Catching up!

Again, time has gotten away from me.

Where to begin?

We celebrated Soliana's golden birthday last Sunday at their new house in Milwaukee.

She turned seven on the seventh of July

We all enjoyed a dinner of her choice which consisted of swedish meatballs from IKEA, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and a birthday cake.

It was a nice celebration for sure.

We met Terri and Mark in Oshkosh, of all places, and had a wonderful three hours with them catching up on our lives.

After getting home to Watertown,, John and I checked out the new taproom in town called The Drafty Cellar owned by a parent of mine, Alex Savath.

Cool place with good beers.

All in all, a great day.

Last week Wednesday, my friend, Pam Wilke asked me to go along with her to Saukville to look at campers.

We had a most fun adventure and I am happy to report that she did indeed walk away as a camper owner.

After our buying the camper from Joe we went to Port Washington for a yummy early dinner at Newport Shores.

I was able to go swimming with Louisa and kids this week and also watch Harmony for her.

We had a great time together.

Because I wanted to explore Port Washington a bit more after Pam and I had dinner there, John and I went there on Saturday.

We had a great time, walked six plus miles and enjoyed yummy food, beer gardens, and clean bathrooms.  Nice to be able to find clean public bathrooms whenever  we needed one.

Pam's camper!

Yummy food that I had when John and I ate at Newport shores in Port Washington and that is a shrimp kabob and marlin.  I had never had marlin before.  It was good, tasted like tuna.

 It was very foggy as we began our adventure but it cleared quickly

We walked out to this really cool lighthouse.

Found my next bike.

found a beer garden.

Climbed lots of stairs

Tried to use this for the ladies room.

It was locked.

Silly me, i need to read the signs better, I guess.

One last shot after a wonderful day exploring a beautiful city.

We came home and headed over to Lyons with Pam Wilke to enjoy Ian Gould sing some Irish music.

It was a great way to end the day.

Until next time...

A Soliversary, Pat McCurdy, and Devil's Lake

We had a wonderful time celebrating Soliana's sixth Soliversary last weekend.

We let her choose what she would like to do for the celebration.

She chose Sky Zone followed by a trip to the mall in Appleton.

Those were great choices and we had a fantastic day.

The girls arrived with John on Thursday night.  This is the last time that he will be bringing them home with him from Oshkosh because they will officially be in Milwaukee next Tuesday.  It's been a great way for them to get to Watertown.

We watched Harmony on Thursday night and she stayed overnight with us.  Tiz actually was in her pack and play which Tiz referred to as a cage with her.  We had fun, but it took a long time to get her to sleep.

On friday we left for Sky Zone about 9.

The girls had so much fun jumping on the trampolines.  We had lunch at Culver's, Soli's choice and then headed to the mall.

We discovered the best thing ever at the mall, animals that you can ride on and drive around the mall.  the girls loved them.

After the animal ride, Soli made a teddy bear named Cherry at Build a Bear.

We checked into a motel and the girls enjoyed the pool.

We met up with Courtney and Paul for dinner in Neenah, then they returned to their packing and we enjoyed more motel time.

On Saturday, Soli played in two soccer games which we watched even though it was close to 100 degrees.

The girls came home with us and we all went over to Roy's to celebrate his 90th birthday.  It was so hot but a nice time to recconnect with his kids and grandkids.  Such nice people.

On Sunday, we went to church and then shopped at walmart.  We made slime and worked on photo albums.  It was a great way to spend a very hot day.

On Monday, the girls and I went to their Oshkosh house for one last day.  John took us with him on his way to work.

I helped pack and clean a bit and then took Soli to the park for lunch and some fun.  When John got there, we took the girls over to the motel, where they were spending their last night in Oshkosh.  The girls swam, John got us pizza and we left for home when Courtney and Paul go there.  It was a nice, long time with the girls.

Here are a few photos:

On Tuesday, July 3, John and I went to Lucky's in Lodi again to see Pat McCurdy.  Another great show.

We stayed overnight in Lodi and then headed to Devil's Lake on July 4, yep, that was a problem, because everyone and his brother had the same plans as us.  It was so crowded!  We had not been to Devil's Lake for 42 years.  It was just as beautiful as we remembered, just crowded.

We hiked one trail called tumbling rocks which was so pretty.

we found a great cool spot to set up our chairs and enjoy the day.

Oh, and we did get to take the ferry, so there is that!

It was a great way to spend the fourth of July even with the crowds.

The summer is just going way too quickly!

Slow down so I can enjoy the ride.

Dells with the girls!

It has been a great summer so far.  

I have been able to spend so much time with the girls and it has been so much fun.

Door County last week and now this past weekend, The Dells.

This time, John and I took the girls up to the Dells for the weekend.

We did the Dells the old fashioned way by staying in a quaint little motel right on the Main Street.  No big waterpark resorts for us.

The girls loved the pool at our motel, it even had two little slides that they enjoyed.

There were never more than six people in the pool at the same time.  It was perfect.

Now getting back to what we did while at the Dells.

We got there about 10:30 and immediately took a ride on the Ducks, we didn't even have to wait in a line.

Both girls really enjoyed the Ducks.  Same corny jokes that they have used for years, but it wouldn't be a Duck ride without those jokes!

After our Duck ride, we ate lunch at The Distillery on the Main St.  It was so good and very kid friendly, then we shopped a bit and checked into our motel.

The girls swam for three hours, I hit my forehead on the TV shelf!

After swimming, we ordered Dominos pizza and then left for the Tommy Bartlett water ski show at 8:30.  In all our years at the Dells we never once went to the water show.

We all loved our first ever Tommy Bartlett show.

We got back to our room about midnight after a stop for donuts.

On Sunday, we played mini golf at Timber Falls.  We did pretty good considering every mini golf game we ever play ends in arguments. but we pushed through and did good this time.

We ate lunch at an A and W/ Rocky Roccoco.  The place was gross, but the food was fine.

Stopped at a little beach on the Wisconsin River on the way home.

Girls enjoyed getting their feet wet.

We got home, played outside, watched TV and played on phones.  It was a great weekend.

Today, Monday Courtney arrived by 3;00 to pick the girls up.  They are still between houses.

Before she got here, the girls made funnel cakes, lunch for each other, and they each baked their own cake without a recipe.  Usually that ends in disaster, but these two cakes, banana Oatmeal by Soli and a lemon cake by Tiz were very good especially made without any recipe.

we also danced and did a few routines.

It was a good , fun day.

Here are photos from the weekend: