trail today, all ages, all body shapes, all riding past this accident site. It seemed there was an eery quietness as they passed probably out of respect and sadness.

After all this was someone's son and more than likely someone's husband, brother, father. I couldn't help but wonder who was going to be heartbroken when they heard the news. I don't think I was the only one who said a prayer for him,, his family, and for the driver who hit him.

We finally made it to Wales where we stopped for a short break. There were other riders there, too and again you could overhear the onversations and they all centered around the tragic accident. News certainly travels quickly up and down the bike trail.

I took this picture for Tizita. I was driving the train for her.

And Grandpa took a turn driving the fire truck.

At this point the battery in my camera expired so we have no more pictures of our adventure. We made it to Waukesha and had lunch at the Subway. We tried one of those new chicken salad sandwiches which were so yummy and then we were back on our trail again heading back to Dousman.

As we passed the accident site on the way back, three hours later, the emergency vehicles were still there as was Channel 12 news, and firefighters cleaning off the highway. Wow, that is a long time to be investigating the accident.

We ended up our ride with some yummy ice cream treats in Dousman. You know, we have to put back on all those calories that we just rode off on this 31 mile trek!

A Day of fun with the Hurtgens

We spent Wednesday with the Hurtgen boys and Meghan. It seemed like a long overdue visit. Lynne and I used to faithfully spend every Wednesday morning together for the last few years. Meghan was just a baby when we started walking on Wednesdays. For some reason it is harder to get together these days due to schedules and other things, but we were happy to get together on Wednesday. We started out by letting Tiz, Calvin, and Jacob ride their bikes. They all seemed to enjoy riding up and down the alley down our hill. Meghan was at Basketball camp so she didn't join us until later. Lynne and I even got some exercise walking up and down the road.

Here are the bikers before we headed down to the park to have some more fun.

After spending time on Chamberland we checked out the island and had fun with the all the ducks.

We ended our day with a trip to the Aquatic Center for some swimming. It was indeed a fun day and great to get together with such good friends again. Hopefully we can do it again soon.

32 miles (oops) on the Badger State trail

On Saturday we met Courtney, Paul, and Tiz in Belleville to ride the Badger State Trail from Belleville to Monticello. This is a nice trail, level, good scenery, and a tunnel thrown in for good measure. Here you see Tiz all ready in her "cart" for the big trip. She was equipped with Elmo, brownies and water. Courtney pulled her almost the entire way there until we decided to do some switching to give Courtney a much needed rest. Here we are at the beginning of the tunnel. It was very cool and foggy near the tunnel. This is not the longest tunnel on a bike trail but it is hailed as the darkest because it has a curve so you are not able to see the end. It is so dark in there! We had two small flashlights which helped a bit. I think I am glad you can't see in there becaue I am not sure I would be happy with what one might spot in there! It was also very wet with standing water on one end. Needless to say I was very happy to exit the tunnel safely on the other side.

Shortly after the tunnel is when we made the first switch with the cart. I took over and I did very well if I must say so myself. It is a great workout! I was feeling the burn in my legs.

We stopped for lunch at the M and M Diner in Monticello where we all enjoyed some great home cooking and a much needed Diet Coke for me. Tiz enjoyed some French Toast. Shortly after lunch we were back on the trail again.

But, not before I modeled Tiz's bike helmet.

Here Tiz is filling up her tires for the trip back.

It was a really fun way to spend the day together and get some good exercise at the same time. I have a speedometer, but it wasn't working until we left the restaurant. I was so excited to be able to figure out exactly how far we had traveled. Well, the miles turned quickly and by the time we arrived back in Belleville the odometer read 16.1 miles (or so we thought)! Wow, were we ever excited. When we got home we enjoyed pizza and a whole lot of ice cream because after all we had just biked 32 miles so a little (lot) of ice cream couldn't hurt.

I decided to consult my scrapbook and find out the last time that John and I had ridden this same trail. Found out it had been three years ago and I also found an official map which clearly showed the distance to be 9 miles from Belleville to Monticello so where did we come up with 16.1 and why did we eat all that ice cream?

Come to discover that the odometer was measuring kilometers, not miles and we couldn't take back all that ice cream!

Oh, well, 21 miles isn't anything to sneeze at and we still had a great, fun adventure.

Flat tire and Tag team bike/walk

We had an exciting Wednesday bike ride planned for today. It was a near perfect day for a ride except that the wind was a bit strong. We started out at Imagination Station in Oconomowoc and rode about four miles on the Lake Country Trail. It was paved, flat, and had lots of cross roads where we planned to bike on our return trip, but best made plans... We heard a weird clicking sound from John's back tire. We stopped, he checked, but saw nothing until he realized he was riding on a flat tire. Great, four miles out and we are going to have to walk one bike back. To top it off, John is not wearing his good walking shoes, this will not be good for his poor knees but we decide to tag team it back.

We took turns, one of us walked the disabled bike to a crossroad while the other rode my bike. It was definitely better to be the rider since you could circle around and get in a little extra riding time. I would venture off on the side roads when I was riding and waiting for John to catch up.

I was happy to see this sign since it meant we were back in Oconomowoc and didn't have too much farther to go to the park.

