More Vacation Pics

So are you completely sick of pictures of my kids with water in the background? You probably should be...they're all starting to look alike. Ok, today, on our way to pick up the kids' art projects, we stopped at the tiniest farmers market in the world and at a "real" art gallery. At the farmers market, we got a bar of handmade soap and a "bug off" soap type of thing...I believe it was made with lemon eucalyptus and is supposed to keep the bugs off without all of the chemicals.

Not only was Barry bored to death at the gallery, but I truly thought he was going to have an annurism watching our girls walk around art with multi-thousand dollar price tags...including glass. :) But it was cool...and educational. They got to see firsthand how different mediums that we've talked about (oils, pastels, watercolor, pencil, etc) look on different surfaces. And how you can start to tell different artists apart by their style. And how they can make a LOT of money if they are really talented. :)

After we picked up their glass art (which turned out really cool!) we headed for Peninsula State Park in Fish Creek. We started out by driving to the far side of the park and having a picinic lunch. Of course, I had to stop at the first overlook we came to for pictures!

Next stop, climbing Eagle Tower...it's 75 feet high and 350 feet above Green Bay...so, pretty dang high! And it easily cover our exercise for the day! The views were priceless...or as Erin would say, "sweet!" We could see 360 degrees. This is my favorite picture...

The girls looking toward Michigan...

This is Sister Bay, where we're staying...

Next, we drove to Eagle Bluff Lighthouse. We were too cheap to pay for the tour, though.

The girls had begged all day to rent bikes, so we did. It was a fairly expensive venture, though, so we only had them for an hour. But the trails were awesome, so the riding was both adventurous and smooth. And beautiful. We had a lot of fun, and wish we had a place near home to do that as a family more often.

We were actually back to the hotel well before dinner tonite. The kids were able to chill out with some ping-pong and Legos before we sat down to a roasted deli chicken dinner. After dinner, I whined until the others were willing to join me down at the Bay for sunset. It was worth the whining!!!

Wow. Vacation is nearly done. We leave in the morning. We don't have any "plans" to stop on the way home, but we did have to skip the zoo stop on Monday, so we could possibly make that up. I'd like to stop at Door Peninsula Whinery on the way out...we stopped there on our honeymoon 11 years ago. Or, we could just boogie home as fast as possible. We miss it. We miss the animals...well, maybe not Barry. :)

More Vacation Pics

I'm barely keeping my eyes open to post these pics. I need a nap...bad. But I can't waste vacation time in Door County on naps. But seriously, my bed will be calling my name...screaming my name...on Friday! :)

We began our day at a couple of shops here in Sister Bay...not really exciting, nothing fun. Then we drove outside of Fish Creek (two towns down the peninsula) to Hands On Art Studio. If I ever win the lottery, I'm creating this kind of place. Here's how it works: each "artist" pays a $7 studio fee, and you can "play" all day, but each project has a fee. Let's put it this way: for the girls to make two small glass "plates", the material fee was $47. Ugh. Otherwise, I woulda joined them! We could either do mosaic glass on wood bases, paint ceramics, weld with metal, or create glass stuff (it gets melted in a kiln). And yes, Mom, if I ever get such a studio, you can join me!!!
Here's the girls working...we pick up their finished products tomorrow.

Then we headed to Jacksonport (with a late picinic lunch in the van) to visit Whitefish Dunes State Park...this the first time we've been to the Lake Michigan side of the peninsula. We were hoping it would be a little less windy on that side. It may have been, but it was still freezing...and we were under-dressed. This park is known for it's huge sand dunes. We tried going on a 3 mile hike (although it was basically a walking/biking trail) and everyone wanted to quit before we made it half-way. :) The trail had been thru the woods, but we chose to walk back along the beach. I figured we could walk in the woods anywhere, but a Lake Michigan beach was a rarity for us! It was cold, but enjoyable.

And this is why I'm always on the otherside of the camera! Jeez...I'm bundled up in two bulky sweatshirts and the wind was just killing my hair! Ugh.

