Washington Island Day

One of the things I really wanted to do in Door County was take the ferry up to Washington Island. This was a big commitment as it was about an hour drive plus a ferry ride. Since the island is a little too big to walk everywhere, we have to bring a vehicle with us. This means you may have to wait for an available ferry to board.

We made the drive up north and there was about a 30 minute wait to board the ferry. Then we rode the ferry across the lake, which takes about 30 minutes. We arrived on the island and went straight for the Schoolhouse Beach. This is one of a few beaches in the world with the specific type of rocks found there. It was a neat beach. No sand, just all these smooth rocks to stack and play with. The older kids and Joseph were brave to swim out to the raft.

After the beach, we dried off and put on some warmer clothes. Then we visited a lavender farm. It was okay. Pretty but not a great place to take a bunch of kids who just want to run around and pick flowers. We did splurge and get the berry lavender slushie and the kids liked that a lot.

Our last stop was a dunes county park. It turned out pretty cool. We already had wet swimsuits so the kids were in clothes. We should have put their suits back on. They got pretty wet and sandy.

After this place, we headed back to the mainland. I am glad we made the trip to the island. It was worth it.

More Vacation

After our long travel day, I was excited that everyone listened and actually slept in the next day. Thursday was spent catching up in the morning and then heading north to a trolley ride, fish boil, and a stop at a state park.

The trolley ride was a great hit with everyone. The driver was upbeat and fun for the kids. He blasted Disney songs the whole time, which they loved. After the trolley ride, our family headed to Peninsula State Park. We went on a short hike and saw a deer, a chipmunk, and a few snakes. The kids were hoping to see a chipmunk in Wisconsin so they were happy.

For dinner, we went to a fish boil. It was definitely not a great place for a bunch of little kids. But we survived. Ashton tried the fish and loved it. The other kids stuck to chicken tenders.

Kudos to anyone who can spot the deer. Tanner found it and I was impressed he saw it.

Vacation Day 1

We planned a family get together for Door County, Wisconsin this summer. Most of my family were able to make it. My brother couldn't come from North Carolina and my step-brother wasn't able to come either. It was fun to see so many people without having to drive all over Wisconsin.

Our original flight ended up getting cancelled a few hours before it left. That led to a hectic few hours at home scrambling to find another flight. Rather than rushing, we decided to fly out the next morning at 5:30am. It wasn't our first preference, obviously, but it worked out well. We flew right into Chicago and the kids were so tired that they napped on the drive to Green Bay that morning.

We drove to Green Bay and stopped at Bay Beach Amusement Park. I've been here once before with Ashton and Tanner. All the rides cost one to three tickets and a ticket is 25 cents. I feel you can't really feel guilty about spending too much here. And the kids have just as much fun as they do at SeaWorld or Schlitterbahn for a fraction of the price.

Tanner's favorite ride was the bumper cars. Ashton loved the big mat slides. Gemma enjoyed the Ferris wheel. Lydia liked all the little rides just for her. I like that the place has rides meant just for the little kids. Adults can't even ride with them on some and I like that.

After spending a couple hours at Bay Beach, we picked up groceries and drove the last hour to our cabin in Door County. Once again, we picked a spot that everyone could stay at. My parents and step-sister brought their RVs, my sister tent-camped, and we rented a cabin all in the same campground. It was really nice that the older kids could just wander around the campground. We didn't have to drive anywhere for meals and to see everyone.

Trip to the Zoo

 The Houston Zoo offers free admission days the first Tuesday of each month. It gets crowded but it beats paying hundreds of dollars a year for a family membership, especially because the older kids would only be able to go on the weekends when it's busy no matter what. You still have to reserve tickets for the free days, which can be a hassle with every person in Houston trying to do the same thing. We got tickets for June and made a long day out of it. I think we set our record for the longest zoo visit for our family. We saw nearly every animal. And I didn't lose anyone.

Gemma also wanted to ride the little train outside the zoo. She had been looking forward to that for a few months.

We got to see the tiger go in the water and swim around. It was pretty cool.

We go all the way to zoo and the kids just want to play in the water features. So then they spent the second half of the zoo day wet and cold. They dried off just in time to head home.

Berry Picking

One day, when Tanner was at his basketball camp, the girls and I wandered over to a new-to-us U-Pick farm. A friend recommended a blueberry farm up north but I didn't want to drive a hour or more just to pick berries in the Texas heat. We found this one much closer to home and I'm glad. It was very laid back as it is a small hobby farm. The owner has some goats and chickens that the kids can feed and pet. Then rows and rows of produce to pick. Ashton loved picking the berries. Lydia did not. She couldn't quite grasp the fact that the berry bushes had thorns everywhere. She would get caught up on the thorns over and over again. Poor girl walked away from the farm with scratches up and down her legs.

We'll definitely go back when cooler weather comes our way.

She looks cute running towards me but I think she was crying from all her scratches. Lydia was pretty miserable during this part.

Tanner's Soccer Season

Tanner had another season of soccer. This kid really lights up on the field. It is wonderful to watch. We couldn't do the original league we planned on due to his broken collar bone. Thankfully, our area has lots of options. We found another league that started later in the spring that he could play. This time around, he was with 6-7 year olds. A few of them were actually from Ashton's class at school so he was with Kinder to 2nd graders. We had several neighbor kids on the team, which was fun to continue to build those friendships.

The league limits each child to three goals a game. Once Tanner made those, he could only pass or play goalie. He actually really liked that challenge. I think there was only one or two games where he didn't make 3 goals.

The league also had a tournament at the end. Tanner's team made it to the championship. The other team scored first and then Tanner made a goal to tie it up. This sent the game into a shoot-out to determine the winner after the game time ended. Tanner volunteered to be goalie for the shoot-out! Ahh... the pressure!!! He stopped the first five kicks so then the league rules say they just do single shots until someone makes it and the other team doesn't. The opposing team made one and won. Tanner was heartbroken. He's been undefeated in soccer since his fall season (13-1 if you ask him what is record is). So this loss was really hard. We were missing a few other good players, which hurt our team. Joseph was the assistant coach this year so that was fun. 

He is already counting the weeks until his next season starts. He really wanted to join a competitive league, but we decided against it. First, he is 6! And it's expensive. And he wouldn't be able to do other sports. He has a basketball camp next week so we'll see how that goes. He schedules his life out according to his sports seasons. Tanner is such an active kid.

I cropped out the rest of the team for the team picture. Picture about 7 more kids with big smiles, celebrating their second place spot. And then Tanner, inconsolable from the loss. It was rough.

Gemma rides a bike

Out of the three oldest, Gemma was the most hesitant to try a two-wheeler bike. She loved her balance bike and didn't want to switch. Except the balance bike is a smaller one so I refused to buy yet another bike. Ashton was two months shy of turning 4 when she learned. Tanner had just turned three the same month. So I knew Gemma "could" do it but the question was, Would she do it? After some convincing and a DI Frozen helmet for a couple bucks, she decided she would try. It took her a week or two to catch on. She still can't start herself but she can stop herself without running into things. 

Now the balance bike gets passed to Lydia. We'll see when she catches onto the idea of riding a bike.