Ozaukee Interurban Bike Trail

 Today John and I rode the Ozaukee Interurban bike trail.

We start out at Veteran's Park in Grafton.

When we started at around 10:30 the heat and humidity had not set in yet.

By the end of our ride, it was 89 degrees and humid.

We had not ridden this trail for a few years but remembered it as being a bit hilly

My memory was good, although there were some great improvements made to the trail since our last ride.

 The biggest improvement was this bike/foot bridge built over I-43.  The last time we rode, we had to ride over the highway on a regular road.

This bridge made it much easier and one would think safer, too, but as we were riding over the bridge a golf ball came flying out of nowhere and landed on the bridge near us.

We did remember seeing a golf course along the trail, but it seemed really far from this bridge.  Maybe an enraged golfer.

At any rate, we enjoyed the new trail and bridge.

 The trail is paved which is always a plus in our book and quite well travelled.

John and I do not wear helmets, totally our choice and we certainly respect those of you who choose to wear one

On this trail it seemed like everyone we met was wearing a helmet.

For a bit, I actually thought it might be a law.

I had never seen so many people actually wearing helmets on any other trail, but as the day wore on we noticed more and more people without helmets.

Must be the die hard cyclists ride early in the day.

 It is only about 8 miles from Grafton to Port Washington and you are rewarded with this beautiful view of Lake Michigan

Here I am on the sandy beach.

The trail is downhill or at least level all the way to Port Washington, but you know what that means, uphill on the way back.

 There are huge bluffs all along the beach.

 A view of the rock wall on the way to the beach.

 We found this cute park with a fish on the playground equipment.

I thought the girls would enjoy this photo.

 Here is our view from our lunch at the Dockside Deli where we enjoyed some yummy sandwiches and iced teas.

 Before heading back, we walked out on the rocks for a bit.

It would be a fun place for kids to walk.  I know the girls would love it.

It is safe enough with the rope to hold on to if needed, but the rocks do have cracks between them which adds some adventure.

 Like I said, what goes down must come up.

So it is with trails, the ride back to Grafton is pretty much uphill, but it was not that bad.

If it had not been so hot and humid I think it would have been just fine, but that humidity always gets to me.

This part of the trail was a nice gift though.  We called it the canopy because the trees touched over the top the trail and made a shaded cover for us and it was so nice and cool in that area.

We were also able to see some cows up close and personal along the way.

 

All in all, a very fun day on the trail.

I would recommend this trail to anyone especially families since the path is wide enough to accommodate trailers, training wheels, and tag a longs.

There are many bathrooms available both in Grafton and Port Washington as well as many good food establishments and lots to see and do.

I am hoping to be able to do this trail with Courtney and family since I think they would really enjoy it.

There ain't no doubt I love this land, God Bless the U.S.A.

We had a very nice 4th of July this year celebrating the birthday of this wonderful country in which we are so blessed to live.

The best part was that our chairs for the parade were actually in the shade the entire parade for the first time ever.

The girls really enjoyed the parade.  Soli's eyes would light up and she would squeal with excitement with everything that marched by.

She didn't even seem to mind that there were 500 tractors in this parade.

It must have been the year of the tractor!

Even with that, it was a good parade.

I bought the girls their cute little 4th of July outfits.

They were so cute, if I do say so myself.

Here they are in their very prime spots, shade and front row.

Vikki, Kev, Mal, and Nic gave Soli and Tiz these water bottle fans which were the best present ever.

They had such a great time keeping cool.

They even squirted their cool mist on some of the parade participants which was much appreciated.

Courtney and Paul joined us for part of the parade.

Here is the happy family enjoying the festivities.

Soli was more than happy to cool of Bumpa's feet, too.

After the parade we came home and had our traditional brats along with various red, white, and blue treats.

Bumpa and Soli worked hard to clean off her little house which had gotten quite dirty and neglected.

We put out the little pool as well as the shower we had purchased at St. Vinny's the day before.

We figured Courtney could just take it camping so she would always have a shower nearby.

The $3.00 we paid for it was such a bargain when we watched all the fun everyone had with that shower.

Alissa and Soli taking a nap or are they?