Here is John waiting patiently for me to arrive with his bike. There was one area that went through a swamp and I just knew it would be my turn to walk during that portion of the trail and sure enough, I was walking in the swamp. It was hot and I was just praying I would not see a snake crossing my path. I went pretty fast and luckily did not spot any snakes.

Here I am taking off for the last leg of the journey which would end up at the park.

I waited patiently for John to arrive.

Here is John after that last leg of the journey. We figured we covered 8 miles on our walk/bike ride. We decided to get the flat fixed right away so we headed over to Wheel and Sprocket in Delafield. They were able to fix it in 15 minutes and only charged $21.00 so we were on our merry way again pretty quickly.

We continued our ride around the lakes of Delafield. All in all a very nice day even with the flat!

Cupcakes, Vodka, Beer, and Pizza

Alissa and Nathan gave us a night at the Hunter Pub/Inn and a day of fun activities in Milwaukee for Mother's and Father's Day so we cashed in on that this last weekend. Alissa is always so good at planning the activities for us and we always have a great time. We began our afternoon with a trip to the Third Ward. We stopped in at the Goodwill Store there where all the clothes are hung on wooden hangers, I tried on a couple of items, but came to the conclusion that there are reasons people give their clothes away!
After the Goodwill Hunting we headed over to a Cupcake store. It wasn't exactly what we had expected but we did have four mini cupcakes. They were a bit dry, but the frosting was good. It started to sprinkle so we decided to go over to the Vodka Factory and check out the tour details. Truth be told, our whole weekend revolved around the Vodka Factory and the sampling. Since we were so early, the tour guide told us we should head over to the Iron Horse Hotel and check it out. We walked over there and we were not disappointed. It is a beautiful, old Hotel. Alissa and I had a Miller Lite while the gents had a gin and tonic. I guess they were getting themselves ready for the Vodka tour.

In exploring the Hotel, we found the Library room which was filled with old books, comfy chairs, and a fireplace. Alissa and I enjoyed a few books before heading back to our tour.

The tour itself was a bit on the long side and you had to just stand in one place for a long time while the guy talked about making Vodka, Gin, and Rum. Nathan and John were quite interested in the whole process, but Alissa and I were feeling like we might fall over at any time. There was a young lady with a walker and high heels, a man who ran into a screen door, and a man from Oklahoma who became fast friends with Nathan, but none of these events will seem funny unless you were there.

We are sampling the vodka here. Alissa and I mostly took one small sip and then handed it off to John and Nathan. It was very strong.

After our sampling at the Vodka Factory we went over to Captain Hart's, a favorite bar of the Hunters in Wauwatosa. We had a few pictures and two pizzas. All with a lot of great conversation and laughs. When we got back to the Hunter Pub and Inn we had a few more beers and watched some great TV. It was a most fun day.

We just want to thank the Hunters for their hospitality. I like that there is always something sweet waiting for us at their house. This time it was some yummy chocolate chip brownies. After some more TV today John and I took a nice long walk around West Milwaukee, Milwaukee, and West Allis (yep, you can walk in all three of those cities from their house) and finally headed home.

A Star is Born

Just needed to share this picture from our Preschool program. As you can see, Tizita is stealing the show. I think this will be trait of hers for most of her life!

A Bike, A Program, and Tiz time

It has been a fun filled last week of school. Tizita and Courtney came down on Tuesday for Preschool. We had our last practice that day for our Spring sing. In spite of having 31 kids there that morning I was able to keep my sanity.
John had gone out that morning while we were in school to buy Tiz a new little "real" bike that we had seen at Walmart. Just seeing her excitement was worth ten times the $40.00 it cost us. I wanted her to have a little bike so she could start riding and not have to wait until she was seven like Courtney. We only bought both girls a 20 inch bike and because of that, they were not able to master bike riding until they were six and seven. With this little bike, it looks like Tiz will be riding a training wheeless two wheeler before too long. On Tuesday Tiz wanted to ride to a store so she rode her bike over to St. Vinney's. She did crash once, but it was a minor crash due to not mastering the brakes yet.
After the bike ride, we went over to Kev's and swam for a little bit. The water was still a bit on the cool side, but Tiz got in and had some fun on the rafts. It was a nice way to begin the summer.

On Wednesday night we had our Spring Sing. It went well and the kids did a fine job. Tiz made us all proud as she sang the songs just like a pro.

We ended the program with singing, "The world is Rainbow." We sang that song many times at Mary Linsmeier and it always left everyone with such a warm, fuzzy feeling, that did not change this time around. This year my class truly was a mixing pot with Lily from Taiwan, Tiz, and six or so Hispanics so the song was a good one. In the picture below you can see how we ended the song by putting arms around each other and swaying back and forth. It was a touching moment.

On Thursday Tiz rode her bike all the way to St. John's for the Awards ceremony. After that we had lunch at Schuett's, rode home, and after a nice nap, rode around Marquardt Manor. It is amazing how well Tiz can control that bike on just the second day of riding it. She even stands up to pedal and rides with one hand. So much like her papa!

After a nice dinner of spaghetti and lettuce from the garden, we played some Uno and Old Maid. Tiz did very well with her first attempt at card games.

Tomrrow Tiz and Courtney return to Oshkosh. I will miss them and I will miss our weekly visits on Wednesdays, but we will have some special summer get togethers to look forward to.