This is going to be a year of lasts… This morning was Owen’s last Gurnee Days Parade with the marching band. It was such a nice day (not hot, not storming) that we even took the dogs! Ivy was mostly an anxious wreck; Olive was the best girl.
Plus this is what we’d look like with three Bostons!
After some initial super frustrating snafus with actually getting everyone INTO the aquarium, the three boys (and three parents) took a “deep dive into the day of an aquarist—the animal care staff that work with animals ranging from fishes to reptiles to birds—and learned more about this profession.” They all seemed to have fun!
Anna and David went to New York so we got their two dogs—Olive’s bestie, Honey, and Kai. Unfortunately you can’t hear Kai barking like an asshole at everything—we had to keep the front door shut or he barked like a madman at every little thing. He even nosed the side curtains out of the way in order to look and bark. And all his barking made both other dogs bark. Good times! At least Olive was kept busy playing with Honey… Honey is so good with her.
I might not have looked at how big the bully sticks were on Amazon.
Visiting with Honey again. Olive LOVES her.
She’s so regal-looking here.
She found that napkin on the deck and proudly carried it under the chair and sat on it. I went to take her picture and caught her right as she started to bark at me.
She met Anna’s mom!
And Honey!
We stopped in to check on the cats while Anna and David were camping…and we snagged Ash for a proof of life photo!
Owen was at a sleepover and Anna sent us this pic.
Katie really misses our cats so she always loves on Pepper when we go to Anna and David’s.
They stopped at the deer farm in the U.P. near Brevort.
A friend of mine was in town to drop off her ferret for another friend to watch…but she stopped at my house first to pick up an order. So I thought the kids would like to check out a ferret for the first time…
Tom took some time off (the days he previously asked for for the family vacation that I screwed up) and we decided to go to the zoo!
The Lego dinosaur exhibit! (For an extra $3pp of course!)
This was life size! It was like 5′ long!
Also life size!
If you look closely in the foreground you’ll see a bloody stump of a leg.
Cool Lego ferns in stone.
It was really hard to get me and the dino in the same lighting to see us both, so here are two versions.
Katie could fit inside one dino footprint.
Dino family!
Katie always wants to get her face painted so we finally agreed.
So then we offered it to Owen but he opted for a tattoo!
So while the kids were getting this done, we decided to grab a snack—so Tom walked to get himself a beer and some loaded fries for us to share. Well, then we came upon more food, so the kids had to make a decision because they were sharing it.
And then we walked some more and HOLY SHIT BEER ON TAP?! Then Tom had to make a decision. 😂
He opted for the Coconut Porter and got me an adult root beer float.
And it was right next door to Ooz, and now the kids wanted food, so… Katie got mac and cheese, Owen got BBQ pork mac and cheese, and we all shared some cheese curds.
Wording gets me.
Full of cheese…
And then we walked past a caricature booth and I decided we had to do it. Tom and I had one done probably 20 years ago and I’ve been wanting to do one with the kids but it’s expensive (like $15 per head). But we decided since we were splurging, why not?
So Tom and I sat down and we obviously couldn’t see what she was doing but she was drawing away. So 15 minutes later when it was time to switch to the kids and we saw what she was drawing…we both looked at each other like (pardon the language but it’s fully deserved) WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?! (I’ve photoshopped it a bit to make sure you can see her drawings.)
On what planet is that a caricature?! Was she serious? Were we on candid camera? Were we being punked? That thing was hideous. So Tom and I were talking quietly about what we were going to do and I said I was definitely NOT paying for it, but of course it would be awkward to say something. We let her go a few more minutes but then I just told her to stop because that was NOT a caricature and it was NOT what we wanted and we would NOT be paying for it. She was kind of surprised and tried to tell us that it would look different after she put color on it. Sorry, no. We figure maybe she was a face painter (the booth did both) but we were just aghast that she thought what she was doing was fine.
So that was a huge waste of time and a big disappointment because I had really wanted one. There were other booths that we had passed but didn’t want to go back and find one. And I am still debating emailing them to let them know about her pathetic attempt.
The zebras cracked me up. They had a huge enclosure but they were waiting at the door—so we guessed that’s how they got fed. I thought they looked like Maggie or the cats waiting for us to feed them. We probably watched them for five minutes and they just stood there waiting.
There’s always money in the banana stand! (Confused?)
And then we let the kids play in the farm area playground and then we were on our way home. We did see animals but they didn’t do anything exciting so no pictures. 😄
Or at least a lookalike dog. 🙂
Friends were dogsitting and as soon as Katie saw him she thought of Mudge. 🙂
And the meat festival begins…Of course Timmy brought a ton of his amazing brats…but this year he added smoked brisket to the menu! HOLY WAH!
And no, your eyes aren’t deceiving you…that’s a Gummy Bear brat. With real gummy bears in it. It wasn’t bad…just a sweet taste. I thought Katie would love it because she LOVES gummy bears but nope. Silly kid.
And the annual kid comparison! After last year when Owen was taller, Nick pulled ahead (which he should, as he’s almost 14).
2017:
The kids goofing around while I was getting the camera set up.
