Door County and the Pate wedding

I know everyone loves to hear the play by play of our trips so here is another one, only with pictures. This trip was without our children but we did go with another couple, Courtney and Aaron. You will see pictures of them throughout also. We left Thursday night after work, and headed to the Super 8 about 1.5 hours from the Door. Not the greatest hotel but good for a night's sleep and a little breakfast the next day.

Our trip to the Door began early on Friday, with a quick stop at the world's largest grandfather clock. Very weird and cool all at once. After the clock was our first winery of the day. Door Peninsula

I nice winery located in a old school house with many wines to try. We picked up a few bottles of our favorites as did our traveling partners from here it was on Simon Creek Winery.

Another set of great wines, our favorite of the trip and two of the folks working there were from Peoria. Crazy! Another two bottles of wine in the Explorer and it was time for beer at the Shipwrecked.

Aaron and Courtney enjoying some good beer at the Shipwrecked, did I mention they were free. (I love WI) Cheese curds, beer, and an amazing day. One more winery to go, fish boil, and Haunted Door County Tour.

The last winery was a little disappointing. We did not buy any wine. Time to eat some fish. If you have never been to a fish boil go. One of the coolest things I have ever seen. Great food and awesome beer, New Glarus Spotted Cow. Carrie was a true camera person hanging in to get a great shot after the rest of us bail out.

Our last stop of the whirlwind day was the haunted tour. Carrie and I have taken a few ghost tours and have never seen anything or had anything that one would consider supernatural. This tour proved to be different. Both Carrie and Courtney took pictures of the same thing within a few minutes of each other with different cameras and got the same images. The cameras were fine all day and fine soon after. Check out the awesome sunset photos from the tour and the weird images.

I would also tell everyone to take this tour and enjoy all the great stories. I even heard a new one about the Door County Strangler/Slasher.

I will leave you with great photos of the wedding.

St Louis for the Kids and winery/movie combo for parents

Emmy and Tyler continued their summer of travel again this past weekend. They, along with Jack, Brooklyn, Grandma T and Grandpa T went to St Louis. Reports back form the children was a great time. They got to go back to Grant's Farm, Incredibel Pizza Company, and the Magic House. These were their favorites from our last St Louis trip so they were very excited. Grandma reports that Tyler keep them laughing for most of the trip. They also got to stay in a hotel with 7 floors. This was a new expereicnce as we normally stay at Marriot's that have maybe 4 floors. Tyler's favorite part was, "The Magic House and playing with the balls there". Emmy's favorite part was, "the swimming pool, it was cool becasue you could swim in and out". I think just being with Jack, Brook, gma, and gpa also ranked pretty high. Kid trips this summer: 2 trips to St Louis, Starved Rock Water Park, Galena, and Amana Water park. Plus many trip to Wildlife, Miller Park, Peoria Zoo, and Children's Museuem. Not a bad summer.
So what did Carrie and I do while the kids were gone? After we cleaned up around the house, Carrie laid out and I watched golf. We then went out to Kickapoo Creek Winery. We have been out there before for a wine tasting but did not taste their wines. We decide to safe the tasty for some other day well it came. We ended up trying abotu 12 different wines. Decent wine,but nothing great. We decided on one we both liked, Red October. It was semi-sweet table wine and it went well with grilled steaks we had for dinner. After dinner we went to see The Dark Knight. We both agreed great movie. I would highly recommend it.
Side bar-I played in another blackjack tourament at the Par-A-Dice. I have won one of these before but to no avail this time, I only took 7th and got $100. This is one zero less from my previous win, but it was a good time. Brian Pate and I played in as we did last time we both won. It was not in the cards,haha, this time. Brian will be getting married this weekend in Door County, WI. Carrie and I are looking forward to the trip north with another couple, Aaron and Courtney. I will be sure to post about the adults only trip.

Vacation Bible School

It was a busy week here at the Newman's. Vacation Bible school has been going on with the kids and Carrie gone almost every night. Tyler had a great time and had "good listening ears" all the time. Emmy loved playing with the "big" girls. Carrie liked doing music and said the kids where great. I worked most nights and had an officials meeting to discuss the upcoming football season. Carrie heads off to relay tonight in Washington so me and the kids will have some dinner and make a fire. The children are off to St. Louis with gma, gpa, Jack, and Brook. Carrie and I are hoping to have a date day and go to lunch and see the Dark Knight

Day 2-Niabi Zoo, Iowa Children's Museuam and the Wasserbahn

We were up bright and earlier to head to the Niabi Zoo in Coal Valley, IL. The night at Stoney Creek was not the best. There was a wedding going on and people were celebrating in the hallways unitl 12:30 or 1:00am. Kids slept great, parents not so much.
We arrive at Niabi Zoo and head in with pony rides, the merry go around and animals waiting. All the animals ae great. New Africa exhibit was awesome with up close look at giraffes. We finish there and walk to Austrilia. Carrie and the kids have never feed Lorikeets before so we get some feed and watch as the birds swarm for the food.. Emmy freak out a little and dropped her feed. Tyler, surprisingly, loves it and likes fedding the birds. As we leave the are we get to watch and emu run off all the other animals so it could lay down. We head over to the Koi pond which is my favortie part. You throw the food and roughly 30 fish start fighting for food along with geese, swans, and turtles. I jsut love it. We pack up and head to Coralville and the Children's Museum.
We stop and eat lunch in food court. Subway for the children, pizza for dad, and mom decided no to eat. We went into the museum nd had a great time. New dinosaur exhibit was not as fun as kids thought it would be but rest of museum great as usual. We headed to Little Amana for the Wasserbahn.
The Wasserbahn is located in the Holiday Inn. We check in and get upgraded to a bigger room. Huge room with fridge and microwave, large beds, and pull out couch. We check out the indoor waterpark. There is a zero depth playarea with climbers and a small slide, a swimming pool and two large slides. We measure both kids and both are big enough for the big slides. Thye are very excitied to say the least. Back to the room to change and go swimming.
After swimming for a while, we decide to play on the playground outside before heading over to dinner at the Colony House. We have a great dinner and decide to have dessert back at the water park while swimming. More swimming, the game room, and Dippin Dots for the kids and we turn in for a great night's sleep. Tomorrow, more mini golf and Amana.