wisconsin III

To finish up our road trip we left Milwaukee and headed to Elkhart Lake Wi to go to see some car racing at Road America.  David wanted to go here since we were close and he hadn't been there before.  He loves most all car racing! I have been to NASCAR and follow that a little but this was different. This racing is called IMSA (continental tire series). The track wasn't in an oval.  It's called a road course and has lots of turns.  David pick us a camp site right along the track.  When we got there it was super rainy!  It pretty much poured all day.  The next morning we were woken up to some of the loudest noise I have ever heard. VROOM-VROOM  Sam was really scared and didn't like it at all.  She was shaking a lot.  It only lasted 15 mins.  It was the practice for the Daytona prototype cars which were going to race for 2 1/2 hours the next afternoon.  There was some other races throughout the day.  The cars were quitter, but still loud.

we camped right at this fence

pit row

  After the racing ended for the day we walked around and checked out the booths of car stuff. The next morning we woke up again but this time the race cars hadn't started practicing yet.  Shortly thereafter they did though.  Once again Sam was scared! We decided to go ahead and leave before the big finally race.  We didn't think Sammy could handle the noise.  Hopefully David doesn't feel he missed out. Once we decided to go we pretty much just drove and drove and drove.  David drove as much as he could, then we would just find somewhere to eat and sleep.  I tried to drive once.  That was a disaster! I've never ever tried it before.  David said I should know how to so I attempted after we left a rest area I tried.  I had to merge right onto the freeway with road construction and it seamed so fast and scary I couldn't believe it! I couldn't see out the windows or mirrors very well and I was worried a semi-truck would try to pass me (because I was slow) and it made so nervous because they change the air and kind of make you swerve.  I had to pull over as soon as I could.  I think I went about 3 miles and held my breath the whole time! I even started crying.  He thought it would be easy for me to try it on the freeway because there was no turns and stuff, but I think I should have tried it on slow roads so I would be more comfortable at slower speeds and use to how it drives before going fast.  We just drove straight the rest of the way home. Sammy sleep most of the drive.

 David made really good time by driving long hours. We took the I-90 there but the I-94 home.  I think the 94 was prettier and less construction even though it's a little longer.  We passed a ton of sunflower fields but really didn't stop for any site seeing.

We ended up getting home earlier then expected.  We were going to meet up with my parents at Spokane one more time before they went on there mission but it turned out we were running early and they were later then expected so we ended up getting to see them for about 5 minutes close to home.  Caleb took care of you garden for us.  It was really hot while we were gone.  He did a good job but I think the plants could have used even more water.  He picked so many veggies for us. 

Thanks Caleb.  We had a good time but we were all ready to be home. 

BIRTHDAY

Sorry, I haven't had time to update my blog this week.  I need to finish up my Wisconsin trip but also I want to write a blog about Sammy's life.  I noticed my computer pics only went back to 2008 so I had to find old paper pictures to scan and up load. I spent several hours going through all my old photo and sorting them out.  There were tons of doubles and stuff so I am going to be handing some out.  I still need to upload them.  I'm hoping to finish up in the next week or so.  I hear grandpa looks at the blog every day so I wanted to wish him a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY in case I don't get to talk to him on his birthday.  Happy Birthday Grandpa Swift!

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