My test shot to make sure the settings were okay, and I loved it so much I kept it. It’s also fun to see how we can all pull it together for the real photo!
Nick and Owen…conspiring? Planning? Who knows.
Gramma created a project for the kids—money frozen in a block! They had to figure out how to get to it! (It didn’t take them long!)
Oh yeah! We also gained a dog for an hour or so. Mom didn’t recognize him and Tom called the number on his tag and it was animal control…?!? He was good and just hung out with us—got a few pets and belly rubs (Maggie pretty much ignored him). After awhile a young girl came looking for him—and we found out she was visiting someone in the neighborhood.
Overall it was a perfectly gorgeous day—not too hot and not too cold, lots of good food (too much, actually, but we’re Lens so it’s expected), and great visiting with family and watching the cousins play!
Our neighbors have a pet rabbit. Katie finally got to meet her today. She is sooooo soft. (I don’t remember rabbits being THAT soft.)
We spent the day in Cadillac with Tom’s extended family at a local campground where the kids enjoyed meeting new friends and playing in the pool.
Katie liked the animals. (Yes there were animals there. She especially liked the goats.)
Maggie didn’t bark once all day…until she got in front of the goats. At which point she thought she was ferocious.
After some visiting I just amused myself. There might have been margaritas involved.
Well, while I was at the bus stop.
We have lots of bunnies around. Katie has taken to screeching “BUNNY ALERT!” when she sees them. Tonight was actually a three bunny alert—can you see them?
Here you go:
A neighbor’s dog…
And a neighbor.
The panda watch center. Amazing.
Lunch after we left the zoo…
And of course we were Pokemoning the whole day…and these are the two gyms we overtook!
We took Papa and Grannie to the “goose park” (Burke Lake Park)!
Katie made fast friends, as usual:
Feeding the geese!
I completely spaced on it being school break time (duh, that’s why Owen was able to go!) and the aquarium was a nightmare. I have never seen that many people there…and we skipped about 70% of the stuff because we didn’t want to wait or push through the hordes to get to the displays. Ugh. We’ve been super spoiled the past few times we’ve gone and it was (for all purposes) empty.
On the escalator to another level.
Another escalator!
The frog displays were very busy. I didn’t get many pics.
Trying for a desktop wallpaper.
And one my favorites…jellyfish!
More attempts at computer wallpaper!
We had planned on having lunch beforehand at our favorite, Capital Grille, except we were there too early and they weren’t open…so we planned to do it after. But…as we were walking through the last part of the aquarium, we looked out across the water and saw Family Meal, a Bryan Voltaggio (Top Chef contestant) restaurant. I actually remembered I had a coupon for there, so we decided to try it.
We started with chicken pot pie fritters (delish!), Tom ordered biscuits and gravy (I might have been tempted except it came with over easy eggs on it which didn’t sound good to me), Rob got meatloaf, and I ordered fried chicken and this is the dish it came in. 🙂 It was yummy but a little expensive for what it was…but I’m glad we went.
And then this happened on the way home.
She loves hanging upside down…for about six seconds. She doesn’t do it alone, though—you can see me holding her legs.
This is what happened after the first handful of food was thrown:
Another nice day, another trip to the playground. But we also went down to the water today because she heard another kid talking about the pond and she wanted to go, too! 🙂
Throwing rocks and twigs in—a favorite activity.
And then as we were standing there, a bunch of Canadian geese flew in and landed in front of us!
Be sure to listen for this in the last section:
Mom, they’re so cute! Maybe I could be a mermaid and go in the water with them!
And then a few artsy pictures of the boats. 🙂
We had to take Maggie to the vet today for a vaccination and Katie loved the kittens in the lobby.
“Mom! Look at the kitties! They’re SO cute!”
Then later as Maggie was sniffing around the cage—
Katie: Do you like my doggy? Her name is Maggie.
This hasn’t been her best response yet but of course I didn’t have the video running on those. 🙂
Now that Katie was older and would hopefully enjoy it more and maybe even remember it, we wanted to go to the zoo like we did last year. Gramma Jean and Grandpa David had gone earlier with Doug, Marie, Gabrielle, and Robert, so we took Grannie Lin and Papa!
Shortly after she started pulling the wagon…she fell…
And scraped both knees in the process. 🙁 Thankfully it was over quickly and she was back to herself.
She loved the bunnies in the house!
Last year’s jump picture:
And last year’s family picture in front of the same sign (I almost wore that same outfit again accidentally!):
Upon walking up and seeing ALL the birds, Owen says: That looks like a big bird party.
Grannie: What are they talking about?
Owen: Birdseed.
Owen’s wingspan:
The kids were SO excited to ride on the train. Unfortunately, the train before us ran off the tracks so they were trying to get it fixed and we ended up having to wait almost another hour. We had debated getting our money back, but the kids would have been devastated…so we did our shopping first. 🙂
Last year’s mask:
Probably the cutest Katie picture of the whole trip:
Aaaand, zonked out within minutes of getting in the car.
They were a lot closer to shore this morning and they hung around for probably 10 minutes off and on!
While this was also happening on the balcony:
And cropped so you can actually see them! I always say I’m going to take my telephoto lens, but I never do.
Katie liked watching them, too!
