Summer Wrap Up

Its been several weeks since my last post and though I could probably have found the time somewhere to sit down and write, it just didn't happen. We have been running around with all sorts of projects and activities. Here are some of our highlights. 

The season for camping is abbreviated this far north so you have to make the most of summer. Since we had the kids with us we wanted to find a campground with a beach and one that we hadn't been to yet this year. Karen had a few suggestions for us and after checking them out online we settled for Klienke Park. It is a small campground in Michigan's upper peninsula (the UP) along the Green Bay shore of Lake Michigan. 

We took off after Erin made it home from work for the hour long drive from Oconto to the park. The sky was overcast and the clouds were dark and about to burst. As with every. single. camping. trip. we've taken this year it was going to rain. We arrived early afternoon on a Friday thinking we would get ahead of the crowd but to our surprise all of the good spots on the shoreline side were taken. Erin spotted a trio of young guys that looked like they were setting up the camper as we circled the park a couple of times. Then she suggested we ask if they were setting up or packing up. Just so happened they were leaving and gave us their spot. I think it was the best one in the entire place. We pulled into place, ready to take the popup off of the hitch when it started. It seemed to come all at once. A downpour. Luckily it only lasted about 10 minutes. 

Getting settled in.

A little overcast after the rain.

Perfect little beach.

It seems Clayton is still figuring out how to smile for pictures.

Waiting for Erin and Chelsea to get back from showers.

Beautiful Morning.

It turned out to be a great weekend and we may have found our camping spot for many, many weekends to come. 

Clayton and I happened to get a day all to ourselves and we were due for an adventure. I spent a good hour trying to think of something fun and out of the ordinary for us to do. Then it hit me. What about a baseball game? I pulled out my phone and couldn't believe that the Milwaukee Brewers were playing a day game! It was fate, we had to go. Milwaukee is a 2 1/2 hour drive south for us so we had just enough time to get home from running errands and pack a lunch for the road.

Road trip.

I have been a big baseball fan since I was very young. My first MLB game was in Kansas City to watch the Royals on a church trip. I also got to watch the Mariners play in the old Kingdome in Seattle as well as a couple of Texas Rangers games in Arlington TX. Since moving to Wisconsin and being this close to a MLB team I have been itching to get to another game. And I was a bit surprised when Erin told me Clayton had never been to a Brewers game. Appleton, which is only about an hour from home, has the Timber Rattlers which is a Brewers minor league affiliate and he has been to a couple of those but a pro game is a rite of passage for a little boy. Its a few hours but really its a moment of your life. Your first game. The green grass, the sound of the loud speakers and crowd, the smell in the air. Baseball is the only sport I've seen that I would rather watch live than on a tv.

Coming up on Miller Park

We had the cheap seat but still a great view.

Clayton needed a new hat.

Now, I'll forever be a New York Yankees fan but GO BREW CREW.



As the summer came to a close we needed one last hurrah before sending Chelsea off to Kindergarten. The city of Green Bay has a small amusement park called Bay Beach, complete with everything you need to work off the sugar you're giving your kids. We met up with our friends Bill, Danni, and Gabby for the day.  

Bill and Gabby

Sitting across from them on the Scrambler.

That evening we had Bill, Danni, and Gabby and some other friends over to help us with a project for the backyard party we had coming up. The kids ate plenty of pizza and ran around the yard and house. A perfect way to end summer.

Oklahoma Part 3: Going Home

It had been a very long and busy week. Certainly it felt much more like the vacation it was instead of returning to the everyday grind of living there again. With all of the preparations for leaving early Sunday morning done, there was nothing left to do but reflect. Was Oklahoma with its wide open sky and wheat, red dirt and clay, sun baked earth and wind, wall clouds and tornado warnings, OU football and Thunder basketball, a place I had so much love for and pride in, home anymore? 

Sunday morning we packed the last little bit of luggage and said our good-byes to Nanny and Papa. Heading back it made more sense to drive straight through instead of another two day trip. Having kids meant frequent stops so we wanted to get an early start. A little before 8, with coffee and Redbull in hand, the last segment of our journey began. 

Unlike our very paced drive down this was a mad dash to the finish. No sight seeing stops (driving I-35 through Kansas made that extremely easy) and eating our meals on the road. We also decided it was time to deploy our secret sanity saving weapon: Netflix on our tablet. It wedged perfectly between our seats as if some engineer somewhere had little kids and knew exactly what the world needed. 

Still the hours dragged on as we took shifts driving. Somewhere past Des Moines Chelsea and Clayton finally slipped into naps. Peace and quiet for at least a couple of hours. We passed into Wisconsin around 6:30 and after that long in the car we needed a break. We woke the kids up and the way Clayton looked was the way we all felt. 

A nice meal at Las Palmas Mexican restaurant in Platteville was just what we needed to get us through the last 4 hours. We pulled into our driveway just shy of midnight and we were home. 

I finally had an answer. You can visit where you come from but once you leave its not home anymore. Home is where life's adventure takes you. For some its the place they have and will always live, and there is nothing wrong with that. But for me, I wanted more, I wanted different.

When I met Erin I fell in love and it wouldn't have mattered where she was from. If she had lived in Oklahoma I would have stayed there. The combination of finding the person that made me happy and getting to take the adventure I always felt I was missing is a dream come true. Wisconsin is where I live now but when I'm with Erin and Chelsea and Clayton, regardless of the where, I am home.

