Friday, February 25, 2022

Rest of July 2021

July started with a celebration for Grandpa's birthday!

Maggie and I wore our red, white, and blue to Patrick's baseball game.
Jim took this picture of Maggie. In July. She was dressed in all her winter gear.
I really should sign her up for ballet. She can already dress the part.
Jack found this little guy in our front yard.
Jim, Jack, and Patrick spent a week at Boy Scout camp.


Here is a picture of Patrick cooking for the Scouts.


While the boys were at Scout camp, I took Maggie to one of Charlie's swim meets. During the meet, a duck landed in the pool and pooped.
Jim found some time to mountain bike at Scout camp.


We love going to the library!
The rain didn't stop the fun at camp.

Maggie had fun with friends at the pool.
I enjoyed lunch with my former colleagues. 
I took the kids to the zoo one day. We were able to get close to this orangutan. 

After the zoo, we met cousins at a playground.

Jim played softball with friends from church.
We started playing pickleball with my family.
Maggie went to a one-day Girl Scout camp.



Wednesday, February 2, 2022

July Trip North

In July, we drove north for a week of vacation.
Our first stop was near Eagle River, WI. We met my brother and his family at his wife's family's cabin on a lake.
The kids loved the kayaks and paddle boat.

We set off a few fireworks.


We enjoyed boating on the lake.

Maggie had a lot of fun playing with her cousins' cousin!



It was so fun to spend time with these cousins. Just like their parents, they never sit still. They thrive in the outdoors (running, biking, fishing, boating, water skiing, etc.)!





This sign gave us a laugh.
We went by the dam one night to fish and Jack caught one!
Patrick played frisbee while Charlie and Maggie dug in the sand.

Adam showed us the bike trail they made.



Jack tried water skiing. 
Lukas demonstrated skiing from the dock.
Many a can was injured.

We stopped at Starbucks on our way to Milwaukee and saw our favorite barista!
We spent a couple nights with Jim's sister and her husband.
They recently got a new hot tub and we enjoyed watching the NBA playoffs from it.
Maggie found some friends to play Set with her.
We enjoyed exploring downtown Milwaukee. 
There were some fun music displays by Summerfest. 



Maggie and I went in a building to use the bathroom, and came upon some cool Lego displays. We took this picture to show her brothers.
I took some pictures of Karen's band.

We met up with some friends to watch Karen's band play.

We then drove down to Chicago for a couple days. It was unusually cold for July. We went on an architecture boat tour that was awesome!

We walked by my cupcake shop!
We walked to Gino's East for dinner. The kids were not impressed with deep dish pizza.

We explored some of the city the next day.


As we were riding on a train, we talked to a guy wearing a Cardinals shirt. We learned the Cards were playing in Chicago in a couple hours (we thought the game was at night). We decided to try to make the game, but by the time we got to Wrigley in the 4th inning, the only tickets left were super expensive. We settled for a picture and a promise to come back.