Wsiconsin II

When we got to Wisconsin we set up camp then headed out for dinner. I guess the big thing there is Friday fish fry, so we tried it.  We meet up with some of David's family for dinner and they told me the locals would order the perch so I did...it wasn't to bad I would order it again.  At dinner I got to know one of his sisters (he has 4 though) and some cousins.  They all seamed very nice. After we went to his cousins for a bonfire.  It was a huge fire but there was still lots of mosquitos.  The next day was the big pot luck at his Aunt LouAnn's house.  He told me she was hands down his favorite, I hope that's what my nieces and nephews say about me someday. We had a good time meeting new people, catching up on our lives and reminiscing about when they were younger.  42 relatives were there.  It was a good time.  They said they are going to do it again next year.

Aunt LouAnn

The next day it was really stormy! Tons of lighting and power outages.  We drove around a little and got some 1-on-1 time with his aunt.  On Monday we headed down to the Dell's (water park capital of the world).  We stopped by Lambough field on the way.  Wisconsin is crazy about their football team!

The Dell's was built around these cool rock formation that were in the river.  I can't remember what they were called exactly but I guess they are only in 4 places in the world.  The Dells was a fun town.  I compared it to Las Vegas for kids. There was tons of waterparks, amusement parks, mini golf courses and more.  We went to Noah's ark water park.  It was fun but some of the rides were to scary for me! David went on this one called the "scorpion's tail".  It is rated one of the most extreme in the world! I would attach a video of the ride if I knew how to but you can google it. I didn't go.  He said it was fun but didn't know if it was worth the hour line to go.  There was lots of other fun rides I did go on though.  We also played mini golf. Even Sam got to go play with us.  We also rode the Ducks.  We went on the Army Ducks.  I have never been on them before.  They are WWII vehicles made to go on land or water.  We got to see the rock formations on the tour.

mini golf

the Army Duck

On Thursday we headed over to Milwaukee. We went to David's sisters house/bar where there was some more relatives we got to spend time with.  We also got to go by the house David grew up in and the cemetery were his parents are buried.  His brother Mark and his wife took us out to a really nice dinner at a place called Sabastian's.  I guess it was were they had their wedding reception 40+ years before. 

David and his sister Debbie

David and his brother Mark

Ok this is getting long so I'll finish up our trip next time.

Wisconsin road trip part 1

David and I love to travel. This summers trip we decided to go to his family reunion in Wisconsin.  It's been 7 years since he has been there.  (He went back then to pick up his boat he had bought.)  We drove our small motorhome, (very small after 17 days in it) so we could take Sam along too.  It could be our last trip with her.  She is getting older and her health isn't doing good either.  Our first stop was Spokane for my family reunion.  This year Tianna was in charge.  The next one will be in 2017 and we will be the planners.  We are thinking about holding it at a campground. Maybe Sunlakes (in eastern Washington) but it's early so we are open to feedback on that idea.  We only stayed in Spokane about 24 hours but it was packed with fun! We had a baptism, ate dinner, played games, cooked breakfast, went for a walk, played more games, had a little birthday party and more. I forgot to take any pictures.  It was a great time though to bad we couldn't have stayed longer but we had a long drive ahead of us.  David did ALL the driving! Well almost all, but I'll get to that story later.  We drove 4500 miles total and it seamed like  forever, good thing it was kind of spread out.  When we left Spokane we just drove about 5 hours and slept in a Walmart parking lot in Butte.  There was probably 20+ others rv.'s staying there too.  Walmart lets people do that and I feel like it's safer then a rest area so we did that a few times.  The next day we drove to Mt Rushmore.  It was a really windy drive. David was ready to get there and relax! We stayed there 2 nights (1 day).  We both had been there before but it was so many years ago that we barley remembered it.

  It didn't take much time to go see Mt. Rushmore and walk around so we went to a near by town (Hill City) and it turned to have a big pre Sturgis bike rally.  There was more motorcycles there then I have ever seen.  It was a fun little town.  We walked around and looked at all the bikes.

 

  We also saw this cool ninja turtle carving I thought my nephews would like so I took a picture of it.

 After we went to Crazy Horse.  I didn't really know much about it but I guess people are carving another monument close by to honor our Native Americans.  It is a privately funded project so it seamed expensive to go look at. Especially since its not even close to done. However I did take a rock souvenir from the excavated part of the mountain so that seamed cool.

The next morning it was time to hit the road again.  We drove through Minnesota and stopped to see family along the way.  We stayed the night at  aunt Rosemary's house.  It was nice to get to visit and catch up. The next morning  more driving. Yea...when we got into Wisconsin we rented a car sine we were going to be there 9 days and didn't want to drive/unhook the motorhome every time we wanted to go somewhere. It can be hard to find parking for it too. I drove the rental car behind David for about 2 hours till we got to the campground by his reunion.  Oh yea I didn't mention that when we left Spokane we stopped to get a bag of ice and noticed the fridge wasn't working! Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't, ugh, we fought with that thing the whole time! This seams like a good stopping point...I'll post more about Wisconsin next time....

birthday fun...

