Bike Trail Day

Mondays have turned into Grandma and Grappa Days. There have been very few all summer that we haven't seen them and the plans seem to be that we will continue to see them for the rest of them!

We took one Monday to drive to Wilton and "camp out" there for the day. There is a nice city park that has a shelter, picnic tables, playground as well as a pool that are all within biking distance of the trail. So we met, had lunch, went biking on the trail to Tunnel #2, walked through the tunnel, climbed on the rocks and then biked downhill the whole way home.

Peter rode his pedal bike on his own and Emelia rode on the trail-a-bike for the first time for a long distance like that! We had tossed around the idea of staying overnight, but it ended up that there was a huge storm and tornado warnings... good thing we got out of there!

Bike Trail

We went for our bike trip to the Elroy Sparta bike trail. This year, we made it further than we had before with all of the kids along- but still not quite far enough to make it to the next town for ice cream... maybe next year. As you can see, it was pretty chilly out anyhow- especially after it had been nearly 100* the day before at the tractor show!

Peter rode the whole way on his trail-a-bike and Emi took a break from the trailer on her scoot bike as well. Lainey as usual, was a trooper.

Who says you can't have fun in Iowa?

We also took a quick day trip down to Platteville, WI and Dubuque.

 While we were in Platteville, we went to the Mining Museum where there were $1 train rides around their lot with an old mining train pulling us.

 Then we also got to gear up and head down into the old mine to see what it looked like 120 years ago. This was everyone's favorite part- Emi liked wallking up and down the stairs of course and Peter was quiet when he was down there, but really liked seeing it all down below. There also was a small section of track up in the top of a building that they used to dump the waste rock out of the tall mine building which I think was his favorite part. He made a comment about how loud the dumps would be!

 Next, we headed to Dubuque where I lived for 10 days about 8 years ago when I worked for the Audubon Society on the Lilly Belle at the Mississippi River Museum.

 We first took a quick ride on the Fenelon Place Elevator which a banker built a long time ago becuase it was taking him too long to get home for lunch.

 And then we went to the Mississippi River Museum where we found a really nice kid's splash area, spent time outside climbing on a huge dredging barge, feeding a pond of carp, and then went back inside to see the fish, turtles, birds and other creatures.

Herbster, WI

We took  a quick three day trip to Herbster where we camped ON the shore of Lake Superior, played on our little private beach, Garrick and I went canoeing on the Brule River, kayaked on the lake and went to the train museum in Duluth.

 There was a park around the corner from our campsite where the kids had a lot of fun. Herbster was a tiny town that had a gas station and a restaurant that served breakfast, pizza for dinner and then was also a bar... the land for the campground was right on the lake- so close that you could throw a rock from your tent to the lake- and so it was perfect for the kids to go down and play in the sand and waves.

 Sitting each night and "watching the sun go to the other side of the earth"

We went to Duluth and checked out the train depot- Emi and Peter both liked going in all of the trains and seeing them.  The coming weekend was "A Day Out with Thomas" where Thomas the Train was going to be there giving rides. We were outside watching trains come and go and who drove by? THOMAS! Peter couldn't believe his eyes at how lucky he was to see him there working that day! He kept saying, I didn't know Thomas was going to be here!

Memorial Day Camping

We usually head up to the north short to camp for the weekend with Garrick's family, but the last few years the weather has been iffy and we weren't sure about going with a 2 month old in 30 degree weather. Lucky for us, everyone- and a few extras even- agreed to come to Trempleau to camp for the weekend instead! We hiked, biked, had fires, went for walks around the campground and ate and ate of course. The kids did a great job of sleeping in the tent and Peter loved getting to pee in the woods. Linka had her big parachute hammock and we brought ours as well and that was one of the best parts for the kids- wrestling in them or lying quietly with grandma, reading books and looking at the trees. It did sprinkle on us a few times, but for the most part it was great weather and lots of fun.

All my Fatties

The kids are totally into "fat bikes" or snow bikes this winter. They love Garrick's and Pete just wants to be one of the big guys! He is always asking- do I have a fat bike? After the last 12 inch snow fall Garrick and the kids decided it was time to make a bike track in the back yard. You can see what all three kids were up to!

MVI 1693 from garrick holey on Vimeo.