Paul demonstrated some wonderful jumping skills in the little pool.

Courtney was thrilled when I presented her with hat she wanted so badly for Florida.  It is going to be a community hat with all of us having wearing rights.

Oops, not so much of a nap going on here!

Bumpa and I will our sweet little firecrackers waiting for the fireworks.

Sweet Soliana and

Sweet Tizita.

Both looking just too cute.

There was lots of fun in the swing and finally,

the fireworks began!

It was worth the wait except for Soli who was very scared and kept saying, "Loud."

 

I loved everything about this 4th of July.

Family, friends, fireworks, and fun!

Thanking God tonight for such a wonderful country.

Hoping this wonderful country will find its way back to God before it is too late.

And despite the way our country is acting right now my prayer is:

God bless the U.S.A.

Happy Sedond Birthday to our sweet Soliana

We celebrated Soliana's second birthday on Wed. July 3.

Her actual birthday is July 7 and she will spending that special day with her family.

Before you ask, there were even more Elmos.

I made these two Elmo fruit plates which were a huge hit.

The raspberries and strawberries came from the Farmer's Market, so you know they were yummy.

 It took Soliana a little bit to learn to use the blowers, but she was so proud when she mastered the skill.

 One of the gifts that we gave her was one of those storybooks that you can record in your own voice. 

John and I have given Tiz some of these books and we felt it was time to get one for Soliana.

She loved listening to us read to her, but I am not sure she could quite figure out how it all worked.  She kept looking at us while the recording was playing.

 She enjoyed her Elmo cake.

 At first she wasn't quite sure about the candle and what to do with it, so Tiz and I showed her how it's done.

 By the time the cupcakes rolled around, she had it mastered.

We lit and relit the candle about ten times, she just could not get enough of it.

Here she is enjoying her cupcake.

She opened the rest of her presents after dinner.

She loved everything.

We played a few games directed by Tizita to finish up our party.

It was a great celebration for our sweet little girl.

 

Next post will feature our Happy Birthday to America celebration which was equally as fun.

Up to my ears with Elmo

After some research on Pinterest, I am up to my ears in Elmo.

Since Soliana likes Elmo, Tizita thought it would be the perfect theme for her second birthday party, so after some research, I think I have enough Elmos to keep her happy.

This first Elmo is a 9 inch chocolate cake.

There were no less than 100 of them on Pinterest and not one was quite like this one, I added my own touches.

I wish the frosting could have been redder, but that is almost a half bottle of food color.  I didn't think I should add anymore of that ingredient so I settled for dark pink.

I used the jumbo marshmellows for the eyes with a mini peanut butter cup for the eyeball.  The nose is orange m and m's because I could not think of anything else and the mouth is mini peanut butter cups again.

I think Soli will recognize that it is her friend Elmo.

But of course, I do not stop at one cake.

 I made these little cookies which I also found on Pinterest.

I think I had to make a few changes on these, too, but I liked how they used oreos as the base.

I used the oreos with the birthday cake filling, frosted the cookie with the famous dark pink, should be red frosting, used half an oreo for the mouth, orea frosting for the eye and then an m and m for the eyeball.  Finally, the nose is an m and m.

All I know is that these are going to be so sweet to eat!

Sugar overload for all.

 And finally, I made Elmo cupcakes.

These have real red frosting on them which I bought in a tube.  The only problem is that I think it is cherry flavored which I personally do not think goes well with chocolate.  I don't mix fruit and chocolate, ever.

Hopefully, some of the other guests will like the flavor mix though.

I used the same things as the cookies for the faces.

I had seen very cute Elmo plates and napkins at Walmart about a week ago.

When I returned this week to buy them, they had rearranged the whole area and those cute Elmo things were no where to be found.

You snooze, you lose!

So, I bought red napkins and plates and made my own Elmos.

I also made a cute birthday hat for Soli.

 

We will celebrate tomorrow.

I think she will enjoy all these Elmos.

Our Weekend Recap

John and I had a really nice weekend

Of course, we are still excited about his new job and that is what most of our discussions revolve around these days.

Courtney and family were visiting the out laws in Iowa this weekend.