Oklahoma Part 2: Non-Stop

I had returned to where it had all started, the place I was born and raised. Seven months removed, would it feel like I had been gone for long or would I slip seamlessly back in? Can you ever really go home?

After settling in, getting the kids to bed, and chatting with my parents for awhile we crawled into bed to get some much needed rest. It had been a very long day and nerves were worn thin.

Saturday morning brought fresh energy and an enthusiastic start to the week ahead. After coffee and a quick run for sausage rolls and donuts we loaded up in Nanny and Papa's new truck "Big Mo" to go feed ducks at the park. It was still early but the heat and sun were beating down on us. Needed to let Chelsea and Clayton wear themselves out on the playground so they would nap so we hung out there for awhile. Dinner was a cookout with the family gathering at my sister Misty and her husband Ray's house. The kids got to meet their new aunts, Misty and Lisa, new uncles, Ray and Paul, and one of their new cousins, Olivia. She is the same age as Chelsea and all of them hit it off immediately. We decided to head back to the park so the kids could enjoy a few rides there.

The carousel did not live up to Chelsea's thrill ride expectations. 

Lisa, Olivia, and Nanny

Cousin fun

Discussing important matters of the day.

Paul, Lisa, and us

Papa and Nanny

The girls got one cart

And the boys got another

Sunday we packed into Big Mo and drove to one of Oklahoma's nice state parks: Roman Nose. But we just had to stop along the way and check out Nanny and Papa's camper to satisfy the kids obsession with camping. They keep it stored near Canton Lake and since we have chipmunks in Wisconsin the kids just had to see their Oklahoma counterpart groundhogs.

Then it was off to Roman Nose and its natural springs. Oklahoma summers are brutally hot but the water flowing out of ground is incredibly chilly. The tradition is to walk back and stick your head into this icy waterfall but the best I could get out of the kids was reaching their hand in.

Turns out Biscuit is a natural swimmer. She doesn't like it but she can do it.

 Roman Nose also has a very nice swimming pool.

And what's better than ice cream after a long day in the sun?

Papa teaching Clayton a southern accent.

This is the result: "Yee-haw Sonic ice cream"

On Monday we decided to do a truly unique-to-Oklahoma activity and go to Salt Plains and dig for crystals. I had done this a handful of times in my life but not for many years and I really didn't remember too much about it. We left the grandparents at home and took this little adventure as a family. As it turns out this was one of Erin and I's favorite parts of the entire vacation.

This seemingly unexplainable salt flat makes even flatter than flat Oklahoma seem hilly.

A previous dig hole that all of the water has evaporated from leaving only salt.

Not sure how he did it but Clayton managed to step in, sink, and get stuck in a mud hole within the first 25 ft we walked. Truly his powers as a 3 yr old hold no bound.

Let the digging begin.

The water table is only a couple feet down and you need the water to splash the sides and find crystals.

There is no way around it, you're going to get absolutely filthy if you do this.

Clayton passed out pretty quick on our way home.

Our crystals. We didn't find any really large ones but this is a nice haul.

Example of an ideally formed selenite crystal.

Some other uniquely formed examples.

Tuesday we wanted to stay in town and get the kids together with Olivia. We visited Leonardo's Children Museum in Enid, which is really a great place to keep kids entertained all day long. There is a huge outdoor play structure and park and inside they have a wide selection of areas to explore.

Nice face there Chelsea

The coolest Lite Brite I have ever seen.

The attendant in this section was awesome and got out nearly every animal they had so the kids could pet them.

A giant maze they crawled through.

It was also Erin's birthday on Tuesday. Let's just say she's been 29 for a couple years running now. My parents took the kids so that we could go out and have a nice evening. We had a nice dinner and found some live music to enjoy for the evening.

The beautiful birthday girl.

By this point you're probably thinking "they have got to slow down at some point" but you'd be wrong. Wednesday we met up with Lisa and Olivia for some fun at Enid's 'water park.' It's not terrible but a little maintenance and some sprucing up would go a long way. The kids loved it though and since we had told them we would go before we even left Wisconsin, we had to deliver. 

Another item on our must do was to take Erin to Eskimo Joe's so she wouldn't feel like a poser when she wore the shirt I had bought her last year. We also needed a load of Joe's cups to take home as I had only brought 4 when I moved north and we had all been fighting over them ever since. Thursday we drove over to Stillwater for lunch.

That night Chelsea and Clayton slept over at my sister Misty's house while E and I went to hang out with some of my old friends. This was the first time any of them had met her so of course we had to have a good time. Beer and food at one place and more booze at another. To say we may have overdone it is putting it mildly. We definitely did. But I think it was worth it and gave my friends there the chance to see just how special Erin and what we have is. There was hesitation and concern from most as my decision to leave everything behind and move north shocked everyone. And it was important for Erin to meet them and get to know who my friends were along with just where I was from. We paid a price for the fun though.

Thankfully Nanny and Papa stepped up and took the kids off of our hands the next morning and afternoon. We finally slowed down on Friday, not because we chose to, but because we were physically incapable of any adventures that day. The local country club does their fireworks show on the 3rd of July so people can go enjoy the larger show on the 4th at a park in town. This show can be seen from my parent's back yard so we all pulled up chairs and oohed and awed to close out an easy day.

The 4th was our last day in town and we took another day for rest. Dinner and a birthday party for my niece Shelby at Paul and Lisa's house was the only thing on the agenda. Erin and I washed laundry and prepacked as much as we could while the kids played hard with their new grandparents. 

The day wound down and as we prepared to head out early I finally found a little time to think about that question again. Can you really ever go home?