Ok, I gave myself a one week break from blogging so I could get ready for the school year. Between Sofia's preschool orientations and my inservice and classroom move things were busy around here. It's amazing how the past few weeks we've had amazing summer weather and just yesterday you could feel a bit of crisp weather in the air. My favorite season, fall, is right around the corner. I'm happy to report our little family hit everything on our bucket list.
2013 Summer Bucket List
-Milwaukee County Zoo: We were lucky to do this almost every single week. Of course we rode the zoo train every time we were there, thank goodness the boys still ride for free.
-Bookworm Gardens: And amazing garden that is set up as a natural and free play area for children. Each area represents a different story. Words don't do this place justice, it's a hidden gem in Sheboygan.
-Pirates Hollow Pool & Area Splash Pads: This is our community pool and we debated buying a pool pass for the summer but the boys still swim for free and this is the one place I don't feel comfortable taking all three kids to by myself. So we usually went for the night swims with Tim. We had quite a few hot weather weeks this summer so we definitely took advantage of this awesome pool. I don't feel comfortable taking the kids to the pool by myself yet so when Tim wasn't around we spent a lot of time at area splash pads to cool off.
-Beach: When you live on Lake Michigan it's impossible to not enjoy the beach. We enjoy it year round with hikes but the kids love it the most in the summer when they can use sand toys. We spent a few days at North Beach in Port but our favorite is still South Beach and Harrington Beach. I took the kids to the beach a couple of times per week for day time fun with swimming and sand toys but a lot of evening picnics as well. We also enjoyed the beaches of Door County with a few camping trips there.
-Camping: We took three camping trips this summer, two to Door County (Peninsula State Park) and one to Kettle Moraine North. Camping definitely takes some work and organization but it's so worth it. The kids love living in the woods for a few days.
-Bike rides: We took a ton of family bike rides this summer. I tend to avoid driving around town as much as I can. I'd rather bike and enjoy the nice weather and get a tremendous workout pulling almost 100 pounds of kids and the bike trailer. Our favorite destination is the ice cream shop, without a doubt. I love the simultaneous ice cream cheers when the kids start to realize where we are heading on the bike.
-Summer Festivals: In the Midwest there are literally tons of festivals and activities from May-September because people are dying to enjoy the gorgeous weather before winter strikes. We took the kids to quite a few good festivals this year but sadly we missed Irish Fest because we were camping.
-Bay Beach Amusement Park- This is an old amusement park near Green Bay and every ride is a quarter. We stopped here on our way home from a camping trip with Tim's parents and his brother. The kids had a great time. Sully rode a few rides but he wasn't quite as adventurous as Sofia and Everett who rode absolutely everything they could with no fear.
 |
| We probably picked the worse "first ride" possible for Sully. |
-Door County Half Iron- This was my personal highlight of the summer. I trained for this event for 9 months and the actual race was simply amazing. It consisted of a 1.2 mile swim in Lake Michigan, 56 mile bike ride and 13.1 mile run. My original goal was 7 hours but I finished in just over 6 hours! More importantly, it was a breathtaking course and it was an amazing feeling to cross the finish line.
-Summer Sounds- This is one of the many outdoor concert series in our area. We went to a couple concerts in Port as well but Summer Sounds is the closest we've come to the Levitt Shell experience we loved so much in Memphis. Granted, Summer Sounds is about 5 times the size and is perfect for families because it's surrounded by 2 huge playgrounds.
No comments:
Post a Comment