Now, back in the van, the kids were whiney and tired (Barry, too) but I convinced Barry to drive into the connected Cave Point County Park...just for a picture. :) But it was very cool...and pretty!

Now, I'm probably gonna have nightmares tonite. See my daughters? See how it looks like their standing on a rock right by the water. Well, they are, except that the rock is actually a cliff with huge waves crashing into them below.

Once the girls got a look at the rocky beach, they took off running. So much for being tired! Barry's comment? "One rocky patch is the same as another!" :) Hiking on rocks is much more "their thing". I loved the sound of the waves coming in...very loud. Very cool.

On the way home, I talked Barry into swinging by Cana Island Lighthouse. The girls would have preferred to just go back to the hotel and swim. But jeez, it was a long drive up here...I'd like to see as much as we can. So we went. The bad thing was that we couldn't go to the top of the lighthouse cuz of the high winds.

And then....we went back to the hotel. Wow. Once I went thru all of these pics, I realized just how much we had done today. No wonder I'm tired. A hot dinner was much appreciated. And then we took a soak in the hot tub. Life is good here in Door County! I still miss my dog, though. And my bed. And my naps. :)

Not sure what's up for tomorrow. It'll be cold again, but supposedly the wind will be down and the sun will be out. We're going to try Peninula State Park for sure. Maybe a couple of shops...I'd like to go into a gallery or two. And we had planned on doing a fish boil for dinner....but they're really expensive (at least for us common folk). And it seems even worse when you're not supposed to eat half of the meal...potatoes, bread, and cherry pie. We'll see. I'm pretty sure the girls won't be so impressed with boiled fish, having had Grampa's fish fries their entire lives. :)

Ok, gotta hit the sack. Thanks for making it this far!

On Vacation!

Barry brought our laptop so that "I" could check email and stuff. That's code for he wanted to be able to work from vacation. Nice. So, I took it away from him, thinking I could get a headstart on downloading pictures and blogging about our adventures. We left home on Sunday morning. We already miss our animals, and hope Morgan is taking good care of our babies! I can already predict that Cassie won't be out of my sight or off my heels for at least a month!

It was a boring drive to Green Bay...being Sunday, Barry made us listen to football the entire way...pre-game, game, and post-game. Our first stop was Bay Beach Amusement Park. Way cool! It's a permanent amusement park set right on the lake, and rides are 25 or 50 cents. Cool! We had fun, even though the wind was blowin like a South Dakota blizzard and rain was threatening.

Then, we got settled into our hotel and ran to the grocery store for dinner. After a dip in the pool it was pretty much time for bed. We were out of the hotel this am by 10 and on our way to LAMBEAU FIELD (you have to imagine me saying that like a football game announcer...it's way more dramatic!) We pre-shopped in the pro shop and then went on the hour-long tour. It was very informational and fun...at least for a Packer Fan. :) We got to see inside a luxury suite, walk on the field and we even got to go thru the tunnel that the Packers run thru. Now, it was doubly cool cuz they "announce" the Packers and have recorded fans cheering when you go thru. I know, I'm a quack, but I got goose bumps and tears in my eyes. Cool.

Unfortunately, the rain didn't hold off for us today...it started pourin' while we were at Lambeau, which totally messed with my photo plans...

After our Lambeau tour and spending waaaaayyyyy too much money at the pro shop, we stopped at Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch. Then we were off for Door County. Seriously, you'd think we were on the Gulf of Mexico and a hurricane had caught us! It's nuts out there!!! We stopped twice on the way up to Sister Bay to take pictures on the Bay side of the waves and wind blowing in. We even got turned around just outside of Sister Bay because of a down power line. When we checked into our hotel, we were told that phones were out and some of the rooms were out of power, and we were given a flashlight. :) What an adventure!

The girls are absolutely THRILLED with our suite. We got a 2 bedroom, which means the girls get their own private room (with a TV!) and bathroom. There's a full kitchen, dining area and fireplace in the living area. The pool is nice, too.

