August started with a family night at the ballpark.
We had some high school friends over for dinner. Despite not really knowing each other, the kids all played together in the front yard.
I ran into a friend when our family stopped for some delicious frozen custard.
Family Fun Day! This year our family fun day started with a trip to the Federal Reserve Bank for a private tour (including the vault) and a visit to the economy museum.
Then, we went to Slick City and had so much fun on the slides!
Patrick checks out the zipline.
All four could race each other!
Here is a video of some of the fun we had on the slides:
Jack was the first to go back to school. First day of 11th grade and he wants to be a computer engineer when he grows up.
It was Patrick's last First Day of grade school. First day of 8th grade and he wants to be an engineer when he grows up.
Maggie's first day of 4th grade and she wants to be a volleyball player when she grows up.
Charlie's first day of 6th grade (middle school!) and he wants to be a billionaire when he grows up.
Several of the new middle school boys.
Most of the new 4th grade girls.
All of the new 8th graders. It's going to be an emotional year!
After the kids were all in school, all 8 of the ladies in my running group were able to meet for a run! It is very rare for all of us to be available.
Maggie's friend didn't start back to school yet and met her after school.
First day of school ice cream! It's a great tradition.
Two of my best friends from high school came in town. Connie came in first and we went to a Cardinals game.
Jim caught a ball!
We played some pickleball. Connie hadn't played before, but bought her own paddles as soon as she went home.
We co-hosted the 8th grade parent party with these fun ladies and their husbands.
Everyone enjoyed the karaoke. We set up inside this year in order to reduce the likelihood of a visit from the police and a writeup in the local crime report.
Maggie and her friend wore matching dresses on picture day. It was totally unplanned.
Every week I helped out in Maggie's Catechesis of the Good Shepherd class. This week the priest blessed the Atrium.
In July, we traveled north for a week. Our first stop was Madison, WI. We toured UW and Jack really liked it.
Jack is standing in front of the site of the new computer science building.
After a recommendation from friends, we went to Dotty Dumpling's Dowry for lunch.
They had fun stuff to play with as we waited for our food.
Future Badger?
Our next stop was the Flambeau River State Forest where we camped for the night.
The kids enjoyed hanging at this lake near our campsite.
Our next stop was Madeline Island, one of the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior. We took a ferry to the island and drove to our campground for the next two nights.
We had smores and told scary(ish) stories around the campfire.
The next morning we took the ferry back to the mainland for a guided kayak tour of the sea caves. Unfortunately, the waves were too rough and so we had to postpone our tour and try again in the afternoon (spoiler alert - waves were still rough later and we never got to kayak). We grabbed a snack at the coffee shop in town before exploring the area.
We played frisbee at a park and then hiked a trail along the sea caves.
We enjoyed the neat views of the sea caves from the cliffs above them.
If you look closely, you can see some of my favorite people across the water.
After the hike, we walked to the beach to skip some rocks.
We explored the area and came upon this cute town.
Everyone liked the town because they had an ice cream shop!
We went back to Bayfield and hung out at the library for awhile before having dinner.
After dinner, there were some shenanigans.
Then, we took the ferry back to Madeline Island for the night.
We stopped on the way to our campsite to enjoy the sunset.
There were people in the water by the dock (you can barely make them out in the picture). The water was NOT warm.
We stopped at a park the next day and I saw this funny sign on a restroom.
Charlie saw this phone booth at a local establishment.
Then....we hired a boat taxi to take us to our own private island for the night.
Here is Otter Island. There is one campground on the island and we reserved it for the night. There were no other humans on the island with us.
It was so fun to have the place to ourselves.
After setting up camp, we hiked to the other side of the island.
Maggie kept us entertained, and kept bears away, by loudly singing the whole way.
There was not a sandy beach on the other side of the island.
We looked out at some of the other Apostle Islands.
Then, we hiked back to our campsite and beach.
Maggie took this picture of us and decorated it.
After dinner, Jim and I told the kids to build a campfire. They did not disappoint.
We played games under our camping lights.
More shenanigans.
Patrick pretended to be "The Oracle of Otter Island" and was cracking us up! We also went out to the beach to look at the stars in the dark. We even saw a shooting star!
In the morning, we asked the boat taxi to come early because there were storms forecasted. We were afraid we might get stuck on the island (they advised we pack extra provisions in case it stormed and a boat couldn't come get us).
Our next stop was Milwaukee. Charlie and Maggie stayed with Jim's sister while we took Patrick and Jack on a tour of Marquette.
He liked it!
We all toured the Sprecher Brewery.
One evening we went to see Karen play an outdoor show. Jack and Patrick wore the matching shirts they got on the tour. I'm not sure Jack was thrilled.
The boys played frisbee during the show.
The next day we drove to Chicago. On our way, I got an email from the Cubs asking me how I enjoyed the game the night before. I thought I bought tickets for the Saturday game, but it turns out I bought tickets for the Thursday night game. Ugh.
In Chicago, we had lunch on Northwestern's campus and then toured the school.
This was the coolest building on the tour. What a view of Lake Michigan!
We checked in to our hotel downtown. We got to the 16th floor and enjoyed the view. We were all sitting on a bed and discussing what we should do first. Then, we heard an earsplitting noise followed by some powdery stuff coming down. We quickly left the room. I expected to see pandemonium in the hall, but no one else seemed like they heard anything. I went back inside to get our wallets and phones and looked around. I saw two tiny holes (Jim took pictures when he went back for our suitcases later). This hole was right next to the mirror.
Across from the mirror, was a hole at the top of this wall.
My entire family was sitting on the bed between those to holes. It was frightening. We went down to the lobby and told the management. It was a huge ordeal and we told them we would need a new room. At first, they said the hotel was booked and they couldn't move us, but then they did. The whole thing was fairly traumatic. We had planned to try to get tickets to the Cards vs. Cubs game the next day (since I messed up with our tickets for Thursday's game), but none of us wanted to stay any longer.
After moving to a new room, we decided to explore. First stop was Lego store. We saw Kevin Nealon there (no pictures, though).
We were all still pretty shaken and got back to the hotel before dark. We grabbed some pizza from Whole Foods and ate in the suite. It wasn't the exciting Chicago adventure we envisioned, but it was fine. The next morning we checked out of our hotel and walked around.
Our kids wanted to go to Willis Tower.
We read this sign and then Patrick, Charlie, and Maggie stood in the spots marked on the floor. You can see Jack peeking out from the left.
When we got home, we showed them the movie. It was fun to see some places we had just been.
On our way to Millennium Park, we came upon a parade. Just like in Ferris Bueller's Day Off!