Please don't judge me for this, but I don't share very well, never have and I don't like the times they spend with the out laws, but I know in my heart that it is important to get to know all of your family.

I know that my granddaughters are blessed to have two sets of very caring grandparents and other relatives.

But, I cannot help but be envious of those friends of mine who have children and spouses that don't get along with the out laws.  Makes life much easier for them since there is no sharing involved.

I will also add that we all get along fine at necessary family functions, in fact, we almost enjoyed each other's company in the beginning, but truth be told Courtney's in laws are so different from us on every level.

We are punctual, they run late,

We are conservative, they are way liberal

We are up and at 'em people, they are laid back

We like to be doing things, they like to sit around

They are from Norway and celebrate that on every level every chance they get, we are of German and Polish heritage, but our life and love is here in America, we celebrate this great country every chance we get.

They care about causes, us, not so much.

They are thinkers, questioners, we just dive right in.

We would never be friends in real life, but our kids brought us together so to speak.

We love our son in law and we have to be grateful to these two because they raised him to be the great husband and father he is today.

 

It is also difficult when they live six hours from Oshkosh, so every trip involves multiple days and nights.

Holidays are also difficult with so much travel time, but for the most part, I do get the ones that I want, to I am not complaining just stating some feelings.

Since this is my blog, I think I can do that here without judgement, right?

 

Now, that being said, on to our weekend.

We started out by having pizza and beers on Friday night.

Like I said, our conversation revolved around the new job and all that it will entail.

Right now, it is our favorite topic

 On Saturday, we woke up to rain.

We had planned to go on a bike trail to Lake Michigan in Port Washington but due to the wet and rather cool weather we packed up the bikes and decided we would see where we ended up

We headed toward Waukesha, bought a dehumidifier at Menard's, had a great lunch at Sonic, and then we noticed that the sun was trying to peak through the cloudy skies.

Time to bike.

We chose the New Berlin Recreation trail which goes from Frame Park in Waukesha to Greenfield Park in West Allis.  It is a paved, smooth, easy ride.  A perfect choice for a rather wet day.

As we approached the trail, there was a huge gray cloud overhead.  I took inventory of shelters in case we needed one quickly, but the sun was peeking through again in no time.

Good thing, the shelters were few and far between on this trail.

I know I say this each time, but we love biking in Waukesha and seeing all the old haunts.

This is the apartment that Courtney and Alissa lived in when Alissa was just out of college.

It was a perfect place for the two of them, it was lofted, so Courtney could keep all her mess up in her lofted bedroom while Alissa was able to keep the rest of the place orderly and clean.

The trail is six miles one way.  It is an Electrical right of way so it is lined with electrical poles.

We found this cute little bench along the trail.

And, then we realized that this trail encompassed both John's old job and new job.

These fiber optic towers are what he works on at Kapitan which will soon be his old job.

These buildings are what he will be working on ( among many other things) at  his new job.

He tells me these buildings are assembled right there in the factory in Iron Mountain, Michigan.

Yes, Electricity has and will continue to be our bread and butter.

There isn't a lot of scenery along the trail in amongst the poles, but there is an area where there is a swamp that is very nice to look at.

Here we are at the end of the trail in West Allis.  We continued our ride into Greenfield Park for a few miles before heading back.

Grand total for our ride-20 miles.

When we got back to Frame Park, the weather was gorgeous and we spent a bit of time just sitting and taking it all in.

Frame Park is full of memories for John and I.

We spent lots of time there while we were in college, it is a very happy place for us.

We saw this swan floating around in the Fox River near where we were sitting.

We wondered if the little swan was looking for its mother pictured above.

All in all, a great Saturday.

After church on Sunday, I learned to cut the lawn.

You already know this if you read the previous post

While I was cutting, John was able to do his favorite Sunday activity, wash the cars.

Our new Buick Renedezvous is so tall, he had to stand on a ladder to do the roof and windshield!

What a man won't do for his car.

Sunday was a picture perfect weather day and we enjoyed ourselves again.

A good weekend all around.

Now I will wait to hear that Courtney and family are safely back in Oshkosh and then I will get ready for our 4th of July celebration with them.