 This post is a little dated but I've been having so much fun spending most of my free time with my family here visiting that I haven't had time to blog about my birthday a month a go....  I turned 42, it wasn't a big deal or anything but the weather was nice and David likes to grill so I decided to invite family over for pizza on the grill.  Lots of my nieces and nephews came and brought me some beautiful homemade cards.  Julia made me a beautiful flower, she worked really hard on.  Ethen and Christian made me a chocolate/fun fetti cake. My 2 favorite flavors combined, Elliot brought me some flowers he picked.  Andrew and Mallory brought me some anklets. (it was a good choice because I have a ton of stuff but none of those!) I've been enjoying wearing them. Thanks Doranda for the gift card too. We also got to play some yard games. It was over 90 out that day. I love the sun! Thanks everyone who took time out of their busy life's to spend the day with me!  Here are some pictures of all the fun. 

some of the kids enjoying their food in the shade

David grilling pizza

Elliot relaxing

All my cards!

the cake from the Ethan, and Christian, (and mom)

the flower Julia made

Shannon's wedding

Many of you know my friend Shannon.  She is a very sweet long time friend of mine.  She got engaged last summer (with a beautiful 4 diamond carat ring)  She hadn't really made any plans yet when her finances dad got sick and wasn't going to much longer so in 10 days they planned a beautiful wedding! They only had 30 guest including her parents, brother and a few friends (me).  Just last week they had a reception and David and I got invited.  It was really fun. Shannon's husband Kyle's family raises shell fish.  The reception included a tour of the farm.  Their farm has been featured on NW Backroads.  I learned so much. They plant gooey ducks, manila clams, and oysters.  I guess gooey ducks grow for 5 years before harvested.  The farm is most known for their oysters.  I hear they are served in the finest restaurants in the country.  His dad invented a new way of growing them called tumble style.  It makes them deeper and less fluted but with more meat.  I was scared but tried my first one with John Pepper.  I figured this was the best time if I ever was going to.  I just swallowed it with out chewing.  David had several but I just tried one.  They were serving them fresh, raw or cooked.  They also had the best clams I ever had! They had pesto sauce on them. They also had a pig roast.  It was a little weird for me but the meat was delicious.  The day was absolutely beautiful! 80 degrees and sunny.  It couldn't have been prettier.  Don't be surprised if our Christmas card this year features a picture from that day.

my first oyster with friend Johns first too.



oyster beds

roasted pig dinner

Shannon and Kyle 2014

wedding cake her friend Haylee decorated!

wedding day Nov. 2014

Tulips

A few weeks ago David and I wanted to go see the tulips. (well probably more me)  I looked into going to the was here in Washington.  There about 2 hours north and I wanted to make a day of it however I noticed they didn't let pets come.  That's understandable but we decided not to go.  A few weeks later I was looking for something to do and noticed there was a tulip festival in Organ. It wasn't much further and not only do they let you bring dogs but they encouraged it by offering a discount if you do, and having a dog costume contest.  We decided to make a weekend of it and get some tax free shopping in too! We knew we were a little late in the month to go but there was still some flowers left.  I really liked the place, they had cool tractors to play on, this tulip train cars, lots of kids rides that looked fun and risibly priced, but I loved seeing the old steam tractors.  I've seen steam trains but never old tractors.  They even worked!  It was a nice little get away. 

another Auntie outing

Changing up my work location seamed to free up a little extra time for me.  I feel most all my clients followed me however I haven't felt as busy which is a good thing.  Last Sunday I asked Doranda if I could take the girls overnight and return them Monday.  It was a surprise to them.  They got to my house around 7.  We watch Frozen (first time for me) had popcorn and went to bed.  In the morning it was so beautiful outside! Around 60 and sunny so the girls and I tried to see how many parks we could play at in one day.  We only got to 3 before it was time to head back. 

Tucker sometimes feels left out so I asked to take him on Monday afterschool for a few hours too.  I'm not as good at knowing what boys like so I googled things to do by his house.  I found a bowling alley and arcade that sounded fun.  I asked Tucker what he wanted to do and he said go to the dollar store.  So we did all that then got him some dinner at Red Robin. (his choice)  I can't believe we went there and neither of us ordered fries! I had fun bowling it but I think Tucker's favorite part though was getting tickets at the arcade to win stuff.  He got 360 and was so excited he couldn't stop talking about it.

 I'm glad some of my 20 nieces and nephews live close enough to get to visit often. It was a fun day but I was worn out after!

Celebrity sightings

This post is just kinda for fun....I was thinking about how many times I have got the pleasure of meeting someone famous.  I'm pretty sure none of which would remember me but its been fun along the way.  These of some of the pictures I could find from over the years. I think all have been in the last 12 years or so.  They are not in time order.

John Paul DeJoria

Karolyn Grimes ZuZu (It's a Wonderful Life)

Phillip Wilson (top hair stylist in the world)

Robert Irvine (restaurant impossible)

Taniya Nayak (HGTV)

Marcus Trufant (Seahawk)

Justin Forset (former Seahawks)

OCC

Paul Tuttle Jr. (O.C.C.)

Jessica Simpson