We're not sure what we're gonna do with tomorrow, as most of my "plans" had revolved around nature, state parks, hiking, beaches, etc., and the "hurricane" is scheduled to continue thru tomorrow at least. I'll keep you updated.

Have a good week and God bless!

My Uneventful Eventful Weekend

Huh? Well, you see, Friday was my 36th birthday. And Saturday was our 11th Anniversary. Sorry to those who were expecting some sort of reminder...I don't do that. These days I try to forget about birthdays. Well, except that I should get to do whatever I want on that day. :) And I sort of did...did some scrapping, and I was able to attempt a nap anyway (not much luck on that front lately...not sure why, as I'm exhausted). Barry grilled steak and shrimp for dinner...yum! We watched football Friday night...yes, I'm a geek that way. Football is the one sport I enjoy watching on tv. Saturday, Barry had to go into work after lunch (happy Anniversary?), so I was mostly on my own. I did more scrapping (did 3 more baby shower invites for a job done for Barry's cousin, a few cards, and a couple of layouts...pictures at bottom).

Last fall, when the girls asked me how old I'd be, I had a bit of a panic. I first had to do the math to figure it out (see, I told you I'm not big on my birthdays!), and then I was greatly relieved that I'd only be 35. That seemed much better than 36, which seemed like so much closer to "over the hill". But I must have matured over the past year, because I really didn't have a problem with 36 this year. Either that, or I had just had enuf time to resign myself to the number 36. But really, I'm pretty happy in my skin, so to speak. I'm more confident spiritually, emotionally....even physically. I got back on the scale the morning of my birthday (I know, scary). But it made my day to realize that I'd "fallen" off the plateau and had lost 5 more pounds...38 in all. I guess that helps a bit to make this birthday better...to realize I've lost more pounds than my age. :) Happy birthday to me!

Oh, Friday evening, as we were in the process of booking our South Dakota hotel rooms online, we both decided to save the trip for next year. Basically, we just didn't feel peace about it...too much money, too much time, etc. It was planned a little last-minute, and if we wait til next fall we can save up for it. I threw out that maybe we could take a mini-trip to Green Bay and Door County, and he was all for that. So, if I ever find a place to board Cassie, we'll be on our way Sunday. The plan would be to arrive in Green Bay on Sunday afternoon and go straight to the Bay Beach Amusement Park, which is only open til 6 pm, and only on weekends. Then Monday morning we'll take the Lambeau tour, visit the NEW Zoo, and then head up to Sister Bay. We're actually going to stay in the same hotel that we stayed in on our honeymoon 11 years ago! I'm excited...I liked Door County, and I'm hoping it will be a beautiful, nature-filled and relaxing few days.

I have to share something I read in my current Beth Moore book, "Believing God". On Sunday I woke up to this sunrise (I'm up by 6:30 every morning for my God-time, and it just so happens to coincide with the current sunrise time).

Beautiful, isn't it? Trust me...the picture didn't do it justice. Anyway, a few minutes later, I was reading in Beth's book about the "boring", day-to-day fundamentals of our walk with Christ...prayer, being in the Word, attending church, giving, etc. Our God is a God of order, of repetition. She quotes G. K. Chesterton, "It is possible that God says every morning, 'Do it again' to the sun; and every evening, 'Do it again' to the moon." Beth goes on to say, "God likes order. He likes repetition. A God of fundamentals, He brings up the sun every morning and the moon every evening, but His creativity within that order is gorgeously displayed in the changing sunsets and sunrises surrounding them."

It makes me smile to think of God, the most creative, fantastic artist in the universe, saying to the sun & moon, "Do it again!" like my giggling kids being thrown into the air by their grampa. Why do I get up early every day to spend time with God and in His Word? Because I NEED that time with Him. But also because God likes it. Beth Moore suggests that perhaps we can think of God saying, "Do it again, Child!" each morning when I wake up to be with Him. I like that thought. I hope you do, too... And I think the beautiful sunrise He greeted me with Sunday morning was His way of making these words and thoughts meaningful and memorable to me...

Here are those cards I whipped up...