Moments 08 19 :: Week 05

Brian talked me into waking up at 4:30am to go to a sunrise paddle at Atwater Beach for Surf Atwater. It turned out to be one of the highlights of the summer. Just check these photos out!





Hale O Malo performed a Hawaiian Beach Blessing. Very cool.


Those stairs were no joke climbing up with our paddle boards though. We went back in the afternoon with the boys and did it again!


H made hotdogs Saturday night. Not the best photo, but again, they were incredible. I'm not sure where he finds the recipes, but supposedly this is a St. Louis dog topped with homemade pulled pork, coleslaw, BBQ sauce and pickles. He also made baked beans and loaded potato salad.


The high school got a new Knight. C's soccer season started on Wednesday. His team won 11-3, and he contributed 5 assists from center defensive midfield. Way to go!


On the 29th, it was this guys FIFTEENTH birthday! I absolutely adore him.


He spent the day at freshman orientation, then had soccer practice before meeting friends for Dr. Dawg for dinner and heading to the high school football game. We finally met up again at 9:30pm for presents and cake. Wasn't the most celebratory day, but pretty good nonetheless.

Moments 08 19 :: Week 04

H made Carolina hot dogs for us. Chile, cole slaw and mustard.


Brian and I went on a little bike ride and came across these two cuties.


Still walking with Gretel every day. Always an adventure. Last week we came across a flock of geese with a few ducks sprinkled in. You can only imagine.....


Made Japanese soufflé pancakes. They turned out pretty good!


Hard at work. The club he lifeguards at is open until it gets too cold out. I love walking by and saying hi.


Serious squirrel stalking going on right here.

Moments 08 19 :: Week 03

Prost, from German American Days.


Such a fun tradition with Chris & Penny! We all missed it last year, which was such a bummer. So glad it worked out this year.


Swimming in Moose Lake.


We sat in our normal place, which happened to be right in front of the Live Glockenspiel, a new thing they had this year. Best seats for both shows.


The entire gang.


Yay! Such a fun day.


On Sunday, C had his last ODP tryout in Madison. On the way home, we stopped by the One Moon Festival to check it out and see the "Museum of the Moon." Pretty cool!


Better view of the moon.


C spent the night at Nina & Papa's and went golfing. He's a little obsessed.


Snoozing in the sunshine.


The big news of the week is that this guy had his first solo flight! Thankfully, none of us knew before it was happening. We were meeting him at the mall and he called to apologize that he'd be late then said why. Super exciting. He went on to do two more solo flights this week, so now he can take the plane out by himself and work on getting more hours. This is really happening!


C and I at his last CrossFit class for awhile. Soccer starts up next week. I think CrossFit was way harder than he thought it would be. Ha!

Moments 08 19 :: Week 02

This week's hot dog by H, the classic Chicago-Style Hot Dog.


My sister and I used to babysit Melissa and her sister Meghan. So much fun seeing her at her baby shower this weekend.


So, this is really happening in a few weeks, isn't it.... Decided to walk the halls and scope out their classes after high school registration.


Gretel being ridiculous.


Being ridiculous again. I mean, seriously....


Bittersweet day as my friend (and the head coach at the gym) Fernanda moves to Costa Rica! So excited for her, but I'm really going to miss her. She leaves Sunday! Had a little pastry party (pastries are her favorite) after her final class at our gym.

Wisconsin State Fair

The boys and I made it to the Wisconsin State Fair! I'm a fan, but keep in mind, we only go for a few hours and don't even make it into Spincity for the rides. That's not really our jam. We are all about the animals and some food. There were a couple Sporkies dishes we were on the hunt for -- namely the deep fried milk (which is a Spanish thing, as it turns out) and the first place winner, the Buffalo Cheese Curd and Chicken Taco. Both were pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. The one thing we always need to stop for is H's favorite -- deep fried Oreos. We didn't spend as much time with the animals as I would have liked. Most of our time with was the pigs. We also stopped by the cows, but we didn't see the goats & sheep! Can you believe it? Antsy kids. Nevertheless, it was a super fun day. We love the fair.

Door County :: Day 3

Last day. We had to check out at 11am, but first, walked into Egg Harbor for coffee and a little something to eat at Greens N Grains. We split the Vegan Banana Pancakes with Cashew Cream and Blueberries, which may have been the best pancakes I've ever had my entire life. Before we left Door County, we wanted to check out a few more things. Tapuai Kombucha is made in Door County, so we stopped by The Kitschinn Juicery for some kombucha on tap. The space was awesome. An old motel turned taproom, and the motel itself houses some of the employees. Next was Stone's Throw Winery. Door County has several wineries, and honestly, I never would give them a chance. We figured, why not. Since we were driving, we settled for a quick snack and a glass of wine over the full tasting. It was pretty good! Definitely a fun thing to do. Our next destination was Sheboygan for pizza. Il Ritrovo is supposed to have the best pizza around. I wish we could decide that for ourselves! Whenever we want to go, they are closed. Like Sundays. Or from 2-5pm. We were so bummed, but decided to hit up the Kohler Design Showroom, then get ice cream instead. The Greenhouse at The American Club is such an amazing space. Totally worth it. And that was it! The end of our vacation. The boys had picked up stuff to make dinner (H is making hot dogs from around the country -- Friday was the Chicago dog) and we loved seeing them again. What an amazing couple of days though. It was perfect.

Door County :: Day 2

As you can tell by the abundance of photos, day two was a fun, full day. We started by stopping at the tree sculpture outside the Egg Harbor Community Center, then heading to Bailey's Harbor to Bearded Heart Coffee where I had an amazing breakfast that I don't want to forget -- sourdough bread with raspberries and lavender honey. So simple, but perfect. There was also a small farmer's market happening next door, with such beautiful produce, we ended up bringing some home. Next was Peninsula State Park and the Eagle Trail. It's about a 2 mile hike through some pretty impressive landscape. After working up an appetite, we went to Taco Cerveza. We each ordered two tacos, but the table next to us were pretty amazing. It was a young couple would ordered one of each, just to be able to try them all out. Now, that's my style. It was pretty fantastic, if you ask me. The lake was across the street, so we blew up our new SUPs and took them out for a maiden voyage. We just kind of trolled around the harbor area around a beach, but it was fun being out on the lake for a bit. At night, we had dinner reservations at Barringer's. The funny thing is, I didn't get any pictures of us dolled up for our celebration dinner. Dinner was great, but when it comes down to it, we realized that we would have been total happy at something more casual, like the BBQ place down the street from our place. Oh well. We had a great time, of course, and were able to catch the last of the sunset once we got closer to our place. What an amazing day.